Bimble & Bolt’s ‘Find Your Fit’ is taking aim at one of running’s less glamorous annoyances: leggings that gather around the ankles, shorts that refuse to stay put and size charts that sometimes seem to require a small qualification to understand.
The women’s running brand has introduced more leg lengths, a quick online sizing quiz and direct WhatsApp advice in an attempt to make buying running kit online rather less of a lottery.
Anyone who has ordered running leggings in the correct size only to discover that the legs appear to have been designed for somebody several inches taller will understand the problem.
Waist size is only part of the story. Height, leg length and preferred fit matter too, yet activewear has not always been particularly imaginative in dealing with them.
Bimble & Bolt thinks it can make the process simpler.
More choice in running leg lengths
The biggest change is a wider selection of leg lengths.
Bimble & Bolt has added a new 6/8-length option to its range and already offers its 8/8 Plus sizing, which is designed for taller runners.
That may sound like a small detail until you are the person repeatedly folding leggings under, pulling them down or accepting that “ankle length” has become a rather loose concept.
The brand is also trying to make terms such as 7/8 and 8/8 easier to understand.
Quite right too. A pair of running leggings should not arrive with the intellectual demands of a fractions worksheet.
Why the right size can still fit badly
One of the more useful ideas behind ‘Find Your Fit’ is the suggestion that a bad fit does not automatically mean somebody has chosen the wrong dress size.
Sometimes the length is wrong. Sometimes the cut is wrong. Sometimes a particular pair simply does not suit that particular body.
Bimble & Bolt founder Hannah Walker-Howard, herself a competitive club runner, says women often blame themselves first.
“So many women assume that if leggings or shorts don’t fit right, it must be their body that’s wrong, when really, it’s just the wrong length, size or cut for them,” said Hannah Walker-Howard, Founder of Bimble & Bolt, herself also a competitive club runner.
“We hear it all the time – shorts riding up, leggings pooling at the ankle because they’re made for one height. Find Your Fit is about giving runners the tools, knowledge and confidence to find the best kit for them.
And this is only the start – our mission is to transform the experience of female runners everywhere and become the go-to place for the best advice and kit.”
It is an obvious point once somebody says it aloud, but an important one.
Clothes are supposed to fit bodies. Bodies were not created to flatter the sizing system.
A quick quiz to help choose running kit
Alongside the extra leg lengths, Bimble & Bolt ‘Find Your Fit’ includes an online quiz.
Customers answer a short set of questions covering height, size and how they prefer their clothing to fit. The quiz then suggests suitable products.
It is not attempting to reinvent tailoring. It is simply giving shoppers a little more guidance than the familiar routine of choosing a size, crossing their fingers and introducing the parcel to the bedroom mirror.
For anybody still unsure, Bimble & Bolt is also offering fit advice through WhatsApp.
That human option could prove particularly useful for runners sitting between sizes or trying to work out which leg length is likely to suit them best.
Free returns take some of the risk out
No online quiz can guarantee the perfect pair of leggings. Bodies are inconveniently individual like that.
Bimble & Bolt therefore also offers free returns and exchanges for 60 days.
That gives runners time to work out whether something really fits without paying extra simply because the first choice was not quite right.
For online clothing, that matters.
A good sizing guide can narrow the odds. Being able to exchange the result without added hassle does the rest.
Bimble & Bolt is listening to its runners
The company says ‘Find Your Fit’ will continue to develop using feedback and fit information gathered from its running community.
That could become the more interesting part of the project.
A sizing system is only useful if it reflects the people actually wearing the clothes. The broader the feedback, the better chance a brand has of spotting where its range is still falling short — or, quite literally, too long.
For now, the appeal of Bimble & Bolt ‘Find Your Fit’ is refreshingly uncomplicated. Give women more lengths, explain them properly, help them choose and make it easy to swap something when it is not right.
Running itself can already involve sore legs, bad weather, hills and the occasional regrettable decision involving tempo pace.
The leggings need not join in.
