In February, ice skater Ane Farstad announced that her top sports career was over, at the age of 23. That after her clothing brand, which has been named “Caspara”, became a bigger and bigger success.
She had started the company together with her older brother Odin, who also skated. Like his sister, he gave up when the clothing brand became more and more time-consuming.
– We faced a rather difficult choice, either to continue skating and finish Caspara, or to go “all in” on Caspara, we didn’t have the opportunity to do both. We chose to continue with the clothing brand, because it was difficult to get sponsors for the sport and it was “tight” financially. We depended on mum and dad sponsoring us, says Farstad to Nettavisen.
She describes everyday life as completely changed and believes that it is a luxury problem that she has so much to do. The former ice skater has “learned as much as possible as quickly as possible”, after the company received what she describes as “tremendous growth” last November.
The clothing brand initially started as a side job to finance sports.
– It has been a steep learning curve. We bet hard from the start and took a big risk by going in with all the equity ourselves. But it has gone very well, we have sold almost 20,000 hoodies so far.
Went straight into a new career
Farstad’s role includes marketing and being the public face. The older brother takes care of the administration. The company has six employees and the popular clothing items are sold in a number of Anton Sport stores. Farstad still believes that it is difficult to enjoy what she has achieved.
– You get a bit “stuck” in the pursuit of getting better all the time and there is a lot of responsibility. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and see how far we have come in such a short time.
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Despite the success of her clothing brand, the 24-year-old does not hide that her twenties turned out to be quite different from what she had imagined. She has been an ice skater all her life and planned to do the sport for many more years.
– It went very quickly when I quit, I have moments where I think “shit, it was my dream and I was going to go until I was 30”, but suddenly my whole life is turned upside down. There have been hard days where I miss skating and wish I could turn back time.
Farstad is nevertheless very satisfied with being a business woman and is very grateful that she had the opportunity to jump into a new career.
– I was very lucky, there are many people who get that void and don’t quite know what to do.
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– Been a lot
In addition to the growth around the clothing brand, the young girl has also experienced growing success around herself. In recent years, she has become a well-known figure in social media, which has also led to an increasing number of inquiries.
Recently, she was among other things in “71 Degrees Nord – Norway’s Coolest Celebrity”.
– It’s been a lot, the phone rings, but it’s fun and great.
REALITY PARTICIPANT: Ane Farstad was recently in 71 degrees north – Norway’s toughest celebrity. Photo: Terje Pedersen (NTB)
Despite the fact that his sports career is basically over, Farstad does not rule out returning to the ice at some point in the future. For now, however, it is Caspara who gets her time and at the moment it is impossible to combine the two.
The 24-year-old describes a varied everyday life, where she gets up at 05:30 and often works until late at night.
– Business and elite sports are quite similar. The head must be clear and one must function. Now I train five times a week, always before work, because I never know how long the days will be.
