The Gymshark Flywheel

This week, I spent a little bit of time looking at the brilliant, young and growing brand that is @gymshark. Below I set out what I discovered about the online retailer and developed what I believe their marketing flywheel could look like.

The growing world of Gymshark

1. Audience — this has to be one of the brand’s greatest assets, their understanding of their audience. Everything is done with them in mind
2. Passion, progression & community — not sure if these are their values, but these three words are consistently evident in their work
3. People of influence — the brand has been built on creating strong and impactful relationships with influencers who have driven reach, engagement and action
4. Gymshark Lifting Club — a new addition, but the multi million state of the art gym and production studio shows their dedication to the importance of staff wellbeing, creating more content and testing
5. Gymshark Social — present on the main ones, with leading performances taking place on Tiktok — one of the first brands to adopt it and win through awareness / action — and on Pinterest — visual beauty set out to drive sales
6. Gymshark Brand Campaigns — they do not run many, but when they do they are sophisticated and orchestrated with precision to drive a singular message home across all of their touch points. More on campaign #gymshark66 coming soon
7. Gymshark Retail — a DTC model that gives them complete control, offering mega sales to customers (Blackout Friday) that sell out in mins, to pop up experiences such as the Gymshark London store
8. Gymshark Athletes — a collection of athletes from across the globe, who all showcase the products through their training. Majority of their athletes are gym goers / body builders. They drive inspiration and bring the brand to life
9. Gymshark Central — the brands editorial platform covering style, news and nutrition. This is an area that I’m sure we will see them explode. Expect to see GS TV / GS magazine very soon
10. Gymshark Events — bringing their online brand into the real world. Started with meet-ups where fans got to meet the athletes and purchase exclusion product — through to the recent series LiftYourCity — events focusing on a specific locations — all events selling out in mins
11. Gymshark Conditioning App — the brands move into software, an important move that future proofs them and extends their relationship with their community. Offering training plans from their athletes — free and paid options.

I will be continuing to follow their journey & admire them from a far. Two areas I am interested to see how they progress are:

• The balance between being a lifestyle and / or sports performance brand?
• As their audience grows older how does the brand evolve with them?