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Girls on the Run-Chicago is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit after-school program that uses the power of running to educate and prepare 3rd-8th grade girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. The innovative program combines training for a 5K event with interactive lessons that encourage positive emotional, social, mental, and physical development. Since 1999,Girls on the Run– Chicago has served 65,000 young girls across eight Chicagoland counties. This year, nearly 2,000 coaches will mentor 10,000 girls – empowering them with the confidence and character they need to become strong, healthy women.

Innovating Sports Bras For Real Women by Dani Kruger

Zip-front sports bras, like the POWWFUL Sweat Talk, are one such innovation. “For this particular style, our focus was three-fold,” explained POWWFUL co-founder Lotika Pai. “It is full coverage, super easy to take off, and [provides] high impact support.”

I, for one, greatly appreciate the flexibility of not needing to pull a tight bra over my head, especially when I’m feeling sore from lifting the day before. Pai agreed, saying “I am training for the 2018 Chicago Marathon and after double-digit long runs on the lakefront getting your sports bra on and off can be a real hassle. With a front zipper, you never have to wiggle it over your head!”  

Women Lead More Than Half of Tech Startups in China by Kate Springer

“Women hold up half the sky” has been a common saying in China for the past 50 years, but for most of that time it hasn’t been the reality in business. But China is changing fast, and in the past decade women have been holding up their half — and often much more — in big cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai.

When China native Wen Yao relocated from Chicago to Shanghai earlier this year, she wasn’t sure what to expect. A WeWork Creator Awards finalist in Detroit, the serial entrepreneur has already started two businesses in Chicago and is now leading her third: Powwful, a female sportswear brand that aims to empower women of all shapes and sizes. “When we expanded Powwful into China, we realized that we couldn’t just copy and paste what we were doing in Chicago,” says Yao, who worked as a marketing professional before starting her first business. “Everything works so differently in China — the social media platforms are different, the customer preferences are different, the behaviors are different….” But despite the learning curve, the Taiwan-born Yao has found herself at home in a like-minded community where women are highly regarded. 

The perfect match to your healthy lifestyle! POWWFUL partners with GuavaPass in Asia.

Healthy living is more than just working out. What you eat, what you wear and how you treat yourself are all vital parts. POWWFUL is now offered as a GuavaPerk to the large GuavaPass community of fitness studios and healthy-living experts in cities across Asia. Now available in: Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Mumbai. 

GuavaPass: One Pass. One Community. GuavaPass gives members access to a community of fitness studios and healthy-living experts, offering unlimited classes at premium fitness studios, exclusive events with wellness experts, community classes and a range of perks from healthy living partners in your city. 

A Chicago Fashion Startup Has Surpassed its Kickstarter with New ‘Power Socks’  By Katherine Davis

The knee-high compression socks help encourage healthy blood flow from the legs back to the heart. Besides their health benefits, the founders also made the socks very expressive.

The socks come in nine colorful designs, decorated with progressive and feminist phrases. They have titles ranging from “We Are All Human,” which is designed to represent LBGTQ rights, to “No Fear Just Power,” which promotes a woman’s right to feel safe in more vulnerable situations, like when traveling alone. “We wanted our designs to convey how we feel and think as a small women-owned and women-run company,” the founders wrote on the Kickstarter page. “We used the socks as a canvas to express our views with frankness and honesty.”

WHIMSICALLY ILLUSTRATED COMPRESSION SOCKS By Kalina Nedelcheva

POWWFUL's Power Socks are Graphic-Heavy and Empowering

The Power Socks by POWWFUL openly embrace communities, equality and tolerance. The whimsically illustrated designs are not only fun and a staple to the monochromatic or simple outfit, but also strongly express POWWFUL's values with regard to an open-minded and humane exchange between people.

As well as being adorable and very fashion-forward, the power socks also have a very high-performing and sport-minded construction. POWWFUL sources the softest micro-nylon yarn and blends it with an appropriate amount of spandex to ensure comfort. Thus, the colorful socks become perfect not only for playfully casual outfits but also for sporty activities such as hiking or biking. The superior compression in the Power Socks allows for more oxygen to flow to the muscles during exercise, which ultimately results in faster recovery rates and higher performance.   

THE ACTIVEWEAR BRAND PUTTING A SPIN ON COMPRESSION THERAPY

POWWFUL, Chicago’s emerging activewear brand, started and run by women, announces their newest line and Kickstarter campaign this week. POWWFUL designs pieces around the idea that health and wellness is a personalized journey. What you wear should compliment how you think and feel. The company prides itself in using bright, high-quality, technical fabrics at reasonable price points.

POWWFUL’s new line introduces socks to the company’s repertoire. Power Socks is a line of knee-high, graduated compression socks with designs that illustrate some of today’s most pressing issues. This collection includes nine unique designs that compliment one’s self-expression with the added health benefits of compression.

See the design inspirations for Power Socks at this LINK.

The startup with a leg up on the competition.

Booth alum-founded startup POWWFUL wants to be the new go-to for fitness fashion with an emphasis on making its wearers feel "powwful" in all aspects of life, both physically and mentally. And their newest product, boldly-patterned compression socks, are no different. Designed to increase blood flow from the legs to the heart, each pair of socks is also designed with a variety of empowering slogans and phrases such as "we are all human," and "my choice." A mission and message that has clearly resonated with consumers, the aptly-dubbed "Power Socks" have already surpassed their Kickstarter campaign goal of $15K.

Chicago's unique architecture played muse to two Chicago entrepreneurs jumping into the fashion business.