The save that turned into a joint order
The best recs are the ones that come from real people!!
I have been on the hunt for new running tops for a while now, and I haven’t really known where to look. And the other day I think I saw something that finally felt like a breath of fresh air! I didn’t know I needed a retro, colour-blocked workout top until I saw one I couldn’t stop thinking about.
A bit of backstory: I started running a few weeks ago (something past me would have been horrified about, and I wrote about it here) and somewhere between run three and run four, I realised I’d been wearing the same workout clothes for years. I hadn’t bought activewear in forever, partly because I hadn’t needed to in a long time, and partly because every activewear brand I’d looked at recently felt like the same brand. I used to love lulu, but I feel the quality has dropped recently, and I’m just not super inspired by the designs these days. Same silhouettes, same muted palette, same quiet luxury athleisure energy.
But then I saw this!!
Pin saved a piece from Gumi, and this is the cute top in question. I’d never heard of them before. The colourways are not something you see a lot. A bit retro, a bit playful, and feels like it comes from an old gym catalogue in the best way. I took one look and it felt like the exact antidote to everything I’d been scrolling past. So you best believe I messaged her immediately!
To my excitement, she messaged back to ask if I wanted to do a joint order!
I onboarded Pin to Woven a little while back and have since become friends with. I must say, this is a big perk of onboarding people manually and getting to know them. I know she and I have similar taste based on the brands and things we’ve saved, so I’ve really come to trust her recommendations.
When an algorithm shows you something, it’s telling you “people like you bought this.” When a friend shows you something, it’s telling you “I saw this and thought of you, or of me, or of both of us.” Whereas the first feels like a statistical bet, the second is a tiny act of intimacy. And the top recommendation feels different because of it. When it arrives, I’ll wear it and think of her, and the time I saw her post, and the slightly ridiculous transatlantic order we put together.
We’re ordering the same piece and splitting US→UK shipping (which, if you’ve ever tried to get something shipped to the UK alone, you’ll know can cost as much as the item itself). It just makes sense!
This is the bit of discovery I keep thinking about. Not the “here’s 47 items in a carousel” version. The one where a specific person sees something specific, and you trust their eye enough to act on it.
There’s a version of recommendation that’s efficient, and there’s a version that’s meaningful. Woven is trying to be the second one — not because algorithms are bad (we have them too, and they’re genuinely useful for finding similar items, surfacing emerging brands, and breaking you out of your usual scroll), but because the most interesting thing happening on the app isn’t any single feature. It’s people like Pin saving things, and people like me seeing them, and something new entering both our wardrobes as a result.
Can’t wait for the top to arrive.
If you want to be on the other end of a moment like this, Woven is in TestFlight ahead of launch—try it out here! Come save a few things. See whose eye you trust.
Jess x