Lochee lad Frank Gilfeather has led a varied career — boxer, journalist, playwright and now is one of the world’s biggest social media stars.
In November 2022, Frank was in the gym with son Paul, who decided to record his dad hitting a punch bag.
At 77, it appeared novel for the followers of Paul’s socials watching a septuagenarian strike with the ferocity of a man half his age.
Paul had set-up his social media to post cooking videos. But before he knew it, tens of thousands of people had viewed the short instructional video recorded in a small Scottish gym on an iPhone.
And almost overnight, it was transformed, becoming Frank’s Noble Art.
Their social media pages count rapper Ice-T, MMA champion Anderson Silva and Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi among the hundreds of thousands of followers.
The videos have been liked on TikTok more than 3 million times.
Now, Frank fronts the Noble Art business, selling boxing-inspired clothing and “old-school” bag mitts, which sell out within hours of going online.
He also provides training seminars to scores of young and beginner boxers, as well as celebrity pugilists including Tony Parsons and Miles Kane.
Frank’s Noble Art on worldwide appeal
Frank and Paul are partners in the company, which utilises Frank’s years as a boxer and Paul’s time in marketing and communications.
The success has grown organically, Paul said, without paid advertising or posts.
And it has been eye-opening for Frank.
Boxing is in the Gilfeather’s blood. Frank’s father Dennis set-up his first club from the canteen of Cox’s jute mill.
He and his brothers, the late Dennis Jr and Danny, were Scottish champions. Frank was a lightweight amateur champion in 1965.
Frank, who will turn 79 before the end of the year, once boxed alongside his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson — regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
But social media stardom was unimaginable, Frank said.
“And it kind of happened almost by accident. We were at the gym one day and Paul had said ‘show me how to throw an uppercut on this wall bag’.
“So while I did that, he filmed me for TikTok. And I, of course, had heard of TikTok, but I’d never seen it or anything like that.
“And then TikTok just went like wildfire, and within no time at all, we were up to about 50,000 views on this one video.
“We went from 200 followers to 10,000 overnight. I think it was because people were buying into the authenticity. And the old school coaching style.”
Building a business on social media
Commercial businesses would give their left mitt for the natural and authentic way Frank’s Noble Art has built its following, Paul points out.
And as the popularity grew, the pair started working on strategies to capitalise without giving up on what made them worth watching in the first place.
Paul said: “We knew the instructional stuff was really important. But what I think was the real draw for the followers was here is a 78-year-old, still hitting the bag like he is in his 20s.
“People were astonished. So we tweaked the content strategy from the instructional stuff to ‘never give up on yourself’.
“And what we found is that the more videos my dad does saying ‘I’m in the gym. It’s Sunday morning or it’s snowing like crazy, and I’m still out. I’m going to do my 3km walk, the shadow boxing and skipping’ — the more popular they seem.
“Our audience then, is predominantly middle-aged. They watch, then become inspired, they get off the couch, they go to the gym. We get emails and messages everyday from people saying ‘you saved my life’.”
Frank’s Noble Art bag mitts
And earlier this year, Frank and Paul decided to start selling merchandise, including old-fashioned bag mitts.
Bag mitts are different to the more-popular sparring gloves and are normally lighter in weight and do not have an elastic attachment between the thumb and the knuckle pad.
This allows beginners especially to make a better fist shape when they punch a bag.
Frank, who trained with Dick McTaggart during the Dundee Olympic hero’s boxing prime, points out: “When I started, you never wore boxing gloves when you’re on the punch bag.
“Gloves were special, they were for fighting.
“Nowadays, everybody wears sparring gloves on a punch bag, the result of which is that many of them are punching incorrectly.”
Paul adds: “They have proven incredibly popular. We sell them now in more than 60 countries.
“And around 70% of our business is in America. When we launched the gloves, we didn’t just develop a product to make money alone. We are developing a product which empowers young boxers.
“In our first year, we’ve probably done something like over 1,000 – 1,500 units which is great.
“Now, what’s happened is we’ve drawn a lot of attention from investors.
“I mean, we weren’t really looking for investors, it’s a kitchen table business.
“Some people have said ‘oh, you’re quite amateurish’
“And we kind of want to keep it that way. Everything we’ve sold has been through Instagram. We’ve done no paid advertising, it’s all been organic content. It’s all been authentic.
“There’s a storytelling to it, that the big brands can’t do these days.
“Do we need to scale up? Let’s just see where we are. We want to scale up. We want to do it thoughtfully and carefully and slowly.
“So we were kind of playing our strengths, which is integrity, authenticity, social media content, and I think we’re building something.
“And then don’t forget, the beauty of it is family working together. What an amazing thing, to have your dad as a business partner.”
Kid gloves
Moving into a commercial business has not been without its hiccups, Paul admits.
“So we were having gloves made, and then we got our next batch, and they all came in,” he said.
“They were tiny. They were like kids gloves. So we’re stuck with all the stock now. How do we deal with it? We remarketed them as kids’ gloves.
“And we sold them, but then it left the gap for all the customers that were waiting for adult stuff. So there’s a supply chain issue, which I think we’ve now overcome.
“We’re always looking to get softer leather, better leather… maybe tweaking, we’re still tweaking the design phase, could we provide better wrist support?
“The fundamentals are there, but we want to sit there with our gloves in front of us and say, this is a product we’re really proud of. And you know, we wear them.”
New year plans
Moving into 2025, Frank and Paul are showing no-signs of slowing down.
Boxing’s continuing rise in popularity as a fitness draw means more seminars, with sessions booked in Marseille and Paris and Lanzarote next year.
Having more control over their supply chain is also a target.
Paul adds: “So the next thing, I suppose, or a natural progression for us would be moving into the bulking up the stock, moving into paid media, becoming a boxing glove superpower.
“I think we’ll keep it kind of keep it small to medium for 2025.”
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