Green Hip is one of the generous companies offering member benefits to HMAA members. In good news this week, founder Olivia Thwaites has announced that her company has been selected as a finalist in the Telstra Best of Business Awards. Olivia shares her story below. State finalists are announced on September 26.
I’m very excited and proud to announce Green Hip is a Victorian state finalist for the Telstra Best of Business Awards in the category of ‘Accelerating Women’. Participation in the award process has been incredibly fulfilling and a time to reflect on my business journey.
My business journey began when my workplace required me to wear men’s clothing. I noticed I was not the only woman who was having trouble with this. As a woman working in the horticulture industry and wearing men’s clothing to work every day, I felt I didn’t belong, and I had the daily challenge of working in clothing that just didn’t fit me – and was darned uncomfortable. It was 1997 and it felt especially wrong that women had to choose to wear men’s clothing, or women’s clothing that fitted even worse. And so my mission became to provide women with work clothing that expresses their sense of worth and enhances their sense of identity.
Fast forward to 2024 and still to this day women are telling us of the same experience, until they heard about Green Hip. Green Hip is now stocked by over 100 stockists and is the national supplier for Mitre 10 and Home Hardware stores. We supply women in enterprises such as Lion Nathan, the Department of Environment Energy & Climate Action, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, the Botanic Gardens Parks Authority in Western Australia and many, many more.
Women are being empowered to ask for a better option and the stockists and companies providing Green Hip to customers and staff are leaders in acknowledging that to build equity in the workforce, appropriate clothing is required. These leaders are powerful, courageous and empathetic towards women’s’ needs. They are empowering women to feel like they ‘do’ belong in the workforce – and working in male dominated roles.
Being selected as a State Finalist in the ‘Accelerating Women’ category has provided a revitalised pep in my step. The workwear industry is a male dominated industry and leading the change to provide women with ‘choice’, has not been an easy journey as a woman in business. The hard knocks and the consistently insistent ‘no there isn’t a market for that’ however have not slowed me down. It is our mission that women in every region, town and suburb has access to high quality work clothing they can try and buy in-store.
I would like to thank my amazing team, past and present, who have contributed to where Green Hip is today. It takes a village to grow a family and a business. I would also like to thank my husband for his support and belief in my mission; and my children who give mum space to ‘build this business’ as they say whenever I am away.
Green Hip is scaling, and we are looking for Investors to join our journey. We have bootstrapped the business to where it is today and it is now time to build upon the sound foundations and take the next step.
Thank you, Telstra, for this incredible selection and good luck to all the state finalists!
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