Cork sportswear company, with sustainability and affordability at heart, continues to grow

SERIOUSLY injuring her back while competing in a pole vaulting competition, and having to sit her Leaving Cert attached to an IV drip in hospital, could both be seen as examples of bad luck.

But Cork woman Emma Coffey, 22, with her unwavering positivity and drive, sees both as being instrumental to her setting up two successful businesses, one of which recently won a major award.

The UCC student and Quercus scholar is at the helm of FinalBend, a sustainable affordable sportswear company, that won the Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award recently.

The second eldest of four girls from Kilcully, she describes their household as “sports-mad and super-competitive”.

“We were into GAA, hockey, gymnastics, running, swimming and athletics. When I was 13, I decided to focus on athletics and the pole vault was my speciality,” she said.

Emma was a serious talent: competing with the Irish athletics team, training before and after school, and also part of the Mardyke Emerging talent programme.

“It was everything for me,” Emma remembers.

But suffering a serious back injury in 2018 changed all her plans.

“I was taking part in a national competition and I just felt something go in my back. I can still remember being in an ambulance on the way to hospital and the pain was just insane,” she said.

Emma, who was 17 at the time and in 5th year, was diagnosed with bulging discs and after a few more horrifically painful episodes, she had to call time on what was a very promising athletics career.

It was a huge blow, without a doubt. I had put all my eggs in the one basket when it came to athletics.

Emma needed something else to focus on, something which also allowed her to still be involved on the athletics circuit, and so FinalBend was born.

“FinalBend is like the last turn in a race, but it’s not the actual end, and that’s really how I felt when I had to reassess,” she said.

She liaised with her contacts in Munster athletics and launched the business on Instagram in 2018 with pop-up shops at their events.

Initially, the business printed T-shirts on demand, with nifty slogans like ‘First I lap, then I nap,’ and ‘Eat pasta, run faster’.

“Slowly, but surely, I started to figure out designs and built up contacts with manufacturers in Manchester, Pakistan and China. 

By the time I was in Leaving Cert, I was texting suppliers at lunch time!.

Speaking of the Leaving Cert, Emma had hoped to study Law and Business in UCC, but after developing strep throat two weeks before the exams and ending up in hospital, she didn’t get the course.

“I remember having a pen in one hand, and an IV drip in the other hand for my English paper. At the time I was really upset but going on to study Commerce actually worked so much better for me in the long-term and gave me more time for the business,” she said with her trademark optimism.

Until the second year of her degree, FinalBend was still very much a low-risk, side hustle but the pandemic changed all that.

“By 2020, the pop-up shops had ceased as there weren’t any athletics events taking place and everything moved on line, so FinalBend, as a niche athletics wear company, didn’t exist anymore. I had two options; give up, or reimagine it.”

Guess which she went for?

“I set up a website, and started making TikTok videos as a marketing tool. My second one had half a million views and my entire stock sold out! At that stage I was still hand writing addresses but overnight things got very real.

I figured if I could do that once, I could do it again, and I did, and that gave me confidence to get more stock and things just grew.

FinalBend gradually crept from her bedroom, to under the kitchen table, to the pantry in her family home.

“There was one Christmas we couldn’t even see the tree, we had so much stock!”

Because lectures had moved online due to Covid, it facilitated a different type of learning, and essentially Emma became a night time student.

“I’d work on the business during the day, and watch lectures back at night. At the time, all my orders were collected by courier before 8am, so it was a really, really busy time. I worked 19-hour days.”

That’s where her sisters came in: Maria, 24, and just graduated as an English teacher); Orla, 20, a second year medical student, and Hannah, 11, and head of the sticker department!

Her mum, a vice principal in a secondary school, and dad, partner in a law firm, were also on board – things got so busy, it was all hands on deck.

Emma vividly recalls the turning point in the business. “I had two college exams online, and it was Black Friday. I remember a customer calling to the house to collect something, and a supplier ringing me, all while I was trying to do the exams. I knew I had to ask for help!”

She reached out to her lecturers, who, through their connections, got her a space in the Ballyvolane Business Park, which was within her 5km.

Emma started out in a tiny office there before moving to a bigger upstairs unit - lugging boxes up and down stairs - and is now based in a large warehouse in the same park.

“I put together a presentation for the Enterprise Ireland awards, showing how we had moved from place to place, and it was only then that I realised how far we’ve come. 

The award was great validation and recognition of the hard work we’ve put in.

The leisurewear market is a busy one, but FinalBend’s USP is, she says, the fact that it’s affordable, sustainable and high quality.

“A lot of the time, the onus is on the customer to be conscious, but that just feels silly to me. Besides, a lot of the more sustainable choices are just not affordable for people,” she said.

The main business challenges she’s encountered so far include managing her time, something which is due to get easier as she’s finished her final exams, and lack of experience.

“I only ever had one job before I was my own boss, working in the restaurant in The Metropole so I didn’t have any real reference!”

Emma’s best business advice is to pursue knowledge.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If I hadn’t been open to pursuing knowledge, mainly through my degree, FinalBend would still very much be a side hustle,” she admits.

Far from being a side hustle, she’s paid herself a wage since September, 2020, and now employs three others. The business has a customer base of 35,000 and 335,000 unique web visitors a year.

The Enterprise Ireland prize included €10,000, which Emma will use to enhance the new click and collect service at the warehouse.

“As so many of our clients are local, it’s more sustainable than delivering to them,” she said.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Emma also co-founded a business with her sister Orla called UGC.ie (user generated content).

“Through the marketing of FinalBend, and the storytelling involved with the TikTok videos, I realised I could do this for other companies as well. So we link clients with people who will create authentic content using their products, and then we produce the videos for them.

We’ve 70 clients and hundreds of people onboard now, and as lots of them are in Dublin, we’ve plans to set up a base there.

Her inspiration?

“My sister Hannah! I see how she tries to emulate us. When she was only eight she set up a little bracelet company to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and she’s also set a new Munster pole vaulting record. She inspires me to be better all the time,” Emma said.

Looks like another businesswoman will be joining the Coffey dynasty soon.

https://finalbendfitness.com/