Laura Cuddy moved to Barcelona over three years ago, leaving behind a stable job and an easy lifestyle. She explained that, although she loves Ireland and it will always be home for her, she felt as though she needed to change the life that she had found herself living.
“I felt quite trapped in the rut I had created and I felt like I was not challenging myself, not pushing myself.” She decided to set herself a limit; by Christmas time 2016, everything was going to change—and it did! Laura was offered a job in advertising in Barcelona and before she knew it, she was on a one-way flight, leaving her safe life in Ireland behind her in exchange for the unknown.
She remembers arriving into Barcelona airport armed with everything she owned. She knew no one in Barcelona. She knew she would have to create a new life for herself in a new city all alone, yet this made her feel ridiculously excited. She felt like someone had just unlocked the cage that she had been living in, and she was finally stepping out into a world that awoke her and made her feel challenged.
Laura has always been a sports enthusiast, whether it was playing with the guys in a game of soccer or training to compete in tennis. During her school days, the bell would ring and she would already be on her way to her local tennis club. It didn't matter the weather, she wanted to train! Over the years playing tennis, she loved to challenge herself and represented her school, university, province and country.
Apart from the physical side of sport, she has always used sport and exercise as a means of connecting with people. The first thing she did when she arrived in Barcelona with no friends or network, was to join a yoga class in Ciutadella Park. As she became more accustomed to Barcelona life, she began to run some fitness meetup events by the beach and over time became more and more involved in the city’s fitness community.
After a couple of years working in different jobs in Barcelona, she was ready to knock down another barrier. She asked herself, “Why should I be working for someone else’s dreams? Why should I be sitting in front of a screen for nine hours a day? Why do I need to depend on an employer for money? Why not depend on myself and believe in my own skills and capabilities?”
“Walking out of the gym on a dark evening, all these questions raced through my mind,” she told us. These thoughts pushed her forward and, after a year, she had a stamped and approved business plan from Barcelona Activa.
Launching a Brand
At the beginning of October 2018 Laura launched HERSTORM, a women's fitness clothing brand with a vision to inspire women to take on the world and reach their full potential, to face the storm and to not give up.
For Laura, the definition of women’s empowerment can be clearly understood through the statement “Women's empowerment is the process in which women elaborate and recreate what it is that they can be, do, and accomplish. It is the freedom to reach, to achieve, to do anything a woman wants to do, something women were previously denied.”
Women sometimes lack the belief that they are good enough to do whatever it is they would like to do. But with more women than ever before taking up sports that challenge stereotypes surrounding women's abilities and physical strength, Laura spotted the opportunity to create HERSTORM. She wants to push women to face their fears and challenges head on and hopes that through her brand she can reinforce women’s self-love and encourage them to break boundaries. What if you were your own hero and your own inspiration as a woman? This fits hand in hand with HERSTORM ́s slogan to “become your own hero.”
An entrepreneur, Laura says she chooses to ignore traditional business barriers. Of course, the signs of bias are ever present, when you go to a networking event you can often count the number of women in the room on one hand. However, Laura believes you can go far with an open mindset and confidence in your business.
HERSTORM is currently selling worldwide and, as Laura explains, with continued growth she is zoning in on initiatives that aid women’s empowerment such as investing in women charities, organizing leadership and empowerment events and helping female athletes in developing countries.
She says that she has been lucky to source excellent suppliers and fabrics for the production of her clothing line. The first collection from HERSTORM is a complete compression collection and selling currently on the HERSTORM website. All designs and details are unique to HERSTORM and created by Laura and her talented team.
You can connect with Laura Cuddy on LinkedIn and view the HERSTORM collection online at herstorm.com or follow the brand on Facebook: @herstorm and Instagram: @herstorm.