Product case study — Destira
Competition Leotard
Relaunch
Long sleeve competition leotard revenue
2019 vs. 2025
Company
Destira
Category
Competition Leotards
Role
Sr. Director, Design & Product Development
Outcome
+650% revenue — 2019 vs. 2025
The timeline
Competition leotard launches with significant fit issues.
Customer refunds issued. Orders remade. Category pulled from market. Myriah joins Destira.
Category on hold. No competition leotards sold.
Nearly four years without a product in the market. Customers redirected to competitors.
Myriah is tasked with the relaunch.
Pattern redesign, fit development, wear testing begins. Six month timeline agreed with CEOs.
The work beginsCategory relaunches. Back to market in six months.
Rebuilt from scratch — new patterns, new fit standards, new production systems.
RelaunchResults.
Long sleeve competition leotard revenue
2019 vs. 2025
The problem
Fit in a
precision category
Competition leotards require a second-skin fit — precision across a wide range of body types while maintaining performance, comfort, and durability. The 2019 product didn't meet that standard. Fit failures led to refunds and remade orders, and the decision was made to pull the category entirely. Product inconsistency, customer distrust, and a category that couldn't be sold with confidence.
Five issues standing in the way
The brief
Six months
to relaunch
Rebuilding the competition leotard fell within my role as Director of Design and Product Development — and squarely within my skill set. I proposed a six month timeline to the CEOs and work started late 2023.
Six months
Everything rebuilt.
Nothing carried over
from what failed.
The existing patterns weren't a starting point. The problems were structural, so I started from scratch.
Pattern redesign
- Rebuilt the full pattern from scratch
- Corrected sleeve proportions, armhole shaping, chest fit, crotch width, and leg opening
- Established accurate grade rules and standardized fit blocks across all sizes
Fit development
- Led iterative fit sessions across a range of body types
- Refined through multiple development cycles until every size met standard
- Second-skin fit tested under full range of motion and competition conditions
Wear testing
- Tested under real gymnastics conditions — actual movement, actual performance scenarios
- The product had to perform, not just fit on a stand
- Multiple rounds until performance standards were met across all styles
Production systems
- Rebuilt factory QA standards and checkpoints
- Established vendor accountability and consistency measures
- Digitized patterns and implemented PLM systems for scalable production
Product transformation
Before & After
The same category. Completely different product. The difference is systems, standards, and craft applied at scale.
2019 — what was pulled
The fit failures that led to refunds, remakes, and the decision to pause the category.
2024 — what came back
Second-skin fit across all sizes. Performance-tested. Ready to compete.
Final collection — Spring 2024. Back to market.
Long sleeve competition leotard revenue
2019 vs. 2025
Business impact
From paused to
top performer
- Competition leotards became one of Destira's top-performing product categories
- Rebuilt customer confidence in a category that had lost it
- Every dollar of growth came after the relaunch — built from zero
- Production infrastructure built here now supports every new category Destira launches
Great product isn't just designed — it's built through systems.
A category doesn't run into trouble because of one bad design decision. It runs into trouble when the systems behind the product aren't strong enough to catch problems early. Rebuilding the competition leotard meant rebuilding everything — patterns, fit standards, factory relationships, production infrastructure. The garment was the output. The system was the work.