ANDREW DICKENS — FOUNDER
I started Gymatics and spend most of my time somewhere between developing products, running production, solving problems and working out what we should create next.
Gymatics didn’t begin with a business plan to launch another gymnastics brand. It grew from our own family, a love of sport and a habit of looking at things and wondering if there was a better way to do them.
There isn’t a huge corporate team behind the website. Gymatics is run day-to-day by our family, with everyone playing a different part.
I started Gymatics and spend most of my time somewhere between developing products, running production, solving problems and working out what we should create next.
Amee looks after much of the personality you see from Gymatics, from social content and ideas to keeping us connected with customers and the wider gymnastics community.
Francesca is one of the reasons Gymatics exists. As a competitive gymnast, she also gives us the kind of product feedback you can’t get from sitting behind a desk.
There isn’t a complicated development department. Usually someone notices something, asks a question and we start experimenting.
Sometimes it comes from our own experience and sometimes it comes directly from a gymnast, parent or club.
We design and prototype it ourselves, which means the first version is rarely the last.
Products need to make sense away from a computer screen, so real-world feedback matters.
We regularly alter products after launch. If we find a better way of doing something, we'd rather improve it than leave it alone.
Gymatics isn't about having the biggest catalogue. We like products with an idea behind them — something that solves a problem, makes training a little easier, adds some personality or simply does an existing job better. Some ideas work. Some don't. Some get redesigned more times than we'd care to admit. That's probably the most accurate description of Gymatics: we're always making, testing, changing and thinking about what comes next.
Whether you've bought one product, followed us from the beginning, recommended Gymatics to someone at your club or only just discovered us — thank you. We're still at the beginning of what we want Gymatics to become.