# data[].attributes.body
Athleta

Products: For women they have yoga, gym & training, run, travel, hike, tennis & golf. They don't have a clothing line for men.

Strength: They targeting narrowly in the apparel market. A concentrated (niche) marketing strategy to attract only female consumer.

# data[].attributes.body
Physiq Apparel

Products: for men they have tank tops, hoodies & Jackets, shorts, T-shirt. For women they have seamless hoodies, tank tops, t-shirts, sports crops and leggings

Strength: they have unique stretch-fit fabric and zip pocket with light weight zippers on their trousers.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro - PESTEL
6. Legal
Majority of clothing companies ignore ethical practices when producing their products and outsource to third world countries. Therefore, cloth manufacture companies should participate in their manufacturing process, thereby taking into consideration that wages must be comparable with local standards, environment friendly and employee safety.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro- PESTEL
5. Environment
In UK, consumers are seen to be spending more towards environmental-friendly product alternative some examples are eco-friendly vehicle, energy efficient appliances, and organic food. All companies operating in the industry to consider how big their carbon footprint is (Applebaum,2016). Organisation producing sports clothing should avoid heavy metals and environmental friendly raw material.
Generally, this serves as a great opportunity for Gymshark, as production of sport wear to be more environmentally friendly compared to other forms of sport apparel with this advantage Gymshark could attract more potential customer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Best Practices

Tips for making your facility lean and green.

These days it seems everyone is discussing "going green," and many individuals are taking significant steps to make their homes eco-friendly. So can an entire fitness facility take strides toward developing a greener environment? The answer is yes. Incorporating environmentally responsible ideas into your daily operations not only benefits the ecosystem but also saves significant dollars in your annual budget. Such choices can produce a healthy atmosphere for members and employees while helping you gain a competitive advantage. Here's how to get started.

Cleaning Supplies

Look at your cleaning supply closet. If the word danger, warning or hazardous appears on the label of a product or if the instructions require you to wear gloves or protective goggles when using the product, then it may be time to re-evaluate your choices.

The immense amount of cleaning required in a fitness environment demands gentler, more natural products, both for those who use them daily and for your members. Many traditional cleaning agents, particularly industrial-strength cleaners, contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to our health and pollute the environment. Green cleaning options help reduce toxins in your facility and keep members and employees healthier (Peavey 2008).

When purchasing cleaning products, look for items certified by EcoLogo™ or Green Seal™ to ensure that the products meet science-based environmental standards. Visit www.greenseal.org for a list of approved cleaning products, hand cleaners, floor care products and cleaning services.

Flooring

Flooring is one of the biggest design components for fitness centers in terms of cost and upkeep. The idea of green fitness flooring is not necessarily new in the industry. For years, recycled or reused materials have been an option. Recycled or reused rubber flooring and carpets remain excellent choices. The theory behind these products is that they extend the life cycle of the resource because they are composed mainly or entirely of previously used, postconsumer material (Broadhag 2008).

In addition to recycled materials, consider newer flooring products. Flooring is now available that is created from rapidly renewable resources, such as bamboo and cork. Additionally, you can now purchase commercial-grade carpeting that is made from recycled material and is also low in volatile organic compounds. Another green concept is to shop for flooring from a source certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which places a seal of approval on companies that adopt environmentally responsible forestry practices.

Regardless of the option you select, consider the source of the flooring product. Regional products that are grown and manufactured closer to your facility are considered green because they are not transported long distances and therefore cut down on gas usage and greenhouse gas production (Broadhag 2008). If you are deciding between comparable flooring options manufactured in different locations, simply selecting the manufacturer closer to your facility will benefit the environment.

Lighting and Water Usage

Lighting and water are perhaps two of the most utilized resources in any fitness center. Reducing your facility's consumption of both is not only environmentally responsible, but also fiscally wise. Several options exist to cut costs on these items and conserve resources. Your lighting expense can be decreased in ways that make for a healthier and more inviting environment. Install energy-efficient light bulbs wherever possible, as well as motion sensors in areas such as storage rooms and stairways so that lights are only on when needed. Additionally, a great way to lower the cost of electricity is to install large skylights throughout the facility. Natural light is healthier, more welcoming and free.

