Gymshark is inching closer to a new personal record.
“We’re approaching $1 billion in sales now,” said Ben Francis, chief executive of the UK-based gymwear brand.
The company, known for its $36 tees and $38 seamless leggings, is as close as it’s ever been to achieving that goal. Last July, at the close of its 2024 fiscal year, the company reported sales of £607 million ($807 million), up 9 percent year over year and marking its 12th consecutive year of growth.
While Gymshark hasn’t put a specific deadline on when it plans to hit its billion-dollar benchmark, it has already begun taking steps it believes will get it over the hump sooner rather than later.
In October, after operating on a direct-to-consumer model throughout its existence, the company announced its first-ever wholesale partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, the US sports retail giant that acquired Foot Locker earlier this year. The partnership will bring Gymshark apparel and accessories from its mid-tier Power and Vital lines, priced between $16 and $70, to 12 Dick’s Sporting Goods “House of Sport” locations nationwide.
The company is also set to open a new store in New York on Saturday. The 13,000-square-foot store at 11 Bond Street in lower Manhattan — just across the street from Kith’s New York flagship and down the road from On — will span three floors and will mark Gymshark’s second US location, following the opening of its store at Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island, New York.
For the next couple years, in fact, Francis said expansion into the US will be the focus of the UK-based business. While it was founded in a garage in Birmingham, England in 2012, today North America drives just over half its sales. The US accounts for most of that, with £251 million in sales coming from the country.
“The big opportunity for us now is to really double down on that channel expansion in the United States,” Francis said.
Growing Pains
Gymshark’s path towards $1 billion in sales hasn’t all been smooth. As the brand has continued to scale and develop new products, its profits have dipped. In its 2024 fiscal year, pre-tax profits fell to £11.8 million, down from £13.0 million the prior year. The brand also underwent a restructuring earlier this year, saying at the time that 296 jobs were at risk of being cut but that it would also create 168 new ones.
“The hardest thing for DTC brands is growing,” said Matt Powell, an advisor for BCE Consulting. “Whatever moves you can make to try to get to scale, you should be doing.”
The activewear market is also crowded, with sportswear giants such as Nike and Adidas often targeting the same customers. Competition is especially stiff in the American marketplace, where companies like Vuori, Athleta, Lululemon and Alo Yoga have also established a strong presence. It’s why Inditex’s activewear brand, Oysho, has so far hesitated to enter the US. With such a crowded sector, it can be difficult for even established brands to break through.
“I think, as we’ve seen with Lululemon on the women’s side, you can be number one for a while, but it’s hard to stay number one,” Powell said.
But just because the space is competitive doesn’t mean a brand can’t succeed. Scale will help, Powell said, as will building a proper brand story that consumers can connect to and delivering a good product.
Gymshark believes it has that down. The brand has maintained a core audience of bodybuilders, Francis said, who have helped Gymshark find its lane and stay in it. The company’s focus is on building around that niche.
“That’s what’s authentic to us,” Francis said.
The company is also exploring collaborations as a way to create buzz and build out its customer base. It has rarely dipped into collaborations in the past, primarily working with athletes and influencers to market its product. Still, it got a taste of what collaborations can offer in September when it partnered with British performance footwear brand R.A.D. The brands launched two new styles — the R.A.D One V2 and the R-1 — that sold out within an hour, according to Gymshark. Footwear isn’t an area the company is looking to expand in at the moment, but Francis said he was “blown away” by the reaction to the R.A.D. partnership and that Gymshark would be interested in exploring more with the label in the future.
“I think it’s probably something we haven’t done enough of,” Francis said of collaborations. “There are lots of athlete partnerships, but that business-to-business, brand-to-brand partnership — I think that’s a huge opportunity for us.”
