Launched in 2018, Left On Friday is the brainchild of co-workers-turned-friends-turned-co-founders, Laura Low Ah Kee and Shannon Savage, who, fittingly, met while working at another beloved Canadian active brand: Lululemon. Low Ah Kee came to the company somewhat unexpectedly (“I thought I was gonna be there for three months, and I was there for 12 years”), working up from being a visual merchandiser in a store to a product assistant at HQ, to a merchant, to the head of speed to market. Savage started as a design assistant for the men’s line before expanding into more categories, eventually becoming VP of women’s design. (Her “claim to fame,” as she puts it? “The inception of the women’s run and outerwear lines.” NBD.)
Low Ah Kee says they “would have night chats,” one of which planted the seed for what would become Left on Friday: “We were like, ‘Oh my god, there’s so many swim brands, but nobody is making active swim that’s beautiful and you could also wear to the resort.’”
“It was great that we were at Lululemon during the time that we were, because the training and the exposure were so robust. We didn’t stick in these tiny little lanes,” Savage says. “We could take all of those skills and be very confident in starting our own company.”
Savage and Low Ah Kee both left the company, for separate reasons, in 2016. Looking back, they both say they had positive experiences and learned valuable lessons, such as problem-solving for the consumer and, in turn, creating design solutions for the company. “I really understood the market, the brand Lululemon at the time, what was going on in the fashion world, and what was going on in the sport world, so I could tie it together and deliver something that was impactful,” Low Ah Kee explains.
