What We Learned From Athleisure Founders: Trends, Supply Chains, and Inspiring Stories

Hey, welcome back to E Commerce on Tap brought to you by Sourcefy and Isba. I'm your host Nathan Resnick, joined by my co host, Aaron Alper. We are not doing a brand episode right now, but we are covering Athleisure because we've just covered quite a few just fundamentally game changing Athleisure brands that Aaron and I have learned so much from. And we're going to talk about three main questions. Number one, what we each learned about Athleisure before that we didn't know. Number two, if you were starting Athleisure brand today, what would you do? And number three, what was the most inspiring founder story that we heard on this season of E Commerce on Tap that focused on Athleisure? So Aaron, let's start with you. Number one, what did you learn about Athleisure that you didn't know before?

Yeah, there's a lot there. I think that I kind of assumed that stuff was coming from Asia, but the supply chain is almost entirely, completely dominated by just a handful of countries, specifically China. And so it is, it is so difficult to make the technical fibers. The pace of innovation is so fast. I mean, you talk about like Rhone and having gold or silver threads, you know, in their fiber, or having stuff that can stretch and go different ways. It is, it is remarkable to me how just different the supply chain is and how, how hard it would be to move something like that to Europe or North America.

Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. The supply chain definitely has a sole focus on Asia primarily. But we did just talk about Beyond Yoga that has their supply chain in LA for the most part. So that's kind of unique of Beyond Yoga for me. I thought it was interesting how this is kind of a category that really has become mainstream in the past decade. Right. I mean, before the last decade, Athleisure wasn't even really around. Right. And now you have a few multi billion dollar brands that have just really blown up and really made this category mainstream. You used to never see someone wearing the clothes that they wore to the gym to then dinner or a coffee shop or whatever it may be. And so I just think this category as a whole has become so mainstream in the past 10 years that I kind of wonder from a fashion standpoint what's going to be the next 10 years. Because there's always a new trend, there's always a new fad. And so maybe in the next 10 years it won't be Athleisure. It's going to be something Else pajamas. Yeah. And Lululemon or Gymshark, et cetera, is going to have to lean into those other categories that become the next fad. So I just think it's pretty remarkable how a lot of these brands that we covered kind of built this trend and kind of rode that wave as well. So I didn't realize that before people wouldn't really wear Athleisure outside of the gym.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, too. And I think it's interesting, even just in the companies that we profiled, like, you look at the difference between a Gymshark and an Atenola, both from the uk, right? So there should be a very similar story there. But gymshark is all about working out. Right. It's the influencer stuff. It's the people who are meatheads to some extent. At Enola was more about people who wanted to look like they worked out. Right. It was more fashion forward and less on the performance of the Athleisure piece. And so I think you're right. Like, this is starting to become something that is very different than was even 10 years ago. And I think that it talks to the innovation in the fabrics. And so, you know, who would have thought that, you know, we did Vuori a long time ago, but, you know, the idea that you could take something that could be yoga pants or dress pants and just wear them.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. All right, next up. So if you were starting an Athleisure brand today, what would you do?

Yeah, well, apparently I gotta go to China. I have to go find some stuff which could be interesting. The current tariff environment. I think the key thing I would focus on is like, what is my niche and what is my brand gonna be? It's gotten to the point where the, you know, you can either be extremely product focused and you're going to do something like a Rhone, where you are gonna say, all right, we're gonna work on the silver tech or gold tech, technology that is inherently different. Right. It's. Maybe you didn't invent it, but you're the one that popularized it. You're gonna go do that, and that's what you're going to be known for. Or, you know, like Anola, you want to be known for an aesthetic, you want to be known for comfort or beyond yoga, you know, softness. And so I think that I would spend a lot of time trying to look at what it is that I want to be different about it before I go out and focus on the product per se. Unless I think that the Product is what's going to be my differentiator.

I would say I'm going to. I'm going to take a different approach here. I would say that I actually wouldn't start asking as your brand today. I would try to find the next trend and start something around that. Right. I think to go out and start an athleisure brand and compete with, you know, Vori and Lululemon and Gymshark and, you know, beyond yoga, I just wouldn't want to fight that battle. And so I would actually say, okay, what's the next trend here that is going to become popular? You know, there's got to be something that people in Athleisure are now leaning into. Is it, you know, is it CrossFit? Is it, you know, something else? And I would really orientate clothing around that new trend or new category and try to become the market leader in that category. So I think it'd be very hard to compete with these brands. I think so many of these brands are doing an exceptional job. I personally just. I wouldn't start an athleisure brand today. I would look for the next category and next trend.

That's super interesting. So do you think that we're at, like, peak athleisure right now?

I mean, I'm sure there are channels that these brands are not tapping into, especially internationally, that, you know, it's going to grow more. Right. So maybe that's an angle in terms of, hey, is athleisure as popular in Asia or Australia, et cetera, as it is in the States? I'm not sure, but that could be an angle. I just think the way that these brands operate and the communities that they're tapped into and driven, I think you'd either have to find a unique community that they're not tapped into or. Or another market angle that they haven't explored yet, which I think is extremely hard to do.

Yeah, I think you're right that maybe in North America, it's a little bit tapped out. It is very competitive to start something here. But you look at the growth in Asia, I bet the next big ones we hear about are going to be a homegrown Indian athleisure brand that comes out. It's a uniquely Indian aesthetic or something like that that I could see doing really, really well, especially if it's, like, rooted in, like, that culture and it's made there and those sorts of things. So. Yeah, interesting idea.

Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. What was your most inspiring story or founder that you looked up to?

This season, I think for me it would be roan. I kind of have a tangential connection to the founders. Like I mentioned, I met their dad a couple of times and I think just the idea behind going back and saying, you know what, we want to change our cap table. Right. We have this tier one investor that put money in, but we want different things now. And so rather than just fighting about it or quitting, we're going to go back and buy the business back. I think that was really interesting. I also think that the part that's unique about what Ron is doing is just this tie into mental health, especially for men. You don't really hear that a whole lot. And it's just interesting that mental health ness could have a place in apparel because you don't wear your mental health, although everybody sees it. So I think that was the story that I resonated with the most.

Awesome. Yeah. For me, I love the gymshark story. I mean, you think about a founder, Ben, who's just printing T shirts in his parents apartment and and grows it into a multi billion dollar global brand. I mean gymshark is just an incredible founding story, really just built that business from the ground up, leaned into social media, built a very vibrant and strong community. And I just love kind of that first story of him bringing some samples and hundreds of different T shirts and lifting gear to their first trade show and selling out and realizing, hey, we've got something here. And you went from delivering pizzas to growing this major player in the athleisure category. And I just love that story and that founder and it gets so inspiring.

Yeah, I would say my runner up would have to be Alo simply from the supply chain point of view. And I think going in and looking at their parent company that has all the US manufacturing and is kind of known as being a great piece there and then just deciding that, you know, what if we're going to do athleisure, we're doing it in a big way. We're going to go out and we're going to put it in Asia and the fact that the founders still own all of it. So I think it is. Most people would be happy if they had color image apparels, you know, $300 million revenue and domestic supply chain, but they now own 100% of a billion dollar brand, which is amazing.

It's incredible. Incredible. Well, there you have it. The Athleisure season of E Commerce on tap. If you haven't yet, check out each episode. Very cool stories, very interesting supply chains and high growth companies. So next season we are covering beauty. We've got some pretty incredible stories there as well. So tune in for that and we will see you next time on E. Commerce Untapped, brought to you by Source Finance.