Moreover, a new product on the market, the Solatube® Daylighting System, captures outdoor light in a dome installed on your roof and then projects it into your rooms. Ultraviolet (UV) protection is built into the Solatube system so that the sunlight filtered into the rooms has already been blocked from UV rays. The Solatube also uses recycled components in its construction (see www.solatube.com for more information).

In terms of reducing water usage, consider installing low-flow toilets and low-flow faucets in sinks and showers to save as much as 2.5 gallons of water per minute (Scanlin 2007). You can also conserve water by choosing landscaping that does not require significant watering, and save in energy costs by insulating all water pipes and heaters.

Equipment

There is no question that gym equipment places a significant burden on energy usage and budgeting costs. The good news is that conserving energy through eco-friendly equipment is easier today than it ever has been.

Precor® and Life Fitness are two companies currently producing climbers, cycles and ellipticals that require only your clients' energy to power them. SportsArt Fitness also offers a treadmill with an ECO-POWR™ motor that uses 32% less energy than traditional treadmill motors (Scanlin 2007).

Another innovative product is the WaterRower (www.waterrower.com). This rowing machine requires no electricity and is constructed from purely replenishable hardwoods.

Heating and cooling equipment, laundry machines and dryers are also tremendous energy drains. When the time comes to replace any of these products, consider selecting ENERGY STAR-rated equipment, which can cut energy bills 10%-20% (Scanlin 2007).

Marketing Your Efforts

When you make eco-conscious changes in your facility, don't keep them to yourself! Existing members as well as potential clients are concerned about their physical well-being and the environment. Letting them know that you are making every effort to ensure that they are exercising in a healthy atmosphere can go a long way in encouraging long-term retention.

So, to further benefit your business through your green efforts, take the time to publicize the environmentally responsible steps your facility is taking. Make your eco-friendly policy part of your pitch to potential new clients. Furthermore, issue a press release, post a notice on your bulletin board, send a mass e-mail or have an article written in your local newspaper about the changes your facility has made. In other words, let the community know you are making an honest commitment to creating a healthy environment for members and employees.

Fitness Organizations Going Green

Get inspiration from what a few fitness organizations are doing to implement green strategies with positive results:

The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon, is an excellent example of a facility fully committed to conserving energy and implementing environmentally friendly strategies. Much of the cardio equipment has been modified so that clients are generating electricity while working out. In addition, the gym uses solar panels, LCD televisions (which use less electricity than plasmas) and recycled paper products in the bathrooms.

Another unique example is OrganicAthlete, a global sports organization founded by a group of competitive athletes on a mission to promote healthy living and ecological responsibility. Members meet, train and compete with other athletes who want to make a positive influence on the world through their chosen physical activity. Visit www.organicathlete.org to see if there is a chapter in your community for your facility to partner with. If not, consider starting one.

Making a Difference

"As fitness professionals, it is our responsibility to create a healthy environment for our clients," says Kurt Broadhag, MS, CSCS, president of K. Allan Consulting and developer of the Think Green Fitness Foundation, a nonprofit organization responsible for promoting green practices within the fitness industry. "We must, however, also look at the broader picture and understand the role we play as health stewards outside the confines of the gym. We can only hope that by adopting green principles within the gym the ideology can be passed on to our members and adopted into their daily rituals, shaping the way for a sustainable future."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Creating an Environmentally Friendly Fitness Facility

