There are yoga brands consistently popping up everywhere these days. However, one fitness brand that has taken the world by storm with its unique membership and ambassadors is Fabletics.
Fabletics is a fashion-centered athletic brand that has evolved workout gear and yoga into everyday streetwear. Fabletics owner successfully coupled luxurious quality with affordable prices helping to create over two million loyal members worldwide.
Although Fabletics is relatively young since it was founded in 2013, it has grown into a mighty activewear brand. This brand successfully cuts out the middleman and can fill several gaps that top brands in the activewear industry are yet to reach.
However, most people wonder if Fabletics is worth the membership and don’t know how the brand works. One also wonders if the brand will hold up to other competitors in the future and who might be the name behind the brand’s success story.
This article will answer some of these common questions and then much more. Keep reading to discover about Fabletics’ history and the brand’s community and owner.
What is Fabletics?
Fabletics is an activewear brand that’s quite affordable and offers customers color-coordinated yoga gear, streetwear, athletic clothes, loungewear, among several more product categories. Most of Fabletics’ offerings are as stylish as they are functional. The brand is unique in its approach towards sales as they have a VIP membership program that comes with a monthly fee that customers use for significant discounts and clothing purchases. You can cancel this membership at any time, or members can opt to skip a month. One of Fabletics’ owners is Kate Hudson, and the brand also has connections with Kevin Hart helping this brand offer stylish, eco-conscious and fun sportswear to a massive audience. Fabletics has also worked with celebrities like Demi Lovato, Maddy Zieglar, Marquita Pring, and Lea Michele.
The Brand’s Mission
Fabletics owner clarifies that their core philosophy is to create stylish, functional sportswear that the average person finds affordable. The brand focuses on an effortless and humble approach over fancy pro-athlete endorsements and overpriced fabrics. By exuding a down-to-earth vibe, Fabletics can connect with its customers. This member-focused brand offers durable, fashion-forward collections while still providing customers with unbeatable prices.
The mission of Fabletics is simply to become the world’s most innovative, fashionable, and inclusive activewear and lifestyle brand in the market. This company firmly believes that everyone should always look and feel their best. They aim to ensure this with stylish sportswear, which is still comfortable and functional.
Fabletics Sustainability
This company successfully embodies transparency and fun. They offer customers a luxury feel without a need for extravagant price tags. The company recently expanded its commitment to eco-friendly styles while promoting climate-conscious business practices. They initially took these actions to improve their sustainability game. Fabletics owner started the brand as an eCommerce catalog. However, the brand now has stores worldwide, and they’re all climate-neutral from the beginning.
Fabletics Owner and History
Fabletics owner isn’t limited to one but two geniuses who saw a significant opportunity in the athleticwear industry in the mid-2000s. At this time, Lululemon dominated the market but had luxurious price tags the average person couldn’t afford. Most people usually had to source cheap workout gear at big box stores, holding out hope that they fit appropriately or would even last long.
Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler wanted to create something that bridged the gap. They wanted to create something that was a trendy, affordable alternative but still lived up to high-end athleticwear brands’ style, quality, and performance.
Goldenberg and Ressler approached Kate Hudson, an actress, with their idea. They explained they wanted to create fashionable performance-driven activewear that many people found accessible. She loved the idea, and together, the trio founded Fabletics in 2013. The brand’s core belief was that everyone should look and feel their best. With a clear membership strategy and celebrity endorsements, Fabletics grew into an iconic activewear brand that provides comfortable and cute activewear. Although Fabletics started as an affordable, high-quality eCommerce brand, it has expanded over the years and now boasts of over 100 brick-and-mortar stores worldwide.
Fabletics Owner Kate Hudson’s Inspiration to Co-found Fabletics
Kate Hudson is an actress well known for her roles in Bride Wars, My Best Friend’s girl, and so much more. She’s an active mother and entrepreneur looking for comfortable styles to wear, from movie sets to work outs and playing sports with her sons. When Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler approached her about starting Fabletics, she agreed, believing she could help ignite a movement around a fit and active lifestyle.
Fabletics owner Kate Hudson’s role in the company has been integral in facilitating the inclusive and down-to-earth image of the brand. She owns about 20% of the company and has helped the brand reach a massive audience through her platforms. In a world where most celebrities sponsor brands but do not wear their products, Kate’s approach is refreshing. She wears Fabletics daily and is known for her minimalist, and fun style.
