Ben Francis, Founder & CEO of Gymshark

Ben Francis talks about how he started athleisure brand Gymshark as a teenager and how he has scaled it to be one of the UK’s most valuable privately held companies.

On choosing to sell directly to consumers: “We said, for example, ‘We're not going to allow Gymshark to be stocked in other people's stores, because we want to truly control the consumer experience and understand the consumer better than anyone else in the world… The high street just wasn't working in a way that made sense to our age group and our demographic.”

On growing Gymshark in the future: “So back in the day Amazon just sold books, right? Now they sell everything… I want Gymshark to be like that.  And in 10 years' time, I would love us to be sitting here and chatting about the time that Gymshark, let's say, only sold apparel and accessories.“

 

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The episode was recorded on July 8, 2021.