A health and wellness journey to kick off a new year? Great idea! — Everyone
Gymshark is a UK based fitness brand with a strong social media following. Their digital footprint is so big that almost all their marketing is done through Instagram and Youtube! Founded in 2012, Gymshark quickly found their niche in offering partnerships to rising stars in the burgeoning fitness community on Youtube. Bodybuilders, cardio bunnies, and former college athletes could promote Gymshark’s breathable, stylish workout wear to their thousands of followers, and get free gear while they’re at it!
It’s no surprise that the fitness influencers I follow are all Gymshark ambassadors. One of them is Whitney Simmons (who I’m pretty sure I’ve shouted out before once or twice), who announced in December that at the beginning of 2021, Gymshark would be sponsoring their annual fitness resolution challenge, #Gymshark66. The fact that this was an annual challenge was news to me, but I saw potential.
The #Gymshark66 challenge encourages customers to document their New Years Resolutions progress on their social media of choice. The most creative, inspiring posters would receive gift cards, free workout wear, and a select few would win a trip to somewhere in the world for Gymshark’s next pop-up event!
I wanted the prizes. Gymshark is not a cheap, fast-fashion brand, and I work out enough that having quality clothes is important. With that, I grabbed a pen, downloaded their challenge placard, and posted my first entry in the new year.
My goal for 2021 was three:
- Get 15K steps a day
- Incorporate leg day into my routine twice a week
- Drink more water
The challenge gets its name from the length of the challenge: by the principle of needing 66 days to form a new habit, the challenge lasts 66 days! The challenge ended last week. I’ve been documenting my progress, based on their weekly challenges, on Instagram. Here’s the good, the bad, and the dirty:
Posting more on social media. I rarely share photos on Instagram in my permanent feed. I am very intimidated by the pretty people I see in my feed, and think that what I post doesn’t measure up at all. It was easier for me to post under the guise of “This is just for free clothes guys, I don’t think I’m all that and a bag of chips.” Something about posting twice a week (as the rules of the challenge required) made me feel more comfortable sharing. I started commenting more on other posts, and was always so happy to see positive feedback went both ways!
The overall goal = accomplished. I’ve talked about my struggles to drink enough water a few times. Since starting the challenge in January, I’ve only had two dehydration headaches, and both occurred around my time of the month (when I could drink an entire ocean of water and still be dehydrated… and not because salt water dehydrates you. You get my point. I digress). On top of that, I’ve been doing more daily walks, and I’ve been more active in general. I haven’t hit 15k steps EVERY day, but it’s still a goal, and I’ve hit it most days!
Okay… not really. I started out the year doing leg day twice a week, buuut that lasted about a month. Between work, working out, and job hunting after work, I was burned out quickly! I decided to strip the leg day, and actually, ALL strength training, from my workouts, focusing exclusively on getting 15k steps a day. A part of me does miss lifting weights. A bigger part of me really dislikes these two guys at the gym who are too loud for me to enjoy being in the same workout area as them. I’m hoping that they’ll eventually stop going to the gym so I can start enjoying it again. In the meantime, I’m BFFs with the treadmill these days.
Some effort, no reward. I put thought and consideration into my posts, and it felt like wasted effort. Gymshark is a billion dollar brand, with almost all of its presence on Instagram. With specific requirements on posts, including using specific brand hashtags to track your progress, I was very surprised to see that none of my posts got feedback from the brand themselves. I’ve had solo influencers, who respond to comments on their own time (i.e., not a team doing it for them), reply to me after I comment on their posts. To not see any of Gymshark’s main account (or any of its sub accounts) comment an emoji on any of my dozen or so posts with their name on it felt like a missed opportunity. To be fair, only 66 people won prizes throughout the entire competition, so only 66 people got bona fide feedback from the company. Still! If your whole presence in the e-commerce world is through Instagram, you’d think they’d hire interns to provide feedback all day long. Does that make me sound hungry for attention? MAYBE. To quote your parents, “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed.”
Is it worth it? To be honest, halfway through the contest, I started having negative feelings towards it. I wanted to win the prizes because I wanted free clothes. Why? Because I can’t afford to spend that kind of money on leggings and sports bras at the drop of a dime. I have a sneaking suspicion that most of their clientele can’t either, since their annual sale in November usually crashes the site almost immediately after launching. Simultaneously, their launches sell out quickly, in a very predictable way: their larger sized clothes tend to go fastest. For a brand that’s begun to hop on the body positivity movement (small soapbox please: why is it that brands don’t make more plus-sized workout wear? Don’t you want us to be less tubby? How can we work out if we can’t fit into breathable workout pants or sports bras? There’s an untapped market that you are missing out on, you cowards. Shut up and make more money! I want to give it to you, for some reason!), you’d think they’d make bigger quantities of their large and XL styles. To boot, the US, the UK, and Australia are the most popular places for Gymshark. You know what all of those companies have in common? CRAZY high rates of obesity. You’d think they’d acknowledge that and have more clothes at big sizes! Anyway, I found myself wondering: why was I beating myself up for only hitting 11k steps, or feeling too tired to go to the gym, over not getting free clothes that I’d have to cram my sausage body into anyway?
All in all, this contest is very much an experience where you really get out what you put into it. I had other priorities at the beginning of this year, and while fitness was one of them, following the goals I set to a T wasn’t. Some days I was great! Some days I was above and beyond! But I didn’t give it my all, and I have a sneaking suspicion that those who won, did.
I’d like to take another whack at this challenge a year from now. Maybe then I’ll be in a space where forming my step and my water consumption habits will inform even greater challenges. Maybe then, I’ll be in a place where I can take extra time to create more striking, compelling content that will catch the eye of a social media marketer eye-ing contestants for great stories. I hope that happens! Until that time, you can find me trudging through all kinds of weather… in Victoria’s Secret workout leggings and Nike sneakers.