How listening to customers (and bright colours) helped VOXY stand out
The secret to this activewear brand’s success? Community, customer centricity - and lots of colour.
VOXY co-founder Alex Cattle’s business tips:
- Offer a point of difference
Why will people choose you if you’re offering something similar to an already-established brand?
- Involve customers in everything
People will buy into the brand if they can see they can help shape it
- Don’t cut corners
The temptation is there to bring a product out quickly and generate a spike in revenue, but as we learnt it’s worth making sure you are 100-per-cent happy before launch.
It was the dark colours and muted atmosphere of the UK fitness industry that gave Alex Cattle, now 28, and his 27-year-old girlfriend Steph Bridet the idea to launch colourful fitness wear brand VOXY.
The couple spent Christmas 2019 in Thailand at a Thai boxing camp where people wore bright clothes. “It didn’t feel elitist or exclusive, despite people being at very different levels,” Cattle remembers. “We came back to London gyms where everyone was avoiding eye contact and were dressed to blend in, do their thing and get out of there. It was a very different vibe; people are much more self-conscious. We wanted to bring a bit of the Thai boxing camp atmosphere to the UK and thought a great way was through women’s fitness clothing.”
"We wanted to bring a bit of the Thai boxing camp atmosphere to the UK."
By April 2020, they’d launched VOXY. “A lot of people were doing Joe Wicks’ home workouts at the time, so fitness wear was popular. Advertising was also less expensive during lockdown so we were also able to get quite a lot of exposure early on,” he says.
Having launched with five designs, the brand has grown to offer 35 designs, which have been sold to women in more than 85 countries.
The importance of pre-launch prep
The pair say social media has played a crucial role in their success, with Cattle adding that they began building their audience months before launching VOXY. Back then, the pair filled their social media feeds with content and memes aimed at CrossFit fans (a community in which they are active).
"Our products are quite shareable on social media."
Then, once they had a small number of customers, VOXY was able to share user-generated photos of fans wearing the brand. “That gave people confidence to try them themselves,” Cattle remembers. “Our products are quite shareable on social media - it’s a huge marketing channel for us - 60 to 70 per cent of our audience comes through word of mouth, as people share photos of our shorts.”
Bold colours helped the business stand out
Colour is the foundation of the brand, and the couple realised swiftly that they’d tapped into a market of consumers who were “unhappy with the bland offerings of activewear”.
In fact, bright colour has been a major product differentiator for the brand.
“It’s a hugely saturated market so we would really struggle if we didn’t have a point of difference,” says Cattle. “If we were selling black leggings then why would anyone come to a brand they’ve never heard of? There are other brands that have funky clothing but the patterns they use tend to be psychedelic and garish; VOXY is fun and unique but not wacky - it’s still quite cool clothing but it stands out.”
Discovering new audiences
Their fans went far beyond the initial CrossFit audience they’d targeted pre-launch: they found pole dancers, volleyball players, swimmers and paddle-boarders, people across a wide range of sports and disciplines were buying VOXY shorts.
“We quickly moved away from our CrossFit specific copy to show many shorts - we’ve recently showcased dancers, athletes, gymnasts, WWE wrestlers and customers in our social media campaigns,” he says.
They were drawn to the brand for its quality as well designs, he says. “CrossFit is an intense sport so people need to wear clothing that can hack it. We spent a long time sourcing the right fabric, material blend and fit. The shorts in particular are borne out of Steph’s frustration with poor-stitching and semi see-through materials.”
Listening to their customers
Cattle says they are happy to grow slowly as they only want to launch products that they are 100-per-cent happy with. “We learnt from this mistake,” he says. “We came to winter and, as a shorts business, we rushed out leggings, but weren’t 100 per cent happy with them and learnt from feedback from customers that they also weren’t completely satisfied. So we recalled them and spent more time working on the cut of them.”
Bringing customers into the business
He believes that it’s not only having a true point of difference that has helped them build a loyal fanbase, but also involving their audience in the future of the brand. “We try to involve our customers in everything we do, from photoshoots to entering teams of customers in sports events,” he says.
“We try to involve our customers in everything we do."
They now employ a full-time employee to manage VOXY’s 600-person ambassador programme. “It’s open to anyone who likes the brand, rather than being restrictive or elitist.”
When VOXY releases new designs, the brand approaches them for feedback. Ambassadors are also given early access to sales and a discount code that delivers a commission when fans or friends purchase products.
“They can also earn points by, say, creating a Tik Tok wearing their VOXY gear, and these points will lead to a higher commission.”
Spreading social media investment
VOXY also uses direct marketing to grow their audience and sales. ‘We started by using Instagram and Facebook advertising, which was good until the back of 2021 when the IOS 14 update made it more difficult to track customers so advertising became a lot less targeted.
“Instead, we’ve invested a lot more in physical retail, such as pop ups and attending events. We have tried to diversify our marketing spend across Tik Tok, Google ads and Snapchat, as well as Instagram and Facebook, reaching different audiences on different platforms.”
For now, they’re focused on a colourful future. “We want to retain 100 per cent of the business so we’re happy to grow at a slower rate,” he says. “Seeing customers grow and more people buy into the brand is really satisfying. We started on a very small budget, entirely self-funded and reinvested everything back into the business. It’s only a few months ago that we took out our first loan.”
Providing Clearpay means customers can shop responsibly while not missing out on the designs they most want. “It improves the customer experience. We have releases that sell out quite quickly, so if people want a specific design in a limited timeframe then they can pay for it in a way that isn’t financially cumbersome,” he says.
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