eCommerce success: the story of Superfit Hero

Nothing better to end this year than spending some time reviewing inspiring online stores. The success stories that we usually analyze in Oleoshop give us guidelines and ideas that we can apply to your eCommerce -and even to our business model- in this 2021 that is already intuitive.

Today, we are focusing on Superfit Hero: an unconventional sportswear store for absolutely normal people. It is possible that from this success story you will extract

a different vision through the approach of the business, its involvement with the community or how disruptive it can be.

We are talking about a specific woman, but we could also refer to all the women in the world, because this store arises to cover a need that is present in most of them.

As is often the case in many businesses, Superfit Hero is born from a person's vision and her way of facing the world. In this case, the driving force behind the project is Micki Krimmel.

This woman was already used to undertake in the world of startups before this adventure, so she already had skill and knowledge.

Her career began by handling the worldwide digital marketing of Al Gore's disruptive film 'An Inconvenient Truth', while she regularly published her personal reflections on the world in her vlog 'Mickipedia' on Youtube. And all this at a time when climate change was still being openly questioned and having a personal vlog was a rare thing.

Later, she began to be known in the entrepreneurship circuits in the US thanks to her startup NeighborGoods, a crowdsourcing website where different neighborhood communities could exchange their goods instead of buying things they did not need. This company, launched at the height of the collaborative consumption boom, ended up failing, however.

While building NeighborGoods, Micki first started to play sports, specifically one that would become the conceptual basis of Superfit Hero: roller derby. From the moment she started competing seriously in this sport, she began to think of herself as an athlete, and that changed everything.

That is why we say that what he did was to bring her personal experience to a business model.

Like many people (especially women), she had been struggling with her own body for years until that moment. Diet, exercise... and she was frustrated by that continuous struggle to fit in with canonical standards and standardized sizes.

This was so until she experienced a change in mentality and focused on what exercise brought to her health over image. She no longer practiced fitness to change her body, but practiced it to be healthy as she was. At that moment she began to feel better and thought about how to transmit this to the rest of the world.

With that premise of "sport should make you feel good and not guilty for not being as expected" that was not being fulfilled from Micki's point of view, she stepped aside to get the global perspective of a very large group of people.

Because, beyond those people who go to the gym to continue shaping their perfect bodies, there is everyone else. Those who are trying to improve their physical condition but are overweight, or those who are too thin and need muscle mass, or those who simply want to be healthier without worrying too much about their measurements or weight.

The point is: how do those normal people feel when they go shopping for sportswear? Because, despite being the vast majority, they find that this type of fashion is designed for an athletic and perfect minority. This generates an impressive frustration and a feeling of guilt.

Generally, people who go outside the norm in their physical appearance have to settle for clothing that simply fits them by size or shape.

For Superfit Hero this is not something irrelevant. If you want to go to the gym, your motivation will be higher than you think if the clothes you wear have certain technical features that help boost your performance, but also if the design is attractive. Why should we give up on style and looking good in sportswear?

In their online store you can find tops, sports bras, pants and any other kind of regular garment in the gym bag. The only difference is the size.

This point seems very relevant to us. When looking for funds to create a company, there are several ways to get financing. We can pull our own resources and savings, get private loans or from banks, seek the support of an investor... But none of these options is the case of Superfit Hero.

Krimmel had a vision that was very much linked to the community, a result of her NeighborGoods days, so she decided to go directly to all those women who could be her potential buyers to finance the business. The KickStarter portal seemed like the ideal place to start a crowdfunding campaign like the one she needed.

Such people-centered initiatives work best when they are considered from the beginning. Superfit Hero did not only count on them during its funding phase: somehow it feels that it has a bond and a desire to give back part of its success.

To this end, it carries out actions such as the sponsorship of roller derby teams, a sport played by Micki Krimmel herself as we know, and a community that has always supported the brand.

They have even included into their own website a search engine for gyms, trainers and other professionals who share that positive vision of the body and training. Only those who conform to their decalogue get the brand certification.

It is curious to see how a store that does not stand out especially for its design, advanced functionalities or even for its content, is able to attract so much attention at first glance.

We are so used to seeing online stores with models that are practically catwalk models, that we are surprised to see another profile of protagonists in the image of this eCommerce.

Much of the credit goes to the women themselves who display the products. The attitude of happiness and self-confidence that they show is contagious and it is easy to empathize with them, to project oneself into that lifestyle. This is a great example of eCommerce pictures that sell products.

In addition to static images, they also use video very judiciously. In their initial Kickstarter campaign you can still see the one they created to convey brand values and product features.

Although that video is a good job, it is more interesting how they have added multimedia content into a page that does not always use it. We are talking about sizes.

In a clothing store it is always critical to see how clothes fit. But, in this case we are facing one of the strongest purchase brakes that has to be faced. Video works great for this, and it's also perfect content for social networks.