Fabletics Membership Approach
One advantage of shopping with Fabletics is that every average person can buy. Although there’s a membership, you don’t have to be a member to enjoy the great prices the brand shares every day. The benefit to the membership is that members enjoy lots of extra benefits on top of the regular price. An example is that members could pay half the fee for most clothes or even less if they have a membership credit. Fabletics’ flexible membership is open to the public at $49 a month. Each month, members get a promotional credit they can use to pick a 2-piece outfit for more than 50% off the retail price. You can use this credit for anything you want, as it is up to $80 in value.
If you choose to shop for more than your membership credit that month, you also get 20% off all individual items you choose. In addition to these benefits, members enjoy a personalized monthly pick from Fabletics fitness stylists. Fabletics owner also makes sure that members get simple exchanges and returns. You also get to enjoy Fabletics’ free shipping and reward points while you’re a member. Note that you can roll over credits for months if you’re not ready to purchase anything. The membership credits last for 12 months before they expire. Charging for Fabletics membership takes place on the 6th of every month. On this day, if you don’t cancel your membership or skip the month, you’ll always get a membership credit for an outfit and also gain access to exclusive releases.
The Key to Fabletics Winning Partnership
Although there’s not just a single Fabletics owner, the brand has continued to grow, with the partnership going stronger. This partnership enables Fabletics to compete effectively against activewear giants like Under Armour, Lululemon, Nike, and many more. Below are the keys to this winning partnership and how Fabletics managed to rise to the top in such a short time.
Vertical Integration
Fabletics usually goes from design to delivery in eight weeks. Fabletics owner ensures that all operations are kept in-house, allowing Fabletics to move quickly while still manufacturing at a high standard. The company collaborates on all aspects of the business by employing top designers to provide stylish designs for activewear. The brand also works with next-generation tech and also controls production and delivery.
Fabletics is well-positioned, thanks to their impressive model. This model allows the company to offer customers the same quality and performance for half the price. The company stays connected to its customer community and always utilizes its customer feedback to improve the brand. Therefore, they can achieve tangible results in a unique way that other brands are yet to achieve.
Meaningful Relationships with Members
When it comes to developing lasting connections with its customers, Fabletics takes an innovative approach. Before you become a member, the Fabletics owner ensures that prospective VIP members complete a style quiz. This quiz helps them determine what a customer’s taste is. Through this style quiz, Fabletics can offer its members personalized style recommendations. These offers usually have customers hooked right from the first month and leave them looking forward to the new submissions coming in the next month.
This data-driven personalization continues to drive sales for the brand like the membership. By promoting a direct relationship with the customer, the brand can use the data gathered to reduce risks in the fashion space. The company uses this data to forecast inventory demand effectively. This way, they can minimize overproduction while passing the savings back to their consumers.
Give Customers a Good Reason to Return
The online membership model won’t work if members are not motivated to return to the website. A brand needs to build trust and brand loyalty to increase sales. However, engagement and inspiring customer return require urgency, which Fabletics’ owner strives to provide. Fabletics continues to introduce new limited-edition looks for its members to create this urgency with the brand. Their fast operational speed allows them to keep up with demands from their audience. Their competitive price points support the top-quality products and VIP-focused messaging and ads created by Fabletics owner.
Their ultimate goal is to create a self-sustaining Fabletics community that looks forward to new releases with fervor. Fabletics owner shares that the company is striving to develop a loyal community of women who think alike beyond building a lifestyle brand.
Improving With Growth
When a business is entering new territories, there will be challenges along the way. In 2014, Fabletics received backlash about a lack of clarity in its membership model. Additionally, many people raised concerns about a lack of inventory for most of their bestselling items. Most VIPs were disappointed about how fast Hudson’s designs would sell out. This criticism created negative publicity for the brand and affected sales negatively.
Clear communication is one of the priorities at Fabletics, as the brand always wants customers to feel informed. The Fabletics owner took steps to simplify and clarify the program to remedy this. Hudson understood that it was difficult to do everything right as a startup scaling higher. Therefore, the brand took criticism constructively and made the necessary improvements in the company. Soon after this criticism, the brand underwent a redesign and changed how it communicated its membership. There was also an upgrade to the customer service, and within a few months, the efforts paid off. The brand scored an A rating in customer satisfaction ranks with the Better Business Bureau.
Final Thoughts
Anyone who has worn Fabletics will agree that this activewear brand lives up to the hype. Their budget-friendly outfits are worth it, and members don’t even have to sign up to enjoy some of the discounts available on the platform. It is one of the fastest-growing brands in the activewear space today. Their innovative membership model, in addition to the high-quality and affordable products available, contributed to the brand’s fast growth. By combining style-centric design with top-performance, Fabletics owner can evolve activewear beyond the gym and into the streets, widening the customer base.
