The HFA Show 2025 is almost upon us.

Set for March 12-14 in Las Vegas, this year’s show will mark the first event held under the new Health & Fitness Association name, featuring an expanded conference lineup, a robust trade show floor and keynote speakers including Alex Rodriguez and Anytime Fitness founder Chuck Runyon. 

To get you primed and ready for this year’s HFA Show, Athletech News breaks down some of the key trends shaping the fitness and wellness industry in 2025, and previews how these topics will feature in the panel discussions, floor exhibits and networking conversations you’re sure to experience during your three days in Vegas. 

What’s the Fitness Industry’s Future in Washington, DC?

Say what you will about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, but the fitness industry has something going for it that it hasn’t for a long time, if ever: a voice in Washington, D.C., that’s receptive to the power of exercise in driving healthcare reform. 

Speaking during the ATN CEO Summit in January, HFA leaders Mike Goscinski and Jeff Solsby discussed how the fitness industry’s top trade association was preparing for the administration of President Trump. 

“We’re super excited because we’re facing an administration (where) for the first time … we see a receptive voice to understanding the benefits of physical activity and the intervention that’s needed from the federal government to allow more people to have access to it,” Goscinski said. 

What could MAHA mean for the fitness industry? It might lead to more support for legislation like the PHIT Act, a bill that would amend the IRS tax code to allow Americans to spend tax-free healthcare dollars from health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA) on fitness-related purchases like gym memberships and equipment.

In the absence of legislation like PHIT, major fitness brands including Orangetheory, F45 Training and ABC Fitness are taking matters into their own hands, partnering with telehealth platforms designed to simplify the currently time-consuming process of using HSA and FSA funds on fitness purchases.  

What To See at HFA Show 2025:

The fitness industry’s opportunity under the Make America Healthy Again movement is sure to be a hot topic of conversation at this year’s HFA Show. 

During a special panel discussion called “The Role of Advocacy in Advancing & Protecting the Industry,” Goscinski and other industry leaders, including ATN founder and CEO Edward Hertzman, will take the stage to discuss the fitness industry’s ongoing advocacy efforts in DC and with state lawmakers. 

Longevity Makes Its Way Inside Clubs & Studios

The business of longevity is booming – and gyms, clubs and studios are getting in on the action. 

Luxury brands like Life Time and Equinox now offer their members access to services including weight-loss support, biomarker blood testing and personalized health plans (for an extra fee), pushing us closer to a reality where the gym replaces – or at least competes with – the doctor’s office. 

High-value, low-price (HVLP) gym brands including Crunch Fitness, Chuze Fitness and EōS Fitness are getting in on the action too, adding everything from infrared saunas to massage guns to body-scanning technology. 

Another big trend in the longevity movement: strength training. Fitness brands are increasingly touting the benefits of lifting weights for longevity, and for good reason. Studies continue to show that preserving muscle mass as we get older is one of the best ways to maintain independence into old age. 

What To See at HFA Show 2025:

Longevity will take center stage at this year’s HFA Show, where Technogym will lead an education session called “Strength for Life: Building a Personalized Resistance Training Plan for Longevity.”

Brands to look for on the trade show floor include Evolt, which raised $20 million last fall. The Australia-based company makes an advanced body-composition scanner that can distinguish between fat and muscle and measures 40 body health parameters. Evolt has notably partnered with top fitness brands including Anytime Fitness. 

InBody, whose body-composition analyzers are found inside top clubs including Life Time, will showcase innovations including its InBody Touch – an interactive touchscreen kiosk that seamlessly integrates with InBody products – and the InGrip, a handheld dynamometer that measures handgrip strength. 

AI-Powered Personalized Fitness Is (Finally) Here

Artificial intelligence has long been touted as the key to creating personalized fitness routines and changing the look and feel of the gym floor. Many experts believe the future of in-person fitness will be forever changed by AI and tech. 

“I think in the next 5, 10, years in the U.S., you’re going to see transformative changes within gyms, where technology and AI – and personalization of training programs – is going to take place,” Marc Magliacano, a managing partner at private equity firm L Catterton, said during ATN’s DISRUPT video series earlier this year.

What might these changes look like? The HFA Show 2025 might give us a glimpse.

What To See at HFA Show 2025:

Fresh off a $200 million funding round, EGYM will showcase tools including EGYM Genius, an AI-powered system that creates personalized workout routines for users and connects the entire gym floor. The Munich-based fit tech giant will also showcase new tools such as its M20 Smart Strength Squat and “Squat Flexibility Test,” which assess people’s mobility, strength and balance during the squat movement.

