You are in:
LineBreak
SGB: How long have you been distributing LineBreak in the UK? What is LineBreak?
Mark Gladwin: I set the business up in April 2005. It was new to the UK then - I launched the brand here. LineBreak had been going since 2003 or so in Australia. We were awarded distribution of the brand in 2005 and set up the brand from there. The business is based in Warwickshire, where we work out of a warehouse unit, distributing the brand across the whole of the UK and Ireland.
LineBreak is a true compression base layer brand. It is compression and temperature regulation. We do nothing else apart from base layers. It is our core, it is what we do and it is what we do well. We haven't looked to go further afield into teamwear and other things; it's just compression and temperature regulation base layers.
The difficulty with the market at the moment is establishing what you are buying the base layer for. There have always been base layers for temperature regulation, whether they be thermals or whether they be keeping you cool. What we tried to do in launching the brand in 2005 is separate ourselves away from the marketplace to say, ‘it's not just a temperature regulation garment' - yes, it does all of that, but what a LineBreak compression garment does is offer something else that is physiologically beneficial to the athlete as well. It increases microcirculation within the muscle, increasing blood flow within the muscle, so during exercise it increases blood flow and helps remove the waste product. Also, post exercise, it's a recovery product as well.
Initially, the growth of LineBreak was based on the recovery benefits that are associated with it. Anybody and everybody can benefit from wearing a pair of LineBreak recovery tights after exercise, whether you be a weekend warrior who plays rugby on a Sunday afternoon and has to get up for work on a Monday morning, whether you are training for the London Marathon, where you do your long runs on a Sunday. Wearing recovery tights straight afterwards allows a person to get up and go to work on Monday morning and also then do their short run on Monday evening as well.
You are always going to see base layers everywhere across the marketplace, but we don't want to be a ‘me too' product. We want to be in a marketplace where we do do all the temperature regulation benefits that are required by the athletes, but also offer them something else on top of that as well.
LineBreak is a single garment that you use for recovery and for performance. LineBreak and Skins have the same heritage - they are both Australian, they are both born out of the same research papers. The original research on compression garments was done by DuPont back in the early 80s, originally looking at improving jump height with compression benefits. It was then extended to looking at what else it could do, and the recovery benefits generated out of there. LineBreak and Skins are very much in the same stable. We launched in 2005, shortly before Skins. The conjoining of Skins in that marketplace has boosted the whole story about compression into a different sphere.
SGB: I know the brand's ethos is not really to endorse high-profile athletes, but you still get seen out there. Who's wearing LineBreak?
MG: We sponsored the Welsh Rugby team from 2005 to 2007. We are their official compression base layer supplier. UnderArmour took over in the last year, supplying all the kit to the Welsh team, but the Welsh Rugby team came back to us this year and bought LineBreak because UnderArmour don't do recovery gear yet.
We have sponsored the British Triathlon team. We recently lost the contract to adidas, who are doing the whole kit; it's hard to compete with raw financial muscle sometimes. Having spoken to some of the athletes individually though, they will still be wearing LineBreak as well!
Also quite recently, Manchester City were playing away against FC Copenhagen, and the most expensive footballer in the world was playing in his LineBreak recovery tights. Robinho spent the whole game playing in his LineBreak tights - so the back page of the Daily Mail had a lovely photo of him running down the line with the LineBreak logo showing. You can't pay for that kind of marketing!
We supply half the Premiership football clubs - half the clubs buy LineBreak for their recovery. Manchester United have bought LineBreak for the last three years, Manchester City have bought 250 pairs of tights this year. West Ham, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Brom - half the clubs are buying LineBreak for their recovery purposes.
SGB: What are the cornerstone products of the LineBreak range?
MG: It is quite a tight range. We do two colour options in male or female lines. The core options are in the upper body; a long-sleeve top, a short-sleeve top or a sleeveless top, that's male or female. In the bottoms, you have full tights, three-quarter length tights, long shorts or shorts, for male and female. Then we do a unisex product, which is widely used, a calf compression sock. And that's it - two colours, three upper body options, four lower body options, plus a calf support. It is a very tight, very specific range that does everything that is required by all our athletes - it covers all their demands. For the retailer it's not ten different colour options and X amount of different styles - it is a very specific line that seems to have worked.
SGB: How do you get the message across to the retailer, about how good your gear is?
MG: Historically, we have either had a sales team or a team of agents that we have worked with. We have done a lot of advertising, we do a lot of mailing to retailers. We keep them updated on what we are doing through email and various other routes. It is an interesting time at the moment, trying to get to all the retailers and make them confident in the brand and commit to a brand that they may not have had before, in financial times that are quite difficult.
With that in mind, we have entered into an agreement with ProStar. ProStar have always carried their own range, but LineBreak is the first brand that they are going to take in their catalogue, which came out at the end of March. They looked at the marketplace, realised that while they do do a base layer line, they don't do a technical base layer. They approached us to see if we could work together. ProStar has a wide market penetration, they have sales teams out on the road - we are very pleased that LineBreak and ProStar will be working together now, moving forward to take the product out to get a wider distribution to and broader market penetration.
It is great for us. There are a lot of base layers in the marketplace, and it is going to be tough time for the next six to twelve months. We're a lean company - I don't have the overheads or the costs of some of the larger brands. I am lean enough to be able to maximise opportunities in these times. LineBreak broke its sales records in the last two months, in the middle of a recession. We carry lots of stock; we have always got stock we can supply to retailers and some of the other suppliers aren't able to do that at the moment. We have picked up a lot of business in the last two months, and hopefully with this announcement, moving forward with ProStar, we will be a serious player over the next twelve months.
SGB: Why should retailers come to you? As you say, times are hard - what do you offer retailers?
MG: We have low opening orders with retailers and we have no minimum order top-ups, so a retailer can order one piece and we will deliver it the following day and just charge delivery at cost. We are lean and we are agile in attitude with new retailers that want to try the brand and don't want to take a wide range - we will support them by giving them an entry range of product that we know will sell. If someone then comes in and asks for a product they don't carry, then we can supply it the following day at cost on postage.
We also offer all new retailers sale or substitution. If they take a first order in and take a punt on a few lines, if after two months it has not sold out, or a certain line is not selling, then we will swap it for what is selling. They have a bit of security in knowing that they are taking on a new line but if something just doesn't move, then we will swap it for something that is moving at no extra cost. It's just making sure that the retailer is confident that when they take on the brand they won't be left with something that is still going to be there in six months time.
