Product Goals: Mixing Beauty and Football

From athlete endorsements to post-gym skincare, beauty and sports are two beads of the same sweat. There are the likes of Art of Sport, founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Matthias Mernich, Brian Lee, and late star athlete Kobe Bryant, that produce personal care products specifically tailored towards athletes. Recently, a slew of brands have been taking this relationship further with sophisticated clean formulas, mental health initiatives, enticing prize draws, and digitally connected endeavors.

Men’s makeup brand War Paint teamed up with English football club Norwich City FC back in 2020 to address men’s mental health and break down stereotypes and boundaries holding back important conversations around the subject. The brand’s logo was also featured on the team’s uniforms and on billboards around their home pitch. War Paint founder Danny Gray commented, “I’m proud to be working with a club like Norwich City FC who aren’t afraid to take a stand and put men’s mental health in the spotlight…. My priority isn’t to get the players wearing make-up, I want to stimulate positive conversations about men’s mental health.” Given War Paint’s roots in mental health advocacy and makeup products for the everyday man, this partnership with a homegrown football club, especially given the immense fervor around masculine football culture in the UK, is an organic progression for both.

More recently, fitness apparel and accessories brand Gymshark waved the flag for men’s mental health with their Deload initiative, a platform that offers young people the chance to focus on their psychological and physical health. The outlet provides online content ranging from personal stories to advice from well-being professionals and medical experts. In July of this year, Gymshark took its efforts onto the streets of Shoreditch with a weeklong Deload Barber Shop pop-up. The space offered a “non-judgemental safe space” for men to open up while also having the opportunity to receive a free haircut from mental health–trained barbers. These professionals were trained by mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), who, in their own words, “Stand against feeling shit, stand up to stereotypes, and stand together to show life is always worth living.” Across the seven days, Gymshark also hosted panel talks with representatives from CALM, as well as brand-affiliated athletes and influencers, covering topics such as “Be the Mate You’d Want” and “Building Real Strength.” Bradley Cole, Head of Events at Gymshark, tells BeautyMatter, “For us, the gym is as much about mental health as it is about physical health. When we were looking into how to evolve Deload, we found that, although men often struggle to open up about their mental health, they find it easier to confide in their barbers. So, in typical Gymshark style, we made it happen, and the response was just fantastic.”