Kristin Scott got hooked on fitness at just 3 years old.
Since she was a tumbling toddler doing gymnastics, Scott’s love for exercise has evolved as she has grown older. She was ultimately able to fuse her passion for healthy living with her career, both with her responsibilities at Victoria’s Secret and her own New Albany cryotherapy center, which opened in August.
As executive vice president GMM merchandising at Victoria’s Secret, Scott is in charge of merchandising for swim and sport lines – two of her passions.
“It’s amazing that I can have a job that I love this much, and that I’m passionate about personally as well,” she says.
Scott’s career often takes her to New York, where Victoria’s Secret designers are headquartered. She also regularly travels all over to visit stores. Though she’s traveling weekly, she makes it a point to work out daily, whether at studios on location or with a fitness app.
Travel sometimes makes daily exercise difficult. Scott worked out on a plane once, coming back from the south of France. She led passengers in a barre workout (without a bar) and some yoga poses.
“Everybody loved it. It was really good,” she says. “Because otherwise, you’re just sitting around for hours.”
Though Scott has an extensive career in fashion merchandising, she initially was convinced she would go to into banking. While attending Indiana University, she worked at Target. Her senior year found her interviewing at banks, where she was quickly put off by the sea of navy blue suits.
“I panicked, and I thought, ‘What have I done?’” she says.
After talking to her district manager at Target, Scott got a chance to interview at headquarters in Minneapolis on a Saturday. She felt comfortable immediately.
Scott stayed with Target for seven years, holding a variety of jobs, from planning to merchandising. From there, she served as vice president in merchandise planning and then merchandise managing at Marshall Field’s before moving to San Francisco to work at The Gap. She started her career at Victoria’s Secret in 2007.
Scott moved to New Albany with her family upon starting her career at Victoria’s Secret.
“It was a major culture shock for us, but in a really good way,” she says.
Now, Scott loves the trails in New Albany available for walking, running and biking. She appreciates the new fitness studios that are popping up in the area, attracted, she says, to a community that favors healthy living.
Like her, Scott’s husband, Jamie, works out almost daily. When she’s home, Jamie will come with her to many of her studio classes. They’ll run or bike together sometimes and walk their two dogs, a French bulldog and an American bulldog.
Scott met her husband while he was working at Target as a swimwear buyer, when he was a Los Angeles vendor who requested a meeting with her.
“We just hit it off immediately as friends,” Scott says.
Over the next couple of years, they dated. For their first date, Jamie flew out to meet Scott in Australia, spending 10 days straight with her and her family.
Scott, her husband and their son, Cooper, travel often together. For the last five years, they’ve volunteered at an orphanage in Guatemala. With such activities as building houses and providing landscaping, Scott gets a physical workout there, too.
When she’s out traveling for work, Scott often gets to learn about workout and wellness
trends before they come to Columbus. She had read about the benefits of cryotherapy, and when she found a center right across from her New York hotel, she decided to give it a try.
After her first three-minute session, the soreness she associated with her regular workouts was gone. After getting addicted to it, her husband suggested they start their own cryotherapy center in New Albany. Though Scott doesn’t manage the daily operations, she visits often. She wanted to design the interior of CHILL Cryotherapy to feel like a Zen-like place that people could look forward to visiting.
“It’s been so rewarding,” she says.
Scott finds herself switching up her workout routines regularly, stemming from both her curious personality and an effort to work her muscles in a healthy way.
Growing up in Indiana and North Carolina, she did cheerleading in junior high and high school. She began running in late high school and early college.
“You start to figure out what you need, personally,” she says.
Running daily for 3-5 miles, Scott enjoyed the endorphin rush that the exercise provided. Now, she’s been able to find a similar rush in other workouts.
“I feel younger every year,” she says.
Sarah Sole is an editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.