Former elite Lornah Kiplagat launches clothing line

During her professional running career, Lornah Kiplagat attended three Olympics (Athens, Beijing and London), was crowned world cross-country champion, world half-marathon champion and won several major marathons, including the Los Angeles Marathon (twice), Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Osaka. Her success on the roads earned her the nickname Simba, meaning “lion” in Swahili.

Kiplagat was born in Kenya in 1974 and became a Dutch citizen in 2003. Throughout her career, she funneled much of her winnings back into her native country, establishing a high-altitude training centre in Iten, Kenya, as well as the Lornah Kiplagat Sports Academy, a high school designed to offer opportunities for impoverished Kenyan girls.

At 40 years old, Kiplagat is a leading figure of female empowerment in Kenya. She says that when she started out, no one believed that a woman could make a career out of running. Despite her own fruitful career as an elite, Lornah regrets that recreational running isn’t popular for women in Kenya. While many are training to try and make it big on the international running scene, hoping for large North American payoffs, few are running for fun. This is one of the reasons she set up clinics in Nairobi on weekends, so women who had never run before could give it a try.

The next step that Lornah took was the launch of her own clothing line, called Lornah. The line’s logo is, aptly, a lion. The designs draw on Lornah’s Kenyan heritage, featuring tribal prints and dynamic colours. To Kiplagat, the line is about offering women what they really want. Frequently, sportswear lines are advertised as little more than a bathing suits. Kiplagat doesn’t believe that this is what the average woman wants. Her line provides coverage and style.

The Lornah line launched at the London Marathon expo last month. The plan is to expand to a men’s line in the coming year.