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These days it seems everyone is discussing "going green," and many individuals are taking significant steps to make their homes eco-friendly. So can an entire fitness facility take strides toward developing a greener environment? The answer is yes. Incorporating environmentally responsible ideas into your daily operations not only benefits the ecosystem but also saves significant dollars in your annual budget.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro- PESTEL
4. Technology
A report shows that there are 38 million active social media users in the United Kingdom, which 59% of its total population (Rose, 2017). Among all the various social media channels, Facebook is the most used channels with a 32 million user account in the United Kingdom with an age range of 20 to 40 year old as the most frequent user (Rose, 2017). Gymshark have used this opportunity through their social media influencers and ambassadors to endorse the brand on social media, to a mass following base.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Note: This article has now been updated for 2018, here: UK Social Media Statistics for 2018

The tree is down and the tinsel is wilting, so it must be time for our annual review of social media use in the UK at the start of 2017. We do this for two reasons: one, because statistics that focus purely on UK based users can be hard to come by, and two, because it also helps us clarify our own "hunches" about how things are going for each of the major sites, and use that information when we're working with our business and third sector clients in the UK.

There's also some good news: UK specific statistics have become a little easier to find this year. Props must go to agency We Are Flint for carrying out their own primary research during 2016, complete with actual transparency about how the research was carried out (link below to the entire report) and Statista.com is also offering a decent amount of open source information. We're grateful to both organisations for those contributions, as well as the other source sites linked within this post.

UK social media in 2017: general thoughts

We talked in our last annual update about the fact that the mainstream social media market is now mature. Nothing has changed there; there haven't been any significant upsets this year, and it's been a while since a genuinely "new" entrant offered anything different. The "Big 3″ in the UK (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) have more or less stayed static in user terms for several years. Apart from a potentially interesting Twitter vs Instagram clash, the only action is around the smaller players and ancilliary apps like Snapchat which we see more as utilities than social networks.

We're going to kick off this year with two charts that we think contain the most crucial information for social media strategy planning if you're a UK business: Total UK Users by Site (based on the current "best estimate" as described below, where the site has not provided figures), and the percentage of those users who log in daily.

Remember, a registered user who never goes onto the site isn't going to be a viable target for your marketing!

UK Facebook Users 2017

So let's kick off our indepth review with the Big Daddy, Facebook. Once again the overall number hasn't budged all that much; we're looking at around 32 million user accounts in the UK. That's been pretty steady for around three years now. We Are Flint's report puts the proportion of over 18s in the UK who use Facebook at 78% - so still, after all these years, probably the single most consolidated channel available to marketers for accessing most of the population in one place (after snail mail, which surely only those printing their own money can afford these days!).

We also have, courtesy of Statista.com. a nice breakdown of the demographics within that figure, which does offer some interesting observations. No, Facebook probably isn't "cool" any more. My ageing Samsung Galaxy, if it was ever cool, certainly isn't now either, but that doesn't stop me using it constantly.

Looking at these stats, the same is true of Facebook: the largest demographic is the 20-29 year olds, clearly showing that it's not just everyone's Mum using Facebook these days.

With organic post reach now sitting at around a measly 10%, the major area of interest for businesses using Facebook now is the development of new types of advertising, and the fluctuation in cost. This year we've seen enhancements or new introductions in ever more sophisticated ad targeting - Lookalike Audiences, Dynamic Ads and a whole suite of options around remarketing to website visitors. For large ecommerce sites this is a godsend. For smaller businesses, anecdotally it seems as though the cost of reaching the standard 1,000 eyeballs, or achieving a good volume of link clicks, is on the increase. This may be partly due to the more targeted types of advertising being more costly, which is not unreasonable if the results match up to their promise.

There are numerous studies showing that social media advertising is by far the cheapest medium. Ad Espresso tell us that overall CPM on Facebook actually declined during 2016, but there are so many factors influencing what any individual business will spend that it's almost inevitable that your mileage will vary. As an aside, if you're interested in what factors affect your ad spend, and how they affect it, Ad Espresso have a superb report here covering every aspect, from ad placement to the demographic being targeted, and the day and even hour that the advert runs in.

