Sweaty Betty’s Tamara Hill-Norton on West Coast Expansion, Initiatives

London-based premium activewear brand Sweaty Betty is growing its footprint in California. On a recent visit to Los Angeles to see her four stores here, founder and creative director Tamara Hill-Norton talked about the Palo Alto store opening this month and the one on Union Street in San Francisco opening in July. “We are partnering in San Francisco with the Body Image Movement for a big event in May, and one in New York in October,” she said of the organization. Since founding the company in 1998, Hill-Norton has kept a female-led executive and design team and has grown the “sports luxe” brand from selling other lines into its own branded running, snow sports, yoga and swim gear as well as pieces beyond fitness. Sweaty Betty’s store at the Lido in Newport Beach.  While 35 percent of Sweaty Betty’s sales are in leggings, with an average price point of $135, Hill-Norton is looking to grow her dressier gym-to-dinner collections as well. Half of the pieces are sourced in Taiwan, where Hill-Norton said the best technical fabrics are, and half are from Europe, while most are made in Asia. “It’s changing the way women dress, particularly in the U.K., where ath-leisure is still a newer

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