You may recognise her from BBC’s The Apprentice, but fitness guru Katie Bulmer-Cooke is no apprentice now a she begins her latest successful business venture, a pop-up store in The Bridges shopping centre, Sunderland.
The store opening is all part of Katie’s plans to help the city get fitter. She said: “It breaks my heart when I see the statistics about the health of people in the city.
“This is a great way for people to get a taster for exercise which hopefully will encourage them to get involved.”
As Katie says, the three words that best describe what she does are: fun, inclusive and positivity.
She said: “I’m hoping that the people of Sunderland will really embrace it. You see a lot of this kind of thing in London but not really anywhere else in the country so we are really leading the way here.”
Bulmer-Cooke enjoys the healthy lifestyle and has said that her main inspiration is her family. More specifically, her six year old daughter Heidi, to whom Katie aspires to be the best role model she can be for her.
The store will be offering a range of gym clothes, trainers and supplements along with a range of fitness classes, available to all ages, which Katie will host.
The shop will have brands that aren’t often available on the high street, bringing online-only brands to the store, such as GymRat and Amazing Jane, with customers able to purchase them from Friday 21 when the store opens at 9:30am.
She showed us a few of her favourite pieces that will go on sale, including the Skinny Chimp Gym Vest (see above) which will be on available to buy for £26.
Samantha Czwordon-Wright, Marketing Manager at the Bridges, said: “This is a great way for people in the city to really get a taste of how it can be fun to get fit.”
The store will open to the public on Friday 21 October and classes can be booked seven days in advance by calling the store on 07725 889957 or via Katie Bulmer-Cooke’s Facebook page.