Love, Bonito rebrands activewear brand butter. after acquisition

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Love, Bonito has acquired women-led activewear brand butter. and taken a small stake investment in natural healthcare start-up Moom Health. Both companies are based in Singapore and the move is said to kickstart Love, Bonito's plans to build a holistic female ecosystem with a house of brands that have been curated for the everyday Asian woman.

As part of the acquisition, butter. will be rebranded as cheak, further amplifying both brands' passion and vision for serving women on a global stage. The expansion into activewear is also part of Love, Bonito's long-term vision in supporting essential facets of women’s needs within Asia. Tiffany Chng, co-founder of cheak, said the new brand name was chosen to play on the word "cheeky" and represent the brands’ vibrant personas.

"Every element of cheak has been carefully chosen to represent the ambitious female active persona - strong and confident, mindful, and knows how to have a little fun along the way,” Chng added.

Love, Bonito envisions bringing cheak apparels to global markets with its established international go-to-market strategy and will leverage butter.’s resonance across all life stages to expand its customer base, including a growing Gen Z segment.

Meanwhile, cheak builds upon butter.’s signature design philosophies and launches in two fabrics, namely BaseCore which is sweat wicking, compressive and suitable for high intensity activities like HIIT, spinning and running, and BaseFlex, which feels ultra-soft and silky smooth throughout low-intensity activities such as yoga, pilates and barre. Love, Bonito is launching 12 styles (sports bras, leggings and biker shorts), seven inclusive sizes from XXS to XXL, and 13 colours, with eight colours.

Early access is available from 20 October, on Love, Bonito’s global website and Love, Bonito’s store in ION Orchard in Singapore for gold and silver members only. The collection will be launched to the public on 21 October, on both Love, Bonito and cheak’s website as well as across all Love, Bonito stores in Singapore. Love, Bonito also ships to 20 countries worldwide. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Love, Bonito for additional information.

Love, Bonito bagged US$50 million in funding last October and since then, it set its sights on active wear due to the growth potential of the segment in Asia Pacific. According to the brand, the activewear segment has a projected five-year compound annual growth rate of more than 8.5% from 2021 to 2025. The post-pandemic cultural shift in dress code norms have also propelled activewear as a casual alternative beyond workouts.

Dione Song, CEO of Love, Bonito, explained that this is an extraordinary milestone for the brand to achieve within one year of its Series C funding. "Our long-term vision is to be a true life partner for our community of women, in and beyond fashion, and activewear is a key category we’ve looked to venture into since two years ago. Merging forces with butter. came at the right place and time for both of us, and we look forward to reshaping our evolution into a female ecosystem alongside emerging passion-driven women-led brands," she added.

In September, Love, Bonito released its first-ever children’s storybook authored by its own marketer vice president of the brand, Vanessa Yeo Barger. The book titled “Lili the Lioness & Friends” is released through Love, Bonito’s social impact programme LBCreate. Targetted at children aged three to seven years old, the book features six female animal characters and follows the journey of Jungle School’s head girl, Lili the Lioness, who invents her own “power cheer” to motivate her friends in school but loses her voice as she is about to make a special announcement for the students.

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