Gymshark, a UK sportswear brand, is the brainchild of 28 year old Ben Francis and his company is now valued over a billion pounds. It all started in 2012 when Ben was a full-time student by day, and a pizza delivery man by night. In the mornings he would attend Aston University and then start working at Pizza Hut from 5pm till 10pm. He would answer emails [about Gymshark) in between pizza deliveries. He would then go home, sort out the website, and design new products.
After two exhausting years of having to juggle all of his responsibilities, Gymshark hit an impressive annual revenue of £250 000. As a result, Ben decided to quit both university and the world of pizzas to focus full-time on his company. Fast-forward to today and Gymshark expects the annual turnover to reach a hundred million pounds.
Ben was interested in the fitness industry and the idea for Gymshark followed an online retail business aimed at fitness fanatics that originally sold health supplements. When Ben realised that the profit margins from selling the supplements were too low, he dived into the area of clothing. He remembers looking around not seeing any gym clothes that he would like to wear and as a result he spotted the gap in the market and decided to create gym clothes that teenagers would like to wear. The idea was to create body builder vests that fitted slim teenagers, because most on the market were designed for older men who already accumulated muscle mass.
Enlisting the help of his brother and a group of friends he bought his first sewing machine and screen printer and started creating gym vests and t-shirts in his parents’ garage. His nan made curtains, so she taught him how to sew. Initially there was no real plan on how to expand the business, it was more based on simply creating the gym clothes that Ben and his friends would like to wear. There was also no considered approach regarding pricing. It was literally Ben asking himself how much he would honestly be prepared to pay for the item personally and that will become the established price.
Fast forward seven years later and Gymshark now has more than 1.6 million customers and 499 employees at its Solihull headquarters in the West Midlands.
So how did Gymshark grow this quickly?
Ben and his friends being only 19 years of age when they first got Gymshark up and running makes them quite social media savvy and they came up with a brilliant idea to send free clothing to top “influencers”, prominent body-builders and other fitness fanatics such as Lex Griffin and Nikki Blackletter. The hope was that these “influencers” would talk positively about their products to their followers on YouTube, Instagram etc. and the idea worked better than Gymshark could have ever imagined. As a result, sales soon skyrocketed.
At the same time Gymshark worked hard to ensure their own social media accounts were as interesting and visual as possible. Today it has 5.4 million followers on Instagram and almost 2 million followers on Facebook. Gymshark has more recently also capitalised on holding events around the world, inviting fans of the brand to meet some its influencers. Hundreds of people typically attend.
Last year US private equity firm General Atlantic took a 21% share in the clothing business. This allowed Gymshark to expand internationally, especially in the US, where it has most of its customers. The Covid-19 pandemic also helped to propel Gymshark forward due to so many more people buying online and getting involved in fitness at home.
Gymshark is now valued at more than a billion pounds.
Conclusion:
Hopefully this article inspired you if you are an embroidery enthusiast looking to start your own embroidery business. As you can see, it all started with a simple idea that developed in a billion dollar company. Ben Francis at the age of 19 started with a sewing machine and a screen printing machine and now today expanded to a network of industrial sewing and embroidery machines to supply the demand for Gymshark gym wear.
Trust Embird embroidery software to bring your embroidery ideas to life. We have been providing customers globally with embroidery computerised software since 1997. If you are eager to start your own embroidery business and would like to find out more about our embroidery products, then please feel free to visit https://embird.co.uk today.
Also, if you found this article inspirational, please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below this article.
WOW! such an inspiring story of focusing on one’s goal and never giving up on what you believe.
With this, I have no excuse but to keep pushing and moving till I reach my goals.
Thank you for bringing this to light.
Watching out for another motivating post.
Cheers
It is certainly a great example of what is possible if you identify the gap in the market and have passion and determination to succeed. Wishing you the very best of success with reaching your goals!
That’s a really amazing story. One of the people I follow on Instagram, her name on there is Sophie Aris, she’s a gym shark spokesperson. Crazy to think this massive success came from the mind of a teenager.
Wow, that is very interesting. I myself will be paying closer attention to what exactly it is that GymShark does that makes them so successful, especially in terms of their social media campaigns and authority. The key here seems to get influencers with a big social media following on board somehow.
Inspiring!
Amidst school and part time, he could still squeeze time for a startup that rooted from his own need – attractive gym apparels for his age group.
It’s always nice to chance upon such stories. They are really motivating.
I also liked how he made use of his skills taught by his grandmother. The skill was not gone to waste, and in fact it was the beginning of a highly successful business.
Thanks for sharing!
Indeed! I can just imagine how proud his grandmother is of him and the bond between them due to her input that helped lead to his success.
This inspiring story keeps us going and inspires us to continue building our own website and to not give up on it. There could be worse if we gave up right now and let everything go to waste; this story of Ben is touching.
Real people can make it if they stick with it and do not give in to the negativity of not making sales quickly. It takes time to build. It took Ben two years.
Making an effort to encourage others is the way to build team effort and brand awareness.
Cheers,
Mathew&Deloris
Very true. Effort and determination can certainly move mountains. The being patient aspect you mentioned is very important. Rome was not built in a day.
Wow this is so inspiring!
It’s awesome that Ben and his friends began this business at the age of 19 and it has grown so big. He saw an opportunity in the market and has grabbed it!
This also highlights the importance of creating an online business, being present on the key social media channels and that anything is possible.
Thanks for sharing!
Regards John
Wow, never heard of Ben Francis or Gym Shark. It sounds like I should be fair being how big it has become, but this is an amazing story. Even the initial part of him making 250K with his website when he already had a job and university. What I would like to know is how much he slept.
Sounds like he must have been extremely busy during this time – I remember an interview with Richard Branson where he said the secret to success is waking up early and working hard throughout the day. 2 years of doing that every day I think could help anyone find success I think – as long as they are on the right path. I think his ability to delegate in the end was what really was able to swing it for him – getting his brother and his brothers’ friends involved and getting his brand out there through social media. I bet we could all take a leaf out of this book. Very good story.
Ben’s story is quite inspiring. I love how he studied, worked as a pizza delivery man, and grew his GymShark business at the same time. People always said they don’t have time for anything, while some people like Ben managed time perfectly to do three things simultaneously. It’s wonderful that his business grew rapidly after two years, and this pushes the rest of us to keep going for what we like to achieve and NEVER give up. :-)