Not to be outdone, Technogym just launched “healthness,” its new vision for the convergence of personalized fitness, wellness and healthcare. At this year’s HFA Show, the Italian fitness equipment and tech giant will showcase innovations like Biostrength, a machine circuit designed to take the guesswork out of strength training by providing AI-powered, personalized workout routines.

Biostrength complements tools like Technogym Checkup, which uses AI to give users their “wellness age” based on factors including body composition and analyzing strength performances, balance, mobility and cognitive abilities. 

Education sessions at HFA Show 2025 induce, “AI Unleashed: Transforming the Health and Fitness Experience,” a panel where industry leaders including ALTA Technology Group’s Al Noshirvani explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the fitness industry. 

Equipment Makers Go All-In on Strength

No HFA Show would be complete without a vibrant trade show floor. This year, traditional equipment makers are planning to showcase exciting launches that offer new takes on old fitness favorites.

In line with industry trends, expect to see a heavy dose of strength training at HFA Show 2025. 

What To See at HFA Show 2025:

Matrix Fitness has teased that it’ll be unveiling ten new additions to the brand’s Magnum series of Plate-loaded strength machines at at year’s show. The Johnson Health Tech-owned brand will also showcase its Matrix Stretch Platform, an elevated stretching set-up that’s designed to provide a more comfortable and effective stretching experience than the floor. 

Life Fitness is also going all-in on strength. The Illinois-based equipment giant will debut three new additions to its famous Hammer Strength plate-loaded line: the Pendulum-X Squat, the Super Fly and the Multi-Squat. 

Life Fitness will also offer HFA attendees a first look at its new inclusive cable system, a functional cable training set-up that the brand says engages every muscle group in the body. Life Fitness will also showcase its new Symbio cardio line and digital products including Facility Enhance on the trade show floor in Vegas.

Torque Fitness, a Minnesota-based maker of home and commercial gym equipment, will showcase its all-new Tank M3, a reimagined take on the traditional push sled. Torque also plans to present additions to its X-Create functional training line including hip thrust, back extension, hip abductor and cable machines, along with new dumbbells and Olympic lifting platforms.

On the cardio front, Torque will unveil the Stealth Air Rower, which the brand says is more durable and offers a wider range of resistance settings than other rowing machines on the market.

The post HFA Show 2025 Preview: Fitness & Wellness Storylines To Watch appeared first on Athletech News.

Many fitness executives talk a good game about the importance of physical activity and healthy living. 

Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, FACSM, lives it.

Named president and CEO of the American Council on Exercise (ACE) last year, Bryant has held various leadership positions within the fitness education and certification provider since joining ACE in 2001. Before that, Bryant was an executive at StairMaster, and throughout his impressive academic career in the fields of physiology and exercise science, he’s authored more than 300 articles and co-authored or edited over 40 books

A fierce proponent of health equity and accessibility, Bryant sat down with Athletech News to discuss the link between exercise and chronic disease prevention, share how ACE is working to bring fitness and healthcare closer together, and give his thoughts on the rise of anti-obesity drugs like GLP-1s. 

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background in academia and the fitness industry, and what prompted you to join ACE back in 2001?

Cedric X. Bryant: My career has really been split into thirds. The first third was the traditional academic route where I got my PhD in physiology, and then I went the teaching and research route at Penn State, West Point and Arizona State. I focused much of my work on the role of exercise and chronic disease prevention and management, exploring how physical activity could impact conditions like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and looking at how we could use evidence-based approaches to improve overall health outcomes. I’ve always fashioned myself as a person who effectively bridges the gap between science and practice, who is able to take scientific information and present it in a manner where it’s very digestible to the professionals who are on the ground impacting lives.

The middle third I spent working in the for-profit world, heading up R&D for StairMaster, the exercise equipment company. That was a neat experience because it helped expose me to a different side of the industry. During that time, I became associated with ACE, serving on their scientific advisory board at the time, which evolved into me joining the organization back in 2001 as VP of science and education. That evolved into president and chief science officer, and I’m now president and CEO. I’ve been with ACE for almost 24 years now. 

ATN: How do you view ACE’s role within the fitness industry? 

CB: At a very high level, I see ACE as educating health and fitness professionals so they’re uniquely positioned to advance equity in physical activity and fitness by advocating for more accessible and science-based approaches. Being physically active offers so many important health benefits – and life benefits in general. I believe all people deserve to have those experiences made readily available to them. 

Because that’s such a large task, we’re big on collaboration and partnerships. No single entity can address the problems we’re trying to address as an industry in terms of physical inactivity and the associated issues with being obese and overweight. So we partner with our peer organizations, other health organizations, policymakers and communities to ensure that everyone, regardless of size, ability and background, has access to high-quality health and physical activity services. 

