Two ex-Wall Street workers are disrupting the athleisure market

Fashion is one industry that changes rapidly. Clothes adjust to the season. Hemlines rise and fall. Miniskirts go in and out of style. But one ‘trend’ that has been consistent and has even gained popularity over the past few years is the activewear market, as more women and men nationwide favor leggings, tank tops or sneakers to jeans, blouses and button-down shirts. The trend is so big that the Merriam-Webster dictionary added the word “athleisure” to its 2016 edition, defining it as “casual clothing designed to be worn both for exercising and for general use.”

It’s a bright spot in an otherwise relatively fragile retail sector. Research firm NPD Group estimates the activewear market is worth $44 billion in the US, helping to validate that it’s more than just a passing fad. The growing consumer base has prompted many brands and manufacturers, including Gap (GPS), Tory Burch and H&M, to try to profit off activewear.

And it’s not only well-established big brand names that are cashing in on the trend. One luxury brand, Carbon38, which was founded by two former ballet dancers and Harvard grads, is looking to take on some of the industry’s biggest players by carving out its own niche in the athletic wear space.

“We launched Carbon38 after studying the modern American woman—who she is and how she has developed over the last 10 years,” Carbon38 co-founder and CEO Katie Warner Johnson told Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith in the video above. “Getting dressed is the foundation of her day, and at Carbon38 we try to support all that she does every day.”

Here’s how Carbon38 got its start. Johnson’s co-founder Caroline Gogolak was an analyst on Wall Street for three years, working for Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS). Meanwhile, Johnson first spent a summer as an analyst for Deutsche Bank (DB). But after a short stint on Wall Street, she left the industry to pursue her passion of dance and fitness. While doing this, she noticed an interesting development. She graduated right before the financial crisis, and even though people were losing their jobs as a result of massive layoffs, her fitness classes still had waiting lists down the block. That’s when she and her co-founder realized there was something more to this boutique fitness trend. Gogolak left her analyst position in finance, and they both started directing their career paths towards wellness.

Carbon38, which started as a distributor for small boutique brands across the country, has taken its business to the next level. Within the last year, the company started manufacturing and designing its own collection after taking time to research what’s important to consumers when it comes to clothing.

“In a way, we’re weaseling around these larger players and coming out the other side with this take on what the future of ready-to-wear looks like and how the DNA of activewear can change the way we modern American women get dressed,” said Johnson. “Why not be able to take that moisture-wicking, machine washable, comfortable fabric all day.”

So far, Carbon38’s approach to the highly competitive and crowded athleisure market seems to be working. The company has nearly tripled its sales over the past year.