Teenage Fitness Fan Jumpstarts Athletic Apparel Brand

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Hello and greetings, friends, listeners, side hustle school community. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I will be your host. And I sometimes hear from young side hustlers who are worried about being taken seriously.

I always love to feature stories of people starting at a young age, creating a business for themselves, even if they're working a regular job or plan to go to school or whatever it is they want to do. And this question comes up a lot at events I speak at or emails that come in and they've got a good idea, but they're just worried like, are people gonna think this is a real business? If I am 16 or 12 or whatever the age is. And my response is usually twofold. First of all, I think it can be a strength.

If you're starting a business as a teenager, then that's interesting to a lot of people. It's not necessarily something that's unattractive, it could be the opposite. But also, the thing is it's the internet. So if you're selling a physical product, certain kinds of products, or even a number of services, does anyone really need to know? If you're searching for shoelaces, let's say, and you go online and you find the perfect shoelace store, they've got the color and style you want, they can get it to you in three days, you like the price, you make your purchase, right?

You don't necessarily care like who's behind the curtain, nor do you need to know. So today's story is about an 18 year old in the UK who creates an apparel brand. He makes t-shirts, sweatpants, other items of clothing, and he does this while working at Heathrow Airport, saving his money to invest in manufacturing, all while learning to make his own website and building this little brand. So clearly, he's making some wise decisions, I'll tell you a bit about how he does it, and his future seems bright, and I bet yours does too, since you're choosing to invest your time and listening to the program. So first, a quick thank you to our sponsor today, and then I'll tell you how this 18 year old goes from idea to action with his fitness meets fashion athletic brand in just over a year.

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Today's featured side hustler, Anthony Miller, works full-time as a security officer at Heathrow Airport in London. But when he's not sending passengers through x-ray screening or checking bags for those oversized shampoo bottles that every terrorist loves, you can find him on the court or in the gym. You see, like many young men his age, Anthony has a passion for sports and fitness. It was that love of athletics that inspired him to start Absolute Fitness Apparel, an affordable fitness clothing brand. Anthony doesn't have a business degree, or any degree for that matter, because at the time of starting this project in 2017, he was 18 years old and fresh out of secondary school.

That means high school for our North American listeners. What he did have was an idea and a sketch, as well as the motivation to turn those things into that fitness apparel brand. Being 18 with a limited amount of available cash, Anthony felt financially strapped buying all the fitness apparel he wanted without breaking the bank. A simple running tank top from Nike could set you back $65. He wanted to create a brand that was reasonably priced enough for your average teenager while also blending performance and style.

Since he was working with limited funds, he decided to sketch his first design himself. And it was that first T-shirt sketch that really got the ball rolling. But before he found a supplier to make his sketch into reality, Anthony knew he had to decide on his brand. He chose that name Absolute Fitness Apparel because he wanted to inspire people to give their absolute best in their sport or in the gym. Over the next few months, Anthony would get home after hassling old ladies at Heathrow and then spend his free time creating a logo, building a website, and launching a social media presence.

Since sports are better with a team, or at least one other player, he hired a designer to create a logo with a small portion of his savings, and he kept costs low by tackling the website himself. This definitely came with a bit of a learning curve since he'd never done anything like it before, but he got a much-needed sideline assist from YouTube. Whenever he ran into a problem, he'd look for a short video on the solution. And being part of a generation grown on social media made creating profiles for Absolute Fitness equivalent to an easy free throw. How's that for mixed sports metaphors?

Once he had his brand foundation in place, he switched his focus to production and sourcing materials. True to his mission statement, it was important to create a line that was A, cost-effective for your average cash-strapped millennial, B, versatile, and could easily transition from weightlifting to running, and C, looked fashionable. This last point was vital. It needed to transition fluidly from the basketball court to the street without missing a beat. Sourcing suppliers in the beginning was not exactly a slam dunk.

He had to adjust his game plan several times as he went along. When he did find his supplier, he started out with two different items, a pair of cut-offs and that first t-shirt he had designed. The pair of cut-offs had two colors, and as a result of a miscommunication between the supplier and Anthony, he ended up receiving a discounted rate on 100 units. Goal! Despite the best efforts on both sides of the court, there were some delays, and Anthony had to push back his launch date at the last minute.

That's why he suggests that you don't set a launch date for your product until you have that actual product in your hands and are able to make a play. Anthony was good at keeping his eye on the ball. Finally, with his product in hand, he pivoted his attention to affiliate marketing to really get the word out and organically grow the brand's social media platforms. His goal was to be active and create a sense of urgency, posting one or two times a day. He followed the analytics for his Instagram account and used split testing or A/B testing to see what his audience was responding to the most.

He then shifted the content he produced to speak to their needs. He also studied other brands with bigger budgets to see what worked best for them. Since launching Absolute Fitness Apparel a little over a year ago, the product line has expanded to include long-sleeved shirts and hoodies. He's now sold well over 300 units at an average price point of about $38. That is just over $10,000 in sales.

Like many athletes, Anthony is in it to win it and he finds motivation each day to build his brand out just a little bit more. Milestones have included reaching his 100th sale. Then there was the first day he saw someone he didn't know wearing his brand. He plans to continue expanding his line and audience, getting more people interested in pursuing active and healthy lifestyles. With this new line of fashionable fitness apparel, he's invested in going the distance and he wants to do it in styles.

All right, some quick comments for me, especially about age. And first of all, congrats to Anthony. Well done on starting a fitness apparel line at the age of 18 while working as a security officer at Heathrow Airport. It's amazing. But just to offer a bit of a suggestion or a critique on his website, which I went to check out, there's no mention of his personal story.

And I believe a clearer about page and mission statement would help. Or kind of a reason why, like here's what we're about. So on that about page, he has a mission statement. It says something like we're a fitness clothing brand founded in Southwest London in 2017. Our mission statement is to create high quality, affordable and innovative activewear to athletes, which in turn will promote a healthy wellbeing.

Kind of goes on from there. It's not like it's bad or anything. It's just a little bit generic. And I understand why he did it because this is what most companies' mission statements sound like. It's like every corporation says, we are committed to excellence, which is basically meaningless, right?

Because a corporation is not gonna come out and say, we are committed to mediocrity. It doesn't really make much of a statement. So I just wonder, even though it's totally possible, as I said, to be 12 years old and have an e-commerce website, selling to people all over the world and nobody have any idea like who you are or what your background is. Even so, I wonder if his personal story might actually be more interesting and powerful and compelling. So that about page could feature a bit more about himself.

It could say like, here's why I started this brand. Here are some reviews from my customers. In less than a year, I learned how to manufacture t-shirts. I increased the product line. I sold 300 units.

At some point along the way, he won some kind of award. Just highlighting all that stuff, I think would be really interesting. I think doing that would be positive, not negative. So that's my suggestion, but of course, good for him either way. We'll make sure to link up that site so you can take a peek at it.

Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/517. That is 5-1-7. I'll be back tomorrow and I hope you'll join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.