ATHLETEGY BRINGS ATHLETIC STRATEGY TO THE MEN’S ACTIVEWEAR MARKET

Here at MR, normally we steer our readers to brands that wholesale, but every so often we stumble across a DTC company we think you should keep your eyes on. Besides, how often do you hear about the nascent plans for a brand in the gym locker room?

A couple of years ago I was working out at Equinox in Greenwich Village. I overheard somebody explaining that he was starting a new apparel brand, so of course my ears perked up. When he said it was called “Athletegy,” combining the words “athlete,” and “strategy,” how could I not eavesdrop?

I chatted briefly with the guy, but never pursued it further. Fast forward to a few months ago and a marketing pro approached me about a new client he was working with that had an interesting name: Athletegy! Turns out that former fitness model, now fashion entrepreneur Andrew Morrill, and his business partner, with a background in finance, Mike Tedesco, stayed the course and the activewear brand is now three years old.

Now admittedly they’re a couple of Davids heading into a sea of Goliaths in the activewear market, but Morrill and Tedesco seem to have a clear focus not only on making the right financial decisions to carefully build a business but also on creating product that fits properly and is comfortable, with an emphasis on tasteful design. The brand’s best-selling item, the Quad Short, has a 5-inch length, compared to the 7- to 9-inch length offered by most brands: clearly these are designed for guys who do not skip leg day. Like, ever.

As Morrill put it, when they launched the collection, besides seeing a hole in the market for a shorter athletic short, they also noticed that everything in the market looked the same. “Elevated brands began to bring streetwear styles into high fashion, but we hadn’t seen that translated into the gym. On the other hand, if you were to take a lot of the athletic brands’ offerings, put them on a wall, and block out the logos, they all looked alike, a monochromatic sea of black and navy. We wanted to introduce pattern and color in ways that hadn’t been done before.”

As an example, in last summer’s launch, Athletegy’s most popular color was a pink shade called “ash rose,” the second was a green, and then a light blue. The duo was inspired to do more with color and pattern going forward, treating patterns as limited editions. One of the brand’s big hits last season was a star print, which is almost out of stock.

“We wanted to do different things, but not be screaming at the customer,” says Tedesco. “We want people to enjoy wearing the clothes and to be as comfortable wearing them in the gym as out.”

The shorts retail for $68 for solids, and $78 for prints, with T-shirts at $58, tanks at $54, and a just introduced ¼-zip at $98. The brand also has Supima sweatshirts and hoodies for $108 and $138.  

The two are taking advantage of their DTC status to get to know their customer well. Tedesco says, “We notice when people purchase our shorts, they buy them, and then within four to seven days we see the same person come back and buy the rest of them, so we know we must be doing something right.”

The two do see wholesale as part of the five-year plan (they are in year three now) but want to focus on developing a relationship with the consumer—even going so far as to handwrite “thank you” notes to their first customers—so that the core customer is dedicated and feels invested in the success of the company.

“Our slogan is ‘look good, feel good, train better,’” says Morrill.

That sounds like a winning strategy to us! For more information, check out athletegy.com or follow them on Instagram, @athletegy.nyc.

All images courtesy of Athletegy.