Travel today looks different than it did a decade ago. Work, fitness, and exploration increasingly blend into a single rhythm, shaping how people move through cities and how they dress while doing so. Clothing once reserved for training sessions now appears everywhere, from airport lounges to morning coffee lines, reflecting a lifestyle built around movement.
That shift has helped activewear become one of the most dominant categories in modern fashion. Yet for many consumers, the market has also started to feel predictable. The silhouettes are familiar. The price points are high. And the sense of innovation that once defined athleisure has begun to fade.
SIGMAS is betting that the category is ready for something different.
The performancewear company, founded by Jay Cheng and Daniel Hoang, recently closed a $1 million seed round backed by Mucker Capital and HongShan Capital (HSG), formerly Sequoia China. The investment places the young brand within an ecosystem known for building large consumer companies while providing the resources needed to expand its global footprint.
What makes SIGMAS notable is not simply the funding, but the framework surrounding it.
The company’s early development was incubated through a partnership with SHEIN, giving the founders access to one of the world’s most powerful fashion supply chains and global distribution networks. The relationship provided speed to market and valuable early validation, while allowing SIGMAS to test a wide range of products at scale.
Over time, the founders learned that the two platforms primarily served different customer motivations. The typical SHEIN marketplace shopper was more price-focused and transactional, while the SIGMAS customer was increasingly drawn to identity, philosophy, and community. SIGMAS has since exited the incubation partnership amicably, with SHEIN remaining supportive through the transition.
In December 2025, SIGMAS pivoted toward a direct-to-consumer model and launched Sigmas.com on SHOPLINE, a commerce platform designed to support cross-border brands operating at scale. The move gave SIGMAS the infrastructure to reach global customers while building a direct relationship with the community forming around the brand.
The response was immediate. Sigmas.com reached an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $3 million within six months of launch. Growth later moderated as inventory availability, manufacturing capacity, merchandising, and working capital worked to catch up with the pace of customer demand.
That progression provided something many early-stage apparel companies struggle to assemble: early supply chain validation combined with an owned path from product development to global customer reach.
For Cheng and Hoang, the brand’s foundation begins with the product itself.
Hoang’s background in performancewear manufacturing spans more than five years, with deep involvement in private-label production and athletic apparel supply chains. That experience helped shape what the founders call a “priced for destruction” philosophy, a commitment to delivering performance-focused apparel at a price point that challenges much of the existing market.
The goal is simple in principle, though difficult in execution. Pound for pound, the founders want SIGMAS products to compete with the best in the category while remaining accessible to a wider range of athletes.
At the same time, the company is approaching design from a different direction than many traditional fitness brands.
While athleisure originally emerged as a hybrid between athletic function and everyday wear, the category has gradually settled into a relatively uniform aesthetic. SIGMAS is pushing back against that sameness by infusing performance apparel with elements drawn from streetwear culture, introducing bolder silhouettes and styling cues that feel closer to fashion than traditional gym gear.
The result is a brand that sits at an intersection between training apparel and contemporary streetwear, reflecting the way younger consumers increasingly approach fitness and style as part of the same identity.
That broader identity has also allowed the company to expand beyond its original men’s focus. In February 2026, SIGMAS introduced a women’s line grounded in the same philosophical foundation as the men’s collection, but developed with its own distinct identity rather than as a direct counterpart.
That identity is also embedded in the brand’s name.
The founders describe SIGMAS as more than a reference to the familiar “lone wolf” archetype often associated with the term. Instead, they frame it as a communal philosophy built around independent thinkers who share a common commitment to personal improvement.
In that sense, the brand aims to cultivate a community of athletes, creators, and everyday consumers who see fitness not as an isolated activity but as part of a broader lifestyle defined by movement and self-discipline.
Those ideas are also shaping the company’s longer-term ambitions.
The SIGNAL by SIGMAS is now live as an affiliates and partnerships program for trainers, coaches, and athletes. While many activewear companies build their communities primarily through influencers, SIGMAS is focused on working with practitioners, the people who shape behavior and community through their daily work.
The SIGNAL provides a concrete way for SIGMAS to extend its ecosystem beyond apparel. By building relationships with the people who train, coach, and guide others, the company can scale its broader mission of empowering mindset through community.
For now, however, the company’s immediate focus remains on building a globally scalable performancewear brand.
With venture backing, supply chain experience and early validation gained through its former SHEIN incubation partnership, and direct-to-consumer commerce infrastructure powered by SHOPLINE, SIGMAS is positioning itself within a rare intersection of fashion, fitness, and technology.
In an industry where athleisure has begun to feel increasingly uniform, the company is attempting to reintroduce a sense of edge. If the strategy works, SIGMAS may prove that performancewear still has room to evolve, particularly for consumers whose lives are defined not by a single location, but by constant motion. Image Credit: SIGMAS
