Global online fitness brand Gymshark, never stands still. With progression at the heart of their brand values, it’s no wonder their Solihull headquarters keeps on getting better and better.
And, having provided them with intelligent lighting and workspace analytics to guide all their improvement plans – who can blame them?
The project started when we were asked by workplace designers Oktra, to join them in creating “The best head office in the world…” for Gymshark – as described by Sean Espinasse, design director at Oktra.
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As one of Britain’s fastest-growing fashion companies, Gymshark wanted a flexible space to rapidly expand in.
As a young brand – without any legacy systems – they wanted to take advantage of cutting-edge technology to robustly support their 24/7/365 global operations.
Additionally, as a big name in sports, they were keen to provide a working environment that promoted both wellbeing and high performance for their ‘family’ – a word they use to describe their employees and stakeholders.
The 42,000 square foot Gymshark office, now boasts a smartengine intelligent lighting system from wtec – that we expertly designed and installed for them.
Essentially, it’s a series of over 300 human-centric smart lighting fixtures, strategically placed around the building, and complemented with smart sensors. These sensors can monitor things like motion, temperature, brightness, and power usage – all in real time.
This network of intelligent lights – incorporating around 450 smart sensors – is connected over low voltage Cat6 data cables, that lead directly into the comms room. It provides maximum flexibility, allowing us to quickly and efficiently move things around, as and when Gymshark want to change their workspace.
This lighting solution can also integrate with other building management systems, like room booking systems.
Tim Miscovich, director at wtec, said: “We’re very fortunate to have the team at Scenariio as a smart partner… they’re always the initial driving force for many of our applications.”
The human-centric smart lighting system that we installed, mimics the natural light you’d ordinarily experience if you were outside. This has proven benefits for building occupants, influencing how they feel and how they perform. Why? Because it’s more in tune with the human circadian rhythm.
Daylight harvesting reduces energy, by automatically dimming the light inside, when the light from outside is able to illuminate the workspace by itself. This saves money too.
The Gymshark team can also amend the light intensity and tone – through tunable white LEDs – so the light fits perfectly with what they’re doing in their product spaces. Especially when they’re looking at fabric swatches.
Ben Francis, the Gymshark founder, explains how smart lighting helps them as an organisation to work better, smarter, and healthier.
He says: “…colour is really important, particularly as we’ll use the same colour across different fabrics. So, smartengine helps us to get a proper lighting system – with white lighting downstairs – which is really useful for when we’re picking the colours for our products.”
For shift-workers starting their shift at night, the lighting can be re-set to replicate the natural daytime environment, to give Gymshark staff a better chance of sleep when they return home.
Just like top athletes rely on technology for sports performance tracking, Gymshark use our workspace analytics service to make more informed decisions about how they use their workspace now, and in the future.
Ben added: “…we can see heatmaps of where people are, and base our decisions on real information, as to where people are going, where they’re not going, and how they’re actually using the space…”
By producing space utilisation reports, we can show Gymshark which spaces are being occupied and when – using graphical representations like heatmaps, as Ben mentions. The spaces we can monitor include: floors, meeting rooms, study booths, treatment rooms, quiet zones, and catering areas. This information can be drilled down to specific departments too.
Our technical director, George Pritchard, said: “Working with Oktra, the design company who designed this space, we do specific deep-dives into certain areas. We look at how that space has been used, which spaces are under-utilised, and then use that to plan the next stage of growth for Gymshark.”
Gymshark is reaping the rewards from the smartengine technology we installed. One particular achievement, has been the 80% reduction in energy, compared to a traditional system.
In addition, with the workspace analytics we provide them, they’re able to plan their expansion with confidence, using the intelligence that comes from their smart sensors – that we help them to interpret.
Fleur Johnson, facilities manager at Gymshark, said: “Gymshark has grown so much over the past year, so we’ve had to make lots of changes within HQ. The Scenariio team are super-efficient and always on hand to support us in making the HQ, the best environment it can be.”
George summarised: “The creativity, passion, and vision from Gymshark, has led to an amazing and unique space, that’s a perfect fit for the Gymshark family.The creativity, passion, and vision from Gymshark, has led to an amazing and unique space, that’s a perfect fit for the Gymshark family.””
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