
When Elles Roeleveld joined the THNK Executive Leadership Program, she had been working at ING for 10 years. After completing the program, she left ING to start her own business.
On why she decided to join THNK, Elles says, “It had a lot of everything. It had different dimensions and a combination of creatives, corporates, and NGOs, all together. That triggered me because I was in the banking scene with lots of like-minded people so I really wanted to look beyond my own bubble.”
While THNK turned out to be an eye-opening experience for Elles, she also remembers some uncomfortable experiences. It was throughout these tough experiences and conversations that Elles would make new discoveries – about herself, her dream, her work. “It felt like a puzzle,” she explains, going through the whole Sensing phase. “THNK helped me in that period to really trust the process. I needed that time to go beyond the obvious.”
In January 2019, Elles left ING, armed and ready with tools she learned at THNK, to start her own lingerie business – a dream that she’s had since she was 13 years old. She spoke to hundreds of people – trend-watchers, industry experts, fellow THNKers – and traveled to different countries to visit other businesses, production facilities, textile and garment technology exhibitions, learning as much as she could and searching for funding, research labs, and accelerators.
Elles is still building her company, Soft Revolt, creating the “bra of tomorrow,” sustainable lingerie that is “soft to the skin, soft to nature, soft to us.” She is using 3D knit technology – something no other lingerie company is doing – to create a product in one piece, leading to minimized transportation and zero waste production. Ultimately, she wants to empower women with supportive, sustainable intimates.
Learn more about Elles’ story >>>