If a backpack and crossfit weights had a baby, The Empack would be it. Emily Schromm is an avid crossfit fan and a frequent traveler. She came up with the idea to create The Empack while on a work trip, stuck in a hotel without a gym. She started using her own luggage to workout in her room and thought up her dream solution. The bag she designed, The Empack, has pouches specifically created to add weight with water packs or sand and durable straps made for reps. With the pack you can control exactly how much you lift so you can get your sweat on, no matter where you are in the world.

Back in 2015 Emily launched The Empack on kickstarter and her project was fully funded within three hours. As her business grew Emily created a Shopify store and she’s been growing her business ever since.

The Empack’s marketing has evolved along the way to scale with their success, and their shop is a great place to look for inspiration for sports websites and design ideas.

Looking at The Empack’s site, they are using a simple white site architecture with a very media-forward landing page. The first thing you see on the homepage is a wall to wall video that showcases the product in motion in different environments. This is a really intentional choice for The Empack brand since their product is very unique and difficult to describe using text alone. They show off the backpack being used as weights, how to fill the water pouch to add weight, and how to use it as a daily commuter bag which demonstrates their use-case with no words or audio needed.

Next on the homepage when you scroll down they have a two-part image that demonstrates the concept of the bag as well, catching people who didn’t tune in to the video. The text reads, “An everyday backpack & training pack all in one,” and it’s grounded with images behind the product in those two scenarios. The next section reveals the “how” of the pack, showing that you can fill pouches of water to add weight. After this educational section you’ll find their inventory below. There are three different styles and specs of the pack to choose from.

Browsing through the site you’ll notice that most pages are dedicated to product education and reviews versus inventory. As a small inventory site, most of their focus is building the case for why someone might want their product and what they could use it for.

The Empack is using a newsletter to attract and nurture their target audience. Once you’ve scrolled through the site for a moment, you’ll see a pop-up window CTA to sign up for their mailing list to get access to weekly workouts. They have a full section of their site for workout videos using the packs as well which link out to YouTube.