Liverpool gym-goer had an issue with reformer pilates - and decided to fix it!

After just one session of reformer pilates, gym fan Sarah Robinson was hooked.

There was only one thing she didn’t love about the exercise trend – the socks.

Reformer pilates machines need users to wear grip socks for safety but the ones available just didn’t match Sarah’s expectations or her gym outfits.

Instead she was left with cold feet and the choice of either poor quality badly fitting pairs in basic colours or those which came with far too high a price tag.

An internet and high street search drew a blank so 45-year-old Sarah decided the best way to fill a gap in the fitness fashion market was to create a brand herself.

The mum-of-one from West Derby explains:

“When I started reformer about seven months ago I didn’t realise you needed to wear grip socks so my pilates teacher Susie gave me a pair.

“I came out of the class after loving it but I then had the challenge to buy more socks if I wanted to do more classes and I just really struggled to find any that were high performing and also stylish unless I wanted to pay a fortune.

“Some were almost like a ballet shoe, I found that my feet were permanently cold and after a class you couldn’t just run to the shop or do the school run without changing. I thought, why can’t we have a sock we can do everything in?

“A lot of us like to look nice in our gym kits, and people walk around in gym stuff just for comfort because it’s easy to throw on, so I wanted to have socks that matched different gym sets and different footwear.

“I did find some that were £28 a pair but I wanted to bring something out that wasn’t going to break the bank, and still gave you a wide range of styles and colours.”

With a background in the beauty industry, Sarah has her own beauty brand so already knew about manufacturing and marketing.

“I am entrepreneurial and I like to fix problems, but I didn’t have any experience in design. I literally sat with a pen and paper, drawing on the outline of a sock and just adding my ideas.

“My daughter Katie who’s 17 has been there too, telling me what trends she thought would work for her age group, and I’ve been thinking of my age as well so I can cover both with the range.

“I’ve been researching what’s trending in gym sets and the colours everyone’s wearing, and it’s actually been really fun because I’ve got to design the socks from scratch.”

Sarah named the brand TwentyOne09 after her daughter’s birth date.

After a soft launch, she says she can’t wait to get her grip socks into gyms.

“The feedback we’ve had has been amazing and a lot of girls in Susie’s class at The Wellness Garden have been trialling them for me and they really like them.

“I’m going to be selling the socks through our website, and I’ve already got studios enquiring about becoming stockists.

“I do believe it’s something people will want so I’m really excited to see how the brand grows. Now it’s going to be, what are we going to wear with our socks not what socks are we going to wear with our outfit?”