ATN: What have your early priorities been since taking over as ACE’s CEO?

CB: A lot of my early priorities have been an extension of what we’ve been doing as an organization. One is to expand our educational offerings, because I’m a big believer that life is about learning and growing. We want to make sure we’re always offering relevant content and topics so we can help professionals develop and grow throughout their careers. We’re looking at things like the anti-obesity medications and the role that exercise and fitness play with regard to individuals who might be using those to manage their weight. We’re looking at the smart utilization of AI to allow individuals to be more operationally efficient. We’re also looking at mental health and well-being from an educational perspective, and how can the health and fitness professional play an appropriate role while staying within the bounds of scope of practice.

In terms of the industry at large, I’m trying to make sure we play a thought leader role in helping to bridge the gap between fitness and healthcare. We want to strengthen the role that ACE plays, as well as the industry at large, in integrating health solutions and ensuring that exercise professionals are in a position to become viable members of what I call the optimal healthcare team. We also want to play a role in the whole public health sector in terms of increasing our presence in policy discussions around things like obesity, physical activity and health promotion. As an example of that, we’ve served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Roundtable on Obesity Solutions since 2014. 

ATN: What’s your take on the rise of anti-obesity drugs like GLP-1s? Will these medications be a positive or negative development for the fitness industry over the long term? 

CB: I think GLP-1s and (other) anti-obesity medications are going to play a positive role in helping individuals who have been impacted by obesity for quite some time but haven’t had success with traditional methods. 

However, I do think we need to be aware of and understand the fact that while those drugs can help people experience rapid weight loss, they’re not without some issues. It’s important that we as an industry understand what those are, and understand how we can play a role in helping to mitigate some of those issues, namely the impact of those medications on muscle mass, metabolism and exercise capacity. Even more importantly, a successful weight management intervention has to be sustainable. We know that unless individuals combine medications with the appropriate healthy lifestyle behavior changes, the results are likely not going to be sustainable. That’s where our industry can partner with healthcare to provide the appropriate supplemental exercise training.

ATN: So far, how would you assess the fitness industry’s collective response to the rise of GLP-1s?

CB: I’ll give you some positives and negatives. On the positive side, I’d say there’s a growing awareness, so more fitness professionals and organizations are recognizing the role of these anti-obesity meds in weight management. Because of that, there are new education efforts underway where some leading industry organizations are starting to offer training on how to support clients taking these medications. ACE has recently introduced continuing education courses along those lines. There are also some early positive signs of collaboration between fitness and medical professionals. 

On the downside, I think there needs to be a better understanding of these GLP-1 medications in terms of what they do and their potential side effects. I’d argue that because they’re relatively new, many fitness professionals lack sufficient knowledge of how these medications impact muscle mass, metabolism and exercise capacity. It’s (also) important that we avoid stigmatizing the folks who are taking these medications, because some fitness spaces still carry weight bias, if we’re honest.

But overall, I’m encouraged that there’s enough positive traction and movement. Better connecting fitness with healthcare is something the industry has been trying to do for decades. This just might be the gateway into that.

ATN: What’s one thing you’d most like to see change in the fitness industry?

CB: I’d say it’s (more) true collaboration. In my humble opinion, it’d be wise for all of us to recognize that we share a common foe: physical inactivity and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. It’s not each other, regardless of what our acronyms might be. We partner with our peer organizations like ACSM and we work with the Medical Fitness Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the National Council on Strength and Fitness, because we believe we can accomplish so many more meaningful things if we work together and look for those opportunities where we have a common interest and a common bond. It’s the old rising tide, if you will. 

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Fabletics has become one of the biggest brands in activewear, challenging traditional players like Nike, Adidas and Lululemon with pieces that are fashion-forward and available for a fraction of the price of competitors. 

In 2024, Fabletics did around $850 million in sales, buoyed by new product launches, celebrity partnerships and a strong loyalty program. In the years ahead, the California-based activewear brand has its sights set even higher, aiming to double in size and become a global powerhouse. 

“We’re looking to more than double the business over the next five years,” Fabletics CEO Adam Goldenberg tells Athletech News.

Goldenberg sat down with ATN to discuss Fabletics’ rise to the top of the activewear market and outline the brand’s strategy for growth in the years ahead, including a push into new apparel categories and international expansion.

Inside Fabletics’ Rise to the Top

Founded in 2013 by Goldenberg and husband-and-wife duo Don and Ginger Ressler, Fabletics was created to fill a gap in the women’s market for high-performance activewear at an affordable price point. 

“We just had this fundamental belief that the world’s best leggings shouldn’t cost $100,” Goldenberg recalls. 

