Ryderwear launches app for global success
Business
The fitness label that began as a niche brand with a cult following in the United States has launched its workout app to help open up global markets.
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Ryderwear was founded in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, in 2009 by bodybuilder David Lukic and partner Natalie Lukic after noticing a shortfall in fitness clothing.
The brand grew slowly at first, developing a range of apparel designed to mould to athletes’ bodies rather than hanging loose, which was the style of the time. But following the launch of its signature D-Mak lifting shoe, Ryderwear attracted collaborations with fitness influencers and gained a cult following by weightlifters and crossfit trainers in the United States.
A decade later, Ryderwear has partnered with more than 500 influencers across social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tick Tock and will launch its first workout app PUSHH today (February 20).
Ryderwear chief marketing officer Mal Chia said the mobile application was the natural next step for the brand in its bid for global expansion.
“In the last few years we’ve grown overall but it’s been organic rather than having a deliberate focus on one market, and most of that growth has come from Australia,” Chia said.
“At the moment, Australian customers make up about 50 per cent, the US makes up about 35 per cent and then the UK and the rest of the world make up the rest.
“So we’ve been looking at how we exponentially grow, particularly with a strong focus on international markets.”
PUSHH is the latest mobile fitness app developed in South Australia, following the launch of fitness superstar Kayla Itsines’s SWEAT program in 2015 by design company PixelForce.
Chia said while the SWEAT app was aimed at women, PUSHH was designed for everyone, with a focus on people who had been training at a high level for a long time.
“The whole SWEAT team are doing an incredible job. But, if you’re training and you want to do a boxing workout, we’ve got a workout by Dave McIntosh, who’s a former British Royal Marines commando so you can train like him. We’ve got Kai Greene who is one of the top body builders, we’ve got MMA fighters, so we’ve got a lot of variety,” he said.
PUSHH athlete marketing coordinator Olivia Parker said the app would feature 18 athletes and focus on training correctly.
“The app starts off asking for people’s measurements: their weight, their goals, what they want to achieve. Then it suggests athletes’ programs that they might really like and links with their goals,” Parker said.
“There’s also blogs on nutrition, training advice and that kind of stuff. Programs range from eight to 12 weeks and you can track your workouts, so how you start and how you’re progressing with everything.
“We have an entire exercise science team who review all of the programs and make sure that everything we put on the app is evidence-based as well.”
Parker said in the past decade Ryderwear had grown from two employees to 60 with a 100 per cent increase in staff in the last six months alone.
She said she expected the app’s launch to grow the brand further.
Chai said one of the key markets Ryderwear hoped to crack was China.
He said while Ryderwear had a Chinese website, a Chinese version of the app with voice overs and translations was being developed and would be released later this year.
“It’s one thing to have a presence on the website, it’s another thing to actually have brand awareness and brand salience in the Chinese market,” Chia said.
“That’s something we’re going to be looking to do this year, how we present ourselves to that Chinese market and why should they care about Ryderwear.
“We’ve been around for 10 years but we’re really only at the start of our journey. We’ve come through that awkward adolescent stage and now we’re ready.”
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