In a sport that often shies away from revolution, Rival Kit have been a rare symbol of unchartered growth. Created by Ryan Morrison from his Edinburgh student digs, Rival are now one of the country’s leading specialist performance apparel producers and cover the backs of thousands of rowers up and down the UK.
Ryan and his team are no strangers to rapid expansion. Each year – even those truncated by COVID-19 – has seen the brand grow beyond all reasonable expectation in spite of catastrophic supply chain disruption and some of the worst trading conditions in living memory. The pandemic brought bigger brands to a standstill, but Rival battled through the storm, collecting customers and goodwill across the country with their novel approach to kit and creative plans for customisation. On paper, 2022 was an incredible 12 months for the brand but it brought all the difficulty and complexity, introduced by out-of-the-blocks growth and accelerated by COVID-19, to a head. In Ryan’s own words: “Last year was a period of incredible growth for Rival Kit. It was the first time we secured a range of major partnerships and event sponsorships”. Highlights include producing kit for the national team, partnering with The Boat Race and the Head of the Charles and kitting out various teams and athletes at the Home International Regatta in July.
“It has been a pretty surreal experience for me to watch what was just an idea I had in my second year of university transform into a major company”
Ryan Morrison
When scaling such lofty heights, it can be easy to forget what brought you to the summit in the first place. In 2023, Rival’s focus has been re-centred on the community they serve and the people they have always wanted to support. “The key lesson we’ve learnt is that rapid growth is really tough,” explained Ryan. “Business is not all sunshine and rainbows. For every win, you have ten incredibly difficult things to deal with. We had a lot of issues internally and it really hit a crunch point this year with our two longest serving staff members leaving. We have gone from a small start up to an international business and we needed to build better foundations to support our growth”.
On paper, 2022 was an incredible 12 months for the brand but it brought all the difficulty and complexity, introduced by out-of-the-blocks growth and accelerated by COVID-19, to a head
In 2023, the most important aim is customer experience. Growth is only advantageous if it is sustainable – a reflection the Rival team have made over the past year. Ryan is dubbing it ‘Rival 2.0’. “It feels like a really big moment for us – from a small start up to a full operational company,” he explained. “Rival 2.0 is a complete new structure. It is the change that we need to be able to maintain our growth whilst improving the customer experience”.
Supporting all of this will be a new and improved IT system, of which more details will follow. “Rival works so differently from other suppliers,” explained Ryan. “We offer bespoke manufacturing and interact directly with customers rather than through a club rep managing a bulk order. This means our service is much more complicated and our unique process needs a unique workflow that allows us to respond to the fast personal service they require. By having a revamped IT system, we can provide the best customer experience to all Rival customers”.
Alongside this, Ryan and the team have invested in professional operations management to streamline the product-to-package process and ensure that the team can continue to meet the growing level of demand.
“Rival 2.0 is a complete new structure. It is the change that we need to be able to maintain our growth whilst improving the customer experience”.
Ryan Morrison
The prevailing wind is change but Ryan is still keen to build on the positive experiences that helped shape 2022. “The Boat Race was a big learning curve for us” he commented. “It was the first time we worked with an event of that scale and the layers of institutions and traditions were quite different from the clubs we usually work with. It was challenging but hugely rewarding”. 2023 saw Rival offer a range of merchandise, visible and available to purchase at the event. In the coming months, the team will be dedicating some time to working with some of the amazing initiatives supported through the Gemini Boat Race Bursary Scheme.
What made Rival so popular when they burst onto the scene some six years ago was their intimate connection with clubs and ability to serve customers no matter how big or small. Ryan and team are determined to retain that ethos as they move into phase two of their evolution and are convinced that digitisation can help to bridge the gap between demand and supply. “It has been a pretty surreal experience for me to watch what was just an idea I had in my second year of university transform into a major company,” said Ryan. “Realising the potential of Rival over the past year has been one part terrifying and two parts amazing. When we are all so busy it sometimes can be hard to remember how far it has come and just how quickly. I hope Rival 2.0 will give us a platform to reconnect with our community and reimagine what is possible for performance apparel in this amazing sport”.
If you have any queries or questions – or orders that might have slipped through the net – please reach out to Ryan directly on ryan@rivalkit.com
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