- Agency: Chop Dawg
- Client: LA Gear
- Category: App Design - Health & Wellness
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Project Brief: Design a mobile app that unites celebrity-led dance workouts, competitive challenges, community progress tracking, and badge-driven eCommerce into one retro-inspired fitness experience.
A health and wellness app normally asks you to leave it to finish the job: stream the class in one place, log the streak in another, buy the shoes somewhere else. LA Gear bets that the 1983 sneaker brand can hold the dance, the competition, the community, and the checkout in one loop that never sends you out the door.
The workout library plays like a music catalog rather than a gym schedule. Users stream curated dance sessions that run from classic 80s aerobics to modern hip-hop, led by instructors fans are likely to recognize.
Weekly and monthly challenges rotate the lineup, so a routine that went stale is one refresh away from feeling new. The catalog keeps moving, which is what keeps people opening the app.
Progress here is public rather than a private log. Built-in message boards let users post updates on their fitness journeys, swap tips, and cheer each other's milestones, while an integrated profile records completed workouts and displays earned badges.
Personal wins double as community content, and each loop feeds the next. That turns a solo habit into something with an audience, which is the harder thing to sustain alone.
The store sits inside the workout. Dancers browse LA Gear's retro merchandise without leaving the session, and every badge earned from hitting goals or placing in a dance contest unlocks an instant discount or promo code.
The gap between finishing a routine and buying the gear normally means jumping between two apps. Here it collapses into one tap.
The visual design pulls straight from LA Gear's 80s and 90s archive — bold colors, retro typography, the whole era — layered over a clean, modern UX. Instead of a gimmick, nostalgia here is a deliberate design decision.
Behind the scenes, an admin platform keeps the show current. LA Gear's team can update the class catalog, moderate the boards, and refresh merchandise listings in real time with no code, while analytics on engagement, workout preferences, and purchase trends show which dances and products earn the spotlight.
Every screen chases the same idea, which is to keep the energy and the economy in one loop. Stream a class, post the win, earn the badge, spend the discount, and stay inside the app the whole way through.
Results and Impact
- Thousands of early sign-ups within weeks of the prototype's unveiling
- More than 80% of initial users returning monthly for new workouts and gear
- A marked rise in merchandise sales driven by badge-linked offers and in-app shopping
