“Nobody ever got shredded buying billboards.” One Gymshark employee threw that line out during a lift in Birmingham last week, tongue only half-in-cheek. Yet the numbers back the bravado: in February 2025 Gymshark’s organic visibility leapt 49% year-on-year to 906k sessions while Nike added a more modest 12% to 5.9 m — and Adidas just 9% to 4 m.

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Why this market matters

The £18 bn playing field

The UK active-wear sector earned US $23.1 bn (£18 bn) in 2024 and is forecast to reach US $35.9 bn by 2030 — a 7.7% CAGR that leaves little room for resting quads.

A back-of-envelope sum shows why digital share of voice is gold: if Gymshark turned its extra 297k organic sessions (906k − 609k) into clicks at a conservative 2% conversion and £45 AOV, that’s ~£ 267k of “free” monthly revenue.

The visibility shake-up

Brand YoY Organic Visibility Change Overall Rank Monthly UK brand searches Owned social score*
Nike +12% 2 1.5m 384k
Adidas +9% 4 823k 118k
Gymshark +49% 9 823k 12k
JD Sports +13% 3 2.74m 10.5k
Sports Direct +20% 1 4.09m 5.3k

*Salience blends followers and engagement across major social platforms. Data: Salience Index 2025

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Momentum over muscle

Gymshark is the fastest-growing top-20 domain in the Index. It’s organic leap shunts the brand into the same high-authority/high-traffic quadrant as Nike, despite owning only 41 referring domains for every 100 that nike.com enjoys.

Quality beats quantity, and Google clearly rewards topic depth over raw link volume.

Sleeping giants & over-achievers

The North Face bleeds visibility (-17%) despite decent authority, while Converse punches above its weight with a 36% lift from a lighter link profile. Marketers hunting quick wins should mirror Converse’s technical clean-up before chasing PR links.

One-thing focus: the Gymshark playbook

Community > sponsorships

  • #Gymshark66 challenge pulls six-figure UGC entries every January, driving a spike in “gym programme” long-tails and newsletter sign-ups.
  • TikTok: 3.7 m followers vs Nike’s 2.8 m UK account. The kicker? Gymshark’s average engagement sits at 9%, triple Nike’s last quarter average.

Influencers > TV ads

When five-time Mr Olympia Chris Bumstead took an equity stake last autumn, mainstream press splashed the deal — Gymshark paid in shares, not cheques.

Stakeholder-creators beat rented endorsements every time; Nike’s recent footwear collabs (hello, £15 m Mbappé deal) look heavy by comparison.

DTC > retail chains

96% of Gymshark revenue still flows through its own site, guarding margins and data. Nike, by contrast, depends on wholesale for roughly 60% of unit sales despite the brand’s splashy shift-to-DTC messaging.

Seasonality & search intent

  1. Jan–Feb: #Gymshark66 fuels spikes in “workout plan” & “cutting diet”.
  2. May–Jun: new swim collection times with jumps in “gym shorts” +22% YoY.
  3. Nov: Black Friday generates 38% of the brand’s annual search-led sales, but site infrastructure held a 1.9 s LCP — well inside Google’s 2.5 s benchmark, preserving conversion rates.

Nike’s seasonality is flatter, dominated by global launch cycles rather than UK-centric peaks — a gap community-first brands can exploit.

Tactics in action

Funnel stage Nike play Gymshark counter-move Why it works
Awareness £3bn global ad spend Viral user challenges Trust via peers → cheaper CPM
Interest Multisport product pages Topic clusters: “building muscle”, “HIIT” Expertise signals → topical authority
Desire Athlete sponsorships Creator-owners (Bumstead) Authentic stories → higher dwell time
Action Wholesale checkout Seamless DTC UX, Klarna split-pay Fewer clicks → +1.2 pp conv.

Internal GA snapshot, Jan-Jun 2025

Engagement → conversion

  • On-site trust: sticky trust-bar, 4.7 ⭐ Trustpilot widget per page, zero dark-pattern timers.
  • Post-purchase loop: Customers are invited to vote on the next colourway within 48 hours of delivery; the open rate is 52%.
  • Lifetime value: 34% of UK customers bought again within 180 days, beating Nike’s reported 21% across EMEA.

Balanced view: winners & laggards

Winner Why Laggard Fix
Converse 36% visibility lift on thin authority The North Face Resolve URL cannibalisation; current split dilutes link equity
Oakley 31% jump via PLP speed gains Brooks Running -32% slide; low Core Web Vitals score kills rankings

Data: Salience Index 2025

Key takeaways

  • Community compounds. One laser-targeted audience can outrank multi-sport budgets.
  • Authority is borrowed, expertise is built. Creator equity trumps paid posts.
  • Speed still wins. Sub-2s LCP protects every paid click you buy.
  • Focus scales. Rank for niche, then broaden — not the other way round.
  • Measure what matters. Visibility + brand search together predict revenue shifts.

Conclusion

Nike will keep its macro-muscle — $51.4 bn FY 2024 revenue says so. But Gymshark’s £695 m run rate on zero traditional ad spend shows there’s room on the podium for ultra-focused brands. Crack footwear, and the £4 bn valuation forecast looks, dare we say, light. Your move, swoosh.


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P.S We’re a specialist ecommerce agency with 15+ years of experience.