Sara Jonsdottir

Since 2007, the KPUAA and KPU have been recognizing exceptional individuals like Sara Jonsdottir, recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

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A TRUE REVOLUTIONARY

Sara Jonsdottir never saw herself as an entrepreneur. Even after she launched Revol Undies, her ground-breaking line of menstruation-proof underwear, she didn’t think the term really applied to her. She always saw herself as a technical designer, someone geared toward developing practical solutions in the fashion world.

Then, as her company started growing, she says, “the lightbulb went off” one day. “I realized this excited me more than anything I’ve ever done before,” says Jonsdottir. “I felt like I suddenly had this deep found purpose.” Jonsdottir launched Revol Undies in 2017, eight months after she graduated with her bachelor of applied design from the Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU). As CEO of Revol, she participates in all aspects of business development, from market research and finance to operations and marketing. Her products are sold all over North America and have been featured in Vogue, Refinery 29 and Vancouver Magazine. The company’s beginnings are humble, with the first pair of underwear created for a class project in her final year at KPU. She had no idea anyone would be interested prior to launching them at a KPU fashion show, after which people – strangers and classmates alike – flocked to her asking if she could make them a pair. “I was like, OK, maybe I have something here,” Jonsdottir says. “I came to realize, as people were asking me to make them underwear, they had the exact same problem as I had. It just snowballed from there.”

Revol is growing rapidly and over the next year, it will launch its postpartum and fibroids collections, which are designed for doulas, midwives, gynecologists and others in the medical industry. Over the next two years, the plan is to expand globally, with specific targets in Europe and West Africa. Within five years, Jonsdottir says the company hopes to fully expand its reach into the medical industry, replacing disposable leak-proof items in hospitals. Her determination to make a positive social impact is fundamental to the company’s philosophy. She’s developed a loyal customer base by creating products for people typically forgotten or ignored by the mainstream fashion industry. The Charlie – a line of Revol underwear designed for menstruating trans people – is a prime example. “For me, it’s just really basic. I have a lot of people in my life that I want to give this product to. If my product limits who I can give it to, then I’m not doing it right,” she says. “I love to solve problems. If I know there’s somebody out there who’s been left out of the solution, then I’m not really solving the problem. It means I’m not actually doing what I’m capable of doing, because I know I’m capable of solving that issue on a more global level.” As a result of these efforts, Jonsdottir was awarded the 2021 KPU Outstanding Young Alumni Award. In a way, she embodies everything KPU hopes to see from its graduates: a socially conscious business leader who’s applying her polytechnic education to create innovative solutions to a social problem. Jonsdottir says she’s grateful to be recognized by the very university that gave her the push she needed to start Revol.

“I do credit KPU a lot to where I am in my career,” she says. “It was really the teachers’ support that gave me the idea to start a company. I don’t know that I would have necessarily thought that my idea was so good if someone with actual industry experience hadn’t told me.” She also learned some fundamental skills at KPU that made her success possible. She says 90 per cent of the fashion industry is practical and deadline-oriented, not the conceptual, artistic type of design the industry is sometimes characterized as in the media.

Jonsdottir says she thrives in this kind of environment and because KPU’s design program is rooted in the technical, she was a perfect fit for it.

“KPU is such a good school if you’re the kind of person that wants to have an actual career in the arts,” she says. “You really have to learn structure and what people expect from you in the industry, and KPU taught me that. “The skills KPU graduates have are way better than most design schools because of the school’s focus on critical thinking skills. The reality of the fashion business is you have to get stuff into production. You have to get your tech packs, you got to get all these not-so-glamorous things done. KPU’s great because it prepares you for how the fashion industry actually works.”