Goldenberg and the Resslers also wanted to bring some creativity and color to the women’s activewear space, which they felt was too stale in the early 2010s. 

“If you could go back in a time machine and look at women’s activewear in 2011, it was boring. It was black, navy and gray,” Goldenberg notes. “There was no fashion, no fashion collaborations, no colors, no prints. We really felt we could introduce fashion into the category.

While things have evolved a bit since then, Fabletics’ women’s line still features leggings, sports bras and other activewear pieces offered in bold colors like bright pink and patterns including cheetah print.

In 2020, Fabletics partnered with Kevin Hart to launch a menswear line, encouraged by feedback from the brand’s many female customers who were seeking something to buy for their significant other. Hart has since become synonymous with Fabletics, starring in catchy TV commercials and social media campaigns. 

“We look for partners that we feel match the brand,” Goldenberg says of Fabletics’ affiliation with the popular comedian. “Kevin is in incredible shape, and an athlete in his own right. But he’s also fun and approachable, which is a big part of the DNA of our brand.”

Menswear currently makes up around 33% of Fabletics’ total revenue, so the expansion has proved fruitful.  

Thinking Smarter About Customer Loyalty 

In activewear circles, Fabletics might be best known for its VIP membership program, a loyalty program that allows customers to get big discounts on products and access to exclusive drops. VIP members can pay an optional $59.95 monthly membership fee to receive credits on Fabletics pieces. 

Fabletics has around 3 million customers, 80% of whom are VIP members, according to the brand. Besides driving customer loyalty, the VIP program gives Fabletics access to massive amounts of data on its customers, which the brand leverages in creative ways through online sales, digital marketing and inside its 100-plus brick-and-mortar stores.

“The benefit to us as a company is when people become a member, we get a lot of data, and we use that data to buy the right inventory,” Goldenberg explains. “We really have no inventory obsolescence, which helps us from a margin standpoint and allows us to pass great savings on to our customers.”

Fabletics also uses data to see around the corner on product development. For example, the brand launched a scrubs line in 2023 after noticing that hundreds of thousands of its VIP members were wearing scrubs to work.  

To make sense of all this data, Fabletics spends big bucks on its tech stack, including a platform called Fashion OS and an app called Fabletics FIT that features on-demand workouts from personal trainers.

“For a company our size, we probably invest five to 10 times more in technology than our peers, and we see those investments that pay off over the long haul,” Goldenberg says. 

Still, for all Fabletics’ emphasis on data and tech, Goldenberg is quick to point out that quality is king when it comes to building a successful activewear brand. He proudly points out that Fabletics’ number one source of new customers is referrals from existing customers. 

“You can make a business as complicated as you want, but at the heart, we’ve developed a really great product that people love,” he says, adding that the company remains “maniacal” about finding the best-performing and most comfortable activewear fabrics at the lowest possible price. 

Five-Year Plan: International Growth & Category Expansion

Fabletics isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. Goldenberg believes the brand can double in size by 2030, which would put Fabletics at around $1.7 billion in sales. 

To do so, the brand wants to push the boundaries of what’s possible for an activewear company. That includes expanding into new apparel categories – and new territories. 

“We have a couple more major category expansions in development that we’re quite excited about,” Goldenberg says, including something slated to “launch toward the back half of this year.”

On the international expansion front, Fabletics is aiming to become a “global brand.” 

The brand already has a presence in Western Europe and is set to enter the Mexican market in a big way in 2025 following a partnership with Liverpool, a Mexico-based omnichannel retail group. Over the next five years, Fabletics plans to explore expansion into additional regions including Central America, South America, Australia and the Middle East.

“International today is about five to seven percent of the business, so it’s still relatively small,” Goldenberg says. “We think that’s going to grow at a pretty fast clip over the next five years.”

The post Fabletics CEO Eyes Activewear Expansion, Global Growth appeared first on Athletech News.

The Fitness Technology Summit is expanding to Europe, heading to London this summer thanks to a partnership between event organizer ALTA Technology Group and LeisureLabs, a U.K.-based digital agency for fitness and wellness brands. 

The Fitness Technology Summit Europe 2025 will be held June 24-25 in London at Stamford Bridge, the stadium of Premier League soccer club Chelsea FC. It marks the first event staged outside of North America for The Fitness Technology Summit, an annual event that’s centered around the intersection of fitness and technology.

“We are thrilled to partner with the LeisureLabs team to bring The Fitness Technology Summit to the U.K. Europe has a dynamic and fast-growing fitness technology sector, and LeisureLabs are leading the way in this market,” said ALTA managing partner Al Noshirvani. “We are confident this event will provide an invaluable opportunity for networking, knowledge-sharing and innovation.“

First held in 2012 (then called the Motionsoft Technology Summit), The Fitness Technology Summit brings together industry leaders, entrepreneurs and key decision-makers for a day of high-level discussions on pressing topics and trends, along with networking opportunities. Every year, the Summit also supports a charitable cause. Past partners include the Wounded Warrior Project and Back on My Feet, among others.

