Social Listening ~ Darc Sport

The brand I'm choosing to follow is ultimately a family, unified by both the gym and life's adversity, selling a product to deliver a constant reminder to "Never Fucking Give Up". Not everyone is introduced to the gym with a healthy lifestyle and the mindset of getting fit. There is a major population of people that go to the gym in order to remedy life's everyday bullshit. Through my own relationship with the gym, I've learned a lot not only about aspects within myself, but also how to better mediate problems that are larger than me, how to face adversity, how to educate myself from the failures of my own as well as others, and above all else, how to keep moving forward. 

Since Darc Sport's establishment in 2015, they've harnessed the collaboration between clothing and working out by taking advantage of the streetwear market popularity, and pioneering it into a previously untapped sector: the gym. My roommate has roots in LA and takes pride in staying up-to-date with athlete street fashion. After seeing him wear one of their signature logo hoodies several years ago, I became very keen to the unique sense of style and took it upon myself to find out more about the brand. After ordering my first article of clothing from Darc Sport, which also happened to be a hoodie, I've been hooked on their style and their mission ever since. You're able to access Darc Sport products via their website shop.darcsport.com, while Darc Sport product content is mainly shared on Instagram by fitness influencers as well as the official site itself. The business's value proposition revolves around both the quote referenced in the first sentence, along with "It's not for everyone. It's for us." This unique message promotes not only brand exclusivity, but also strengthens the desire to be apart of the something bigger than yourself.

Darc Sport targets individuals who have a passion to keep hammering, no matter the struggles that life presents in front of them. Darc Sport acknowledges the struggle and welcomes obstacles with open arms, focusing on the climb and not so much the mountain top itself. This brand/club makes clothing to further enforce this message as well as hopes to condition a mindset. They offer articles of clothing such as tanks, muscle tee's, hoodies, jackets, outerwear, socks, sweats, hats, as well as stage shorts and lifting belts for competitors.

While the club's website is where the purchase is made, the unfiltered feedback and raw customer reviews can be traced back to the comment sections of their official Instagram page. While glancing over the comments made under a variety of different posts, common themes amongst fans include simply sending emojis to express their support, asking for specific products and potential restocks, sharing their own personalized experiences with the brand, people wanting to join the team, as well as the underlying passion that everyone expresses when interacting with their favorite brand. Fans often times tag their individual friends in the comments to receive their input on a certain article of clothing, which not only contributes to brand exposure, but also allows the company to publicly evaluate what their consumers are saying about their newest update.

One week ago Darc Sport teased a future drop by posting a picture of tiger print mesh shorts that reflect a collaboration with Marvel's Wolverine. Comments include "Can't wait omg" - @traininwithreagan, "You guys never disappoint" -@stayfit.gio, as well as friendly play-on-words such as "I can't keep affording all these drops lmao but I NFGU" -@tguah referencing the companies mission to "Never Fucking Give Up". While reading over the brand's public reviews on reddit.com, I stumbled upon a very real perspective from customers considering the brand. @alive_recognition417 claimed that the clothing they ordered is no doubt cool stuff, but "isn't flattering on anyone that isn't super fit," compared to other brands that accommodate to the average gym-goer and use more toned athletes of a regular size. While this would potentially detour others from getting involved with the brand, @vomitingforever replied and defended yet another perspective that purchasing clothes that are created by and promoted by IFBB Pro competitors, is part of the appeal the brand has. 

Darc Sport has accumulated over 540,000 followers on this social media platform, with their primary competitors including Gymshark with 5.7 million followers, Alphalete with over 1.2 million, and Inaka Power with a growing foundation of over 206,000 followers. Something that Darc Sport does exceptionally well is utilize the method of storytelling in order to truly form a bond between them and their audience. Darc Sport's founders are IFBB Pro competitors that all come from different backgrounds, facing different struggles, but are united by a message that's "more than fabric", which Darc Sport has stories of adversity in spades. Featured below is a drop called "Next of Kin", in which the company crafted this message in order to embed a story within their product drop.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find much contact between the brand's social media platform and their fans. I noticed "liked" comments by fellow IFBB Pro's who could be endorsed by the brand or who could be a part of the Darc Sport staff. Given that the brand was created by and set on the shoulders of IFBB pro's, I understand that using their own personal accounts to interact with their customer base can be effective. However, in this day-and-age its extremely important for the business itself to participate in conversations within their own comment sections because it establishes a bond between the public and the brand, even to those who are not directly involved in the on-going comments. If Darc Sport were to reply directly to their audience over Instagram, I'm sure they would receive even more fan support as well as improve upon their transparency between the brand and the consumer. 

If I was the brand manager for Darc Sport, the first thing I would do is expand to more social media platforms in order to cover as much digital space as possible. Then I would look to increase communications and public relations between Darc Sport and our customer base by responding to accounts that reach out via social media, as well as something more personalized such as emails. A trend that Darc Sport caught wind of within their fan club, and eventually took advantage of, which I thought was both unique and brilliant, was to compensate the purchase of followers' Darc Sport inspired tattoo(s) as well as share the story involved. This not only shows Darc Sport's followers that what they're doing isn't like anyone else, but also the beauty in the fact that people are permanently putting this message on their bodies. One more thing I would bring up as a talking point in a meeting is the layout of the website when viewing products. i.e. when items are sold out, they still appear on the website, but simply have a small "sold out" symbol in the corner of the product picture. I believe in removing the articles of clothing that are entirely sold out will not only help the overall flow of the website, but also people can get emotional about items of clothing that they missed out on which can lead to a potentially negative experience. 

During the course of this project, I not only learned more about the brand that I speak so highly of, but also about several simple improvements they're missing out on and the business they don't receive because of it. Darc Sport does a lot of things really well. They have a very prominent message that's fun to be a part of, they create stylish clothing, they're scheduling more frequent drops in order to meet their demand, and they have a unique approach to the "traditional" shopping experience. These kinds of assignments are personally very fun for me because I'm not only learning more about the subjects covered throughout the course, but I'm also able to express a side of me through blogging.