Gymshark in trademark battle that threatens future of small fitness business

详细摘要

Exclusive: British sportswear firm is seeking to obtain rights to The Conditioning Club, which is also the name of a Gloucestershire gymGymshark, the £1bn British sportswear firm…

Exclusive: British sportswear firm is seeking to obtain rights to The Conditioning Club, which is also the name of a Gloucestershire gym

Gymshark, the £1bn British sportswear firm started in a family garage, is locked in a trademark battle that threatens the future of a small fitness business.

Ben Francis, the university dropout who started sewing his own gym clothes in his parents’ garage and is now estimated to be worth £800m, is trying to add The Conditioning Club to his Gymshark stable of trademarks.

However, The Conditioning Club is also the name of a gym and fitness business based on an industrial estate in the Gloucestershire town of Fairford.

Founded by John Watson, who is the same age as 34-year-old Francis, the company registered its name at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) for gym and fitness services five years ago.

Watson, who has nine staff and three self-employed personal trainers serving about 500 members, is now awaiting the outcome of proceedings by the UKIPO.

“When I registered our name, I thought I had done what I needed to do to protect us,” says Watson. “Five years later, we have members, employees, premises, relationships with schools and sports clubs and a genuine local community built around The Conditioning Club name.

“I never imagined that I would find myself having to defend our name, particularly against a business like Gymshark, which like us started from humble beginnings. I had previously looked to Ben and Gymshark as an example of what a small UK fitness-related business can achieve.”

Francis founded Gymshark in 2012 and US private equity firm General Atlantic took a stake in 2020, making the company a “unicorn” with a £1.25bn valuation and Francis a multimillionaire while still in his 20s. He was the recipient of an MBE for services to the commerce and the economy at 30.

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