Revealed
December 18, 2024
Sweaty Betty has daring ambitions globally and has introduced a raft of recent shops within the UK and the important thing US market, in addition to taking over a brand new company that’s making ready a significant marketing campaign.
Sweaty Betty
As a part of London-based girls’s gym-to-street model’s development plan, it has additionally simply introduced the appointment of Helen Harding as chief product officer (CPO). She has 20+ years of related management expertise, “building commercial global marketplace strategies through a consumer-centric lens, and a relentless focus on best-in-class product execution”. The corporate stated “her strong background in transformational change and organisational design is rooted in core principles of modelling simplicity and repeatable success to enable sustainable growth”.
And her monitor file is spectacular. Previous to Sweaty Betty, she was Castore’s CPO, a key job on condition that it’s one of many fastest-growing UK sports activities manufacturers. She was “fundamental in driving the commercial product strategy, design and development that has led to the eight-year-old brand gaining a £1 billion valuation”.
She’s additionally set and executed product technique throughout multi-channel high-volume British manufacturers similar to Superdry, M&S and George at Asda, leading to “a diverse skill set across all facets of buying, sourcing, product quality and sustainability, which will be an invaluable asset” to Sweaty Betty.
World model president Melissa Mullen hailed “her extraordinary global expertise, proven track record of scaling dynamic brands [and] profound understanding of product strategy”.
With all that in thoughts, FashionNetwork.com spoke to her to seek out out what made her make the leap from Castore to Sweaty Betty.
Helen Harding
“I want every day to be a day to learn and provide progression for myself, the team and the brand. I get my wins through the success of those I partner with, and was keen to learn more and create more value in return. I enjoyed being part of the Castore brand journey and it gave me the fire to find a new route to champion the consumer, this time with a focus on empowering women,” she advised us.
And that final level is clearly essential as she stated it was massive cause Sweaty Betty appealed to her.
“Having purpose is a key part of how I operate, a purpose has to give value and I find huge personal value in the empowerment of women,” she stated. “What also resonates with me is the brand DNA, its strong and confident while also playful and full of personality. There are no compromises to product quality and consumer solutions are at the forefront of the design thought process. I am also an advocate of the leadership style at Sweaty Betty, it’s the perfect fit for me and one I know I can contribute to and enhance”.
Clearly, going from a model with enormous momentum like Castore to at least one that’s extra established like Sweaty Betty will include challenges so far as igniting quick development is anxious. However she’s very upbeat about what might be achieved, particularly because the model ramps up exercise past its home UK market, and there’s a transparent feeling that Sweaty Betty is on the cusp of sturdy development.
“The opportunity for global expansion is both big and exciting,” she defined. “Sweaty Betty has such a defined brand presence, target consumer and energising purpose – to be able to take that global for women to live their active lifestyle — would be incredibly rewarding to me personally, and a great growth journey for the brand. Creating the right product mix for target territories and trading channels is about mixing the science of data with the art of being consumer-centric and forward-looking. With the positive culture and progressive mindset I’ve experienced within the team, nothing is insurmountable here.” Harding joins and strengthens the broader govt management workforce alongside not too long ago recruited VP of digital, Ian Kennedy, one other sports activities trade veteran.
He has greater than 17 years of digital and e-commerce expertise, having most not too long ago been director of digital expertise at Puma. There he led the model’s strategy to scaling its e-commerce and digital shopper expertise globally.
He’d beforehand been with Chelsea Soccer Membership as digital director, launching and scaling its cell app and digital presence, together with spending nearly eight years primarily based within the UAE the place he was with Emirates Airline as head of digital advertising and marketing.
US enlargement, new shops and neighborhood focus
Whereas Kennedy’s appointment reveals digital is a key focus for the label, bodily shops are additionally vastly essential.
The model has not too long ago opened in Chicago’s Southport neighbourhood at 3530 N Southport Avenue, and Washington DC’s Georgetown space at 3251 M St NW. And UK openings embrace its debut in Wales with a retailer in Cardiff’s Morgan Quarter that opened in October and a brand new retailer in Westfield London that opened in November.
The corporate stated the shops are “intended to increase brand awareness and drive retail sales in vibrant community locations, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to bringing the unique Sweaty Betty experience to more women across the world”.
And Melissa Mullen stated the shops “mark an exciting opportunity to connect with new communities and deepen our presence in key markets”.
The workforce’s common point out of the phrase “community” is essential right here. It’s at all times been on the core of the model and if something, it has doubled down on that since Wolverine Worldwide acquired it for nearly £300 million in 2021.
The previous 18 months have been significantly essential because it has put new administration in place (a course of that the most recent appointments present is ongoing) and centered on simply the way it can join extra typically and extra productively with that neighborhood.
