Q&A: Brand Building With Athletic Propulsion Labs
Fitt Insider has teamed up with the Fitness & Active Brands Summit for a two-day event devoted to the innovations, investments, and opportunities developing in fitness and wellness.
Leading up to the event on December 4-5, 2019 in Los Angles California, we’ll be sharing interviews with select brands and individuals participating in the event.
First up, we checked in with the team at Athletic Propulsion Labs — a sportswear company at the intersection of technology, performance, and fashion.
About APL
Founded in 2009 by then 23-year-old identical twins Adam and Ryan Goldston, Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) is based on the idea of creating revolutionary products at the intersection of design and performance. In the years since its inception, APL has earned a number of patents on the way to launching line after line of innovative, stylish, and trendsetting shoes.
We were fortunate enough to get a preview of APL’s presentation on organically growing a brand. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect at the Fitness & Active Brands Summit.
What’s your best advice for brands hoping to succeed in the active lifestyle apparel space?
The key way to enter any market is to approach it with a point of differentiation that connects authentically and organically with the consumer that you are targeting.
The industry is so competitive and there are a number of great products, so to come into the space you must be doing something that others aren’t and articulate that very clearly to the customer.
I believe that is something we have done incredibly well at APL and one of the reasons why we have had and continue to have such a loyal customer base.
As APL prepares to enter the global market – what are the biggest challenges and how are you tackling them?
We sell in many global retailers worldwide, so we have a great international presence currently, but we are focusing on opening retail flagships in key global gateway cities across the world and for a few of those we will definitely need local partners to help us.
We look at challenges as an opportunity to do something different and we believe that the experience we will be providing people in different cities across the world will be special and exciting, but it takes time.
The logistical aspect of moving inventory and planning; along with choosing the retail locations are probably the most difficult challenges, but we have the appropriate partners that can help us through those potential growing pains so we are very excited.
Given your experience partnering with Lululemon and now British Formula 1, what makes a successful partnership?
To us, the most important pillars of a successful partnership are fit and authenticity. Whenever we approach a partnership, the main question we ask is why we’re doing it, not how we’ll do it.
That’s because we think there has to be a reason for the partnership. Consumers are so smart and can see through partnerships that are done solely for optics or aren’t authentic. So when we’re doing a partnership, we only work with groups that bring something to the table that we don’t currently have (and vice versa) — something that pushes both brands further together than we could’ve gone separately.
One example of an incredible partnership we did recently is our partnership with American Airlines. We recently became the official onboard amenities kit for business and first-class for all Trans-Con flights for American Airlines and it has resonated incredibly well with both American Airlines and APL customers.
We make the best travel shoes and American Airlines is the world’s largest and leading airline with a customer that wants to be as comfortable as possible when they travel and care about their health and wellness, so together we created a much better experience than either of us could’ve done independently.
For more from APL, head to the website.
For more from Adam and Ryan on building a successful brand >> register for the Fitness & Active Brands Summit here.