In 2012, 19-year-old Ben Francis founded Gymshark out of his mum’s garage.

Now worth an estimated $1.45 billion, we’re diving into how the disruptive fitness brand created a whole new market for millennial fitness, building a cult following through social media & influencer marketing.

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🤩 Meaningful influencer partnerships

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When Gymshark first came about, Instagram was just 2 years old & the concept of influencer marketing didn’t exist. YouTubers like Zoella were the “influencers” of their time, building audiences & communities through their channel & Ben Francis saw this as an opportunity to leverage his brand.

Ben Francis said, “At the time, no one else was doing [influencer marketing]. It came totally naturally to us because we were just fans of the guys.”

From day 1, Gymshark’s influencer partners were always extensions of the brand. They only partnered with people who loved the brand as much as they did & this made them powerful, like Nikki Blackketter & Whitney Simmons (event pictured). They focused on building long-term relationships & forging meaningful connections.

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A few years later, platforms like X (then Twitter) & Instagram were growing quickly, just like Gymshark. The business began to scale, partnering with top fitness influencers with the highest engagement rates bringing in a large number of fans for the brand.

And building the Gymshark community you see today online.

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📱 Leveraging social media

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From the start, Francis knew the power of social media & understood having a strong social presence & strategy is paramount.

Gymsharks’ social channels publish different styles of content, carefully adapted to align with each platform. Through this, they’ve managed to keep multiple audiences engaged from all sides, accelerating business growth & continuing to maintain brand awareness.

Let’s dig further into one channel in particular… TikTok.

Partnering with TikTok fitness influencers, Gymshark launched the #Gymshark66Challenge where users would embark on a 66-day fitness journey & show the results from before and after.

The hashtag amassed millions of views & encouraged people to try something new. This further increased brand affinity & awareness for Gymshark as they became a brand strongly associated with a positive change. Besides the challenges, their account focuses on relatable gym content as well as try-on product videos using trending sounds from both ambassadors & fans.

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💬 Letting their fans do the talking

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Influencers & a 10/10 social media strategy have created a flywheel effect, generating an influx of user-generated content (UGC) from fans.

Users see their favourite fitness influencer in Gymshark apparel, buy it & post themselves wearing it. #gymshark has 13.3 million hits on Instagram & 11.5 billion hits on TikTok.

And Gymshark does a brilliant job of repurposing this content which showcases social proof in a really authentic & powerful way.

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🎧 More than just social media

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Gymshark knows their audience. And they know that their audience wants killer playlists for the gym.

So what did they do? They hit up Spotify with a whole bunch of playlists for every type of gym-goer. They also worked with their longstanding influencer partners to create playlists, a brilliant example of utilising strategies that work across various platforms.

My favourite one has to be when they jumped on the viral end-of-year Spotify Wrapped trend but put a Gymshark spin on it.

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🛍️ Taking it to the next level

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Once Gymshark had built a name for itself online, they started rolling out pop-up stores in major cities.

The most popular being the “everything £5” market stall stunt in London ahead of their flagship store opening on Regent Street.

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Noel Mack, Chief Brand Officer said, “We’ve always called ourselves a community brand & lately lots of other brands seemed to have followed suit. But you can’t just say the word community & that makes it true, you have to be out here, with them. It’s no secret that we are coming to London later this year with our flagship on Regent Street, but that’s going to take a while and we’re not into standing still.”

This stunt got them billions of social media hits, queues bending down the streets of London & countless media appearances. Especially considering founder, Ben Francis, was there himself selling popular Gymshark apparel for £5 a pop.

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💭 What can we learn from Gymshark?

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👉 Understand your audience & their culture. Part of the brand's appeal was its cultural relevancy, they understood the culture their audience live in & created a brand that enhances their lifestyle.  

👉 Create a meaningful influencer partnership strategy. This means creating authentic relationships with influencers that’ll enhance your brand.

👉 Go offline. Use in-person stunts & events as an opportunity for your audience to see & feel your brand for themselves & meet the people behind the product.

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