A historic Louisville gym—known for its iron—upgrades to a performance brand without losing its hardcore reputation.
Chances are if you workout in Louisville, Kentucky then you know about The Factory—this gym has been around since 1985 and is home to many pro and national level athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness competitors. Not much has changed since 1985. A lot of the heavy steal equipment, made infamous during the Golden Age of Bodybuilding (think Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the quintessential bodybuilding documentary ‘Pumpin Iron’), remains at this gym in excellent working condition. The gym owners contacted us to rebrand them with a slight name change. Originally they opened as The Fitness Factory, but their nickname ‘The Factory‘ has stuck because of the extroverted, aggressive workout culture of the gym. Because of this, we decide to officially rename the gym, The Factory. This rebrand included the new name, new logo, selection of hardcore brand colors (red & black) and military-grade fonts (United Sans), responsive website, social media templates, membership card, gym apparel, and gym accessories. In all of the brand work, we strived to keep the brand’s independent local appeal—we kept the look more edgy and rough—so it wouldn’t be confused with national chains.
We also created a sub-brand for The Factory Crew, sponsored bodybuilders and powerlifters of the gym. A special ‘apparel exclusive’ logo derived from the original logo features a bent-barbell echoing hardcore gyms of the Pumping Iron era.