Where 'Throwing Like a Girl' is Encouraged

Tigard resident Diana Marsden, owner of Aries Apparel located in Tanasbourne, opened an athletic clothing shop for female athletes, a market she believes is underserved.

Located in Tanasbourne, Aries Apparel specializes in fitness clothing for female athletes.

January 19, 2009

Like many soccer moms, Diana Marsden struggled to find athletic clothing for her two daughters.

And she wasn’t alone. Almost every parent Marsden met had trouble finding sports clothing for their female athletes to wear.

“Girls don’t like to wear boys’ clothes,” said Marsden, 50. “I really found a hole you could drive a truck though.”

But it gave Marsden an idea.

After more than a year of preparation, Marsden opened Aries Apparel in the spring of 2008. The store is geared specifically toward female athletes, and sells fitness clothing for nearly every sport, from basketball to lacrosse.

Aries Apparel is an expansive 6,200-square-foot store in a building on the corner of Northwest 188th Avenue and Northwest Cornell Road near Tanasbourne Village. Purple drapes that hang like cylinders down the center of the store are the dressing rooms, one of the many warm, modern aspects of the interior design.

“I tried to create a store that was girl friendly,” said Marsden, adding that many athletic department stores are geared toward male shoppers.

Benches dotted throughout have words written on them, each stemming from the Aries zodiac sign, one of Marsden’s inspirations for the store.

Powerful, courageous, passionate – “all examples of female athletes,” she said.

Marsden said she thinks one of the biggest draws to the store is the variety of clothing and equipment Aries Apparel sells for each sport. She said she sees customers come in and stare at the merchandise from the more than 100 vendors Marsden buys from.

“We call it ‘the look,’ now,” said Marsden, a Tigard resident.

The store pulls in about 30 shoppers on an average day, and 60 on a good day, Marsden said. Not being in a mall makes business tougher, she said, but she can’t afford the high rent.

In her current location, she relies primarily upon advertisement and word of mouth to attract customers, who range from parents of elementary school age and teenage athletes to women of all ages looking for something to work out in.

Jeff McClean brought his two daughters in the store after a friend told them about it. His daughters loved it, and McClean tells everyone he knows to stop in.

“It’s got a nice little style to it. It’s got a woman’s touch, but it’s a competitive woman’s touch,” McClean said. “When you go into Aries Apparel, it’s a completely different feel than any other store.”

Opening her own store was never a dream, and it’s not even something Marsden thinks she would have wanted to do 20 years ago. But after a two-decade career as a broadcast advertising account executive, and realizing that there was a niche in the market for a women’s athletic clothing store, Marsden decided to take a risk.

She just happened to take a risk during one of the most drastic economic downturns the nation has seen since the 1930s. Even so, she said business has been good.

Plus, Marsden has had support. She thanks her family for backing her throughout the process, and thanks herself for being able to hire the right people.

“I was smart enough to know that I did not know everything,” Marsden said.

Liz Hanacek, the store’s manager, said she was drawn to the store by its concept. She has nearly 30 years experience working in retail.

Anyone who walks in the door is immediately greeted by one of the perky employees. That’s a goal, said Marsden: maintain a friendly environment.

Marsden was sure the store was the right thing to do just before it opened, when her daughter, Blair, 22, tried to find a red T-shirt for an indoor soccer league. Blair searched and searched and guess what happened – she had to buy a men’s T-shirt.

“We don’t have anything against boys,” said Hanacek, the manager. “We just don’t want to wear their clothes.”

Source:  Beaverton Valley Times