Ahead of the opening of Gymshark’s second store tomorrow, 13 July, a 7,000 sq ft unit at Westfield Stratford City, the brand’s Founder and CEO, Ben Francis, tells TheIndustry.fashion about how the brand’s retail roll-out depends on its success.
Gymshark Westfield Stratford
Why did you select Westfield Stratford City for your second store?
We’re location-focused and it’s all about the unit for us, so when this one became available, it felt right. We want to open more stores and this was a great opportunity. Westfield Stratford City is the busiest shopping centre in the UK, so it’s great for brand awareness. Our location in the shopping centre is also great (on the first floor, next to Office and just up from JD) and the guys at Westfield have been really helpful. I’m just really pleased with the store and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes on Saturday when we open. It’s a big day for us.
Are you planning more stores?
I’d love to open more stores, but we need this one to perform well in order to look at opening more. Our Regent Street store is our flagship, so it’s a very different style of store. It’s part store and part gym, with studio classes. It’s very much an events space as well as a retail space. There is also space for events in the new Westfield Stratford store, but not on such a large scale. It’s more of a product-focused space.
Gymshark Regent Street
How well has the Regent Street flagship performed since opening in October 2022?
It has been overwhelmingly successful – we have been blown away by how great it’s been. That’s not to say it hasn’t been hard work, as we have gone from being an online-only brand to having a store, which is very different. I was surprised at how different it is to run a store as opposed to a website, but it’s been great, and that’s why we are here (at Westfield Stratford) now. It’s very different to Regent Street and if it does well, then I think there’s a great opportunity to open more stores around the country. I’d love to do something in the Midlands at some point, as well as in the north, but again, I need this one to do well.
What percentage of sales does the Regent Street flagship now represent?
I’d say it’s only about 2%, but it’s an important brand builder. I want this to be a globally iconic British brand, and what better place in all of Europe is there to be than Regent Street? It’s the most iconic street in London and it’s absolutely stunning, allowing us to showcase our brand how we really want to.
Gymshark Selfridges
Is wholesale now also a key focus, having launched a premium athleisure line in Selfridges in March and taking on former Adidas exec Hannah Mercer as new GM of Wholesale and Retail in April?
We’d never had any wholesale relationships before, so Selfridges was our first test. It’s slightly different product, but it allows us to show our product in front of a slightly different consumer than our core Gymshark customer. It also allows us to partner with an iconic British brand, which helps elevate our brand and supports us on our journey to become a globally successful brand. We have two sections in Selfridges, one for men and one for women. In terms of appointing Hannah, she’s helping with the transition of the business. In the long term, wholesale can bring more availability to the business, putting Gymshark in front of more people and helping to authenticate our brand. Having said that, I don’t ever see wholesale being a huge part of the business. It’s less about being a commercial driver and more about authentication and availability.
Last month, Gymshark launch a new campaign called ‘We Do Gym’, reaffirming its brand and market position. Why did you feel the need to do that?
Because that’s what we want to be famous for, and that’s what we do really well. We don’t want to play in the greater sporting arena, we want to be the brand that ‘owns’ the gym and produces the best gym product in the world.
Is that why you also appointed your first-ever Creative Director of Lifting, David Laid, in February?
Yes, because lifting is at our core. That’s the centre of our brand and having him, as a famous bodybuilder, supports us on that journey and helps us to fine-tune our product. It’s been great.
Do you still get to the gym much yourself?
I try to! I probably average four or five days a week, but not so much this week. We have a gym next to our office in Solihull, which is probably the best gym in the country.
How many people do you now employ?
Globally, we’re just over 1,000. In Solihull, there are probably about 800. We also have offices in London and New York, and obviously, we now have two London stores.
You said back in February that this year is going to be your biggest ever year, so what else can we expect?
Hopefully a continued retail roll-out – that would be ideal, but again pending the success of this store. We’re also continuing with our international expansion. Our biggest market is the US, and that’s where our biggest opportunity is. We really need to double down on that. We’re looking at possible store locations in New York, but it has to be the right unit.
Gymshark Westfield Stratford
Is Gymshark very much about engaging with your community?
Yes, it’s about engaging with our community, getting the product into people’s hands, and showcasing how proud we are of the product. In the new Westfield Stratford store, there are real destination zones dedicated to specific products, such as a section for shorts and a section for leggings and sports bras. It’s not something we’ve done before and it’s great to show off the product. Womenswear is the majority of the business now; it’s well over 50%. We also do a run club – for all levels – every Tuesday out of our Regent Street flagship, which has been really popular, and we may look to do one here (from Westfield Stratford City) on Wednesdays. We’re actually doing a run from the Regent Street store to Stratford this Sunday – it’s about 11k across London.
How does running fit in with the whole gym ethic?
Well, there’s treadmill running in the gym, and it’s obviously a greater part of fitness. Ultimately, the gym is the centre of what we do, and if we want true authenticity in the gym, then we also have to provide for people who are going to run – whether it’s outdoors or on a treadmill. We’re not looking at footwear (running shoes) at the moment, but it’s an opportunity in the future.
What are Gymshark’s best sellers?
The black ‘Speed’ shorts, black men’s joggers, and women’s ‘Vital’ seamless and conditioning leggings. The ‘Vital’ tops for men also do well, as they are great for sweat wicking. They are very thin, but still keep you warm and are seamless – built on a tubular machine – so super comfortable. T-shirts also do well, and that’s what we started out with.
You’ve come a long way from screen-printing T-shirts and stringer vests for the gym, but how did it all start?
I grew up in a town called Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, and I wanted to make gymwear when I was about 18, as no one else really did. I bought a sewing machine and a screen printer and we (along with Gymshark Co-Founder Lewis Morgan who left the business in 2016) started making it ourselves. That was at home, which my mum wasn’t particularly impressed with, but she taught me how to sew! I was working at Pizza Hut at the time, so I’d do my shift there and go home and do all my sewing. Then we’d ship the products the next day. We built the business literally from scratch by working incredibly hard and being incredibly lucky.
Having a really focused product is important, as you’ve got all the big sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour, who are incredibly good at what they do, but we noticed there wasn’t a brand that was purely focused on the gym, specifically weight lifting. That’s at our core. We pushed it on social media and did events all around the world. The product took off and we’ve continued to grow ever since.
Where did the Gymshark logo come from?
We actually had a different logo when we started. It was much more masculine and body-building focused – featuring a bodybuilding shark. But then I thought we needed a logo that would appeal as much to my mum as it would to me – that’s why we went for the shark head logo. There’s no fun story to the brand name, it was just a cheap domain name we bought on GoDaddy for £3. I didn’t think it would be big, but now, all of a sudden, it is!
How important was social media to your meteoric rise?
It was vital. Timing was important for us, as when we started in 2012, people were starting to get comfortable with shopping online, social media was blowing up, and more people were getting into the gym. So, we were accidentally at the centre of all these forces that were coming together, which all helped us grow. When we started, Facebook and YouTube were the most important platforms, whereas now you’ve got TikTok and Instagram.