UK LinkedIn users 2017

Like all the mature sites, LinkedIn's growth is also slowing, but there is still some growth. Last year we had a figure of around 19 million UK users; this year the figure is 21 million. You can see LinkedIn's own global figures here.

When planning your strategy, though, it's important to remember that the average user uses LinkedIn very different to the way Facebook's average user uses Facebook. And that's why you won't see too much emphasis on metrics such as "monthly active users" or time spent on the site in an average month. Unless they are actively job hunting, or actively using LinkedIn as part of their job role (think Enterprise software sales execs), we believe that most people who are registered with LinkedIn, don't necessarily touch that account for weeks at a time.

Again we're going on anecdotal evidence with a pinch of common sense - by its very nature, LinkedIn's content offering doesn't begin to compare with how compelling Facebook's is, where users are on the site multiple times each day exchanging banter with their social networks or just surfing for something to cheer themselves up.

UK Instagram Users 2017

Instagram themselves haven't released any new data since that which we used in last year's report, giving us 14 million Monthly Active Users in the UK, from a global MAU figure of 300 million. The global figure was updated in December 2016 to an impressive 600 million, but it would basically be a total guess as to whether the UK's growth has kept pace with the global growth.

It's hard to tell at this point whether Instagram is continuing to cannibalise Twitter's market, particularly among the younger demographic - that seemed to be the case in previous years, but the research that we're referencing here doesn't really support it. Which is good from a marketing point of view, because the lack of native "retweet" function and inability to include links in a post, means that driving anything other than general brand awareness is harder work on Instagram!

The We Are Flint survey suggested that 29% of UK adults use Instagram, which would give us a figure around the 19 million mark. The same report also gives a proportion of 64% of users as being under 30 - but gives the same figure for Twitter, which has generally been considered to be an older demographic thus far. Even more interestingly, Instagram has something of a peak in the higher income brackets (though not as much as Twitter does); 46% of users reported a household income of over £48k per annum.

From a general strategy point of view, Instagram has joined Facebook and Twitter this year in filtering which of your followed accounts' posts you actually see. That seems a clear pointer that in the not too distant future, you can expect to be paying Instagram for any kind of guaranteed reach at all, in the same way we now have to pay for reach on Facebook.

UK Pinterest Users 2017

We've not had anything directly from Pinterest this year on the subject of UK user numbers, so the stats below come from third party research.

All the indications though are that Pinterest's early period of stellar growth has definitely stalled. Although Pinterest did tell us that their global MAU figure was up to 150 million in October of 2016, just 5% of the UK population log in to Pinterest on a daily basis.

Interestingly, at some point the Pinterest user demographic has got a LOT younger. In the US, and in the early days of UK use, older (as well as more affluent) users were in the majority. In 2017 however, research from both Statista and We Are Flint suggests that 50%+ of Pinterest users are in the 18-29 age bracket.

The female gender bias has persisted however, with 38% of women who are online reporting that they use Pinterest, whereas only 20% of men say the same thing.

In terms of how people are actually using the site (which should give you some clues as to whether your business will be commercially successful there), here's a useful summary from Pinterest's CEO, Ben Silbermann :

Pinterest is more of a personal tool than a social one. People don't come to see what their friends are doing. (There are lots of other great places out there for that!) Instead, they come to Pinterest to find ideas to try, figure out which ones they love, and learn a little bit about themselves in the process.

UK Twitter Users 2017

Twitter did provide a very minimal status update around the middle of last year, which gave a global MAU figure of 313 million, and 79% of those accounts being outside the US. That would be sufficient to keep them ahead of Instagram in the global rankings, just.

Other independent research gives us figures of 45% of UK Online Adults using Twitter, with 37% of those account holders logging in daily. Using the ONS figure of 45.9 million for the UK's online population, that would give us a user base of around 20 million. That seems plausible, if maybe a little generous, compared to the last "official" UK figure of 13 million which was provided in 2013.

