Y-Fit Wear is a sportswear brand specialising in fitness and athleisure wear. The brand represents hope, overcoming adversity, being motivated by your why and being purpose driven. The vision of the brand is to provide a spark of motivation through its sportswear which is defined as an expression of sport, culture and lifestyle. The Y logo is a reminder to let your why fuel your ambition to succeed in life.
When Mark Agyakwa started Y-Fit Wear, he would get a bunch of messages from black fitness trainers and influencers who wanted to collaborate with his brand. It was surprising to him because at the time he just launched and barely had any followers. This made Mark analyse the fitness industry because he has primarily worked in the football industry. So, the fitness space was a new thing especially on Instagram.
After his research and discovery of the big brands and platforms within the space, Mark noticed a lack of diversity and representation (this was 4 years old). Things have improved but it made sense at the time why these trainers, athletes and influencers wanted to collaborate with his Y-Fit brand. They wanted partnerships, awareness and exposure.
Representation is so important and everyone should feel they can participate and feel a part of something as vital as health and wellness. Y-Fit couldn’t facilitate all the partnership requests at the time but it made him look into ways to address the problem.
Then Fit For The Culture was born, a fitness platform dedicated to showcasing and uplifting people of colour. Within 18 months the brand got to 100k followers and the growth validated the need for such a platform. Health and fitness should be all inclusive and the brands within the industry should reflect that.
“For me I saw this as an opportunity to provide a come up and here we are. 4 years later, we have a community of over 300k people who share a passion for health and wellness. Also, who can come to us and feel part of a community, see role models who look like them and connect with other people also love fitness. That sense of belonging is priceless.” – Mark Agyakwa, Founder/CEO Y-Fit.
Now they are building a media company to further showcase the incredible talent within their community, connect people and create opportunities. Also a creative house to facilitate strategic partnerships with brands who align with their mission to make inclusivity and representation the norm within the health and fitness industry.
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