Last year’s event, staged at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, was held in concert with Augie’s Quest BASH, an ALS fundraiser in honor of Augie Nieto, the late founder of Life Fitness. During the event, 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov was honored with the first-ever Augie Nieto Fitness Legacy Award.

In line with previous events, The Fitness Technology Summit Europe 2025 will be invite-only, according to organizers. The London event’s advisory panel includes PureGym’s Andy Caddy, Third Space’s Steven Dick, David Lloyd Clubs’ Mark Williams, The Gym Group’s Milan Juza and The Retention Guru’s Dr. Paul Bedford. 

“We’ve long been supporters and fans of The Fitness Technology Summit, and we believe that there is a clear need in the European market to create an environment where fitness and technology leaders can connect, collaborate and drive the future of the industry together,” said LeisureLabs founder Alex Peacock. “We’re delighted to be working with the team at ALTA to make this a reality, and we can’t wait to welcome the industry’s brightest minds to London.”

The U.K.’s fitness market is growing fast, valued at £5.9 billion ($7.6 billion) in 2024, according to a recent report. There are over 10 million gym memberships in the U.K. as high-value, low-price (HVLP) operators like PureGym see success, but also premium, boutique fitness brands like 1Rebel. 

Following June’s event in London, The Fitness Technology Summit will host its 2025 North American event in Chicago this fall, set for October 13-15 at the InterContinental Hotel.

Excited to attend more fitness and wellness events? Register here for the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a can’t-miss two-day event to be held on June 17th and 18th in New York City featuring the biggest names, brands and ideas across fitness, health and wellness.

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New York City’s boutique fitness studios are improving when it comes to the in-class experience they provide for their members, although some modalities are lagging behind, according to a new report. 

The Fit Guide, a company that rates boutique fitness studios in categories including class experience, reception services and technology, shared data from its 2025 New York report, the first of multiple reports slated to release this year in major cities.

On average, boutique fitness studios in NYC scored higher in this year’s report than they did in 2024, a positive development for Big Apple brands. 

Across all brands surveyed, the average class experience score jumped to 84 (out of 100), an increase of 3.3% compared to last year. 

Barre saw the largest improvement of any fitness modality tracked, with a 5.7% increase in class experience scores. Cycling was the only modality to see a decline in class experience scores, dropping by 4.7%.

Reception services continue to be a slight pain point for NYC boutique fitness studios. This year’s average reception score was 74.9, just a 0.5% increase from last year’s rating. 

Yoga was the lowest-scoring modality overall for the second year in a row. 

“We’re delighted to see the standard of New York’s boutique clubs improve this year, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in yoga and cycling,” The Fit Guide co-founder Jack Thomas told Athletech News. “Pilates and barre have seen considerable gains in terms of experience and service, which is perhaps no surprise given the recent success of many brands in these spaces.”

Launched in 2023 by Thomas and Matt Lavender, The Fit Guide provides independent, anonymous evaluations of boutique fitness studios across the world. The company assesses studios across 250 standards in five key categories: reception service, facilities, group class experience, technology and online presence. The Fit Guide evaluates studios in five fitness modalities: barre, cycling, HIIT/strength, Pilates and yoga. 

Designed to serve as the “Michelin Guide for fitness,” The Fit Guide has released reports on studios in markets including New York, London, Singapore, Dubai and Sydney. In March, the service will launch in Los Angeles, with a Miami report planned for later this year.

Athletech News breaks down more key data from The Fit Guide’s 2025 New York report:

Studios scoring over 90, averaged out across all categories, earned The Fit Guide’s coveted 5-Star Award. Eight boutique fitness studios in NYC received this honor for 2025. 

2025 New York 5-Star Award Winners

• F45 Training, Flatiron
• F45 Training, Lower East Side
• Orangetheory, Manhattan-Plaza District
• Orangetheory, UWS 92nd St
• Physique 57, 60th & 5th
• Physique 57, SoHo
• Pure Barre, Union Square
• The Bar Method, Cobble Hill

5-Star Class Experience Award Winners

• Barre3, West Village
• F45 Training, Flatiron
• F45 Training, Lower East Side
• Lifticonic, West Village
• Orangetheory, Chelsea
• Orangetheory, Manhattan-Plaza District
• Orangetheory, SoHo
• Orangetheory, UWS 92nd St
• Physique 57, 60th & 5th
• Physique 57, SoHo
• Pure Barre, Flatiron
• Pure Barre, Union Square
• SLT Tread, NoMad
• Solidcore, NoMad
• The Bar Method, Cobble Hill

Eager to see more insider data on the fitness and wellness industry? Register here for the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a can’t-miss two-day event to be held on June 17th and 18th in New York City featuring the biggest names, brands and ideas across fitness, health and wellness.

