The Force of Movement

Following the success of its swimwear performance in the U.S., which currently accounts for 40% of their sales in the region, this year live! Is set to introduce a new line of intimate apparel, which the brand ensures will perfectly complement its existing permanent bodywear offer.

For over 20 years the athleisure market has been on the rise. Driven by soaring societal trends on fitness, wellness and lifestyle, the worldwide sportswear and fitness market is projected to reach $267 billion by 2028. On the market forefront is the innovative Brazilian brand LIVE! that circulates its high-tech sportswear and beachwear products across Latin America, the U.S. and soon the Middle East and China. Founded in 2002 in Jaraguá do Sul by couple Gabriel and Joice Sens, CEO and creative director respectively, this year LIVE! counts over 1,050 employees and is set to reach a colossal turnover of $75 million, achieved through its thriving e-commerce and physical store partnerships. To this end, The Best of Swim met with founder Gabriel Sens to discover LIVE!’s expansion strategies, sustainable innovations and solutions to inflation and material shortage crises.

With LIVE! why did you decide to focus on the athleisure market?
When Joice and I first met at business school in São Paulo, we knew from day one that we wanted to enter retail business, seeing that Joice had experience working as a fashion designer, and I have always had an entrepreneurial vein looking for a new opportunity. Our initial market analysis revealed that in 2002 there were only 7,000 gyms in Brazil, with 2% of the population enrolled in them. Thanks to our research and to a significant collective surge of interest in health and wellness, we saw a huge potential in the activewear category and so we started tracing a business plan to get the first round of financing to start LIVE!. Compared to 2002, today Brazil counts more than 40,000 gyms and is the second largest market in the world for activewear.

Which of your products are currently selling best and what is driving your consumer behavior in today’s market?
Our activewear sets have always outperformed in both women and men’s categories. While our range is very broad, leggings are usually our top performing product. At the moment we are also witnessing a significant rise in loungewear, seeing how we, as a society, are spending more time working from home and dressing more casually in general. What drives our consumer behavior is the choice of product design, versatility and, of course, how it fits – practicality of a product, in other words.

Are there differences in LIVE! sales performance in Brazil and the U.S.?
Over the years we have observed that in the U.S. there is a tendency for customers to buy activewear in more solid and nude tones, while also giving preference to color-blocking. It is not that the American consumer does not like heavy or flashy prints, but that most brands on the U.S. sportswear market offer more solids in general. Meanwhile, Brazilian and Latin American customers tend to gravitate towards colorful and bright prints and patterns. Additionally, our swimwear tends to perform better in the U.S., since the market respects Brazil’s expertise in this category.

Speaking of swimwear, when and why did you decide to include a beachwear line?
Would you also expand into underwear in the future? We introduced swimwear first in 2010, since we thought it would complement the activewear collection very well. Now swim accounts for approximately 40% of our sales in the U.S. and 25% in Brazil. Our swimwear performs particularly well at our Miami store, since the American market is asking for it – there is a concrete belief that a swim product coming from Brazil will inherently be of good quality and design. And as an accompaniment to our existing collections, we are currently working on a new underwear line, which will come out next year, most likely as a capsule, but it will later solidify itself on LIVE!’s permanent offer.

This year marks 20 years since the founding of LIVE!, and yet recently you witnessed unprecedented company development, with 75 new stores and 90% company growth in 2021 alone. What changed in your approach?
We always knew that we wanted to have a brand that plays on the global arena of the activewear market and to have a well-rounded company with a young and talented team. But in business  it is always a question of scaling up; so, once we identified a store model that was successful and with a great turnover, we felt it was the time to speed up and scale up. Especially after Covid, we received a lot of interest from the franchisees, which contributed to our accelerated growth.