Reprinted from the Greenwich Time and The Stamford Advocate "Greenwich Pair Merge Exercise Clothes   with Upscale Fabrics, Comfort, and Style" Co-CEOs Tina Mikkelsen and Amy Jurkowitz By Julie Fishman Though they live in a rather fashionable town, entrepreneurs Amy Jurkowitz and Tina Mikkelsen noticed that when it came it came to clothing, many of their peers were eschewing style for comfort. The two very busy Greenwich women noticed no matter what they were doing -- shopping, picking their children up at school, attending a meeting or going out to lunch -- most women were wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt.    Women were choosing the exercise-inspired uniform over the more sophisticated look of structured clothing, Jurkowitz said. That's when the light bulb went off -- why not design a line of clothing that would be comfortable and sporty, yet fashion-inspired? That thought was the impetus for Mat.erial Performance, a clothing company that merges style and fashion with performance wear. A year and half after launching their business, Jurkowitz's and Mikkelsen's fall/winter collection has been picked up by 12 retailers, including Razooks and Thread & Tread's in Greenwich and Paragon and Searle in New York City. "What's interesting is that the line is selling into high-end sports retailers, and at the same time, fashion-oriented boutiques," Mikkelsen said. The clothing line they designed is a hybrid between the performance properties of a brand such as Nike, but has the look of streetwear, she said. "We developed the line with a real understanding of women's needs," said Jurkowitz. "We are going after the woman who isn't trying to show her stomach and isn't trying to wear pants that are painted on." "They really hit the nail on the head," said Leslie Razook, owner of Razooks, an upscale specialty boutique in Greenwich. Mikkelsen and Jurkowitz have "total synergy" with their brand. "They are living the life of the clothing they are producing. They understand their market completely," Razook said. The women work out of their Greenwich homes and outsource the manufacturing to a factory in New York City. The fabrics are sourced from Italy, France and Canada, Mikkelsen said. The fabrics are very high-end, which makes a big difference in how they fit the body, she said. "We have obsessed about the fit," Mikkelsen said. "Our clothes lift where they should lift, hug where they should hug -- all with the intent of making a woman feel good about her body." "We use only technical fabrics. All are made with microfibers, so they're incredibly soft. They have four-way stretch, so they're extremely comfortable. They are breathable and they wick away moisture, which keeps the body cool and dry," Jurkowitz said.  While both women have impressive business backgrounds and master's degrees in business, they went into the Mat.erial venture with virtually no knowledge of the retail world. "Tina and I have both gone into this venture feet first and just attacked it," Jurkowitz said. "We learned the business from the bottom up." The pair decided they wouldn't tackle the retail arena first, but, instead, tested their clothes at private trunk shows to get feedback. They planned on six trunk shows and sold out in two, Mikkelsen said. "That gave us confidence that these kind of clothes were needed," Mikkelsen said. "The idea of taking an idea and translating it into a viable business is truly exhilarating," said Jurkowitz. "But you definitely have to have the stomach for starting a business from scratch." The two recalled that on the Friday before their first trunk show, scheduled for the following Monday, their final pieces arrived from the factory with the labels sewn on incorrectly. "There was no way the factory could have fixed the problem over the weekend, so there we were for the next 48 hours, with all the help we could round up, removing 300 labels with seam rippers and repacking the items for sale," Jurkowitz said. "We laugh about it now, but it made us realize how important it is to be tough, flexible, creative and able to approach all the problems of a real start-up with the right frame of mind," she said. After slowly launching their brand, the business partners plan to eventually launch Mat.erial nationwide. In August, they will attend the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Utah -- where they will target high-end sports retailers with the spring/summer 2004 line, Jurkowitz said. Mat.erial could be in 100 or 200 stores by next year, she said. "There is a lot of people like us across the country who aren't being served," she said. "We really see this as a lifestyle brand." "I really think they are totally capable of making it work in a mainstream kind of way," Razook said. "What they are doing is taking an already mainstream item and making it a little more interesting." This article originally appeared in Southern Connecticut Newspapers Greenwich Times and Stamford Advocate July 2, 2003.   Return to main Press page