The post NYC’s Boutique Fitness Studios Are Getting Better, Data Shows appeared first on Athletech News.

Action Black, a brash boutique fitness brand that’s already a hit in Colombia and other countries, is plotting major expansion in New York City and across the United States. 

Marketing itself under the bold slogan, “We’re not a (f*ng) gym. We’re the most revolutionary training model in the world,” the boutique fitness brand features a dimly lit, nightclub-style aesthetic, hence the name “Action Black.” 

Beyond its dark-room vibes, Action Black’s other calling card lies in its approach to group fitness. The brand’s locations feature multiple fitness modalities all under one roof, with separate rooms for classes like boxing, strength training, cycling and HIIT. 

Founded in 2015 by former Colombian reality TV star turned gym executive Wilder Zapata Torres, Action Black currently has over 20 locations and counting in its home of Colombia, with additional studios in Spain and Mexico, along with planned openings coming in Portugal and Brazil. 

Now, Action Black is planning to take over the United States. The brand opened its first U.S. location in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood last year, followed by a second location in NoMad. 

“Everywhere we go, people love it,” Oscar Toro, an Action Black investor who is helping lead the brand’s U.S. expansion, tells Athletech News. “We opened about four months ago in Spain, and it’s doing amazing. It’s the same thing in Mexico.”

Action Black will soon be opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which will become the brand’s largest facility in the U.S., around four times the size of its Tribeca studio. The Williamsburg location will feature additional perks like a lounge, co-working spaces and potentially, community events like “wine Fridays,” Toro tells ATN. 

Additional New York locations are planned for the Financial District in Manhattan and Dumbo in Brooklyn. 

Action Black isn’t staying confined to the Northeast, either. The brand signed a lease to bring a facility to Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, with construction set to begin there soon.

Standing Out From the Crowd

Action Black is seeking to cultivate a distinct experience in the crowded, often repetitive world of boutique fitness. The workout rooms inside an Action Black are dimly lit with bright neon lights, reminiscent of a nightclub. Each class is led by an instructor, but there are also TVs in class so members can also follow along on screen. 

Similar to other Action Black studios, the brand’s Tribeca location features several separate workout rooms, each of which is stocked with equipment for a different group fitness class. Classes include Jab, a boxing fitness class; Savage, a bootcamp-style HIIT workout that combines strength training and cardio; and Solido, which focuses solely on glutes and abs, among other offerings. Locations also feature the “garage,” a free gym area stocked with strength training equipment like power racks, machines and free weights. 

The idea, according to Toro, is that Action Black members can get all of their favorite group fitness workouts in one place, for one price. 

“At most studio gyms, it’s only one modality. Or they have one only space where they’ll do boxing, treadmill, etc.,” Toro says. “We combine all of these modalities into one (location), each of which has its own individual studio. You don’t have to go anywhere else.”

Currently, an Action Black membership can be had for $299 per month for U.S. gym-goers, with annual plans also available. To drum up interest in America, the brand is offering a buy-one-get-one-free membership deal for friends and family members, along with free-trial promotions and class packs.

The brand primarily targets members in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and at a typical Action Black, around 70% of members are female. 

Big Plans for US, International Growth

While America’s boutique fitness market is highly competitive (especially in NYC), Action Black believes it offers something unique with its everything-under-one-roof approach and its nightclub-inspired look and feel.

If all goes well in New York and Florida, the brand plans to target additional states in the U.S. for expansion, identifying North Carolina and Texas as particular markets of interest. 

The American expansion is part of Action Black’s broader worldwide growth plan, which includes the target of opening at around 135 gyms across the globe. 

Internationally, the brand will open more locations in Colombia, Spain and Mexico, along with planned openings in Portugal and Brazil. Additional openings are planned for Shenzhen, China, Dubai, UAE, and Santiago, Chile, per Action Black’s website. The brand has identified London and Germany as additional markets of interest, it told ATN.

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Few executives have more high-level experience in the supplement industry than Thorne CEO Colin Watts, who has been involved in health and wellness for well over two decades now.

The former CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe, chief innovation officer at Walgreens and president of WeightWatchers Health Solutions, Watts joined Thorne shortly after the wellness and supplement company was acquired by L Catterton in a blockbuster $680 million deal back in October 2023.

