How Fashion and Fitness Brought Two Best Friends Together to Create a Business

For every woman who ever had a little girl dream of growing up and going into business with her best friend so that she could work with her and be by her side everyday, Lisa Lazarus and Lainie Goldstein of pheel are an inspirational pair of friends who made that dream come true.

Lazarus and Goldstein have been “best of friends” since they were teenagers and “always discussed a dream both shared about starting a business together that involved fashion.” The pair said, “We were just waiting for the right time in our lives to follow our dreams.”

The right time came when the women, both mothers of young sons, wanted to merge their love of fashion and fitness with their real life chasing after young children.  Their combined education, fashion, and exercise experiences made them naturals for developing fashion-forward fitness essentials.  Lazarus is a NYU Stern Business School graduate and Goldstein studied education at the University of Maryland.  Lazarus worked 20 years at New York’s top fashion talent agency and Goldstein is a U.S.T.A. 4.0 tennis player. Both are fitness enthusiasts who love skiing, hiking, yoga, Pilates and tennis.

The pair started their business through “daily discussions at a coffee shop.”  They described their start up process, “The first thing we spoke about was the name and immediately trademarked it. We then made sure we could get the website that coincided with our company name.  That summer, we spoke to many influential people in the fashion business who shared their experiences with us.  Finally, we hit the streets of NYC to find fabrics, pattern makers, manufacturers, website designers etc.  We attended fabric trade shows and visited manufacturers all over the tri-state area.  It was grueling yet empowering year.”

Why design fitness apparel with the goal and tagline, “high fashion meets high performance”? Lazarus said, “Almost everyone works out these days, a majority of women are in their athletic wear all day…why not look fabulous with today’s fashions incorporated into your fitness wear. It is the ‘new jean’.” Even busy executive women can make time for a long walk in the same time they make time to eat. Pheel offers women workout apparel that is not a step down from the high fashion they normally wear. The feather in their logo is a symbol of their fitness line and the freedom it affords. The feather is “light, soft to the touch, and graceful on the body,” just like pheel’s fashions.

Their design process is simple: “We have visions in our heads, and we know the fitness industry very well.  Each piece needs to fit properly as well as function properly during a workout.” Cue the chorus of angels here…no more riding up in inappropriate places at inopportune moments.

At pheel, “We take modern day fashion and incorporate it into our fitness wear, without sacrificing the fit.  Fitness wear should be comfortable as well as affordable. Our fabrics and our accents of metallics make us unique. Goldstein and Lazarus scoured fabric/trim trade shows to find the perfect fabric that would “pheel” just right. The ideal fabric came from an “amazing Brazilian company” they discovered at a trade show. “Our company is pheel and the fabric needed to pheel like a second skin on your body.”

Finding the right fabric was the easy part, importing it from Brazil has posed one of the greater difficulties for the partners. “Importing fabrics from Brazil has been challenging because of the language barrier as well the steps you must take to import.” Other challenges include never having “enough time in the day to get all we want accomplished” and “finding good sales reps.”

One thing unchallenged by pheel is their friendship. Where some women in business would advise that going into business with a bestie is potentially damaging to the friendship, Goldstein and Lazarus have grown closer. “We get to see each other daily,” they said. “We have grown even closer as we ride the wave of success.  There is really no downside to our partnership.”

What’s their advice to women who are considering launching a business with a friend?  “You must TRUST each other.  You also must be negotiable people and respect one another’s opinions.  It is very similar to a marriage.  Having known each other for so many years, there were no ghosts in the closet.”

Lazarus and Goldstein share most of the responsibilities of designing their fashions and running pheel, however, they do divvy up jurisdiction of some things. Lazarus takes care of the bookkeeping and importing, while Goldstein manages the computer activities and social media.

The duo marketed their fitness fashions by “exhausting our local area with our brand.  NY/NJ peeps are tough cookies. If they liked our designs, we knew it was a winner.”  They then collaborated with Flywheel (with over 30 locations across the country) and landed Canyon Ranch in Arizona as one of their first accounts.  Now, the wholesalers are coming to them.  Where will they take pheel next? “The sky is the limit.  We would love to sell in department stores.  We would even consider opening up pheel stores all over the world. Right now, we have branched out to Canada, South Africa, and the Far East.”

Although the largest size within their line for most items is Large, their business plan includes expansion into XL and even plus size because, they said, “All women are beautiful and deserve to pheel beautiful in our clothing.” What is their favorite piece in their line? Goldstein loves the getaway pants, and Lazarus’ favorite is the vital layer. Pheel also offers men’s fitness apparel with the same fabric and ease of movement of the women’s line.

You might assume that two busy, athletic women with children would be exhausted after squeezing in all those activities, but Lazarus and Goldstein have more to give. They “Pay it Forward” with involvement in the community and charities around the globe and said, “We believe in giving back and we have many friends that have been affected by disease and hardship.  It is the only way to live a complete personal and business life. It is all about Good Karma.”

When they do have downtime with their families, they offered this advice, “BREATHE!!! When you finally get home…be HOME in your mind and body.  You do not want to miss the best part of your children’s lives because you were you were too busy working.” Thanks to superior fabrics, well thought out designs, and an understanding of the needs of real, busy women, you actually CAN breathe and pheel fit at the same time.