The Disruptor Brand Riding the Volleyball Boom
Left On Friday is still riding a high from its success at the Olympics, and has its sights set on becoming the go-to brand in the booming women's volleyball industry.
Hi everyone, welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can’t find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture.
I first met Laura Low Ah Kee and Shannon Savage in 2024, when they were readying their still-young sportswear label, Left On Friday, for its debut at the Olympics in Paris.
The former Lululemon colleagues-turned-business partners launched their Vancouver-based brand a few years earlier, and quickly gained traction for their women’s swimwear offering based on enhanced design and performance credentials.
It was at the Paris Olympics where things really took off, when the brand secured the opportunity to design the uniforms for Canada’s beach volleyball team. It was a success story so great and unexpected that the uniforms ended up enshrined in the Olympic Hall of Fame.
That’s not to say the brand’s Olympic break led to an instant boom in sales. Far from it. But the exposure was invaluable.
“We didn’t see all of it in immediate conversion. It was more of a halo that set us up. The following year, we had a massive year, with over 40% year‑over‑year sales growth. Volleyball was a huge credibility driver,” Laura told me.
Where some incumbent brands in the past have treated national team or federation uniforms as a low-cost marketing tool or sponsorship moment, Laura and Shannon saw the relationship with Team Canada as the ideal product innovation opportunity, and the chance to break into a totally new sportswear category with the unrivaled authenticity that comes with the co-sign of elite sports and professional athletes.
As volleyball—both beach and indoor—continues to grow in popularity across the world, I checked in with Laura and Shannon on how things went for Left on Friday in the aftermath of the Olympics, and to learn more about their strategy to become the new go-to sportswear brand in the sport, which they believe is ripe for disruption.
How did Left On Friday first get into volleyball?
Laura:
For us it really started through performance. Left On Friday is a premium active swimwear brand, combining fashion and function in a really premium way, and product testing has always been part of how we develop product.
We were already working with swimmers when a Canadian beach volleyball player reached out and said, “I love what you guys are doing. I’d love you to sponsor me.” We didn’t have money to sponsor her, so we gifted her instead, and that kicked off our volleyball journey.
It’s such an aspirational lifestyle sport. She started wearing us, Shannon got feedback from her on all the styles, then her teammates wanted to wear us, so we gifted them too. We shot content with them in LA. It all grew very organically from there.
What was the turning point that took you from gifting pieces to sponsoring Volleyball Canada?
Laura:
That same player told us, “Hey, Lululemon no longer sponsors Volleyball Canada.” We basically swooped in. Shannon and I drafted this email we probably both rewrote five times, sent it, and got a meeting.
We were upfront: “We can’t afford Lululemon prices.” They really worked with us, and we ended up securing the official sponsorship. It was a perfect match.
Shannon:
The big thing was that the players were already asking for the brand. Even though Lululemon had been there, they were wearing our product whenever they could because it was more comfortable and actually doing what they needed. That player demand really brought the partnership together.
How did the 2024 Olympic uniforms with Canada actually come together?
Laura:
We’re the official sponsor of Volleyball Canada and we’d started an ambassador program. We sponsor Melissa Humana‑Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, Canada’s number‑one team, both together and individually, so we have a deeper relationship. They have more access to product and they’re really the face of Left On Friday beach volleyball.
Shannon:
By the time we got to the Olympic uniforms, they were already very familiar with our product. They used to come to Laura’s house‑slash‑office in LA to get styled. They were layering two swimsuits together to get different colors and strap configurations. They were kind of art‑directing their own looks.
They were obsessed with a one‑shoulder top we were making, and other girls on tour were starting to copy that silhouette. So we took what they were already doing — their personal style and our mix‑and‑match DNA — and asked, “What does this look like as a uniform that will really stand out on the sand and still perform?”
What made those uniforms so different from what volleyball players were used to?
Shannon:
Functionally, Melissa is a right‑handed hitter and loved how free her arm felt with the one‑shoulder — it was stylish but also very functional. Brandy hits from the opposite side and wanted the same thing mirrored for her.
We leaned into comfort, performance, fashion and body type differences.
Most volleyball uniforms are pretty predictable: hardcore athletic swim, racerback, “here’s your bra, off you go.” We wanted the opposite of that. These ended up as really comfortable, standout uniforms that made such a splash at the Olympics they’re now in the Olympic Hall of Fame. They also created a look that’s become really aspirational for younger girls.
