For decades, millions of netball players shared a silent, painful ritual: the ritual of the ankle brace. It was an accepted tax on the sport they loved—a compromise between performance and physical safety. For Eloise Alexander Gueye, this wasn’t just a market gap; it was a personal frustration born from a lifetime on the court. While the sportswear industry followed a well-worn playbook of aesthetic overhauls and generic athletic wear, Eloise decided it was time to tear the pages out and start over.
In 2023, she didn’t just launch a shoe; she launched a movement to redefine how female athletes protect their longevity. As the Founder and CEO of Elandr, Eloise has pioneered a new category—Protective Sportswear—proving that the most disruptive innovations often come not from those following the industry rules, but from those who have the courage to ignore them.
From Advocacy to Action
Eloise’s journey to the helm of an award-winning sportswear brand was anything but conventional. Her professional roots were planted in social work, dedicated to supporting children and families. This chapter of her life honed a profound sense of empathy and a “person-first” perspective that would later become the DNA of her business.
However, alongside her career in social advocacy was her lifelong identity as a netballer. Having played since the age of seven, she understood the visceral reality of the game: the high-impact pivots, the sudden stops, and the ubiquitous fear of the “snap” that sidelines so many players.
“Elandr wasn’t a calculated career pivot; it came from frustration. I’ve played netball since I was 7, and for years I dealt with ankle injuries, wearing braces for every training and every game. I know the sport inside out as a player, and I could see a gap that nobody was filling.”
This dual background—the protective instinct of a social worker and the competitive grit of an athlete—provided the perfect foundation. She didn’t enter the boardroom with a marketing degree; she entered with a lived problem and a conviction that female athletes deserved better than “off-the-shelf” solutions that failed to address their specific physiological needs.
Engineering a Revolution
The transition from identifying a problem to manufacturing a world-class solution was a masterclass in relentless execution. Eloise didn’t just want a “pretty” netball shoe; she wanted a piece of protective equipment. To achieve this, she bridged the gap between elite performance and medical science, enlisting an ex-Nike Jordan shoe designer and a sports injury podiatrist to collaborate on the design.
The result was the InfinitMax, a shoe featuring built-in ankle support that underwent rigorous independent performance testing at Anglia Ruskin University. The data confirmed what Eloise already knew: the shoe matched leading global brands on performance while significantly outperforming them on protection.
The industry quickly took notice. Under Eloise’s leadership, Elandr secured the Global Footwear Award 2024 and the Fit Sport Design Award 2025. But perhaps more telling than the trophies is the growing interest from players across the sport. During the 2025 Netball Super League season, Geva Mentor CBE wore Elandr shoes during training and in one match, while Jade Clarke MBE wore them in the Nxt Gen League. While elite adoption is still in its early stages, Eloise’s primary focus remains on the next generation of athletes. By prioritizing younger players who are still developing their game, Elandr aims to embed the message of protection early—ensuring that future stars grow up with footwear designed to safeguard their longevity on the court.
“Authenticity for us comes from the fact that we genuinely are the people we’re marketing to. Serena Guthrie MBE brings the high-performance perspective… I bring the grassroots perspective. Together we cover the full spectrum of the sport.”
Building a Community, Not Just a Customer Base
The commercial success of Elandr—surpassing £100k in revenue within its first seven months of trading—was not the result of a massive advertising budget. Instead, it was fueled by an organic, word-of-mouth “trickle effect” on courts across the UK.
Eloise’s philosophy on community is radically transparent. She views her customers as partners in a mission. This led to the creation of an ambassador program where players have a direct line to her as a founder, input on future product iterations, and a genuine share of the profits.
Her impact extended beyond the footwear itself. Elandr became a headline sponsor for the first-ever Netball Aid in aid of BBC Children In Need and was a centerpiece of the world’s first pop-up for women’s sports brands on London’s iconic Regent Street. By partnering with the 2025 Super League champions, London Pulse, Eloise solidified Elandr’s position as the “antidote to the status quo.”
“Community is everything to us. That word-of-mouth is earned, not manufactured. Players feel valued because they are valued.”
A Legacy of Intuition and Action
Looking toward the future, Eloise is focused on cementing Protective Sportswear as a permanent fixture in the global athletic landscape. She isn’t interested in being just another brand in a crowded market; she is interested in systemic change. Her leadership is defined by a refusal to settle for “good enough” and a willingness to speak against the grain when it serves the player.
For Eloise, the legacy of Elandr is measured in the careers it extends and the confidence it restores to every player who steps onto the court. Her journey from the social work sector to the cutting edge of sports technology serves as a powerful reminder that expertise can be built, but passion and intuition are the true engines of innovation.
“I want to be seen as the person who defined a new category in sportswear… where protection isn’t a compromise or an afterthought, it’s built into what you wear every day. My single piece of advice is this: A thought is just a thought. The people who get remembered are the ones who did something about it.”
Editorial Note:
Eloise Alexander Gueye’s story is a testament to the power of “unconventional” paths. By prioritizing the human element and the physical well-being of her community over traditional industry playbooks, she has built more than a brand—she has built a safeguard for the future of netball. Her journey challenges every aspiring leader to look at the frustrations in their own lives not as obstacles, but as the blueprints for their next great venture.
