Mari Rabie is an incredibly inspirational South African who has achieved an international degree, competed in the Olympics twice and started a phenomenal fashion line.
Mari Rabie (born 10 September 1986) is a South African triathlete who started an active leisure outdoor brand for women after competing in the Olympics twice.
Rabie is also a Rhodes-Scholar elect of 2010. She graduated with a Masters in Applied Statistics from St Catherine’s College Oxford in 2011. She started reading for her MBA at Oxford University in 2012 at Exeter College. She has completed her degree in Actuarial Science at the University of Stellenbosch in 2009 and attended Bloemhof Girls’ High School in Stellenbosch.
Movepretty, an active leisure outdoor brand for women, was born out of her retailing project while completing her MBA at Oxford.
Rabie did extensive research for the project when she saw a gap in South Africa for “athleisure”.
She believes that the growing trend of people wanting to live more active, healthy lifestyles and women who want to exercise in fashionable, comfortable clothing are some of the factors that have contributed to the success of her business. Movepretty is entirely home-grown; all products are manufactured locally, thereby supporting other local businesses and appealing to the conscious South African consumer.
Movepretty understands that women want to feel confident and beautiful – especially when living a healthy active lifestyle. Women don’t just want a pink version of a men’s running vest. Annelize designs with the stylish, dynamic woman in mind, and Mari makes sure that all the “prettymoves” work just as well as they are beautiful.
“We make as many changes as necessary to initial styles, to ensure maximum flexibility and movement. If you train five hours per day, you don’t want to think about comfort – it should be a given.”
At 21, she represented South Africa in Triathlon at the Beijing Olympics and again recently at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She says retiring from professional sport at the end of 2016 gave her a chance to pause, reflect, and consider how she could apply the skills and the lessons learnt in her life going forward. She realised in addition to doing well, she also wanted to make a valuable contribution to the lives of others.
Although she’s achieved a lot more than many people her age, the fear of not being good enough is something she often battles.
“I have encountered this fear repeatedly, whether as a South African at a top international university or on an Olympic start line, starting my own business and as a woman in the business world. I constantly have to overcome this fear by doing the very best that I can, regardless of the circumstances. The rest is beyond my control anyway.”
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