A new study has highlighted how ‘challenger’ activewear brands are winning out on social media, often beating the big names of the sports biz in their ability to reach consumers.

Global influencer and social intelligence platform WeArisma has launched its Sports and Athleisure 2025 State of Influence report and called out names like Gymshark and TALA.

It named Gymshark, one of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, as being among social media’s favourite activewear brands globally, explaining that its “community-led engagement strategy has generated influencer content that garnered over 907.3 million engagements, outshining heritage labels Adidas and Nike”.  

The brand’s influencer content blends fitness conversation, comedy, challenges and training advice “to foster authentic relationships between fitness creators and their audiences”. This has driven increases of 62% in Earned Media Value (EMV), 92% in impressions and 174% in engagements year on year.   

WeArisma hailed its “authentic influencer content that appeals strongly to target audiences” and said its so-called Resonance score shows that 29% of consumers who saw influencer content about the brand interacted with it, compared to an 11% industry average. Neither Adidas nor Nike ranked in the top 10 brands generating the most Resonance.

It also said influencer Grace Beverley’s TALA, is one of only two sports and athleisure brands to achieve WeArisma’s top Virality Grade, which assesses the extent to which an influencer’s content spreads beyond their immediate audience. Its branding and influencer content “appeals to younger generations who are seeking apparel that blends style and performance to suit their active lifestyles”.  

The report added that “as an influencer-owned business, TALA exemplifies how engaged audiences boost social media presence”.

Running shoes brand On is another fairly young label that makes the most of influencer content. “On’s work with Zendaya goes beyond a standard influencer endorsement as the star is contributing to the brand’s long-term aesthetic direction and leading an aspirational movement, which generated $11 million in EMV in the 12 months from December 2023,” WeArisma said. 

But some more established labels are also adept in the area with WeArisma calling out FILA and Lululemon as they “also harness Gen Z influencers to promote this trend and increase reach”. 

Influencer content about FILA, fuelled by Zhao Lusi and Jackson Lee, “has driven 320 times more engagement and 42 times more impressions than the brand’s own content”. And influencer content about Lululemon has generated 19 times more EMV than brand accounts.  

So does that mean it’s game over for the big players like Nike and Adidas? Not really. They’ve made the most of collabs with luxury brands that are capitalising on the appetite for high-performance clothing to cross into the sports and athleisure sector. Collabs such as Nike x Jacquemus, Adidas x Avavav and Nike x Kim Kardashian for NikeSKIMS have made a big impact.

And both Nike and Adidas “dominate conversation around sporting events”, we’re told.  

Events — such as the Paris Olympics last year — are hugely important marketing opportunities for them. For instance, at that event, Adidas launched ‘Home of Sport’ on the Champs-Élysées and Pharrell Williams wore Adidas trainers during the torch relay. Meanwhile, Nike debuted Olympics uniforms and AI-generated sneakers supported by content from athletes, Serena Williams, Sha’Carri Richardson and Kylian Mbappé.  

And there are plenty more opportunities. The Winter Olympics may not be until next year but brands will be working with influencers around the growing interest in women’s sports as the Women’s Euros, Women’s Rugby World Cup and Women’s Cricket World Cup.  

As ASOS continues its recovery drive, the fashion e-tail giant has added several new labels to its line-up, including ICECREAM from Pharrell Williams.

The addition expands the ASOS streetwear brand offering and is available globally on the webstore. It launches with 24 options across tees, denim and outerwear. This includes products from the brand’s SS25 campaign from leopard print to neon graphic prints driven by the running dog logo.

The label was founded by Williams and Japanese fashion designer Nigo and is an extension of Billionaire Boys Club, which the duo launched in 2003. It comes with 90s skate aesthetics and takes inspiration from Williams’ musical background, with a retro edge, vibrant colours and playful prints being key to the look. 

Shazmeen Malik, brands director at ASOS, said the label has “cult status amongst streetwear fans, but it also confirms how strong our presence is in this category”.

The launch follows the onboarding of CAT WWR London on ASOS last week with 25 options including new season denim, chore jackets, and jorts. 

Also new to the site are Oh Polly and athleisure sister brand Bo+Tee. Oh Polly has launched a curated line-up of pieces including premium occasion dresses and going-out tops, while Bo+Tee delivers multiway sports bras and squat-proof leggings.

Ten-year-old Oh Polly has graduated from a label launched on eBay by Claire Henderson and Mike Branney to a major UK fashion name with a focus on trend-driven styles.

Bo+Tee launched five years after its elder sister as a one-stop shop for women’s activewear and athleisure. And ASOS is clearly impressed by the fact that between them they have a following of 7.5 million on Instagram alone.  

Malik talked of their “impressive social media presence and dedicated following”, which means “many of our customers are already familiar with these brands”.

Womenswear retailer Sosandar has released a full-year trading update (to the end of March) and said that it’s been a period of “strong strategic progress with a positive year-on-year swing in margin and PBT”.

It added that it’s at an “inflection point back to top-line growth”.

In the year, the company “delivered what we set out to achieve: growth in margin and profit before tax [PBT], a reduction in price promotional activity and opening our first own stores”.

It added that it’s “now beginning to see the results of our disciplined approach coming through in our performance. March sales were in line with the prior year and this momentum has continued into April to date, with both own-site sales and sales as a whole ahead of the prior year”. 

That said, PBT for the year “was softer than we had hoped, although a substantial positive swing compared with FY24. This was driven by slower February sales, but we continued to stick to our strategy and did not chase volume through implementing price promotions”.

PBT is expected to be not less than £0.5 million, which is better than a loss of £0.3 million in the previous year and a loss of £0.7 million in the first half of FY25.

Lower revenue of £37.2 million (down from £46.3 million) reflects the “continued transition away from price promotional activity”. And the improved gross margin of 62.5%, up from 57.6% in the prior year, reflects the continued focus on margin enhancement.

The company, which was formerly a pureplay e-tailer, opened its first six stores in FY25, and as mentioned, it said that post-year-end, April trading has “been strong, ahead of the prior year, building on the momentum seen in March and providing further confidence in the continued execution of the company’s strategy”.