The same research reports a surprisingly young demographic, too: 64% of users are 18-29, 57% 30-49, and 33% 50-61. The more affluent citizens are also over-represented on Twitter, with 62% in the 48K+ household income bracket - bearing in mind that the median UK household income this year was just over £26k.

If you're interested in how people are actually using Twitter, there's a really good, and up to date, report here from the BBC. From that we learn that a relatively small number of highly active users dominate in terms of posting content - 1% of accounts are responsible for 20% of all tweets, and 85% of all tweets are accounted for by just 15% of total accounts.

The number of actual tweets sent each day has remained almost constant since 2013, despite increases in monthly active users. So, if you're planning a campaign on Twitter, be aware that there are a *lot* of users out there who read but never post!

So there we have it: the social media landscape for the UK in 2017. As ever, we hope it'll help you plan your strategy - and if you need some help figuring out what you should be using and how, get in touch!

Credits

https://weareflint.co.uk/uk-social-media-demographics-2016

www.statista.com

www.social-media-co.uk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Note: This article has now been updated for 2018, here: UK Social Media Statistics for 2018 UK Social Media Statistics for 2017 The tree is down and the tinsel is wilting, so it must be time for our annual review of social media use in the UK at the start of 2017.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro- PESTEL
3. Social
Residents of the UK enjoy a standard of living comparable with those in other developed countries. Decades of solid economic growth have helped in the development of robust social infrastructure. The UK’s education and health care delivery systems rank among the best in the world. The UK’s government is focused on improving income inequality. Hence, Gymshark could grab this opportunity to expand the market size.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro- PESTEL
2. Economy
According to PWC 2018, Uk growth is to remain around 1.3% in 2018 and rise to 1.6% in 2019 and service sector growth should remain modest but positive in 2019.

# data[].attributes.body
2. Targeting:

Segment size: according to Leisure DB, 2017, in the UK there are 9.7 million gym users.

Segment growth:  By the end of March 2017, there was an increase of 4.6% in the number of fitness facilities, 5.1% in the number of members and 6.3% in market value. http://www.leisuredb.com/blog/2017/5/5/2017-state-of-the-uk-fitness-industry-report-out-now

Strategy formulation: Gymshark use a differentiated segmentation strategy, as they have carefully thought out their target audience and how to influence them.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Segmentation:

Demographic: Gymshark's target audience profile is both female and male, 18- 25 years of age in the middle class located in Uk, US, Australia and other western societies.

Psychographic: their lifestyle tends is very active, regularly participating in sport or going to the Gym.

Behavioural: aim to achieve self-esteem under Maslow hierarchy of needs.

# data[].attributes.body
Macro- PESTEL
1. Political
According BBC (2013), the UK government has designed a campaign “Change4life” to boost the number of people having an active and healthy lifestyle positively. By signing up to Change4life online, families will receive a compilation of healthy recipe with ideas for daily menu. The UK government vigorously promotes healthy living lifestyle; therefore, this is a good opportunity for Gymshark in operating in the fitness industry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Government-backed TV adverts to promote healthier eating habits in England are to be shown for the first time later.

Food firms are also involved in the latest phase of the Change4Life scheme and their products are being sold at reduced prices in several supermarkets.

The adverts have been made by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit.

Critics suggest the main beneficiaries of the campaign against "hidden nasties" such fat and sugar in popular foods will be the companies themselves.

Obesity costs the NHS £5bn each year and the latest figures from the Department of Health show that the number of children who are overweight or obese doubles during their time at primary school.

By signing up to Change4Life online, families will receive a compilation of healthy recipes including turkey stir fry and vegetarian chilli, with ideas for daily menus.

'Healthier choices'

They will also be able to access offers on food products at more than 1,000 Asda, Aldi and the Co-Operative food stores across the country.

What we really need is a legal level playing field so all companies have to do the right thing.
Jeanette Longfield, Sustain

Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: "Thanks to the continuing success of Change4Life, a million mums have changed their behaviour.

