Brands Built By Women: STÆRKE

Celebrating new and emerging brands built by women™ you'll want to know.

Since November 2025, we've been spotlighting the next generation of female-founded consumer brands and celebrating female entrepreneurship, showing that building a business is a real, viable career path for women from all walks of life, regardless of background, age, culture, or circumstance.

We started Mindful Brand to support women in succeeding in business - not just through what we do, but also through how we shop. We believe in a future where more seven-figure consumer brands are built by women, and we’re committed to helping make that vision a reality.

Deciding which businesses to support is a personal choice. If, like us, you prefer to champion female-founded brands, we hope you’ll join us.

Today, we’re featuring STÆRKE, founded by Maya Khurana in 2025 in the UK.

About the Brand

STÆRKE creates Scandinavian-designed mini in-gym bags that combine clean aesthetics with practical function.

Compact, waterproof, and made from recycled materials, The Mini empowers women to train with convenience, intention, and style inside the gym.

Born from the frustration of bulky totes and cluttered gym floors, STÆRKE elevates essentials through craftsmanship, sustainability, and timeless design.

Meet the Founder

Maya was born in Malaysia to a Danish mother and Indian father, and has lived in nine countries.

She studied International Management and Data Science in the UK before building a career in tech as a Data & AI Consultant and Technical Account Manager.

She has been lifting weights for seven years and is now a first-time founder.

How She Started

Maya moved from London back home to Copenhagen in April 2025 due to personal, health, and professional reasons.

With newfound time and space to rethink her future, she revisited a product idea she first had in 2019 and was surprised that nothing like it still existed, despite such a clear need for it.

With zero design experience, she threw herself into the process and created the product she had always wanted. Maya never set out to be a founder or run a start-up - she simply believed in the idea and everything it represented. So she thought: why not?

What She Learned

Maya has learned not to get too caught up in the “big launch day.”

Online, it’s hyped as a monumental moment - but in reality, most launches are quieter and more gradual than people expect.

Brands take time to grow. Be patient, stay consistent, and trust the process.

Where to shop

STÆRKE is available to buy online at www.staerke-gymwear.com.

Instagram: @staerkegym

Support brands built by women. Don’t just say it. Shop it. Stock it. Fund it.