Jemaimeco started during Covid when Yiqi who is the founder of Jemaimeco decided to finally take charge of her health during the lockdown and started working out again after 8 years. She used to be very active during her younger days but that soon changed as she converted to a commission based job that required her to work long hours. One of her stress coping mechanism was eating, she was eating to have the energy to keep going as she was doing roadshow as well. She put on 40kg within 8 years and the Covid became a turning point that she never expected.
She wanted to get activewear for herself but realised that many companies didn’t have her size or the designs didn’t make her feel good about herself. She decided why not start an activewear company so that more people like her can find activewear that make them feel good and look good. The initial part of the journey was tough as she used up all her savings and income in sampling as the samples were not cheap, usd100 per piece.
Her initial journey was super tough as communication with manufacturers broke down. She was communicating with more than 30 manufacturers, most assured her that the items will be high quality and leggings were squatproof but again and again items received were disappointing.
There were manufacturers who started blaming her, saying that the items wasn’t squatproof because she is too fat and that further made her feel worse about herself until that one day when she finally found her first manufacturer. The search for a good manufacturer took a year.
She exhausted all her funds and couldn’t hire models and photographer for her website photo. She didn’t feel confident enough to take photos of herself wearing the items as she has back fats which often made a bra look not as nice on her compared to models. However as more and more customers ask for photos of the bras worn, she decide to wear and take photos. She felt uncomfortable initially but gradually as she starting losing fats working out, her confidence grew.
A lot of people thought Jemaime was Yi Qi’s English name but the truth is jemaime means I love myself in French.
‘I name it Jemaime activewear and not using my own name in the brand because the focus is my customers and not me. I don’t need people to know my name but I need people to know self love is important.’
Jemaime activewear literally means Self love activewear and she aim to empower people to love themselves and to be the best version of themselves. Everyone have the power to decide to do something for themselves and not let their circumstances affect their health.
You can choose to eat something that benefit your body or you can choose to eat something that does nothing for your body.
You can choose to watch Netflix or choose to exercise. Or personally, I do both (Netflix + cardio at the same time)
She also emphasize that staying active doesn’t necessarily means going to the gym. It can also mean clocking in more steps (10k - 15k a day) or even choose to take stairs.
After hardwork of 3 years, she currently have 200 plus products,
sizing ranges from XS-5XL.
In order to not to produce excessive waste through activewear manufacturing and also to be size inclusive, Jemaimeco adopt a preorder model and only keep enough instocks for pop ups. For full collection, preorder via jemaime.co
Jemaimeco currently have some inventories at
ActivCo studio
Anytime Fitness Balestier
Anytime Fitness Geylang
F45 Pasir Ris West
Do check them out!