That deal, which saw Thorne go private, signaled a new chapter for the company as it looks to make a bigger push into the direct-to-consumer supplement market by providing science-backed products and personalization tools including at-home diagnostic tests, online health quizzes and AI-powered recommendations. 

Watts sat down with Athletech News to discuss how Thorne is working to make supplementation easier and more effective for consumers through personalization, and share his thoughts on the evolution of the supplement industry over the past two-plus decades.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Athletech News: You’ve led some of the biggest brands in health and wellness. Why did you decide to join Thorne as CEO in 2023? 

Colin Watts: I got a call from L Catterton when they acquired Thorne to see if I’d be interested in joining the leadership team and eventually coming in as CEO. It didn’t take much of a pitch, honestly. Thorne has a 40-year heritage in the professional channel – in order to service that market, one of the requirements is that your quality has to be pretty unassailable. We’re vertically integrated, so we make (almost) all of our own products in our amazing facility right outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

I also love the innovation profile of the company. What impressed me about Thorne was they weren’t doing the fly-by-night innovation. The supplement industry has a lot of interesting but somewhat superficial innovations that they make a big deal about. Thorne has always been very thorough in its innovation. We were very early into the healthy-aging space, for example. We continue to push in terms of where we’re going with innovation. 

And when I got a chance to meet our people, I saw that the culture is just unbelievable. This is the best company I’ve ever gotten a chance to work for – and I’m not just saying that. 

ATN: When you joined, Thorne, was fresh off a $680 million acquisition. What have your early priorities been as CEO?

CW: My first priority was to take a hard look at how the company was growing and determine where we could prioritize. For decades, Thorne had been a professional-focused company. About seven years ago, we started to pivot more direct-to-consumer, while still continuing in the professional space. As good as Thorne is right now and as big as we become, the reality is that our visibility and accessibility are still fairly low in the category. There’s a lot of headroom, even if you’re a premium supplement brand, to grow that awareness and make sure that more and more people hear the story of Thorne. 

Our second big priority is innovation. In 2025, you’re going to see one of the biggest years of innovation we’ve had in probably 20 years. One of the big areas we’re working on right now is personalization. I think we’re on the cusp of some breakthroughs in personalization, both at Thorne and as an industry.  

ATN: What’s Thorne planning on the personalization front? 

CW: This industry’s been plagued with people over-promising personalization; I’ve watched it for the last 15 years. At the end of the day, if I’m not making changes to my supplement regimen – or my lifestyle overall– then it’s not really personalized. 

At Thorne, we’re taking advantage of advances that are going on right now in AI, along with our participation in the diagnostic, at-home test kit area. We’re also taking advantage of the fact that we’re a leader in the science and professional side, but also master storytellers and very good marketers, to create an experience on the front end of personalization that hopefully will feel as good as the best conversation you could ever have with an expert in the area of supplementation and wellness. We’re going to create something that I believe isn’t going to feel like shopping anymore; it’s going to feel a lot more like asking for help. 

ATN: How has the supplement industry evolved over the last several years?

CW: Today’s consumer, at any age, is no longer thinking about supplements purely from a prevention standpoint. Prevention is really important, don’t get me wrong, but today’s consumer doesn’t want to wait 15 years to see the benefits of supplementation. Frankly, they shouldn’t wait that long.

Gen Zs and Millennials are actually spending more out of pocket for this market than Boomers are, so they’re setting the pace. What we’re seeing is they want to think about supplements – and they want to think about Thorne – as a performance brand. Similar to getting on a treadmill seeing and their (metrics) improving, that same generation is saying, “When I use whey protein, or when I use Catalyte, I want to understand, How is it going to help me perform? How is it going to help me today and tomorrow?”

ATN: The supplement industry is highly crowded, and there’s some consumer distrust. How is Thorne working to separate itself from the crowd?

CW: A long time ago in my career, I got a chance to work with (author and marketing expert) Faith Popcorn. She had this concept that she called a “lighthouse brand.” What she meant is that certain brands in certain industries break out from the pack. If you think about personal computing, Apple is a lighthouse brand. And whether you like Apple or you don’t like Apple, you can appreciate the fact that Apple changed the way that everybody did personal computing and now mobile phones as well. 

I think Thorne has a real opportunity to become a lighthouse brand in this market, because of the quality of our products, the science we put behind our products and our approach in bridging the professional and consumer markets. 

ATN: What’s your vision for the future of Thorne – and the supplement industry in general?

CW: I think we’re coming into a time when supplements will become part of the regular regimen. Consumers taking control of their health: people aren’t just waiting until they get sick, then going to the doctor and saying, “Please treat me.” They’re saying at an earlier age, “I want to perform at my best and I want to stay healthy for the longest I can.”

