The unbound origin story

The story of trying to find the right dumbbells

Hello! We’re Iona and Anita, we’ve spent years juggling careers and gym sessions, raising families and maintaining hectic social lives. Fitness has always been a core part of our lives but, to be as strong as we wanted to be, it was becoming hard to fit it all in. We decided to complement our gym sessions and classes with weight training at home.

Then came the exciting part of any new routine… online ordering.

Alas, we had two options; oversize, ugly dumbbells that look like they belonged in a warehouse, not the living room; or worse, pink neoprene ones that topped out at 5 kg and looked more like props than dumbbells.

Surely there’s a better option, we cried! We have so much choice in everything else in our lives, why should weights be any different?

Going deeper

The cogs were really turning now; we started thinking beyond the aesthetic and how the weights we used in classes and gyms felt. Sure, they worked, but like a lot of things they worked “just about” for women; we clearly weren’t the ones at the forefront of the design (see also PPE, doctors’ scrubs… seat belts!).

We realised that a lot of the handles were just that bit too wide and the steel material was difficult to grip, leaving us with calluses and sore wrists. We didn’t have this problem with the small neoprene ones, but those didn’t build our strength; they’re for Pilates, not weight-training. We wanted dumbbells that felt good in our hands, that looked like they belonged in our homes, and that were built for our bodies.

So, we started sketching, testing and asking questions. Slowly, unbound began to take shape.

What we’ve made

We haven’t reinvented the wheel, we’ve just made dumbbells that work better for women, so we don’t have to settle (again). Our dumbbells are:

• Designed with ergonomic handles for smaller hands
• Rubber coated to protect your floors and your skin
• Weighted for real progress — from 2.5 kg to 17.5 kg
• Aesthetically designed to live out in the open, not hidden under the sofa

Why it matters

After the age of 30, women lose 3–8% of muscle mass per decade. Strength training isn’t just about how you look, it’s about bone health, heart health, metabolism, and confidence.

It’s about being able to pick up your toddler, or launch your giant dog into the car boot, or carry a suitcase up the steps at the train station.

The fitness industry hasn’t always made space for women here. The kit wasn’t right. The tone was off. The advice felt either too “bro” or too beginner. Now, thankfully there are so many inspirational women (and men!) correcting this. You can barely get through the evening doom scroll without seeing someone extolling the virtues of strength training for women (even Joe Wicks is on it!).

With unbound we want to go beyond the product and bring together a bunch of like-minded women, lifting each other up (maybe literally?) and making strength training fun and accessible.

What comes next

We’re launching unbound this September with our first collection of dumbbells — thoughtfully designed, beautifully built, and ready to help women train without limits.

We’ve also made they foray into strength training at home simple. We’ve partnered with our friend and personal trainer Ria Gandhi to create four video workouts. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, you can dip into these (and avoid the you tube minefield), no matter how much, or little, time you have.

We’d love to hear from you

You can sign up to our newsletter to hear our news, but we’d really love to hear yours…

Let us know how your strength training is going, what you like about our dumbbells and what you’d like to see next!

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