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How one gym owner makes $400k with retail

This strategy can add thousands to your bottom line...

Author

John Franklin
October 11, 2024

What’s up Gym World?

Chance Beam from Titans Sports Academy used to spend $19,000 a year on merch from a supplier. He’d order too much, wait weeks for it to arrive, and then watch the inventory sit around the gym.

But that all changed when he bought a $100 heat press and started making his own. Now, he’s generating $400,000 in retail revenue.

Here’s how he did it: 👇

Inside Titans Sports Academy ⚔️

Chance has been in baseball for over 20 years. After playing in college and coaching for a few years, a friend with the Atlanta Braves asked him to coach a kids’ team. In 2003, he began coaching a Titans team for 16-year-olds at East Cobb Academy.

For those unfamiliar with baseball, Atlanta is like the Silicon Valley of travel baseball where athletes from all over the country go to train.

Over the next 10 years, Chance grew to coaching 9 teams. He wanted to open his own gym, so in 2013, he left East Cobb and started Titans Sports Academy.

Today, Titans Sports Academy has 40 teams with 500 kids, ages 8 to 20, training in baseball or softball. The space is 16,000 sq ft with 7,000 sq ft of outdoor cage space and a turf field.

Chance bought his current building with an investor for $1.2M in 2017. It’s a great story, but you’ll need to listen to the interview for the full scoop.

Team membership is $55/month, which includes:

  • 24/7 facility access

  • 4 free classes a month

  • Extra fees for coaching, facility rentals, insurance, and team gear

Non-team members pay $85/month for 24/7 facility access, and most train twice a week. Chance says 90-95% of the gym’s revenue comes from memberships.

The season runs from August to the end of July. There are 7 full-time staff, including a general manager, and each coach manages several teams.

Chance promotes intrapreneurship in his gym by providing staff with the tools they need (e.g., equipment and marketing assets) to grow. The more teams a coach manages, the more money they make.

Selling retail 🧢

While gym owners like the Amentas, Brian Sanders, Brendan Kalijundic, and Milena Hrebacka make thousands from gym events, Chance turned to retail as a new revenue stream.

Titans Sports Academy has its own retail store right in the gym.

He wanted to sell branded t-shirts, so he outsourced the screen printing. Over time, though, Chance realized it cost him $19,000 a year and:

  • He ordered too much for the demand

  • Had to wait weeks for delivery

  • Was left with a lot of unsold inventory sitting around

The only way to save time and cut costs was to make merch in-house. So, he:

  • Bought a $100 heat press on Facebook Marketplace

  • Got plain t-shirts from Amazon or BlankShirts.com for $2-$4

  • Printed 4-5 logos on a transfer sheet for $12-$14

  • Made each shirt in 30 seconds

  • Sold them for $20-$25

He made a few designs and asked his gym’s private Facebook group to pick their favorites. This helped him gauge demand and reduce the risk of unsold products.

Chance suggests starting with one t-shirt color and gradually adding more styles or colors. You can have a basic line of shirts, then create custom designs for different programs throughout the year.

The first time he did this, he spent around $300 and made $1,000.

If you have 100 members, you could probably sell each one a shirt twice a year. At $20 per shirt, that’s an extra $4,000 in revenue.

And with t-shirts sales doing really well, Chance knew hats were the next big opportunity because everyone in baseball wears one. So, he invested $10,000 in an embroidery machine and would:

  • Buy plain trucker hats for $4-$8

  • Embroider them with the gym’s logo

  • Sell them for at least $25 each

It was a bigger investment than the $100 heat press, but luckily embroidery machines hold their value.

In 10 months, he made $60,000 and now sells 1,200 hats a year.

The sales did so well that Chance bought a massive embroidery machine that makes 6 hats at a time. He also expanded into other apparel, like spirit wear, practice shirts, backpacks, accessories, and team uniforms.

Today, Titans Sports Academy makes all their apparel in-house and brings in $400,000 from retail.

Around 75% of sales are from team uniforms, and the rest from merch.

Chance also produces merch for CrossFit gyms and local high school teams, which brings in extra income.

TL;DR 📌

Chance was spending thousands on screen-printed shirts that weren’t selling. So, he got creative and:

  • Bought a $100 heat press

  • Started making them himself

  • Expanded his product line

Now, his retail operation brings in an extra $400,000 a year.

Milena Hrebacka is another gym owner making money from merch sales.

And while making shirts in-house isn’t common in the industry, I like it for sports performance gyms because:

  1. It’s cheap

  2. The equipment takes up little space

  3. You make items only when there’s demand, so there’s less waste

  4. It’s fast

  5. The profit margins are huge

Plus, an added benefit of retail is that when someone wears your shirt, they’re a walking ad for your gym.

For more business insights from Chance, be sure to watch or listen to his full interview on Gym World.

adios,

j

📣 P.S. If you found this valuable, share it with another gym owner who would too.