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Any woman reading this will relate to the evocative feeling of taking off a sports bra after a sweaty gym session, or the relief of peeling a pair of leggings off that cut in around the hips. According to a study by Berghaus, as part of their ‘MtnHaus’ team's research into new clothing technologies, 4 in 5 women say their clothing doesn’t move the way they do. Outdoor gear has historically been tested on male bodies, leaving women to squeeze into patterns that ignore their proportions, their muscle distribution, and the daily fluctuations of their form. So it's no mystery that women struggle to find sportswear that is functional and actually fits their bodies.

 

‘I was sitting on a bouldering mat chatting with my friends, and it was just another one of those conversations where everyone was complaining about their climbing clothing being uncomfortable and restrictive. I suggested the idea of making women's clothing that was properly sized and shaped for us - the response was just a tidal wave of agreement.’ 

 

Meet Ahlam Woods, the founder of Clover Climb, a climbing clothing brand that makes gymwear that is tailored to the female form. Founded in May 2024 with the motto, ‘Strong Women Shaped’, Clover Climb is transforming the female gymwear industry. She tells me all about how Clover Climb began, expressing frustrations at existing brands never changing the fit or cut of women's garments so that women can move freely in their clothing. 

 

‘I have a drawer of 10 sports bras but I only ever wear two which just about fit me right, all the others will live in that drawer forever and never get touched’, 

 

she confesses. Having spoken to female climbers Woods discovered she wasn't alone in her struggle to find the perfect pair of leggings or sports bra that moved with her not against her, ‘It got to a point where I just thought if nobody else is going to do it I may as well just do it myself’. 

 

So Clover Climb was born. Woods reminisces about her childhood love for crafting and sewing. ‘I loved working with my hands and figuring out how things work. I ended up going to university to study engineering at Birmingham, which is actually where I first started climbing. It just hooked me immediately.’ The sport itself is so crucial to the foundation of brands like Clover Climb, as it's such an encompassing sport that can have a huge impact on your life. Woods was lucky enough to have a big university climbing society that climbed outdoors every weekend so she got to experience everything, from trad and spot to bouldering and top rope. ‘I got this amazing picture of all the different sides of climbing which is rare when you first get into the sport. It gave me a good balance that kept me invested in it long term’.

 

She currently works as head of Research and Development for a medical devices company with her main background as a mechanical design engineer. Whilst starting a clothing brand may seem wildly different to this, there's actually a lot of overlap between both industries as fashion is really a form of engineering. Woods explains, ‘I thought well if this was an engineering problem how would I solve it?’.

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The process involved working with garment designers and pattern makers, Woods reached out to experts to fully understand what the gaps in her knowledge were and how to fill them. As her main objective was the fit of the garments Woods conducted surveys to understand what the problems were with existing clothing. She had over 100 responses from women on both ends of the size spectrum and of different abilities. The main issues were discomfort, tightness and restriction of movement. ‘I asked people what their favourite gym brand was, sort of expecting similar answers, but the answers were so different I was so surprised there was absolutely no commonality at all’.

 

While in the developing stages Woods began thinking about the marketing and branding side of things and she happened to go away to the Peak District on a trad climbing trip that weekend. I often use clove hitches (a type of temporary secure knot). It's such a universal versatile shape. It's consistent and reliable, exactly what I wanted the brand to become’, she explains. 

 

So with that feeling of function at the forefront of her design process she then focused on the female form and how it would shape the actual garment design.

 

‘My pattern designer explained how the industry uses a standard model for clothes and how the proportions don’t change as the size increases.’ 

 

Most clothes are made using a standard model which starts at a size zero and to increase the size the measurements are increased by a few inches around each seam. Woods says, ‘That to me doesn’t work, it doesn't account for the different kinds of proportions that you get when you become more muscular’. So she explored the athletic build, research papers, statistics and measurement guides for the athletic female form, which then formed the base of her patterns. She then put another call out on Instagram asking for female climbers’ measurement data, which received hundreds of responses. She tested them all against her new measurement guide to check its accuracy before starting the physical production and garment testing. 

 

‘It's really important because clothes can look nice when you’re standing still for a photo but will they do their job when you’re 10 metres up a wall trying to clip in and you're super pumped’, Woods explains. ‘I don’t want clothing to be the thing that takes me out of the movement and the experience of being with my friends doing a sport we love’. 

 

Woods vividly recalls a mustard yellow suit jacket she bought for her first proper office job after university. ‘I’d been climbing all through university and the seam down the back of the jacket split in half, which was madness’. She had to wear oversized shirts too as none of them fit her shoulders, and whilst officewear is not Clover Climb’s niche, experiences like these were constantly in the back of Woods’ mind when designing her new fit model. 

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In terms of testing the garments, which range from sports bras, t-shirts, trousers and leggings, Woods has worn them climbing but also to yoga classes, trapeze classes, gone on runs, hikes and put them through the washing machine plenty of times. Woods explains,

 

‘The goal is to put something on, go climbing and at the end of the session you think I didn't have to adjust anything I was wearing that whole time. You don't even notice that it's there and you just get on with what you're doing’. 

 

Woods most successful garment so far has been her Clover T-Shirt at an affordable £28.00 and next she is launching trousers with an adjustable waistband, cuffs and a plethora of pockets, constructed from a heavy-duty multiway stretch cotton that uses her specific fit model. She also has sports bras launching but can’t disclose details due to a pending patent, as a smaller brand she emphasises how careful she has to be when developing new products. Woods ends our conversation saying, ‘I want Clover to become a reflection of what real women climbing looks like. What our own individual version of strength is, what our communities look like and how we like to challenge ourselves. We are these multifaceted, beautiful creatures that deserve to see ourselves accurately represented in the industry’. I think a few of the bigger brands could take a leaf out of Clover’s book. 

 

Check out Clover Climb at https://www.cloverclimb.com/