"But England has one of the highest rates of obesity in Europe with over 60% of adults and a third of 10 and 11 year olds overweight or obese.

"We want to make it easy for everyone to keep track of what they eat and make healthier choices. That is why we are also developing a simple and clear system for front of pack labelling that everyone can use."

The campaign includes a TV advertising break during Coronation Street on ITV1 featuring advice on healthy eating from some of the companies involved in the campaign.

Jeanette Longfield, children's food campaigner from Sustain, said she was "very disappointed" that the government had opted for a voluntary approach "that never works".

She added: "Good companies continue to do good things while bad companies continue doing bad things, and no one can stop them.

"What we really need is a legal level playing field so all companies have to do the right thing.

"For example, stop targeting children with marketing for junk food."

Diane Abbott, shadow public health minister, said the big winners from the initiative would be the companies and not families.

"The coalition government is pretending to take action on healthy eating. But the real beneficiaries will be supermarkets and the food industry."

'Root causes'

But Catherine Collins, principal dietician at St George's Hospital in London, maintained the campaign would do some good.

"This new campaign offers interest and advice on foods that can help make a healthy diet, whilst recognising not everybody has the time or resources to make meals from scratch.

"As long as food manufacturers don't exploit the 'health halo' effect of the targeted healthy products to encourage sales of less healthy foods and drink, it's a win-win situation for both public and producers."

Dr John Middleton, vice president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: "While in principle we welcome efforts by manufacturers to offer discounts on healthy products, we know that some families fill up on cheap, unhealthy food that could be produced more healthily if companies chose to do so.

"We all need to work together to tackle the root causes of obesity, not just the symptoms that are easy to treat."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Government-backed TV adverts to promote healthier eating habits in England are to be shown for the first time later. Food firms are also involved in the latest phase of the Change4Life scheme and their products are being sold at reduced prices in several supermarkets.

# data[].attributes.body
Research from PWC (2017) shows there are 52% of global shoppers who prefer to research purchases online, while in total of worldwide, there are 28% of global shoppers purchased all or most of theirs clothing and footwear online for the past 12 months. Gymshark's demographic (millennial) follow brands on at least one social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter. Millennial have a reputation for doing everything with their smartphones (Kestenbaum, 2017). Millennials experience social media, technology, and socialization, advertising, and personal consciousness as almost seamlessly integrated.

# data[].attributes.body
3. Positioning:

Gymshark are a UK based company, however they do ship worldwide from their online store, with over 1 million orders in 2017, according to Gymshark.

They have used social media fitness influencers to build up and advertise their brand, for example Nikki Blackketter who has 1.9m followers on instagram and 730K followers on youtube. These influencers are called brand ambassadors.

Against their competitors they have a wide selection of products and high quality:

# data[].attributes.body
Gymshark is a fitness apparel & accessories brand, manufacturer and online retailer based in the United Kingdom, supported by over 7 million highly engaged social media followers and customers in 131 countries. It was founded by then teenager Ben Francis in 2012, and has an expected turnover of £100 million this year (BBC News, 1/10/18).    New gymshark idea

Blue ocean theory:

Build up gymshark- have gyms, their ambassardors in different gyms and PTs, the clothing, gym equipment all as one package

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The BBC's weekly The Boss series profiles a different business leader from around the world. This week we speak to Ben Francis, founder of UK sportswear brand Gymshark.

It is hard to know how a then 19-year-old Ben Francis had the time or the energy to get Gymshark up and running.

While many young entrepreneurs have to juggle running their start-up with holding down a nine to five job, back in 2012 Ben was a full-time student by day, and a pizza delivery man by night.

"I'd wake up and go to Aston University [in Birmingham], then finish uni early afternoon, and work at Pizza Hut from 5pm till 10pm," he says.

"I could answer emails [about Gymshark] in between deliveries. Then I'd go home and sort out the website, and design new products."

After two exhausting years of this - with annual revenues of his nascent business hitting an impressive £250,000 - Ben quit both university and the world of pizzas to focus on his company.

