The ChallengeOver the last two to three years, boxing (and various forms of martial arts) have become one of the fastest growing sports in South Africa. The main reason for this is a complete evolution of the target market profile – boxing and various forms of martial arts are seen more and more as fitness activities, creating a new segment referred to as “white-collar boxing”. Surprisingly, in South Africa women are at the fore-front of this evolution – joining the hundreds of new suburban boxing gyms in droves. We wanted to welcome them to our world. And we wanted to take ownership of the new relationships they are building with the ass-kicking versions of themselves.The IdeaThere’s a very simple reason why at least one wall in any boxing gym is covered with mirrors: more than 50% of a boxer’s training is called “mirror-training”, involving exercises where the boxer looks at her technique in a mirror whilst shadow-boxing. We wanted our brand to play the role of a coach during this training. So we wrote lines you would expect to hear from Clint Eastwood in “Million Dollar Baby”. Lines that will make any woman fight harder. Then we printed the lines on Everlast T-shirts.

BUT. We printed the lines “mirrored”. So they only become legible when the wearer is looking at herself in the mirror – making her feel that the line is 100% aimed at her.The ResultsDuring the first distribution phase we printed and handed out just over 1000 T-shirts to new women members of suburban boxing gyms.

In the first month alone our client received over 450 calls from people wanting to know where they can buy one of the T-shirts.

The T-Shirts were featured in 5 different sporting and fitness magazines.

And lastly, the demand for our T-Shirts was so big that our client decided to include the designs in their new 2010 retail range.