Podcast Summary: Uncensored CMO

Episode: How Gymshark Took on the Sportswear Giants – Carly Natalizia

Host: Jon Evans
Guest: Carly Natalizia, Chief Commercial Officer, Gymshark
Date: March 18, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the commercial growth engine behind Gymshark’s rise from a Birmingham garage start-up to a global sportswear challenger brand. Host Jon Evans sits down with Carly Natalizia, Gymshark’s newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer, to uncover the secrets behind their commercial success, the brand’s culture of innovation, and what it takes to compete with legacy giants like Nike and Adidas. Carly shares her own unconventional career trajectory, what it’s like working with Gymshark’s founder Ben Francis, and the philosophy underpinning the brand’s shift from pure DTC to omnichannel retail.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Carly Natalizia’s Unconventional Career Path

• Finance to Fitness: Carly discusses her 25-year marketing career, starting with 18 years in financial services.
  • “I spent the first 10 years of my career at MBA... very, very data led, very commercial business. Huge growth trajectory...” (01:13)
  • She later moved to retail with The Very Group before joining Gymshark nearly four years ago.
• Career Advice:
  • “Back yourself, have the confidence... In my 20s, I doubted myself so much and I think I probably could have just backed myself a little bit more.” (02:26)
  • “Don’t chase the promotions, right? ...take the sideways step, say yes to the new thing and see what evolves from there.” (36:27)

2. Transitioning Industries and Learning Fast

• Applying Banking Rigor in Retail:
  • “Actually understanding your customer, how do I reach them? How do I get their attention? It’s all the same. You're just thinking about a different product.” (04:15)
  • The pace in retail is dramatically faster and more reactive – “You lose a day's trade and that trade is gone.” (05:55)
• Embracing Retail’s Pace:
  • “You put a product live, it’s flying off the shelves, you can’t keep it in stock, you have to react...” (07:10)

3. The Gymshark Story & Founder Culture

• Origin Story:
  • “Our founder CEO Ben Francis... got himself a sewing machine. He learned how to make them and started making those products for himself...” (07:48)
  • Now sells in 230 countries and recently shifted from a DTC model towards omnichannel and retail stores.
• Founder Impact:
  • “When you work for a founder, the energy that they bring is just different... He lives and breathes the brand...” (09:19)
  • Ben wants “to build a 100 year brand” (11:01) and welcomes challenge over blind agreement: “The worst thing you can have around a founder is lots of yes people.” (11:01)

4. Decision-Making & Leadership Dynamics

• Aligned Values, Complementary Skills:
  • “We’ve got really similar upbringings, we’ve got the same hard work ethos... but the way that we think about getting there will be different and that's where there needs to be tension.” (10:41)
• Handling Disagreement:
  • “There’s a good Disagree and commit at the end. We might think different things, but... sometimes I share my view. He doesn’t agree, we disagree and then we commit and I move on. And I back that idea 100%.” (12:02)

5. Founder’s Mentality vs. Corporate Mindsets

• Bias for Action & Risk Appetite:
  • “Ben definitely has the bias for action... there’s a risk appetite... He’s really happy for something not to work...” (14:09)
  • In contrast, “Corporate life is really about risk mitigation, isn’t it? ...rather than risk opportunity.” (14:43)
• Resilience and Bouncing Back:
  • “He bounces back from something going wrong faster than anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” (14:09)

6. Customer Obsession & Omnichannel Growth

• Omnichannel Expansion:
  • Carly is transitioning from Chief Digital Officer to Chief Commercial Officer: “...after having many successful years as an E commerce only business, we’re now venturing into Omnichannel. So we’ve got retail stores and... wholesale and franchise partnerships.” (15:15)
• Customer Insights:
  • “We do big Lyft events... you can literally stand in the middle of your customer and be completely surrounded by them.” (16:08)
  • Instant feedback loops through in-house gym and community events—though, “it can be dangerous... straw poll of one.” (17:00)

7. Leading Large Teams & C-Suite Relationships

• Peer Relationships are Critical:
  • “If you’ve got a marketing budget and you haven’t got a strong relationship with your CFO, then that’s not going to be a good recipe...” (17:44)
• Functional Leadership:
  • “As much repetition as possible of what the priorities are... and stay as connected as I can on a personal level with people.” (17:44)

8. Commercial vs. Marketing Balance

• Dynamic Duo with Noel (Chief Brand Officer):
  • “On paper you’ve basically got two marketing professionals in the same executive team... it works amazingly well for us. His skills are literally the opposite of mine.” (19:16)
  • Both believe “together are building the brand and we both together are selling the product.” (19:16)
• Brand Drives Sales:
  • “When we have big brand moments... the commercials just follow. The sales job... is so much easier when the brand and the product is firing on all cylinders.” (22:48)
  • “Great marketing makes sales easy, doesn’t it?” Jon (23:36)

