When most people think of Fabletics, they think womenswear. But here’s a secret: Menswear actually accounts for nearly one-third of the company’s total sales, which are approaching $1 billion.

Touted as the country’s largest digitally native activewear brand with a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent, Fabletics was founded as a women’s-only brand in 2013 in El Segundo, Calif., by Adam Goldenberg with Don and Ginger Ressler.

The idea for the business, which is owned by Goldenberg and Don Ressler’s TechStyle Fashion Group, came from Ginger Ressler who didn’t believe that leggings should cost $100. They also found most women’s active product at that time to be either bland and boring or overshadowed by the testosterone-fueled marketing from the industry leaders that didn’t connect with women.

So they came up with the idea to offer fashionable performance product at an accessible price point. And it worked.

In 2020, they applied this same mission to menswear. “We started as a women’s brand first, which is a little unusual in activewear,” Goldenberg said. “And people often think about us as a women’s brand, but our men’s is a very big segment. We’ll do a little over $1 billion in sales this year, and men’s will be about 30 percent. That’s a big number considering it’s still a relatively new part of our business.”

What’s also interesting, he said, is that about two thirds of the men’s sales are coming from male customers, with the other third coming from women’s customers who are now buying menswear as well.

“We say we have the five Fs,” Goldenberg said. “Fashion, fit, function, fabric and fun. We have really leaned into the fun part with men’s because we find that humor works even more so with men than women. So we try to integrate that into our campaigns.”

When men’s launched five years ago, actor and comedian Kevin Hart came on board as an investor and the face of Fabletics’ men’s business and stars in its commercials, many of which have gone viral.

“Kevin has been such a phenomenal partner for men’s because if you look at him, you know he’s super into health and wellness,” Goldenberg said. “He works out every single day and is in incredible shape — it’s part of his life. But he’s also one of the funniest people on the planet. Kevin was really able to help us quickly get the message out that we have men’s product as well.”

But while the ads are laugh-out-loud funny, the product is anything but a joking matter.

“We are very, very serious about the performance of the product,” Goldenberg said. “It needs to be absolutely performing at the highest level. You can wear it to the gym, you can play sports in it. You can compete in it. But we just think there’s a more creative way to market than what you see with some of [our competitors] and we’ve seen a lot of success from that.”

Among the most popular men’s products are the company’s One shorts and joggers that retail for $69.95 and $119.95 at full price, along with its 24-7 T-shirts that average $10.98 or three for $19. But one of its hero franchises is the Don pant, which was introduced in September 2024 and now accounts for nearly $32 million in sales. The pant, which took three years to perfect, costs $119.95 and is now offered in four fits and there are also shorts, vests, polos and other complementary products.

“It’s really more lifestyle product that performs,” Goldenberg explained. “You can golf in it, do a light workout, wear it to work or out in the evening.”

Looking ahead, Goldenberg believes there’s lots of growth still to come in menswear.

“The biggest source of new customers is word of mouth, but we also spend a lot on advertising across all different channels,” he said. “And then we want to expand our revenue per customer to become a bigger portion of his wardrobe, and how we do that is through product and category expansion.”

When men find a style they like, they tend to buy it again and again in slightly different variations. So with the Don pant, for example, the company builds momentum each quarter with new colors and fashion elements. “That’s really been our tried-and-true approach to growing men’s that we keep leaning into,” he said.

In addition, Goldenberg said, Fabletics will continue to scale the men’s business by expanding its retail footprint. Today, the company operates 107 brick-and-mortar stores and the plan is to add about 20 to 25 additional units annually. In those stores, sales are split nearly evenly between men’s and women’s.

Goldenberg believes that ultimately, Fabletics can have between 200 and 250 stores in the U.S. “We comped up over 20 percent in the first half of last year with almost 21 percent same-store comps. And then the first half of this year, we did about 14 percent same-store comps. We find that when we open retail stores, we bring new customers in and the revenue goes up with our existing customers. And our digital advertising also becomes more effective in that geography. So the more stores we open, the more they build on themselves.”

In addition, he believes there’s “a tremendous amount of international opportunity” as well. Right now the company has stores in Germany, the U.K. and France and will be expanding into Mexico through a partnership with the retailer Liverpool.

Fabletics currently boasts a little more than 3 million active customers and 80 percent of them are part of the company’s VIP membership program. Members get discounts of 20 to 25 percent on all purchases and get billed $59 monthly for an optional membership credit that can be used to buy two pieces worth up to $100. They also get first access to new drops and member-only products.

The program is free, and “really creates engagement and loyalty,” he said. “And what’s interesting is that members make up almost 95 percent of our revenue. You might go into a retail store and buy something as a traditional customer, but then for your second purchase, you become a member. There’s very little obligation, you don’t have to buy every month and you get great savings.”

Although this membership program has been in place since Fabletics launched, Goldenberg admitted he wasn’t sure it would work with men. But he was pleased to see that about 80 percent of the company’s male customers also become members.

“One of the reasons it may work even slightly better with men is, if you look in a woman’s closet, you’ll typically see a lot more brands than in a guy’s closet,” he said. “So if Fabletics is a guy’s favorite brand, it’s predominantly the activewear brand in their closet.”

Goldenberg is confident that Fabletics can continue to chip away market share from some of its largest competitors, such as Lululemon, Alo and Vuori. “Forty percent of our customers are trading into our brand from a more expensive brand,” he said. “And the other 60 percent are buying their activewear at Old Navy or Kohl’s, and we’re their luxury brand.”

Looking to the future, Goldenberg has lofty aspirations. “We’re in this for the long haul. We really believe we can build the next multibillion-dollar international activewear brand.”