In 2010, Ben Francis was your typical college student, late nights spent on homework, late nights spent with friends, and late nights spent in the gym. Francis was driven by a desire for fitness, only for his personal fitness, but for the fitness industry in general. Driven by a desire to have a part in the growing fitness industry, Francis tried to break into it with several products. First, an assortment of fitness apps, next a social media app, and then finally, after many ups and downs, the very first version of what would become the gymshark empire.
Gymshark began with a very humble start, simply drop shipping thousands of various supplements. It was a slow start, months before it got its first order, but after a long wait it began to take off. After some time selling supplements, Gymshark expanded to drop shipping fitness clothing as well. However, most gym clothing was baggy and built for peak level lifters – not the average gymgoer. Realizing this problem, Francis moved to manufacturing clothing himself, sewing it on a machine, screen printing, and delivering it as a one man machine. Slowly, Gymshark clothing grew. An unpolished, off the cuff clothing business began to metamorphosize into the giant it is today. A little later, Gymshark reached out to some of the most prominent athletes of the time, and they loved it. Those athletes signed on as the very first Gymshark athletes, promoting the brand and bringing further success. Francis and Gymshark continued to take the risk for expansions, designing new products that brought even more attention in the fitness world. In 2013 they did £30,000 in a mere thirty minutes with the release of their Luxe Tracksuit.
Today, Ben Francis is one the world’s youngest billionaires, a self made success story due to grit, a love for his industry, and never being afraid to take the leap.
2A29F65 Ben Francis, founder of the gym wear company Gymshark
This is an amazing story that I had never known before. Ben Francis’s story is especially inspiring because of how young he began and how humble those beginnings were. The mess at the beginning of Gymshark reveals chaotic truth about being an entrepreneur. The principle of Error is loud throughout this process, but eventually landed Ben Francis an amazing position in the market. I can’t believe he is now one of the world’s youngest millionaires.