How a promising start-up was transformed into a billion-pound business by focusing on its most important asset: its people
By Laura Lear, Deputy Managing Director, AMBITIOUS
When Steve Hewitt, pictured above, took the helm at Gymshark, the brand was already on an impressive growth trajectory. But what turned it into a global fitness phenomenon was Steve’s unwavering belief that people make the business. As the former CEO of Gymshark and now founder of Whānau, Steve is a passionate advocate of creating environments where employees thrive, and his recent appearance on the AMBITIOUS Thoughtful Leadership Podcast offered a masterclass in culture-driven success.
The “Christmas Eve” culture
Imagine feeling so excited to start the working week that Sunday nights feel like Christmas Eve. For Steve, this is the essence of a great workplace culture – a place where employees are energised, motivated, and genuinely happy to contribute. At Gymshark, he built this culture by ensuring that the business stayed true to its purpose and fostered an environment people didn’t want to leave. Steve explained that it’s not just about having the best people; it’s about having the right people. He championed the idea that hiring should align with a company’s values, and he prioritised trust over performance. A top performer isn’t necessarily the most trustworthy and it’s trust that builds lasting teams. By creating an inclusive, supportive environment, Gymshark achieved extraordinary growth – from £4 million to £100 million in annual turnover in just a few years.
Building a North Star
At the heart of Gymshark’s success was its North Star – a clear, guiding framework that helped the company avoid becoming what he described as a “butterfly on a leaf,” flitting aimlessly between fleeting opportunities.
This North Star consisted of four “buckets”; Its purpose – which enabled the company to stay focused on its mission of inspiring people to be their best and achieve their fitness goals; Its audience – instead of trying to appeal to everyone, Gymshark honed in on its core audience to keep focus; Its values – how it behaves, from how it treats employees to how it resonates with customers; Its business model – which ensured that the maths actually worked and that its rapid growth was always underpinned by financial sustainability.
By sticking to its purpose, the brand avoided overcomplicating its strategy and ensured that every employee understood the direction in which the company was heading.
Lessons in leadership
Steve’s leadership style is rooted in accessibility, vulnerability, and trust. As a CEO, he made a point of walking the floor at Gymshark for an hour every day. This gave him invaluable insights into the company’s culture – insights he often found more authentic than those shared in the boardroom. He noted that a company’s culture barometer isn’t in the C-suite. He commented that he was more likely to find it with the lunch staff – the frontline employees. They’d tell him the truth about the organisation in a way that a senior team may not.
Steve also stressed the importance of vulnerability in leadership and being able to say, ‘I got that wrong,’ or ‘I’m sorry’. This builds trust within your team. Leaders who avoid blame culture and embrace accountability create environments where people feel safe to innovate and learn.
Feedback played a crucial role in this process. Steve encouraged leaders to offer both constructive and positive feedback, backed by evidence. British culture often shies away from honest feedback, but if done right, it’s a gift. It builds stronger teams and better results.
Learning from failure
Gymshark’s defining failure came during Black Friday 2015, when its systems imploded under the weight of customer demand. The company lost 35% of its customer base and faced a slew of negative reviews on Trustpilot.
Instead of succumbing to the setback, Steve and his team used it as a catalyst for change. They hired and cleaned up their systems. This humility and willingness to learn from mistakes became a hallmark of Gymshark’s culture.
Diversity and inclusion
In its early years, Gymshark’s workforce was predominantly young, white, and male – a reflection of its initial product offering. Steve recognised that to serve a global customer base, the company needed to embrace diversity. Under his leadership, Gymshark expanded its size range from four to eight sizes and improved its female product line. By 2020, the company boasted a workforce of over 1,000 employees spanning 30 nationalities and achieving gender parity.
Steve’s approach to building an international culture was also key to Gymshark’s success. He emphasised hiring local talent for new international offices while ensuring they understood Gymshark’s origins and values. He also encouraged leadership teams to spend time immersing themselves in new markets to ensure alignment and efficiency across continents.
Communication is the heart of culture
For Steve, communication is everything – especially internal communication. Get it wrong, and it’s remembered forever. Transparency was key to his leadership, and he made a point of being accessible not just to his immediate team but to employees at all levels.
He also highlighted the danger of inconsistent messaging. When organisations constantly change direction, they become rudderless. Employees lose trust because they don’t understand where the business is going.
By maintaining clear, consistent communication and tying every decision back to the North Star, Steve ensured Gymshark’s team remained aligned, even as the company scaled.
There are a number of practical considerations and steps you can take as a business when it comes to instilling a great culture to support business growth. It comes down to striking the right balance between purpose and practice and communicating that effectively with internal and external audiences. This means crafting a narrative that ties daily tasks to your mission, opening feedback loops to build trust, and leading with vulnerability to foster innovation. Externally, focusing on your core audience, aligning your messaging with your values, and telling memorable stories strengthens brand trust. By embedding these principles into your communication strategy, you can create an environment where your people, and your business, are set up to succeed.
