Founded in 2007, Oiselle is the original boutique running apparel brand and the first to be built by and for women who run. Rooted in the belief that every woman is an athlete, we serve runners at every pace and every phase of their lives.
A note from Margo, Oiselle CEO & Owner
When I joined my high school's cross country team in the fall of 2007, I never felt comfortable or fast in our too-small and too-warm polyester team uniform. A week before that season started, I tried on a pair of Oiselle's split shorts at my local Super Jock and Jill. The Oiselle shorts, designed specifically for women’s bodies, let me run strides without tugging down the legs or pulling up the waist. They felt like a warm welcome to running, but I never could have guessed the significance they would play throughout my life and career.
Those Oiselle shorts traveled with me from my hometown of Seattle to college in Vermont, where my school’s cross country team had recently won a D3 NCAA title. I was determined to improve—even if I was the slowest runner on the team. Not everyone thought I belonged. “You don’t look like a cross country runner,” a men’s nordic skier (not so) helpfully informed me.
Boy, was he wrong. By graduation in 2012, I had eight All-American honors, four NCAA titles, and a top-5 all-time D3 performance to my name. I graduated with a 1,500-meter PR just shy of the Olympic Trials standard, but I had absolutely no interest in continuing to compete. I was exhausted. And hungry. The sport felt broken.
In 2025, my story came full circle when I invested in Oiselle—returning the company to its status as a women-owned, women-led running brand. That first pair of Oiselle shorts are still in my drawer, and I wear them to remind myself of the feeling of coming home to running, even as my body and relationship with the sport have evolved with age and motherhood. It’s a feeling I hope Oiselle can create for every woman.
You belong in running. Running belongs to you.
- Margo
The Design Story
The Oiselle story began with a pair of shorts. Tired of training in styles built for men and resized for women, our first products reimagined what running apparel could look like when it was intentionally built for our bodies and our experiences. Nearly two decades later, designing for the needs of female athletes – at every size and every ability – remains our sole focus. That means perfecting (multiple) storage options, designing bras that don’t fit like corsets, and shorts that don’t rub your thighs raw. Together with our community, we continue to evolve to deliver gear that unlocks performance, solves unspoken problems, and reflects the lived experience of women who run.
