Features
Carole Quash
Eight years ago, if someone had told Jaya Persad that she would ride the waves of independence with her own clothing brand, she might not have believed them.
Married at 25, Persad had high expectations of a perfect life with a family, a pet, and white picket fences. Instead, her marital reality was a rather different story, littered with trauma, depression, and great disappointment.
Now divorced, the 33-year-old owner and managing director of fitness clothing brand Pumpeii Fitness has been spending her time building her brand from her Maracas gym and workshop, St Joseph, reaping the benefits of years she spent struggling to channel her energy into it during the most trying time of her life.
“My marriage lasted two years and nine months to be exact. He was my first love and the only person I had a relationship with…During that time I was always sick, I did two consecutive miscarriages, which made me feel like I had no purpose in life,” Persad told WMN.
Looking back, however, she thinks it all served a higher purpose.
“I wouldn’t be who I am now if I hadn’t gone through what I did. I wouldn’t have been as focused as I am now.”
Persad said that before she was married, she studied business management and event management at the School of Business and Computer Studies. After her marriage ended, she returned to her parents to try to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.
“My doctors told me that I was not recovering physically quickly enough from the miscarriages. And mentally the healing process was very slow. I felt ugly inside and out because I felt that there was no growth in my life. During the period in which I got married, my then husband did not consider the fact that I had my own passions. It was as if I I was lost.
But she found some relief by exercising and working out at the gym. Gradually her mind felt a little more at ease and she began to feel good inside and out.
“I like to pump hard and lift heavy weights. If you look at my logo, it’s a kettle bell with bulging biceps on it to represent strength and ferocity.”
Persad said that because she had always had a knack for fashion and was really good at hand sewing, she saw it as a sign that she needed to get into something fashion-related.
“When I was a child, I always rummaged through my mother’s sewing bags. Don’t ask me why. And I was the one who repaired everyone’s clothes at home…And every time my father was traveling, I would ask him to bring me things like pearls.”
Eventually, Persad decided that half-broken as she was, it was time to return to the real world. She started working with a friend who was a designer and during this time she slowly began to see the vigorous and determined young woman she slowly came out of her painful hiding place. She decided to go back to school and struggled to earn a fashion design and fashion design degree at UWI.
“I didn’t have that mindset to study yet, but I persevered. It was really hard but I finished it in 2019… I worked hard, saved and with some support parents, I bought my machines and invested in I started small, and now I’m in it!I have a fitness clothing line for men and women, as well as a clothing line for children.
She makes sports bras, hoodies, joggers, dry-fit tops, leggings and crop tops, all custom made with “high quality” materials after consultations and appointments. fitting with its customers.
“I like to talk a lot, that’s why I like to interact with my customers… When I was younger, I had a lot of trouble finding the intermediate clothing sizes that suited me. That’s why I decided to go “made to measure” to fit my brand, I even have male clients who need between sizes.
Like many other small businesses, Persad said its operations had been affected by the covid19 pandemic, causing it to panic because it had invested so much in it.
“Of course, sales slowed down because gyms and sports facilities were closed, and I knew I had to do something to keep generating income. I didn’t know how to make masks, but I did. quickly learned and started making some for my family, friends and different It worked well for me as it gave me the opportunity to advertise my brand.”
And because so many people, including herself, have sought solace in food during the pandemic, she’s used the universal weight-gain effect as a launching pad for her fitness events, one of which she hosted this weekend at the Roopnarine Grand Marquis Conference Center in Chaguanas.
It is a fitness expo to raise awareness of the importance of fitness and health. It opened on Saturday and continues on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The theme is Action today, let’s be healthier for the TT together. We have speakers, fitness demonstrations, vendors and giveaways.”
And with all that she has accomplished under the impulse of misplaced love, has she given up on love?
“I can’t say yes. If the opportunity ever arises again, I’ll be ready to start a family, once it’s the right person,” she told WMN.
Follow Pumpeii Fitness on Facebook and Instagram.
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