About The Founder
Diogo Monteiro is the Founder of Hema & Celeste – Women’s Fitness and Yoga Wear Brand. Named after his two beautiful daughters – Hema Monteiro and Celeste Monteiro, the brand was initially created in 2015 to develop exclusive sportswear range for women.
Diogo Monteiro was born in India on a small Island Village called Santo Estevam, in the State of Goa. He graduated from Goa University in Finance & Economics and came to Dubai in 1993. Worked in Oil & Gas and Waste Water Treatment Sectors with several Multinational companies in Dubai, France, Italy and Qatar. He also graduated from Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France in Master in International Business.
Sports has always been a passion and he loved to play football, hockey and volleyball during his school and college times. Even when he was in Dubai, he continued to play football for the local Goan football teams.
In 2013, when he was based in Qatar, Diogo Monteiro develop a customized sportswear Brand under the name of Strikke. Customized sportswear was not much developed in the Middle East and especially the cost of sublimation or digital printer Sportswear was very high. Strikke is the first International Customized Sportswear Brand developed in the Middle East Region and it has grown since then. Today Strikke has production in more than 12 Countries and 25 locations and serving customers in more than 40 countries.
In 2015, Diogo Monteiro created Hema & Celeste Brand to develop exclusive Sportswear for Women. As there is no sportswear brand dedicated for Women in the Middle East Region it was quite challenging and developing sportswear for women especially in the GCC Region. But he saw an opportunity to develop more in Fitness and Yoga wear rather than focus on the entire range of Sportswear.
He started to work to develop the Brand with full range of Fitness & Yoga Wear in the mid of 2019 but due to Covid – 19 pandemic situation changed and most of the outdoor sports activities stopped and people started working and doing sports indoors. It was an opportunity to develop the brand at this point of time especially focusing more on women’s wear. The Fitness & Yoga wear has grown significantly during the last one year and lots of Women are taking interest in sports activities.
Diogo would like to see Hema & Celeste growing as a home grown fitness and yoga wear brand with global presence. It’s quite a challenge but Hema & Celeste – Fitness and Yoga Wear has a very good future.