Gymshark is averaging over $1M per day on their United States website. That is just over 11,000 orders per day!
The Backstory
Gymshark was founded in the UK by Ben Francis back in 2012. Ben was/is a fitness enthusiast. Before launching Gymshark, as a teenager, Ben would build websites. His first fully functioning website sold custom license plates. Then he created 4 iPhone apps (2 of them in the fitness category). Next, he created a fitness social network that generated several thousand signups, but it never became sustainable.
Ben then built Gymshark, which started out selling supplements. He wanted to purchase inventory, but the minimum order size was over 8,000 British Pounds (approximately $10,000 USD). Since Ben did not have that much money, he was forced into the dropship model. It took him a few months to get his first order (which was for 50 British Pounds, but only 1 to 2 Pounds of profit). He achieved his goal of transacting in fitness online. However, the margins were too small in dropshipping.
Ben was selling fitness apparel on his website alongside the supplements. He noticed that the apparel just didn’t fit right. So from the money he made from dropshipping supplements (and his pizza delivery job), he bought a sewing machine and screen-printer. He started to make his own fitness apparel.
BodyPower Expo
BodyPower Expo is a yearly fitness expo in Birmingham, UK. Ben knew in his gut that Gymshark had to be at this event. It was 3000 Pounds for a booth but the event was a year away. He knew he could generate that money from his current sales on his website by then, so he signed up for a booth.
Over the year, sales picked up and Ben had enough money to fly over their influencers and YouTubers to be at the Gymshark booth. Rather than just trying to sell product out of their booth, Ben set it up so people could come meet and talk to these “celebrity” fitness YouTubers. After the event, they invited the fans to go lift with them at the gym. They filmed all of this and posted the videos to their Facebook.
Ben had to turn off the Gymshark website the weekend of this event because he feared he did not have enough inventory to sell at the event and online. Before the BodyPower Expo event, Gymshark generated about 200-300 Pounds per day. The videos from the BodyPower Expo started to go viral over the weekend. When Ben turned the GymShark website back on, they generated over 30,000 Pounds in sales in the first 30 minutes of being back online.
Ben inadvertently built a community at this expo. Gymshark would then travel to Germany, Australia, California to attend similar expos, repeating the blueprint from the BodyExpo event.
GymShark’s Financials
In 2018 Gymshark generated $128 million in total revenue. And in their fiscal year ending July 2021, Gymshark generated $550 million in revenue.
I have been tracking the Gymshark United States website since July 2021. Since then, their website has received over 2.2M orders for an estimated revenue of $209M. It is reported that their United States website brings in 50% of their total revenue. Gymshark also has dedicated websites for 13 different countries and one for the rest of the world (14 total websites that transact separately). There are 6 months remaining in their fiscal year. However, November and December appear to be their highest-selling months, so I would not double their current sales to get their estimated total yearly revenue.
Social Media
Gymshark’s growth has been fueled by building their community which started with in-person events but grew exponentially because of their social media. Gymshark now has over 10M followers across their social media platforms:
Facebook – 1.9M Followers
Instagram – 5.6M Followers
TikTok – 3.5M followers
YouTube – 336K subscribers
Audience Demographics
Key Take-aways
- Passion. Ben had a passion for fitness and was determined to build a business in the space. Following that passion led him to build a billion-dollar brand.
- Determination. Ben tried multiple different business models in the fitness space with varying success. But he kept pushing forward, determined to figure it out.
- Resourcefulness. When Ben did not have the money to purchase supplement inventory, he figured out a method to sell other people’s inventory (now known as drop shipping). When Ben found a problem with fitness apparel, he started hand-making his own apparel (again he did not have the money for a factory production run).
- Community. Gymshark is more than just selling a product, and Ben figured that out at their first in-person event at the BodyPower Expo. Building a community around Gymshark is what has fueled its growth.
