Joanna Griffiths, founder and president of Knix. 'I will always be a champion and supporter of Knix, in whatever capacity that looks like,' Ms. Griffiths says.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
Four years after selling a majority stake in Knix Wear Inc., Joanna Griffiths is stepping away as president of the Canadian underwear and apparel company that she founded in 2013, and selling her remaining 20-per-cent interest in the business.
Swedish hygiene products giant Essity, which paid $430-million for 80 per cent of Knix in 2022, will own the Toronto-based company outright.
Ms. Griffiths has already seen a significant windfall from her exit: She owned roughly half of Knix at the time of the sale, which valued the company at more than $500-million. The terms of Ms. Griffiths’s payout for her remaining stake are still being finalized.
“I’m obviously mourning the fact that this won’t be where I come to every day, and it won’t take up 90-plus per cent of my brain capacity,“ Ms. Griffiths said in an interview at Knix’s Toronto offices. “But I also am ready for a break. I have been ready for a break for some time now.”
Ms. Griffiths, 42, has been outspoken about the scrutiny that female entrepreneurs face. In 2021, Knix closed a $53-million funding round, two days before she gave birth to twins. During the process, Ms. Griffiths faced questions from some potential investors about her commitment to the business – and responded by disqualifying those who raised her pregnancy as a concern from the bidding.
The Knix retail store in Toronto, Nov. 4, 2025.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
(The day after she gave birth, while still in hospital, she received a call from Essity. The resulting deal provided a handsome return for her investors.)
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But that dedication to the business has come with trade-offs, Ms. Griffiths said. Part of her motivation for leaving is to spend time with her family. At ages seven and five, her children have begun to notice how much time she spends working, she added.
“We do ask women this question, and we don’t ask men that question – and I think that there’s a lot of shame and guilt associated with saying that you maybe haven’t been as present in this huge chapter of your kids’ lives as you’ve wanted to,” she said. “But I don’t know many people who have had this kind of success and built this kind of company, that have been able to do both with A-plus marks.”
Ms. Griffiths and her husband are taking a year to travel the world as a family, while home-schooling their kids.
After Ms. Griffiths steps away on Aug. 1, Knix chief commercial officer Nicole Tapscott will take over as brand president. Knix has also recently added to its leadership team, hiring chief marketing officer Cyntia Leo, whose experience includes senior marketing roles at Nike and Urban Outfitters.
“I have a lot of faith and conviction that the company is in good hands,” Ms. Griffiths said. Knix currently has roughly 500 employees in Canada, with 175 of them at its head office.
“Essity intends to continue operating Knix from Toronto for the foreseeable future,” Sahil Tesfu, the company’s chief strategy and sustainability officer, as well as head of the global leakproof category, wrote in an e-mail.
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Knix began as an idea for leakproof women’s underwear, which Ms. Griffiths developed while in an MBA program in 2012.
“Things were slow for the first few years,” recalled Kathryn From, who founded and then sold Canadian lingerie company Bravado, and who was one of Knix’s earliest investors.
“And of course she killed it, and turned it around,” she said about Ms. Griffiths.
Knix built its presence through e-commerce, before beginning to open its own brick-and-mortar stores. It also expanded into other categories, including bras, swimwear and apparel for both women and men.
By 2021, the year before the Essity acquisition, it had reached $133.6-million in sales. As of last year, the brand had surpassed $200-million. Ms. Griffiths would not share current revenue numbers, but said that Knix is having its strongest-performing year to date.
Under Essity’s ownership, the company has also opened more stores, and will have 28 locations in Canada by the end of this year. It has ambitions to expand in the U.S. market, too, with a pop-up store in New York’s Soho neighbourhood intended to pave the way.
And Knix has been striking wholesale deals, selling its products at retailers such as Costco in Canada (and the U.S., starting this month), Bloomingdale’s, Holt Renfrew and Sporting Life. Its teen line hit the shelves at 350 Target stores in the U.S. in late June.
The Knix store at 242 Lafayette in the Soho neighbourhood of New York on Aug. 18, 2025.Kellyann Petry/The Globe and Mail
“It’s a very different company than it was four years ago,” Ms. Griffiths said.
Known as a hard-driving entrepreneur and a demanding boss, Ms. Griffiths said she was prompted to personal reflection in 2020, when a spate of high-profile female founders stepped away from their companies amid allegations of toxic work environments. Those names included Steph Korey, co-founder and co-CEO of luggage company Away; media company Refinery29’s co-founder and editor Christene Barberich; and Yael Aflalo, founder and CEO of fashion company Reformation.
“It was quite scary,” Ms. Griffiths said. “... For me, as a leader, it was honestly acknowledging that the bar was higher, that you have to be incredibly intentional about what you say and what you do, and just lead with integrity and treat people well.”
At the same time, as a “recovering people pleaser,” she said she had to be secure with making unpopular decisions. “I had to become comfortable with the notion that I could be someone’s hero and someone else’s villain, and it just depended on which side of the coin they were on.”
As she leaves Knix, Ms. Griffiths said she does not know what is next, for now. She has become an investor in other startups, including Canadian haircare brand Everist, and skincare company Paume, founded by Knix’s first employee, Amy Welsman. She is toying with a book proposal. And she didn’t rule out launching another startup at some point – or the possibility that she could be involved with Knix in an advisory capacity in the future.
“I will always be a champion and supporter of Knix, in whatever capacity that looks like. I’m not exactly clear at this moment,” she said. “But I’m certainly leaving with that door open.”
Joanna Griffiths posted about her departure on Instagram: