Welcome, Alan Scanlan! First things first, please introduce yourself and your business!
Alan Scanlan: I am the co-founder and CEO of Earned Athletic, a CrossFit clothing brand created by professional athletes, highly esteemed coaches, and accomplished entrepreneurs invested committed to bringing their health and fitness goals to the utmost level – ultimately with the purpose of inspiring others to do the same.
Please tell us more about Earned Athletic Apparel. Where are you based? How do you operate? How about your team?
Alan Scanlan: Earned Athletic is based in Hong Kong, but we have projects to develop in various markets around South-East Asia, where the demand for CrossFit is booming.
The core team is made of two high-level CrossFit trainers (Ant & Ed – one of which was recognized fittest man in China last year) and myself. In addition, we team up with athletes and key opinion leaders who love our collections and are very aligned with our values and beliefs.
Let’s talk big picture. What problem does Earned Athletic Apparel solve out there?
Alan Scanlan: There isn’t a CrossFit-fit brand in Asia! CrossFit is gaining momentum as a sport globally – especially in China – but there is no dedicated brand in Asia capable to match the expectations of cross-fitters.
The CrossFit apparel market in Asia is dominated by undedicated low-quality products with a short life span e.g. plain cotton t-shirts. On the other end of the spectrum, high-quality brands like Lululemon have entered the market, but their products are not adapted to CrossFit and lack the durability required for training like Olympic lifting, gymnastics, powerlifting, and strongman.
What solution do you bring, then?
Alan Scanlan: Cross-fitters identify with high-quality gear, so Earned Athletic was created as an apparel brand specifically for the sport of CrossFit, which is functional, comfortable, long-lasting, and has found a public.
The market has a very particular identity that shows a taste for effort and hard work. Cross-fitters look for local and regional brands that match their intrinsic expectations. That is, high-quality, durable, and comfortable training apparel that looks good fits the athletic body and makes you feel like you’ve earned it. That’s what the brand is about!
Market-wise, what makes Earned Athletic Apparel different from the competition?
Alan Scanlan: As I just said, the market is promising and definitely growing, but there are no comparable gears out in Asia, so that makes Earned Athletic a very unique brand.
A lot of small apparel companies have tried to enter the Asian CrossFit market though. However, their founders had little experience in the field of CrossFit and this has led to a lack of ‘believability’ behind the brands from the consumer.
This is unfortunate because there is really something to do, as confirmed by the recent change in ownership of the market leader (CrossFit), which has highlighted the region and China as major growth opportunities for the next years.
Some of the key factors propelling such a market evolution include growth in health awareness, increase in adoption of fitness activities such as aerobics, swimming, running, and yoga among consumers, and a major rise in the affinity of consumers in emerging economies toward health and fitness. The question is: do we want to miss this opportunity?
Can you illustrate this with an example of how Earned Athletic Apparel made an Impact on a client?
Alan Scanlan: We recently reached a small number of fans who actually turned into loyal customers. Reading some of the feedback suggests that we manage to inspire people to get to their own next level, through our collections.
The fact that people resonate with our brand and the core values attached to it is something that has given me great hope and drives me to grow this company into something special.
What stage of development have you reached? What can you tell us about the next steps? Anything exciting?
Alan Scanlan: Earned has been available on the market since December 2019 through our online shop and has met a passionate public. In over a year, we have had close to 200.000 site visits and gathered a community of around 1,000 fans. We’re also very proud to say that our return rate is literally inexistent so we must be doing something right, and the feedback suggests that we have succeeded in creating a unique brand that only needs to acquire more fans.
We’re also excited to be in the early stages of a seed raise that will take the brand to the next level and help get our message out to a much larger audience. We’ve managed to build a viable model, now comes the time to scale it!
Let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Looking back, what was the most obvious challenge you had to overcome when you started that business?
Alan Scanlan: Cash flow has been one of the biggest challenges and I think the most important thing you need to consider when running a business. Having the money to implement all of our ideas in the proper way has been difficult.
In terms of stock and product development, we definitely made mistakes. Re-ordering some items and not developing others is another issue, but I do actually think making these mistakes is super important. I have made a lot of mistakes over the last 16 months and learned a huge amount. No doubt I will make a lot more, just as long as I don’t repeat any!
And the least obvious?
Alan Scanlan: Brand awareness would be next. We have a great product with an even better brand behind it, a brand that has a lot of meaning and is real. Getting that in front of people and the product into their hands has been hard. When people do try our gear the response has been amazing, but instead of having 1,000 fans we now need to grow that to 50,000!
What does it take to be a business owner or an entrepreneur these days?
Alan Scanlan: Execution! A lot of people have ideas for businesses but don’t execute them. Having the balls to run with your idea and to at least try is a massive step. I was by no means good in school and don’t have a clue when it comes to so many parts of my business, but I am smart enough to know this and to know when to hire someone who is better than you.
Learn from that person and get as good an idea of that part of the business as you can, have an understanding at least. Focus on what you are good at and build a team around you to execute your plan.
Would you share tips as to how you manage to deal with the hurdles of being an entrepreneur? Any routines or hacks worth sharing?
Alan Scanlan: Being an entrepreneur can be very lonely and I have definitely felt this in the past few months. I stick to a pretty strict routine, go to bed and get up at the same time every night. What time I start work when I finish work and shut off. I tend to try and schedule meetings at the same time each day. Going to the gym is a big part of my day and this really helps me break up my day, it’s like a form of meditation for me.
Speaking of tips & hacks, have you read any good books on business recently? What were the main takeaways?
Alan Scanlan: I recently re-read Shoe Dog – The Nike Story. Would highly recommend it! The big takeaway for me was patience. Meaningful brands and businesses take time to build. Nike struggled for years financially and it took decades for them to build the brand and culture we all know today. Patience, patience, patience.
Do you happen to listen to any podcasts you’d like to share?
Alan Scanlan: I listen to a lot of podcasts, being dyslexic means I struggle to read and this pushes me towards podcasts and audible. The High-Performance Podcast and The Diary of a CEO are top of my list at the moment, every episode is brilliant and I take so much from them.
Steven Barlett (The Diary of a CEO) is someone who will change the world. He is only 27 and is unbelievably wise for his age. He has had massive success to date with his business ventures but I think he will do something much bigger for this planet at some stage in his life.
Wrapping up – how can people reach you? Anything else you’d like to share?
Alan Scanlan: The goal isn’t money, the goal is to be happy! I think the more people who follow that statement the happier they will be.
You can get me on LinkedIn or through our Earned Athletic Instagram account, I check all DMs.
