Community is a very important aspect of our Bootique family. We love to share reputable small business owners with you. We’ve created a new feature called ‘Spotlight On” to bring these incredible business owners to light.

Here’s one of our favorite ladies to collaborate with – you’ll see a lot of photos and videos on our blog from our work with Virago Fitness.

About Brittney Hogan

What would you like people to know about you?

I’m Brittney Hogan, owner of Virago Fitness. I’m 26 years old, I grew up all over Southern California, I am a widow, I am engaged to be married again, and I am a step-mom to two beautiful, talented, teenagers. I love cooking, working out, drinking wine and lounging in my hot tub.

What are some of your hobbies/interests related to health and wellness?

I believe that in order to get fit and be fit you need to incorporate a balance of exercising, meditating and eating right. I love a hard workout, and running long distances, but I love my yoga time and meditation just as much. After starting my business I realized that my absolute favorite thing to do is cook. I love finding recipes and replacing key ingredients in them to make them healthier and fit my health and wellness needs. My favorite part about cooking and eating healthy, though, is getting creative after and taking awesome photos of my food.

Tell us an interesting or unusual fact about yourself.

I’ve moved 45 times, and until I bought my house in 2013 I had never lived anywhere longer than a year and a half. I should probably add professional mover to my resume.

About Virago-Fitness

What do you do?

I am the owner of a company called Virago Fitness since 2014. My late husband, Hunter, was a US Marine and was killed in action in 2012. After a downward spiral for about two years, I turned to fitness to finally help me cope with the loss of my husband, and it completely saved my life. Virago Fitness was born. Virago means a strong or spirited person, and through our athletic apparel, events and articles, our mission is to inspire others to use fitness for post traumatic growth. Check out our website here.

How did you get into your field?

I have always wanted to own my own business, that has always been my main goal. I have started a few but they never really panned out. After my husband died, I realized that since fitness was helping me so much (physically and mentally) I had to somehow make it my career in order to continue down the path of ultimate health and wellness. I had never really worked out much before this, so I had a lot of work to do. And since I had no workout clothes, in my millions of trips to the mall, I realized I liked nothing in the market. That’s why I decided to focus on athletic apparel, so I could create clothes that I would wear and hopefully others would too. So far so good!

Why do people choose to work with you?

People seem to really like what Virago stands for, and they genuinely want to support and spread the word about it. Our apparel is made in the US, and we give a portion of our proceeds to the USO and the HD Hogan Memorial Rodeo Scholarship Fund.

What do you love about what you do?

I love that I get to be creative everyday. Even though it is extremely stressful owning a company, I love what I am working on, and every small triumph brings me so much joy. My favorite part, or I’d say the most rewarded aspect of Virago so far, was when an article about my company went viral on LinkedIn and I received a flood of emails from people who read it. Most of the emails were them telling me about their personal struggles and how they used fitness to overcome them, and then how much my story inspired them. It was from that moment I decided that this is what I was meant to do, and as long as I continue to try to help others and inspire them with my personal journey, I will succeed.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Every year Virago hosts a national workout challenge in honor of the Marine Corps Toys for Tots organization. We are so excited to kick it off this year and are still in the planning stages. Sign up for our e-newsletter here to get more information about the challenge and how you can participate and donate to the cause.