startup

brand

web

Product

Marketing

GymBag

Curated product discovery experiences.

acquired

20K
Followers

drove

2000
MUVs

sold

30K
Revenue
400
Boxes

shipped

overview

Finding great fitness products is not easy.

The industry is notorious for its shady advertising tactics and debatably effective products. I was shopping for a product that solved this problem in my natural bodybuilding niche and couldn't find anything even close to what I was looking for. So, I started GymBag with the goal of creating a trustworthy product discovery experience that gave bodybuilders something to look forward to each month.

Nature

Startup

Role

End-to-end Product Design, Brand Design and Strategy, E-Commerce and Digital Marketing, Web Design & Development

Team

Solo

Time

1 year

note

I founded GymBag in 2015 with the goal of building a business. I never intended to become a designer...

validation

Rapid testing with concept photos

As soon as I hatched the idea, I grabbed the nearest shoebox, filled it with fitness products, and sent pictures to 5-10 of my friends. Without giving any context, I asked what they thought of it. Some thought it was a real product I had purchased. Their reactions were overwhelmingly positive and sufficiently validating: "That's sweet, where did you get that?"

BRAND

logo & Packaging

Crafting a STRONG brand

Without a proprietary product, brand was crucial to GymBag's success. I couldn't afford to hire a designer so I designed the brand myself. I tested different fonts, colours, and taglines but settled on a simple, flat logo, a slightly blocky font, and a bold orange to communicate trust, athleticism, and sophistication. 'Embrace The Journey' positively enforced a difficult and endless, but worthwhile fitness journey while being a nudge to stay subscribed.

Website

Web Design & CRO

Building trust through design

Selling online as a new business necessitated a trustworthy website, especially since we wanted to be the trusted source for discovering great products in an often shady space. I launched via Cratejoy in 2015 (left) which was the best platform at the time for subscription boxes, but it didn't have a drag-and-drop designer yet, just rigid templates.

With a specific creative vision in my mind, I learned HTML/CSS as I went, (breaking a lot of stuff along the way) ultimately improving the design enough to increase conversions to 2.5%. That was substantial for a brand new business without much social proof, especially as the highest priced subscription in the niche doing organic-only marketing.

Earlier iterations (template)

Later iterations (custom HTML/CSS)

Later iterations (custom HTML/CSS)

Product

insert cards

Creating a delightful and informative unboxing experience

Aside from packaging, the unboxing experience was our main opportunity to turn a service into a product of its own. So, I did my best to create a memorable experience through the use of insert cards. Each primary card included a note from the curator (me) describing the theme, information about each product, and a chance to win a free box by posting yourself with your box on social media, which:
  • Developed a connection with subscribers over time
  • Grew brand by leveraging customer social networks
  • Painted GymBag as a marketing opportunity to other brands: ↓COGS

Marketing

Marketing Design

Reaching the fitness community with no budget

At the time, fitness enthusiasts were on Instagram and YouTube; brands like GymShark were new and growing explosively. As one guy with no budget, YouTube seemed like an inefficient use of my time (post-Vine/pre-TikTok), so I focused primarily on growing our Instagram presence organically. I repurposed creative for emails, influencer posts, and more. I also leveraged my sunk costs on any leftover boxes and sent these out for free to influencers and bloggers for exposure and back links.

Results

results

Sold $30,000

results

Supported by industry-leading partners

results

Garnered attention from some pretty cool people

CEO @ Sumo | #30 @ Facebook

@NoahKagan

Encouraged me to keep at it, rather than taking a job at SumoMe.

#1 Brand in the niche

@GymShark

Earned a cease and desist letter for doing a good job marketing concept photos!

results

250+ Happy Customers Worldwide

Lessons

An intensive learning experience

Solve a problem you care deeply about —  When I started GymBag, my thought process was simple: I'm interested in fitness and business and I've found a gap in the market so this makes sense to pursue. The missing piece was that I didn't have a strong personal connection to the problem. The valleys of a startup are not for the faint of heart, so be sure to select a problem so motivating that you will be able to continue working at max capacity through the toughest of times.
Ideas are worthless on their own —  Whether or not you have the right idea from the get-go, building it is always going to be 99% of the challenge. Over time, through much trial and error, your solution is going to morph into something completely alien to many of your initial ideas anyway. So, start with a high-level vision, take the leap, and you will figure much of it out along the way.
Be customer-focused  —  Being a fitness person, I naturally connected more with my customers, so talking to them and working to meet their needs came naturally. Solving problems for people you connect with is intrinsically rewarding, and a genuine desire to be of service to them will always yield a better product.
hello@andrewmullins.ca
Designed and developed by Andrew Mullins in Waterloo, ON.