BRAND STRATEGY AND FACILITATOR
PROJECT Overview
Brand Strategy + Facilitator
Nextsports, Inc., Oakland, CA
Sub-brands: GOMO, Arcade, Fuzion, City Guide
Brand Strategist + Facilitator + Creative Director
We led structured facilitation sessions with executive leadership and key stakeholders — building the architecture, alignment, and language needed to make the NextSports ecosystem clear, cohesive, and scalable.
Aligning Brand Architecture for a Multi-Brand Portfolio
MyGroove Design, Inc. supported Nextsports and its sub-brands through a strategic brand architecture alignment. We explored company values, clarified the unique selling propositions for each brand, and examined how internal and external audiences perceived their identity. Our work also extended to reviewing financial capacity and developing long-term growth strategies for each sub-brand under the master brand.
Define Architecture + Strengthen Market Strategy
Our goals included clarifying the brand architecture for Nextsports and its subsidiaries, determining the strategic position and domain of each sub-brand, identifying branding implications for the U.S. market, and establishing clearer brand segmentation to improve communication and market alignment.
Creative Direction
NextSports had a strong vision and a growing portfolio. What they didn't have was a clear map of how all the pieces related to each other.
Multiple sub-brands. Multiple audiences. No shared architecture to make the ecosystem legible, internally or externally.
That kind of complexity doesn't just create confusion. It slows sales cycles, complicates decision-making, and erodes the confidence of the people inside the organization who have to explain it every day.
The Approach
We didn't start with design. We started with questions.
Through a structured facilitation process, we worked with the NextSports leadership team to map the purpose and positioning of each sub-brand, identifying what made each one distinct and how they all connected back to the parent organization.
From that foundation, we built a naming architecture, clarified messaging for each brand line, and created a decision-making framework that the internal team could use independently, without needing external consultation at every turn.
Brand architecture work is one of the most undervalued investments a scaling company can make. When done well, it disappears — and everything just starts making sense.
outcome
Clear brand architecture across all NextSports sub-brands
Shared language and positioning framework for internal teams
Shorter pitch cycles, as clients could now quickly understand the full ecosystem
A strategic foundation that supports long-term growth and audience engagement