I started an activewear business and now partner with Marvel and Disney. Tariffs are testing our success.

Business Insider

12-05-2025

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Austin Gayne, the 29-year-old CEO of the sportswear company, SuperX, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
When people watch movies like " Batman Begins" and see Christian Bale's physique and Bruce Wayne's work ethic, it's like, "Wow, that's kind of inspiring." It makes you want to either start a fitness routine, be a better person, or just get your adrenaline pumping. This is our secret sauce at SuperX.
Although I started SuperX as a supplement company, I pivoted to activewear because nobody was really doing superhero designs. People see the company as a niche clothing brand, or a superhero clothing brand, but I'm transitioning it into a pop culture fitness brand, which understands the connection between customers wanting to feel like these characters.
The reason people connect with them is very character-specific. Let's use Spider-Man as an example. The reason so many people resonate with him beyond his cool powers is that they see Peter Parker.
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He's overlooked, doubted, bullied, and below average, but he rises above it. Many fans relate to him, and they feel they can become something more.
So, when we collaborate with Marvel on merch featuring a character, we're really going to tap into that feeling. Everybody wants to be a better person. That's why our slogan is "Be extraordinary."
It's not just, "work out and become jacked." If that's what you choose to be, great! But it could be that you want to run a marathon, rank up in your career, be a better spouse, a better father, a better son, a better friend — whatever it means to you.
Getting permission from brands like Marvel and DC to make merch grew my business — but it's a complex partnership.
Think of huge companies that own massive properties. Disney owns Marvel and Lucasfilm. Warner Bros. owns DC Comics, " Harry Potter," "Mortal Kombat," and " The Lord of the Rings."
These licensers have their own set of guidelines and rules for each brand. So, for example, Disney's rules for Marvel are different to Lucasfilm's for " Star Wars." From my perspective, licensing is very challenging because a third party has to approve your products and marketing, which adds another layer of complexity to your business.
We're trying to master that approval process. Yes, licensing gives you a direct connection to the characters, which is great and comes with certain freedoms. It allows us to use superior details in our designs in unique ways, instead of just slapping a print on a T-shirt.
However, licenses also mean you effectively have a new business partner who makes product and creative-related decisions, which can make the process more complicated than creating things in-house.
And for businesses that are trying to expand, the recent tariffs will make things even harder.
Trump's tariffs will affect smaller businesses, but it's also a learning opportunity.
The moment we heard about the tariff increase, we immediately freaked out because we thought, "We have to adapt to this quickly." For a couple of days, I wasn't optimistic because I've never faced this before. With the margins we have, there was no way that we could continue doing business the way we did.
I immediately started calling different companies in different countries. We found a manufacturer in the USA who could make one of my products, and a handful in other countries, instead of getting all of our supply from one place.
Fortunately, we didn't have any shipments in the water when the tariffs were announced. I have immense sympathy for anyone who did, because if you had a shipment on a boat and it landed, you would be screwed. You would have to pay that amount, or you would just dock it and have to figure it out.
These tariffs are changing on a near-daily, if not weekly, basis. We just don't know how long they're going to be in place. They're going to ruin hundreds of thousands of middle to small-tier businesses because there isn't enough time to divest their manufacturing and supply chain from China to different countries.
However, the ones who survive will become better, leaner, more efficient, more tactical, and wiser operators.
It's kind of like Charles Darwin's theory. It's not the smartest or the strongest who are going to survive, but it's those who are most adaptable. I'm not the smartest or the strongest, but I'm definitely one of the most adaptable. You just say, "Hey, I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to lace up my boots. We'll figure this out, and eventually this too shall pass. When it does, I'm going to be better for it."
No amount of business books will teach you how to become an efficient operator. There's no amount of podcasts you can listen to figure out how to avoid all the mistakes.
I use these types of situations to offer encouragement to people in my situation. You have to think: "Okay, if I can get through this and make it on the other side, I should be wiser, more disciplined, and ultimately have a better and healthier business."
Essentially, our approach to navigating the tariffs all comes down to "Be extraordinary," which forces us to be innovative disruptors.