This logo has become the most recognizable in the fitness community |
Ben Griffin - founder of GymShark |
The biggest names in fitness gather at the expo |
They spent any free time they had in the following year working on orders and creating new products, but Ben said never felt like work because they were doing something they loved. This is where arguably his biggest contribution to the fitness industry occurred. There were several big YouTube fitness personalities at the time that Ben avidly watched. It was here where Ben took his brand and began mixing it with YouTube by sending all these fitness personalities GymShark apparel to try on. This became known as influencer marketing, but at the time no one in the community was just giving YouTubers free apparel. They effect was huge. Each of these personalities, such as Jeff Seid and Lex Griffin, had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, fans that would copy almost anything they would do. So what happened when they started wearing Gymshark gear in their videos? Gymshark began to run out of stock hours after a new product or line would launch. This was their big break thru. The crazy thing, according to Ben, was that he would, "just watch them all the time, and as massive fans, we decided to send them the Gymshark product". It was this genuine love for fitness and the community surrounding it which really drove Gymshark to the height it now is, along with his intertwining of the fitness apparel and social media markets, a really important trait for a creative mind according to Gardner as he states in Creating Minds, "Such individuals engage in a wide and broadly interconnected network of enterprises; exhibit a sense of purpose or will that permeates their entire network" (Gardner 23).
Lex Griffin - Half a million YouTube Subscribers |
The following year at Body Power, Ben and the team brought in several of these big name YouTubers and were a smashing hit. Following this success, they began to introduce Gymshark Official Athletes, who would use their social media and YouTube presence to model the brand and spread it to all their followers. Even the female market, which started off shaky, has exploded in the last few years with Gymshark athletes like YouTube and social media star Nikki Blackketter leading the charge. Gardner notes how a successful creative mind is able to use their individual talents and mix them into the fields they are dealing with, and Ben does just that. Utilizing his knowledge of website making and programming and combining it with both the athletic and social media field.
Nikki Blackketter - first female GymShark Athlete |
The success and growth of this brand is solely based on the creativity of Ben Francis and his team. Throughout every step of the way, they took the necessary risks to grow their dream. The driving force for their dream however, was that they never stopped having fun with it. From wanting to make clothes that they themselves wanted to wear, to getting their favorites fitness stars to wear them, you can really feel the care and the desire that went into their product, and that is what sets them apart in an industry that can very often times seem bland and generic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpftE7RwQnM
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I love how Ben Francis, at such a young age, be able to understand how media works in the current age we live in where traditional advertising is no longer the only option to selling your product. Creativity within a business itself is much less discussed than creativity over a product but it's amazing how he was able to work with what he had and create a new enterprise.
ReplyDeleteWow this makes me feel like I've wasted my youth. I better found my own company ASAP before I lose my competitive edge in the job market.
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