Saudi Arabia’s First Female Fitness Apparel Line
Posted by Spinning® on Apr 18th 2018
By Christina Castañeda
What can a beautiful new workout outfit do for you? For Fatima Batook, founder of TIMA Sport Apparel, workout clothing opened up a new chapter of inspiration for women in Saudi Arabia as they realized a Saudi woman can break barriers and create healthy lifestyles. With TIMA, these women were inspired to be creative, to be fit, and to do the impossible.
As the founder of a new market to Saudi Arabia, Fatima lacked access to individuals who could mentor her or had any experience setting up a business. To make matters more challenging, Fatima is a female entrepreneur in a country where women in business is uncommon and, in some cases, not easily accepted.To better understand and serve the market, she solicited feedback and critiques from the women that attended her classes every week. These women gave her their feedback on style, design, comfort, fit and color, leading Fatima to create several designs until she had a complete collection. Their inspiration led her to create Glow, a line of florescent colors that glow in the dark during Spinning classes that is now one of TIMA’s most successful collections.
Since comfort, quality and design are important production considerations, Fatima scoured the globe searching for the right manufacturer. After several trips to all corners of the globe, Fatima found her “dream team” in Brazil. Much like the team she was leading back in Saudi Arabia, this group of committed and inspiring women provided jobs and the skills needed to craft these cloths. The added bonus that made them perfect business partners was that Brazilian women had similar shapes to Saudi women, so “the partnership was a dream come true” according to Fatima.
TIMA continues the mission to spread a healthy and positive lifestyle, as well as to shift people into a state of “self-love” through being feminine, strong, hard-working, unique, fun, confident and powerful!As TIMA expands and promotes their new line of apparel, Fatima continues to “receive support—and demand—with influencers in the fitness industry from people who believe in TIMA’s mission” as well as the local press in Saudi Arabia.
What can a beautiful new workout outfit do for you? For Fatima Batook, founder of TIMA Sport Apparel, workout clothing opened up a new chapter of inspiration for women in Saudi Arabia as they realized a Saudi woman can break barriers and create healthy lifestyles. With TIMA, these women were inspired to be creative, to be fit, and to do the impossible.TIMA’s Start Up
As Fatima taught more Spinning® and other group classes at Studio 55 in Al Khobar, she spent 80% of her time in workout apparel and knew that it “needed to fit perfectly and look beautiful.” For Fatima, “there is nothing more exciting than wearing a new outfit to a workout,” so it was a source of motivation to start her business. With a small, personal loan from her family—which was repaid within one year—Fatima set out to launch TIMA.
The Right Fit
As the founder of a new market to Saudi Arabia, Fatima lacked access to individuals who could mentor her or had any experience setting up a business. To make matters more challenging, Fatima is a female entrepreneur in a country where women in business is uncommon and, in some cases, not easily accepted.To better understand and serve the market, she solicited feedback and critiques from the women that attended her classes every week. These women gave her their feedback on style, design, comfort, fit and color, leading Fatima to create several designs until she had a complete collection. Their inspiration led her to create Glow, a line of florescent colors that glow in the dark during Spinning classes that is now one of TIMA’s most successful collections.Since comfort, quality and design are important production considerations, Fatima scoured the globe searching for the right manufacturer. After several trips to all corners of the globe, Fatima found her “dream team” in Brazil. Much like the team she was leading back in Saudi Arabia, this group of committed and inspiring women provided jobs and the skills needed to craft these cloths. The added bonus that made them perfect business partners was that Brazilian women had similar shapes to Saudi women, so “the partnership was a dream come true” according to Fatima.TIMA’s Mission
TIMA continues the mission to spread a healthy and positive lifestyle, as well as to shift people into a state of “self-love” through being feminine, strong, hard-working, unique, fun, confident and powerful!As TIMA expands and promotes their new line of apparel, Fatima continues to “receive support—and demand—with influencers in the fitness industry from people who believe in TIMA’s mission” as well as the local press in Saudi Arabia.TIMA has changed womens' lives in Saudi, they have realized that a Saudi woman can do something out of the norm and make an impact by changing their views about fitness and slowly luring them into a healthier lifestyle.Are you a fitness entrepreneur? We want to hear from you! Contact us at news@spinning.com or subscribe to our newsletter for more fitness business success stories and tips.