This story is from Stuff

Wellington-based underwear brand Nisa is set to close its doors after five years.

The brand launched in 2017 with the concept of “underwear with a mission” or “briefs with beliefs”, with the purpose of providing women from refugee and migrant backgrounds with meaningful employment and first jobs in NZ.

It quickly became beloved for its locally made underwear, swim and activewear, hand-sewn in the Wellington workroom, inclusive imagery and outspokenness in ‘doing good’ in the fashion space.

Nisa’s online store will close on July 16, with garments available to purchase and the team sewing pre-cut garments and clearing existing stock in the interim.

In March Watson said she was putting the business up for sale, telling Stuff she wanted to spend more time with her new baby daughter and help with extended family. “I was really hopeful that we'd find an awesome buyer to take it forward, and I'd be able to take a bit of a step back,” she explains now.

But the economic conditions had changed, and they weren’t in a financial position to continue operating without a buyer to inject capital, said Watson.

“It meant that finding a buyer became essential, rather than nice to have,” she said. “Not only does the economy mean that it's harder to run a business, it also means it's harder to sell a business.”

She describes the decision as being both simple and complicated. “It wasn't really a tough decision, because I feel like I've turned over every single stone – but that doesn't make it any less sad.”

Prior to starting Nisa, which means ‘woman’ in Arabic, Watson worked as a litigation lawyer at Bell Gully, also volunteering with the Red Cross refugee resettlement programme and offering legal advice at the Community Law Centre.

She devised the idea for an underwear company based on the idea that the everyday garment was needed year-round; it soon expanded to include swim, activewear, accessories and clothing.

According to Stuff, the company had grown into a business with a $1 million annual turnover. Over the past six years Nisa dispatched more than 25,000 orders to 13,000 customers, with 10% of sales from abroad.

“I know for [our customers], this will be really big news because some people have been following us since day one and have just placed their 25th order,” said Watson. “People love supporting our mission. But fundamentally, we have to make their favourite underwear, or swimwear, to have been able to last as long as we did. I'm so proud of making simply excellent products that people swear by.”

Since 2017, 29 women from refugee and migrant backgrounds have had jobs at the Wellington workshop. The brand had paid over $1.5 million in wages, said Watson, who has brought on a career coach to work with employees ahead of the closure.

Once the business closes, Watson’s priority will be spending more time with her baby.

“I love business. I'm obsessed with business. I didn't know that about myself until I started Nisa. But God, it's fun,” she said. “So I'd love to do business consultancy, but that’s all very future thinking; I haven't really thought a huge amount about it. My focus right now is looking after the team and managing this transition.”

Watson still believes that the social enterprise business model can succeed in the current economic climate: “I hope so.”

“I almost don't like the term ‘social enterprise’, even though I use it myself sometimes. Because it suggests that the norm is businesses that don't contribute anything to their community – and then you've got social enterprises,” she said.

“But actually, every business should be a social enterprise. Every business needs to be embedded in its community doing right by its people and by the planet. Just by casting it as a different type of business, we lose sight of what all business should be.”

Nisa’s news comes after Unde, another locally made underwear brand, announced in May its intention to close.

It also follows another big local fashion shift, with Zambesi announcing on Monday that longtime menswear designer and buyer Dayne Johnston would be leaving after 20 years.​