Building a cycling brand
from scratch
When I joined Soomom, the business had strong products and a clear ambition, but much of the brand, content and ecommerce ecosystem was still being established.
Over the following years I helped shape the brand across product launches, creative direction, ecommerce, content, ambassador partnerships and lifecycle marketing.
What started as a creative role gradually evolved into a broader responsibility across brand, customer experience and growth.
I led creative, ecommerce and marketing strategy across brand and campaign development, website and ecommerce optimisation, content production, ambassador programme management, email marketing and automation, paid media creative, product launches and SEO content strategy.
Most of it started from nothing.
"When I joined, Soomom had a name and a product. No brand, no identity, no ecommerce, no community. I led the creative build of all of it."
Cycling is crowded with performance claims. Every brand promises speed. Every brand promises innovation.
The opportunity for Soomom was to build something more human. Across campaigns, product launches and content, the focus became creating a brand that felt approachable, considered and authentic to the people riding in it.
This philosophy influenced everything — from product naming and campaign photography through to ambassador partnerships, ecommerce design and customer communication. The objective was to create a brand people wanted to belong to, not simply purchase from.
Each season was treated as a distinct creative platform — not a product update, but a brand statement with its own concept, photography direction and channel rollout.
O2+ was developed as a lightweight summer capsule focused on comfort, breathability and simplicity. The project connected product design, photography, ecommerce, ambassadors and customer communication into a single launch narrative — one of the brand's most considered performance releases.
Created to expand Soomom beyond traditional road cycling. The range introduced a more lifestyle-oriented expression of the brand while maintaining performance credibility. The creative direction intentionally shifted toward adventure, exploration and everyday riding experiences.
An ongoing platform that invited Australian artists to reinterpret cycling apparel through their own creative lens. Collaborations with Mulga and Susan Fitzgerald (Spin Spin) produced limited-edition collections that expanded the brand's cultural reach and created genuine product scarcity in a crowded market.
Created a creative platform focused on riding through difficult conditions rather than avoiding them. The campaign helped support significant growth during traditionally slower trading periods.
Growing Soomom wasn't just about traffic and sales. A large part of the brand's growth came from building a community around real riders.
I developed and managed an ambassador programme spanning Australia, Europe, North America and Asia, bringing together cyclists, triathletes, photographers and content creators who genuinely aligned with the brand. Rather than focusing on influencer reach alone, the programme was designed to create authentic content, product feedback and long-term brand advocacy.
The ambassador network became a key part of product launches, seasonal campaigns, event partnerships and customer engagement — including support for UCI World Championship athletes and the Soomom x Mulga artist collaboration.
The Soomom story is best understood across three parallel dimensions. Each one reinforces the others.
The clearest way to show what changed.
Beyond ecommerce growth and marketing performance, I led creative development across product launches, seasonal campaigns, artist collaborations and ambassador programmes.
Each project required a combination of product positioning, naming systems, campaign concepts, photography direction, content strategy, ecommerce storytelling and launch planning. The objective wasn't simply to launch products. It was to create reasons for people to care.
One of the more consequential things I built was the email and lifecycle marketing infrastructure. Soomom had almost no retention systems when I arrived. By FY26 email marketing was generating over $80,000 in attributed revenue and influencing more than $280,000 in annual sales.
The automated flows alone generated over $41,000 in revenue.
The email programme covered welcome flows, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase automation and seasonal campaigns. Every flow was written, designed and optimised by me.
The positioning was the real work. Cycling apparel is crowded and everyone claims performance. We went a different direction — performance that doesn't look like it's trying too hard. That one decision shaped everything from the logo down to the care labels.
I ran four seasonal campaigns from concept to delivery: O2+, ESCAPE, Artist Series and Winter. Each started with a brief and a positioning argument, not a mood board.
The Shopify store was designed as a brand experience, not a transaction engine. Product storytelling was written and art directed by me. The homepage alone now generates 76,421 annual sessions — the next highest page on the site gets 3,917. That ratio tells you something about where the brand investment has landed.
Conversion rate moved from 0.80% to 0.90%. The next target is 1.20%, which at current traffic levels would mean approximately $100,000 in additional annual revenue without increasing marketing spend.
I developed a content strategy focused on cycling education, route guides and buyer-intent content. Google Search is now Soomom's largest attributed acquisition channel, generating $90,600 in attributed revenue in FY26 — up 99% year on year.
Route guide content continues to drive significant organic traffic. Cycling-specific educational content performs strongly. The business is now generating sufficient traffic to support materially higher revenue without significantly increasing marketing spend.
Packaging, care cards, swing tags and labels — every touchpoint considered