How did you end up outfitting a late‑qualifying Spanish team just weeks before the Games?
Laura:
You honestly couldn’t script that story. Canada had two teams at the Olympics. Then Spain — Danny and Tania — qualified super late. They’re in their 20s, going to school in the US, and suddenly realise, “We don’t have a uniform.”
They knew Brandy and Mel from the tour and had seen the Left On Friday uniforms. They emailed us: “Hey guys, we don’t have a uniform. Will you make it for us?” We were like, “What?” and set up a Zoom call.
It was midnight in Spain. We grabbed photoshoot samples from our LA closet, sent our teammate Chloe to FedEx to overnight them. The players tried everything on, told us what they loved and their sizes, and we just went, “Okay, go.” We took existing styles, printed them for Spain, and they wore them at the Olympics. Suddenly we had three teams in our product: two Canadian, one Spanish.
What did that Olympic run do for the brand in real time?
Laura:
The Spanish team did phenomenally. Mel and Brandy almost didn’t make it out of pool play — they got through as “lucky losers” — and then they just kept winning. They had to beat the top American team, crawled through the bracket, and ended up in the gold‑medal match. They came second, which for them was heartbreaking because it was so tight — three sets, a few points.
In the semis they played the Spanish team, so as a brand we literally had Left On Friday versus Left On Friday.
Shannon and I were in Paris wearing red and white Left On Friday every day, making social content at night. It really put the brand on the global stage.
That beach volleyball game ended up being the most‑watched sport of the Games and second overall in viewership after the opening ceremony. Every match, if you tracked our traffic, was just like boom. When the US got knocked out, American fans started cheering for Brandy and Mel. The exposure and validation were incredible.
Did the Olympics’ success translate into business growth?
Shannon:
We’re super seasonal — that all happened at the end of July into August, which is usually the tail end of swim season. We saw big traffic spikes and the Olympic top exploding in sales, which is unusual for that time of year.
But the real impact was brand awareness. Those people came back the following swim season. When they were finally ready to buy a swimsuit, it was, “Let’s check out that brand we saw at the Olympics.”
Laura:
We didn’t see all of it in immediate conversion. It was more of a halo that set us up. The following year we had a massive year — over 40% year‑over‑year sales growth. Volleyball was a huge credibility driver.
On top of that, The Strategist and Wirecutter both named our Sunday Suit a top swimsuit, which was the first time a PR article drove that much volume. Then you have the Gwyneth Paltrow moment in the black Sunday Suit, paparazzi and then on her own social. That stacked this “cool factor” on top of the trust factor from the reviews.
What’s the next product innovation you have cooking?
Laura:
We’re launching a volleyball short as part of our Super Moves active line. A big trigger was realizing college beach volleyball players actually wear shorts, so we couldn’t sponsor those teams with just bikini bottoms.
We reached out to our audience and said, “We need volleyball short testers,” and got over 1,000 responses [from athletes] very quickly. Almost 100% of them were wearing Nike Pro shorts. We asked what they liked and didn’t like. The answer was basically: “Nike should have done this by now.” The number‑one complaint was the center seam, it chafes.
So our final design, launching this spring, has no center seam. We played with rise and inseam too, but comfort always won.
Shannon:
We sent two final versions — one with a seam, one without — and comfort won 100% of the time across body types and ages. The short is built to work for indoor, beach, college and everyday, and it’s our way to test into indoor while still serving beach.
What’s the ultimate goal?
Laura:
We’ve said for a while that we want to be synonymous with beach volleyball. You think swimming, you think Speedo. We want beach volleyball, you think Left On Friday.
Now we have Team Canada, Mel and Brandy as the faces of the brand, our uniforms in the Olympic Hall of Fame, and players from other countries asking to wear us. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re actually doing it.
We’ll keep growing our athlete base — more Canada, some Team USA players, hopefully more in Spain and beyond — and keep building product off real feedback: uniforms, tights, sun protection, shorts. The frontier is to behave like a true technical sports brand that uses aesthetics and storytelling as a competitive edge, not a distraction.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and thank you to Laura and Shannon for joining us today.
See you soon,
DYM
Super interesting and insightful read, kudos to Left On Friday - sounds super cool!
Great read, thank you!