Nicole Stanners, Australian Founder of Muze Women
Background
Nicole loved competitive sports from a young age. Doing a triathlon was always on the horizon, which happened with a sprint triathlon whilst living in Singapore in 2009. After that, she was hooked on the distances, getting longer and longer until she did an ironman, which resulted in qualification and racing at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii a couple of times.
With a love for the bike, she transitioned into long-distance cycling, eventually culminating in doing Race Across America (RAAM) for Australia’s first all-female team of 4 called the Veloroos. The Veloroos took just over 6 ½ days, won and broke a record.
More recently, Nicole has used her love of cycling to support a cause very close to my heart: the Dementia Research Community (previously Bondi2Berry), which uses cycling to raise awareness and funds for dementia. Nicole’s Mum, Dianne, fought a 3.5-year battle with Alzheimer’s and sadly passed away in 2019.
So all of that has allowed her to test out different cycling kits and give them an excellent torture test!
After 25 years of honing her business, marketing, and innovation leadership at local, regional, and global levels around the world within corporates such as Unilever, Cadbury, Diageo and Campari, she decided to channel her passion for sport, equality, and sustainability into creating a brand that truly resonates with female cyclists worldwide.
By clocking up hours on and off the bike with other female cyclists, she has developed a unique approach that aims to address the key challenges women cyclists face today, whether with cycling apparel or the sport itself.
Nicole Stanners shared, “I firmly believe in the power of business as a platform for social change. My love for cycling and desire to see more women in the saddle sparked the idea of Muze Women. Now, we are on a mission to transform the cycling landscape for women, making it more inclusive, comfortable, and exciting.”
To provide insights into transparent sustainability in women’s cycle clothing, Tim Langdon, publisher of Eco Voice, had the pleasure of facilitating a Q & A with Nicole Stanners, Australian Founder of Muze Women.
Q1 . What is Muze Women focused on in terms of sustainability?
Muze Women has a goal to become a sustainable cycling brand and our philosophy is to do that one step at a time, always getting better and always being open about where we are on that journey in a way that makes it easy for our customers to understand. Our “onehttps://muzewomen.com/password step at a time” ethos has a few parts.
- Creating clothing that’s built to last.
- Using lower impact materials.
- Partnering with manufacturers that are focused on efficient practices.
- Compostable, recyclable and reusable packaging
- Being open about our sustainability journey
- A Muze Women 5R Cycle (Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle)
Q2. What are examples of transparent sustainability in women’s cycle clothing?
Being open about where we are on our sustainability journey with what we are doing and not doing and making that easy for consumers to understand. A few examples of this are –
- Putting an exact percentage against how much of our material is made from recycled fibres in each garment. For our launch 80% of materials in our clothing range are made from recycled fibres.
- Sharing our 5R cycle partnerships and helping consumers access these. At launch these will be Remote Equipment Repairers for our repairs and Textile Recyclers Australia for repurposing and recycling.
- Making it clear on how to compost, recycle and reuse each element of our packaging through our website and QR codes on packaging.
Q3. Why is transparency important?
It is important that we are honest and easy to understand when it comes to sustainability so we help educate customers. That way they can make informed choices between brands and products, learn how to be part of the solution and ultimately demand more from the industry.
Q4. Is the fashion industry moving towards sustainability more generally?
There is still a long way to go but if we can all take small steps forward it is less overwhelming and as they say, “A rising tide lifts all boats”, small steps from everyone creates a broader benefit.
Q5. Are your consumers demanding more sustainable options ?
I think consumers are becoming more demanding. Passionate advocates prioritise brands that are thinking about this whilst some consumers will choose a more sustainable brand over another if all things are created equal. The challenge we have is that being sustainable can often mean being more expensive. Our job is to help consumers to be more demanding of all brands so cycling clothing production doesn’t harm the environment and old gear doesn’t end up in land fill. This should be important to cyclists because who doesn’t want to protect the places we ride.
Q6. How can Muze Women get more fashion industry players to embrace sustainability?
If more and more brands can lead by example, whether that be in a big way or through small steps, it will create that “rising tide” where other players build confidence and inspiration to follow that path.
Q7. How can publications, such as Eco Voice, play their part in promoting sustainability in your business sector?
By helping to educate consumers, covering progress within the industry and shining a light on brands that have a focus on sustainability.
ABOUT ECO VOICE
First published in 2003, Eco Voice is your go-to publication for sustainability news in Australia. Eco Voice prides itself as an independent news platform with a clear focus on sustainability, with articles coming from a diverse range of contributors – all levels of government, corporations, not-for-profits, community groups, small to medium sized businesses, universities, research organisations, together with input from international sources. Eco Voice values community, conservation and commerce. Eco Voice is a media partner of the prestigious Australian Banksia Sustainability Awards – The Peak Sustainability Awards.
ABOUT MUZE WOMEN
Female-founded cycle brand Muze debuts as one of the first Australian cycling clothing brands to consider the exclusive needs of women. Designed in Australia and made in Italy, the durable, flattering, high-performance cycling clothing features game-changing technology. Made for women who want cycling kits that fit, flatter and perform. Problem-solving and sustainably made, the hero collection is available online and ranges from sizes 6-16.