A part of this was the appointment of Kerry Williams as its chief advertising and marketing officer (CMO) earlier this 12 months. As a former England and Nice Britain worldwide hockey participant and with greater than 14 years of selling management expertise within the sports activities sector (together with time spent at Nike), she was clearly a very good match for the rising model.
FashionNetwork.com additionally spoke to her in London in regards to the advertising and marketing strategy and she or he stated the model had hung out going “back to our roots to figure out exactly who we are, what that means for women and who our target audience is”. Having achieved that, she now believes “we should just be owning that space and not trying to compete in areas where we just get lost”. And he or she’s eager to distinguish the label clearly as “there are so many brands [out there] that it just can feel like a sea of sameness”.
The deal with the neighborhood is a giant a part of her pondering and extends to retailer location decisions. Williams stated “we want to make sure that we are where our consumer is”. However that’s not nearly being the place the shopper is after they wish to spend cash as there’s additionally lots of effort put into operating feelgood neighborhood occasions from its retailer base. It has round 80 doorways at current so the house allocation is fairly good and the chance to run an occasions programme is big.
Assume weekly run golf equipment, yoga, pilates or spin classes and plenty extra. However this isn’t nearly alternatives for outperformers to impress. These occasions are as a lot about the remainder of us merely being lively.
After all, Sweaty Betty is an organization that desires to promote as many product as it might. And such occasions (in addition to different methods through which it reaches out to its neighborhood) are key for serving to it discover out about what motivates its prospects.
Sweaty Betty
Williams is dedicated to understanding what the model’s prospects (and potential prospects) are pondering. And what they’re pondering extends to why they might not be profiting from their train alternatives — which may boil all the way down to a careless remark about somebody’s look crushing a lady’s confidence and stopping her being lively.
“I think anything is more powerful when it’s led by the consumer. We can have 10 women with 10 different reasons why they’re afraid to wear shorts, or why they haven’t done for 20 years,” she defined, including that for girls, understanding “the constant comparison, the constant balls that are being juggled, whether it’s family, career, friendship groups, the PTA, the Whatsapp group” is vastly essential for a model devoted to girls’s activewear.
“We don’t talk about [the pressures enough] as women and brands don’t hear it in the right way. They almost shame you a little bit. Like, you really need to have it all and be able to do it all, otherwise you’re failing. The great thing about Sweaty Betty is that we’re trying to embrace our bodies, trying to make sure that you are able to just be who you want to be, and not feel judged in any way, shape or form, whether that’s if you want to wear the bright prints, or whether you want to just wear black, whether you should feel comfortable or feel empowered to work out or not work out.
“We’re trying to get that message across as the go-to brand to just embrace who you are”.
The corporate is consistently evaluating suggestions (not simply on its merchandise but in addition issues like its images) to determine simply what girls need and Williams stated it has found that “what they look for is comfort, versatility and the feminine details that make them feel good. The versatility bit is the key thing here. It’s like being able to have a crossover so you have the performance benefits so that you can work out, but it also has a style element, that if you are going to brunch, if you are out and about, that you still look good. I think it goes back to that ‘juggling’ mindset. We’ve got so much going on.”
After all it’s not a case of making an attempt to tick each single field in a lady’s life, however making certain the model can match into the elements of its the place it has one thing to supply.
“We have got our focus on being an activewear brand, but we do have an extensive lifestyle range as well. It’s the crossover between the two, and that’s going to come to fruition even more so if you look at future designs that are coming in”.
It signifies that beneath the possession of Wolverine Worldwide, the design groups for lively and way of life are extra built-in as a result of the corporate can’t ignore the truth that its shopper analysis has proven an merchandise designed for, say, operating or yoga, may also be worn all day.
And meaning an enormous alternative to promote extra, one thing Helen Harding’s arrival will clearly speed up.
New company
With the majority of its enterprise taking place within the UK, the corporate has huge potential within the US and in addition in different worldwide markets. And meaning sturdy advertising and marketing.
Solely final month Sweaty Betty appointed Home 337 to create a brand new world model marketing campaign aimed toward constructing consciousness each within the UK and worldwide markets. The marketing campaign will debut early subsequent 12 months and can purpose to drive a deeper emotional reference to its target market.
Sweaty Betty
But it’s not shedding sight of the truth that emotional connections can come from smaller initiatives, bringing us again to its neighborhood focus. For example, on Worldwide Day of the Woman its Hijab marketing campaign gave hijabs to UK colleges as a part of its dedication to breaking down limitations round package.
And in addition to that massive worldwide marketing campaign, different plans for 2025 are extra grassroots. For example, they embrace the soon-to-launch colleges PE altering rooms makeover competitors. It stated that “transforming girls’ changing rooms is critical to our mission to get more teenage girls active. The lack of privacy, inadequate facilities and negative attitudes are key contributory factors putting girls off from doing PE”.
It seems like 2025 goes to be an fascinating 12 months for the label each on the world stage and at a extra granular degree.
