New online gym clothing company launched in Westport

By Tom Gillespie

A QUALIFIED personal trainer has been forced to branch out into a new career path because of the Covid lockdown.

Siobhan Darocha is the owner of Flame Fit Gym in the Westpoint Retail Park in Westport (beside Tesco).

But even though the shutters came down on her double studio and gym she still has to pay rent on the two premises.

She managed that, through her savings, but when they dried up she had to seek an alternative source of income.

Now she has launched a new online gym clothing company called Gym & Ink Clothing.

It features men’s and women’s high quality sportswear clothing and a delighted Siobhan said the response to it has been fantastic so far.

Siobhan told me: “I have been forced to close for the most part of the last year due to lockdown restrictions, but I am still being charged rent on my two gym premises on top of all other bills and my husband Artur’s business, which is a tattoo shop, is closed also.

“I am a qualified personal trainer and nutritionist, and I was working in a gym for a couple of years and I decided to fulfil my dream to open my own gym business.

“I took the risk and opened in 2019 in Westport because I was living in the town for a few years and I saw there was really a big need for a good, well equipped gym in the town. There are a few smaller hotel gyms but there was nowhere specialising in weightlifting, which is my background.

“I invested heavily in it, opened it and it was a success really from day one. We actually could not believe it went so well. It was better than I ever thought or imagined.

“Even when we reopened after the first lockdown it was brilliant and we have had so much support, especially from the locals in Westport.

“I live in Castlebar with my husband Artur. It has been tough. We have six daughters. I have three, including twins, and he has three.”

Siobhan continued: "It has been really stressful for the past year, especially this lockdown.

“During the first lockdown I relied on my savings to keep the rent going. Then we reopened and that was brilliant, and we were going fine for about three months. Then we were closed again temporarily and then we only got open for December.

“When we closed on December 31 my savings were gone completely and I was relying on my weekly €250 PUP and Artur was the same. That was all we had coming in and it was really tough.

“The landlord was stuck in the situation that he can’t stop invoicing for rent because he has his mortgages to pay as well. Since the first lockdown I have been paying half the rent. The landlord said pay what you can and we will look into you paying the rest when you reopen. But no matter which way I do it the rent is going to have to be paid and I have a five-year lease.

“Since January, with no further help from the government, we realised it was sink or swim so I threw my heart into the clothing business.

“Our target age market is from 16 to 45. They are the gym users and now during lockdown gym gear is what people are wearing everyday - casual leggings, trackpants and hoodies - and all our clothing is created in Ireland.

“I have no choice but to adapt and try to do business in some other capacity to try to support us and give us hope of being able to save our main business and reopen them when we are allowed to.

“We just have to keep things afloat. We sat down and came up with a plan and now I have gone into a completely new industry. Clothing design is a completely new career for me and I am really enjoying how creative it allows you to be - this part has been really fun. As a personal trainer I live most my life in gymwear and I know first-hand how hard it is to find the perfect fit, high quality and style to suit all shapes and sizes that will hold up under the most gruelling workouts as well as being stylish enough to wear everyday outside of the gym. There has been such an amazing response to the Gym and Ink Clothing that I have been promoting it over the past month and we have had so many people backing us it has been really incredible.”

Siobhan Darocha can be contacted on (087) 4668922, Instagram @gymandinkclothing or visit her website on https://gymandink.com/.