If the account was an attempt to manifest a picture-perfect life, then, from an onlooker’s perspective, it’s certainly done the job. At just 29, Oberg has not only created a buzzy player in the crowded fashion and lifestyle space, she’s also grown her personal brand as its frontwoman and an entrepreneur.
Visit her Instagram page and it’s abundantly clear that she lives the Sporty & Rich life: baggy sweat sets (her own, of course), luxury watches and wellness treatments abound.Unapologetically smiley and model-like, Oberg herself embodies much of the image the fashion and wellness industries sell us, and she does it enviably well. Dressing like the late Princess Diana in an oversized sweatshirt and biker shorts has timeless and effortless appeal – even if on a Zoom meeting at home and not making time for a midday PT session, cold-pressed juice in hand.Early on in her career, she worked in a number of fields in fashion and experimented with a variety of roles: she went from working in retail to joining New York-based Complex magazine as an on-camera personality.
Years later, Oberg, who by this time had amassed a substantial social media following, took on the role of creative lead for streetwear brand Kith’s womenswear line. The year was 2017, and streetwear was having its big mainstream moment – remember Supreme and Louis Vuitton’s crimson crossover? – but she was still after the perfect fit.“I felt a bit lost in my early 20s, and thought maybe I want to be the image director of a brand, maybe work in fashion media and journalism,” she says. “I really didn’t know and was still figuring out who I was and what I loved.”
At Complex, Oberg realised she didn’t want to work in fashion media; at Kith, she became more invested in the prospect of starting her own brand. She stepped down in 2018 before pursuing Sporty & Rich as a full-time venture the following year.
The brand materialised as a print magazine to start. “I didn’t have an intention to turn it into a brand, because I felt the fashion space was so oversaturated,” Oberg says.
Though the print format brought her “great joy”, it proved unsustainable – she was barely breaking even.
Much has changed since. As well as selling her wares – which span retro-inspired activewear, loungewear and accessories – to a global network of wholesale partners, Oberg and her Paris-based team of 25 are focusing on growing direct-to-consumer sales.
They’re also working on a number of collaborations, and are in the midst of launching new product categories like beauty. And Oberg hasn’t sworn off media.
Alongside its main offerings, Sporty & Rich regularly posts articles via its website and a wellness-dedicated Instagram account, exploring topics such as sleep deprivation tanks and the recent boom of antidiabetic medication turned weight-loss aid Ozempic; in 2022, it published its first book, a 240-page hardcover tome titled The Sporty and Rich Wellness Book: Volume I.
It’s clear that Oberg is building more than just a fashion label. Her goal? To conquer the global lifestyle and wellness space.
“I love clothes and style, but my true passion is wellness and I live my life around wellness and being healthy,” she says, adding that she’d like to open a chain of luxury sports and health clubs dedicated to personalised health, wellness and leisure.
While it’s an undeniably lucrative industry, Oberg also has personal reasons for being obsessed with wellness: she has an autoimmune disease and has figured out her own routine over the years to avoid falling ill.As someone whose work often intersects with the notoriously elitist wellness space – and with a brand name like Sporty & Rich – Oberg is no stranger to backlash and understands where it comes from.
“They don’t want to hear someone going on about all the expensive and unattainable things that others do to maintain their health when they can’t afford to do the same. But for me, I just like sharing what I’m doing in the hopes of educating people,” she says.
She adds that she makes a conscious effort to share accessible and inexpensive tips to balance out the brand’s luxury-centric messaging. “It doesn’t mean they need to do what I do, and I’m not telling them to do what I do.”
When it comes to gender equity in streetwear, much has changed since Oberg’s Complex days. “Things have changed a lot, even in the past three to four years. There is space for women and it gets bigger every day,” she says.
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But like any woman working in a male-dominated space, she knows the playing field is far from level.
“There have been a few instances where my [male] peers in the industry have made sure certain opportunities get taken away from me,” she says. “It upsets me at first, but at the end of the day I know it’s because of their own insecurities, and that’s pretty sad.”
Clearly, Oberg is keeping her head in the game. When asked the biggest piece of advice she would give prospective entrepreneurs, she answers: “To have the right intentions.”
“I started the brand because I had a passion for apparel and design and a certain aesthetic and lifestyle. I didn’t start it because I wanted to become rich, or well known, or any of those things,” she says.
“I would say the best advice for anyone doing anything at all is to make sure you genuinely love and care about it. Otherwise, you’ll never be happy and that’s really the only goal in life. To be happy.”
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