Quick Take
“I’ve always struggled with sports bras,” says Margaux Elliott. “It has felt like I’ve had to choose between comfort and support.” Wanting to bridge that gap put her on the path to starting Lume Six, where she's aiming to build trust with women tired of bigger brands.
When Margaux Elliott set out to climb a million feet on her mountain bike in 2020, it wasn’t just to beat the pandemic boredom. It was also an opportunity to really put to the test the prototype for the line of sports bras the Aptos resident was preparing to launch.
Lume Six launched in 2021, driven not just by Elliott’s experience working in the athletic attire industry but also by her own desire as an athlete to find a better product that could withstand tough conditions and really stand up to endurance racing. Since then, Lume Six has earned accolades from the likes of Outside and Runner’s World magazines.
Elliott, a Southern California native, left for the East Coast in 2007 to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City to study international fashion merchandising, and developed a keen interest in athletic and sports apparel development. She became fascinated by the product development side of fashion and after graduating, she moved to Santa Cruz County to work for Sessions, the skateboard and snowboard apparel company. She later worked for Pearl Izumi, a cycling gear line, in Boulder, Colorado, before returning to Santa Cruz to work for Giro Sport Design as a product developer.
It was at Giro that she really grew aware of what she saw as a major gap in the market for high-impact women’s gear.
“I’ve always struggled with sports bras,” she said. “It has felt like I’ve had to choose between comfort and support.”
She also believed that many existing brands on the market were made from cheap materials and she wanted to do something different. Elliott had long been interested in starting her own company. Then, in 2018, two things led her to make the leap: She was having significant back pain, and Giro was acquired by Vista Outdoor. The resulting layoffs and an uncertain environment changed how she felt about her job and that prompted her to start Lume Six. (Vista Outdoor closed the Scotts Valley facility earlier this year.)
“I already knew the fabric [an Italian-made fabric made of recycled materials] I wanted to use and the factory I wanted to use,” she said.
It took about three years to launch her first products after lots of testing and trying different things; she also traveled to China to spend a month at her chosen factory to see the processes and culture there. When the pandemic hit, she challenged herself to climb a million feet on her mountain bike. She rode a total of 6,292 miles in a year on her bike, on sometimes tough terrain, making her the first woman to accomplish this feat.
Not only did she hit her goal, but she was able to really test out her designs under tough conditions to see if they held up.
Production began in early 2021 with orders for 400 of each of two styles – medium-impact and high-impact. That’s now grown to 600 per year per style.
Part of what sets Lume Six bras apart from other sports bras is the ability to do mix-and-match sizing when it comes to band size and cup size, Elliott explained, and they maintain compression without restricting movement. Lume Six bras also have cushioned straps made to sit on the shoulders more comfortably without bunching or sliding – and they dry fast, which is important for sweaty workouts. High durability, including being able to stand repeat washings, was also key for her.
“A lot of brands recommend replacing sports bras every six months,” she said. “Sports bras should last longer than six months and I find it offensive that brands are suggesting otherwise.”
The bras retail for $100 to $120 and are available through the Lume Six site as well as through Title Nine, the women’s athletic wear and activewear retailer. While much of her focus has been on the California market – she’s exhibited at events like half-marathons around the state – two independent stores in Anchorage, Alaska, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, also carry them.
“One of the biggest challenges since starting the brand is getting enough people to know about it and trust in it enough to give it a chance,” she said. “Everybody is used to buying from Nike or Under Armour or other big sports brands, but I think there are a lot of women out there who can relate to not liking their sports bra.”
Elliot’s big goal for Lume Six in 2024 is to expand into other sites and increase production.
Her ties to the mountain bike community have been a huge help as she works to scale the brand, she said, as has the support of her full-time employer, NHS, the parent company of Santa Cruz Skateboards, where she’s been an apparel manager since August.
“Women deserve better products,” she said. “I love the idea of growing into a brand that can support women.”
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