OVER THE COURSE of the next few weeks, The42 will be running a ‘fitness gear guide’ series which will take a closer look at the brands and products hot on the market and the must-have gear this winter.
These articles won’t serve as glorified advertisements but will instead provide a subjective review of popular products and ones we feel could be of use to your training.
This week, we look at one of the most popular new brands on the market. If you would like us to review a particular product, please feel free to email fitness@the42.ie.
GymShark Clothing
Fitness, brands and logos come and go all the time but one company who look ready to trouble the established order are UK clothing firm GymShark.
Founded in 2012 by two college dropouts, Ben Francis and Lewis Morgan have managed to make GymShark one of the fastest growing brands in fitness industry through a range of clever marketing techniques.
From top YouTubers such as fitness models and bodybuilders Marc Fitt, Lex Griffin, Christian Guzman, Matt Ogus as well as Nikki Blackketter, GymShark has strategically aligned itself with prominent personalities from around the globe – and they’re making quite a move on the Irish market.
What GymShark do very, very well – and this much is obvious by the amount of pictures of Morgan’s Lamborghinis in his Insta profile, is sell clothes as much as selling an image.
The market they’ve targeted is a younger, gym-addicted type who want to look well, always.
Gymshark clothes use high-quality material and are engineered to be worn in the gym but when you’re not working out, the clothes are designed to well, make you look well.
If you’re fit and toned and want people to know it, then Gymshark clothes are popular pieces of fitness apparel. Period.
The company has a pretty significant selection of gym clothes for men and women, including vests, t-shirts, pants, hoodies, base layers, shorts and leggings.
Their entire range are designed to accentuate your shape – hence how the shirts are tapered and more fitted around the middle than an average shirt.
The t-shirts (starting at €20.99), for example, are longer than a normal-length tee and have a tapered middle, while the Centurion shirts have extra space around the middle and upper parts of the shirt.
Gymshark describes its clothing as thus:
“The GymShark Element range is designed to encourage elite performance, everyday. Sometimes, in design and in exercise, simplicity is key.
“At GymShark we refuse to settle for anything less than extraordinary.
“The GymShark Element T-Shirts represent this desire for greatness in everything we do, and the everyday extraordinary.
“Our profits means that we can now manufacture and create the world’s greatest fitness wear which is worn by those who believe in what we believe – that anyone with passion and a vision can change the world.”
If it sounds a little airy then have a read of the tagline;
“Be a visionary’ is our tagline. Those are the words we live by,” said Francis.
“It means we believe that you can change the world, and if you believe that too, you are a visionary.
“We believe this because we have seen what can happen when passion meets vision – anything is possible.”
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That much is very evident because even if some of the comments on reputable websites are leaning towards the negative side – on one such website for example, 70% of the 52 comments gave the brand just 1 star, while 15% awarded them 5 stars.
Despite that, the brand’s success is impossible to argue with and the number of countries they ship to is expanding by the month.
Currently, they’ll ship as far as Canada, Australia, and the United States, although they do take significantly longer than European orders.
Incidentally, shipping and waiting times for delivery were the biggest complaints, with many customers claiming GymShark got their order wrong and more waiting over a month.
The website is pretty straight forward and customers can browse through the site separating categories into men’s or women’s clothing. Most clothes are available in four different sizes, including small, medium, large and extra-large.
The company claims to deliver its clothes to UK addresses within 24-48 hours of ordering while Irish orders take approximately six to 10 working days.
Brand: GymShark
Pros: Delivery worldwide, men’s and women’s ranges, large selection of products and colours, tapered fit.
Cons: Certain products can be expensive.
The42′s rating: 6/10