Fast-forward to today, and Gymshark expects turnover this year to reach £100m.

Before Ben set up the business in 2012 it is fair to say that the entrepreneurial fire was already burning in his belly.

As a young teenager he set up a website that sold car licence plates. A keen gym-goer, he then built and launched two iPhone fitness tracking apps, one of which earned him around £8,000.

The idea for Gymshark followed; an online retail business aimed at fitness fanatics that originally sold health supplements.

"I was going to the gym and basically was interested in, and wanted to be involved in, the fitness industry," he says. "I wanted to combine that with making a transactional website."

When Ben found that the profit margins from selling the supplements were too low, he dived into another area - clothing.

"I remember looking around, and I couldn't find any clothing I wanted to wear," he says. "So I said, 'let's make it ourselves.'"

Enlisting the help of his brother, and a group of friends, Ben bought a sewing machine and screen printer, and started to make gym vests and t-shirts in his parents' garage.

"My nan made curtains, so she taught me how to sew," he says. "I remember thinking we had 10 orders to do, and to make 12-15 products it would take most of the day. But it was so much fun learning."

Now 26, Ben admits that after Gymshark first moved into clothing there was no immediate grand plan regarding growing the business. "It was more a case of 'I really want to wear this,' so I made it," he says.

And so the company started to make body builder vests that fitted slim teenagers, because most on the market were designed for older men who had already built up their muscle bulk.

Ben adds that he would also guess on how much to price items. "It was literally a case of what would we want to pay for something," he says.

"There was no considered approach. We were like, 'we would pay £20.'"

Six years later, Gymshark now has more than 1.2 million customers, and 215 employees at its Solihull headquarters in the West Midlands.

So how has the firm been able to grow so quickly? In short, it has been a very savvy user of social media.

More specifically Gymshark decided it would send free clothing to key "influencers", prominent body-builders and other fitness fanatics - such as Lex Griffin and Nikki Blackketter.

The hope was that such stars would talk positively about the products to their followers on YouTube and Instagram.

The idea worked better than Gymshark could have dreamed, and sales soon skyrocketed.

At the same time it worked hard to ensure its own social media accounts were as interesting and visual as possible. Today it has 2.4 million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million on Facebook.

More The Boss features, which every week profile a different business leader from around the world:

More recently the firm has held events around the world, inviting fans of the brand to meet some of its influencers. Hundreds of people typically attend.

Another key factor in the continuing success of Gymshark is bringing in a more experienced pair of hands to help Ben run the business. Sportswear industry veteran Steve Hewitt joined as managing director in 2015, before being given the chief executive title in April last year.

Ben remains the majority owner, with Mr Hewitt and chief strategic officer Paul Richardson also having substantial stakes. Another shareholder is Ben's friend Lewis Morgan who helped to launch Gymshark, but left the business a few years ago.

Emily Sutherland, a features writer at trade magazine Drapers, says Gymshark's use of social media influencers has been key to its success.

"The influencers give shoppers a reason to buy into Gymshark over other brands, because they feel a personal connection," she says.

Ms Sutherland adds that because Gymshark is an online-only and direct-to-consumer brand, it is "able to remain nimble, react quickly to market changes, and isn't weighed down by expensive store costs".

As for the future, the plan is to expand Gymshark's overseas sales. Already 40% of its sales come from the US, and it aims to have 25 international country-specific online stores by 2020, up from 11 at present.

The company may also open its first bricks-and-mortar store.

"I don't go shopping very often, but I'm thinking of the best way to do a permanent location somewhere," says Ben. "I'm not sure, we'd need a lot of space. I want to do a cool destination."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 26-year-old with a £100m sportswear brand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The BBC's weekly The Boss series profiles a different business leader from around the world. This week we speak to Ben Francis, founder of UK sportswear brand Gymshark. It is hard to know how a then 19-year-old Ben Francis had the time or the energy to get Gymshark up and running.