9. Sustaining Growth & Retail Success Stories

• Physical Availability as Next Growth Phase:
  • “The next stage of our growth really is about expanding into physical availability... make Gymshark more accessible. ” (25:26)
  • “When you put it in the store... it just brings it to life in such an amazing way.” (26:37)
• New York Store Launch:
  • “As they were locking the door, the first people started queuing... overnight in New York, sub zero temperatures, people were setting out their camp chairs.” (27:01)
  • Over $1M in sales in first 18 days (28:48)

10. Brand Simplicity & Strategic Focus

• Simple, Memorable Messaging:
  • “We do gym. It’s a very simple message... a really amazing rallying cry inside the business.” (29:55)
  • “You need to be amazing at your core to have permission to do anything else.” (31:09)
• Focus Leads to Innovation:
  • Story of Nvidia: “They were obsessed about only being the best gaming chip... it turned out accidentally by doing that, they became the best AI chip.” (30:24)

11. Practical Advice for Marketers

• Ideas vs. Execution:
  • “He is definitely the ideas man... I would say I’m an executor... I'm very good at creative problem solving.” (32:09)
  • “You need both kinds of people ultimately. Right. And... the right interaction and handoff points between the two.” (32:09)
• Prioritization:
  • “There’s loads of things you could do, but not necessarily lots of things you should do... being able to really be strict about prioritizing and thinking... that's the thing that's going to move the needle.” (33:43)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Career Strategy:

  • “Don’t chase the promotions... take the sideways step, say yes to the new thing and see what evolves from there.”
    (36:27, Carly Natalizia)

• On Founder Dynamics:

  • “He [Ben] lives and breathes the brand... there’s no work-life balance for him, it’s all one thing.”
    (09:19, Carly Natalizia)
  • “He bounces back from something going wrong faster than anything I’ve ever seen in my life.”
    (14:09, Carly Natalizia)

• On Omnichannel Execution:

  • “When we have big brand moments... the commercials just follow. So the sales job... is so much easier when the brand and the product is firing on all cylinders.”
    (22:48, Carly Natalizia)

• On Discipline and Focus:

  • “You need to be amazing at your core to have permission to do anything else... If we’re not making the best apparel to wear in the gym, why would anybody trust us for anything else anyway?”
    (31:09, Carly Natalizia)

• On Decision-Making:

  • “There’s a good Disagree and commit at the end... we disagree and then we commit and I move on. And I back that idea 100%.”
    (12:02, Carly Natalizia)

• On Brand Simplicity:

  • “We do gym. It’s a very simple message... just reminder of why we’re here, what we do...”
    (29:55, Carly Natalizia)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:13 – Carly’s early career in finance and advice to her younger self
• 04:15 – Transition from banking to retail and learning the pace of retail
• 07:48 – Gymshark’s origin story and international growth
• 09:19 – Working with Ben Francis: founder’s impact and company culture
• 11:01 – Values alignment, handling disagreement, and founder mentality
• 14:09 – Bias for action, risk-taking, and resilience in founder-led businesses
• 15:15 – Carly’s new Chief Commercial Officer role and omnichannel strategy
• 16:08 – Staying close to the customer and community-driven feedback
• 17:44 – C-suite relationships and leadership strategies
• 19:16 – Relationship between commercial and marketing functions
• 22:48 – Long-term brand building vs short-term commercial focus
• 25:26 – Sustaining growth: omnichannel and retail strategy
• 27:01 – New York flagship store launch and community response
• 29:55 – Brand simplicity: "We do gym"
• 32:09 – Ideas versus execution in marketing teams
• 36:27 – Final advice: chasing experience over titles

Engaging Moments

• Launch of New York Store:
  • “Queues were literally looping around the block, thousands of people... over a million dollars within the first 18 days.” (27:01)
• On Great Marketing:
  • “Great marketing makes sales easy, doesn’t it?” (23:36, Jon Evans)
  • “So easy.” (23:38, Carly Natalizia)

Conclusion

This episode offers a candid, insightful look at how Gymshark’s commercial and brand strategies work hand-in-hand to drive success. From startup hustle to global omnichannel growth, Carly’s journey and leadership showcase how aligning values, embracing calculated risks, and staying obsessively close to the customer can take on industry giants—and win.

Note: Advertisements, general podcast housekeeping, and outro sections have been omitted to focus on the episode’s core content.