Looking for the factory that makes for Gymshark? Want to be the next Gymshark?
We get at least 1 enquiry every week from a wannabe startups with a great idea. They want to launch a Gymwear brand similar to Gymshark; however they would like better quality, but for a lower price so they can get more customers and undercut their target competitor.
Yep, let’s just get our heads around this for a moment.
So, you want to knock off an established brand and use the same factory, fabrics, fit and detail as Gymshark rather than create your own brand identity.
You then want to improve the quality, which is fine, this is possible by using higher-grade components, fabrics and technology, however you want to do this while providing customers with better kits at a lower price.
Gymshark
Gymshark is an established brand worth over £1bn. Their turnover is in the £250M+ and therefore their ordering power with the factories, mills, trims and component suppliers is pretty solid, placing orders worth millions of $.
This attracts discounts across all aspects of the supply chain that allows them to produce their kit at the right price and maintain a good RRP and market share.
A startup on the other hand is looking to produce 100+ pieces per style/colour (sometimes lower) yet undercut Gymshark who order 1,000’s at a time. We’re good but we are not magicians.
This type of enquiry pops up every week and it’s not always Gymshark. It happens across all of the sporting industries, be it cycle, run, fitness equestrian or outdoor.
Obviously, this is a completely flawed strategy and we therefore politely refuse these types of projects.
Gymshark and ALL of the established brands all started life with a very clear strategy. They had found a gap in the market and wanted to create their own niche. They wanted to find their own consumer with their own story and message by offering them a brand that stood for something different to the establishment.
The founder, Ben Francis, started by sewing and screen printing logos on gym apparel, making clothing they wanted to wear themselves at the gym. Moving into eCommerce, they found a demand for the products by active gym goers and #fitnessfreaks and altered their strategy to accelerate their growth.
Influencer marketing has been the backbone of Gymshark’s digital strategy since the launch. Keep in mind, Gymshark launched in the early days of social media influencers, so this strategy was brave but bold and ultimately paid off.
This was the start of GymShark’s athlete community marketed on social media as #gymsharkfam, which would eventually lead to the company’s worldwide recognition.
Watch Gymshark’s founder Ben Francis story behind creating UK’s fastest
Growing Company
This might be product related or a strong/different approach to the business. It doesn’t matter what the strategy is, the key here is that they wanted to create something that they owned rather than emulate something that was already established and therefore successful.
When I speak to any of these start-ups that want to be the next Gymshark, they have spent hours searching for the factory that produces their kit in the hope to simply plug in their logo and start producing products.
Some of these start-ups have actually found factories that claim to produce for Gymshark and they have started to develop samples with them, only to be disappointed by the service, price but generally the quality.
The issue here is the factories that claim to make for Gymshark don’t actually make their product. Images have been taken from the internet and they may have ordered some product to shoot themselves, however, it’s all a ruse.
We attend the sportswear trade show Ispo and at the show is a hall dedicated to sourcing. In the hall are factories displaying branded garments they all claim to make. Several times we have spotted products we have designed and produced through our network of suppliers and yet these factories are claiming they made it!
When we enquire about the garment, the information and price quoted isn’t accurate and it becomes very clear the whole stand is full of items of apparel brands they have purchased and then claim they make to try and gain the confidence of sportswear buyers.
Gymshark and ANY established brand will have a supply contract with their factories, forbidding them to promote or showcase any product they make for them. They need to protect their source and also prevent anyone from simply duplicating their latest designs.
It’s therefore very hard to find a reliable activewear factory that makes for leading fitness brands on sites like Alibaba or Made in China. Most of the activewear suppliers we work with have poor quality websites and don’t advertise on sourcing websites. They never advertise which activewear brand they have produced in the past as they cannot afford to loose reputation with the clients they are working with.
High quality gymwear factories wouldn’t risk losing established brands that place big orders to obtain a new start-up client that wants tiny orders.
If you are looking to launch the next Gymshark, we wish you the best of luck, however, if you have found a gap in the market or want to develop a brand that caters for a new niche, then please get in touch now to see how we can help.
At Blue Associates Sportswear, we work with over 150 fabric mills around the world so our database of fabrics is over 60,000 different qualities, including a huge array of sustainable fabrics.
We’re partnered with a network of over 40 trusted sports clothing suppliers in Europe and China and work with around 50 startup entrepreneurs around the world at any one time.
We help guide our clients through the process from a blank page through branding, product design, sourcing, sampling, and production management. We even help some of our clients with their website build and online marketing.
If you are a startup looking for a quality factory, then check out our “Find a Factory” pack.