Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaun Clarke.
Shaun, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As high school students with empty pockets on an island in the Caribbean, Kadir and I had undeniable hustle, spirit, and an idea– to sell t-shirts. With a small loan of $500 from my mom, we got to work.
Between classes at Calabar High School (C-BAR) in Jamaica, we would trade notebooks full of ideas; Kadir would illustrate and design in the school’s art room, and I would make notes on the designs. We created our first shirts and shared this with our classmates. At the local boys and girls championship track and field events in Kingston, students would wear the t-shirts we designed and sold. We had reached our first milestone!
However, Kadir and I wanted to do more than sell t-shirts and make an even bigger mark on people. After we graduated, our idea sat unattended for a bit. I moved to New York for school in 2004 and Kadir studied at The Enda Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Though we went our separate ways, our friendship and the desire to create a larger impact remained. Little did we know, Gamba was there waiting.
Finally, in 2010, our idea became more than something we just talked about, and social media was our nudge. There were a vicious cycle and misconceptions on social media of the How of health and fitness– the movements, the muscles, but not the Why, especially in lifting. Much of it was noise, and we found our purpose in the desire to change that.
Lifting weights has always been a part of my life, but I didn’t really understand that it involved much more than walking into the gym and picking up the weights. Over time I read, studied the science, and asked questions. Why did we lift this way? Why did this work that way? I acquired all this knowledge I didn’t have before and finally uncovered the Why. It made me Love the Lift even more, and the need to share what I’ve learned became infectious. Necessary, even. This became the inspiration and heart of Gamba Athletics.
Has it been a smooth road?
It was definitely not a smooth road at all for Kadir and me. The toughest part of this journey was making this work with only our salaries as startup capital so this limited us for a while or a few years to be exact. We were able to overcome that hurdle with planning and help from my sister who is like my second mom when I relocated to America from Jamaica. We then had to find like-minded individuals with similar values and morals who genuinely have a passion for fitness, people who could see the bigger picture and not where we were presently.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gamba Athletics story. Tell us more about the business.
We are an independent athletic brand with a vision to empower, inform, and inspire the everyday inner warrior in all of us. You can find us at our local gym lifting with friends, sharing a good story or a laugh, and pushing to be better than the day before.
Getting clear on the why makes you a stronger and more efficient athlete, so our goal is to educate people on the why behind what they do. We go about this through our T-shirt designs and the series of instructional videos we will be releasing soon when someone understands the why then they will be able to take control of their physical and mental well being.
We want people to practice, replicate, and repeat the form and technique you see in our content– our videos, t-shirts, and website. Apply the knowledge. Lean on the science and physics behind lifts, reps, and sets to understand. Then Lift to Conquer. That is Gamba Athletics.
Even with a raging inner warrior, we recognize there’s no athlete that shows up and wins without preparation and practice. You often see the result, but not the combination of the what, how, and WHY of the work
What I am mostly proud of is my team and the amazing individuals they are, it this world today its hard to find people with morals and values, so I consider my self very fortunate.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There is definitely a fitness revolution happening right now because everyone is getting health conscious. The reason for this is, fitness has now become one with our everyday technology, and people are being rewarded for their efforts. It is hard to overlook something when your smart device keeps reminding you, even companies now offer better insurance rates those who have a gym membership and live an active lifestyle.
So yes I do see the fitness industry becoming more intertwined with technology over the next few years, especially since Apple now allows a lot more data to be sent to their health app which now can be interfaced with your personal care provider. This is because data is king and that means we will need more creative ways for people to want to participate for us to gather this data. So we will be seeing a rise in the number of fitness apps that are circuit trained based.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gambaathletics.com/
- Phone: 347-893-7169
- Email: info@gambaathletics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gambaathletics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GambaAthletics/
Image Credit:
Karsten Valeros
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