I’d like to believe Thorne has the opportunity to be a go-to brand. We’re not going to be here one day and gone tomorrow. That said, we also like to think of ourselves as a bit of the maverick of the industry that is constantly innovating and pushing. So if we were having this conversation five years from now, I’d like to be able to point to several points where we as a company have set a new paradigm for wellness and supplementation. 

The post CEO Corner: Thorne’s Colin Watts Talks State of the Supplement Industry  appeared first on Athletech News.

The smartphone era has its ups and downs. We’re more informed than ever, but many people struggle to break free from their devices, stuck in a vicious cycle of doomscrolling and other time-wasting activities. 

Paul English, the co-founder of travel booking platform Kayak, is fighting back. Through his firm Boston Venture Studio, English has launched Steppin, a mobile phone app that forces people to walk a certain number of daily steps before they’re able to access popular apps like TikTok, Instagram or YouTube. 

“We want to fight the algorithm,” English tells Athletech News. “If you want some entertainment, it’s okay, but make sure you break away from the screen every day to get outside and get some fresh air. It’s good for your mental health, good for your physical health, and it just keeps things in balance.”

Launched in January, Steppin essentially makes people earn their screen time by walking. Once they download the app, users can configure their phones to block distracting apps until they reach a pre-set daily steps goal. For example, you can program Steppin to block access to Facebook until you walk 5,000 steps (users can override Steppin to access blocked apps if they choose). 

English might have made his name and fortune as a tech entrepreneur by selling Kayak for $1.8 billion, but he admits there’s a downside to too much screen time.  

On a recent family trip to Spain, English’s fiancé, Rachel Cohen, and his son, Mike, realized the group was spending too much time on their phones and not enough time enjoying their Mediterranean surroundings. They got the idea for an app that tied screen time to daily steps. 

“We looked at the market and we couldn’t find anything that correlates steps to screen time,” English recalls. “We just thought it was a very obvious thing to build.”

The Race to Reduce Screen Time

Is there a big enough market for an app that encourages people to walk for their screen time? Some data says yes. Around 21% of Americans used a smartwatch or fitness tracker in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Meanwhile, another survey found that the average American checks their phone 205 times per day, and that 43% of Americans admit feeling addicted to their phones.

“We’re not inventing new types of users,” English notes. “If you look at the intersection of people who already track their steps and think they’re addicted (to their phones), it’s a huge number.” 

Screen-time reduction apps have become fairly popular in recent years. Opal, which allows users to block distracting apps for a set period of time – during the workday, for example – reported that it has over 500,000 users and 100,000 paying subscribers.  

But those apps don’t incentivize movement in the way Steppin does. For English, prioritizing daily steps is what makes Steppin stand out from the crowd. In theory, this will make the app more engaging for users over time and lead to long-term behavior change. 

Sharing a personal use case, English reports that he deleted X (formerly Twitter) from his phone after one week of using Steppin, realizing how “toxic” the social media app was after he was able to take a break from it. 

“I still have TikTok on my phone, but I use it much less because I have to walk in order to earn it,” English adds. 

Other users seem to be seeing similar benefits. Steppin saw “thousands of downloads” in its first week after launching, the app confirmed to ATN. 

“We’re getting (great) feedback from users, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to build this out,” English says.

Weighing Pricing Options

To keep users engaged for the long haul, Steppin is leaning into gamification. The app just introduced a “streaks” feature that rewards users for consecutive days they stick to their screen-time goals. A “leaderboard” feature is coming soon, which will allow friends to compete with each other to see who can earn the most screen time per day by walking. 

For now, Steppin is available for free with no monthly or annual subscription cost. Steppin hasn’t decided on an exact pricing structure yet, but English says the app will cost significantly less than competitors like Opal, which charges $100 per year for an annual “pro” subscription. Steppin will likely remain free for college students, English adds. 

English is quick to note that while Steppin might prove to be lucrative, he’s not in it for the money alone. The Kayak co-founder has high hopes that the app will make a serious difference in people’s lives, reaching millions of users and sparking a revolution in the way we interact with our screens and ourselves. 

“This is going to sound ridiculous, but I wouldn’t mind if Apple looked at our app and said, ‘That’s a really good idea,’ and they built it themselves and put us out of business,” he says. “My goal is to get as many people as possible managing their mental health and physical health by doing a bit less social (media) and a bit more exercise. So it’s really a mission-driven company.”

The post Is Steppin the App That Will Finally Get People Off Their Phones? appeared first on Athletech News.

The activewear space is booming, but premium brands tend to place their primary focus on women’s apparel. A new brand backed by former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver Sidney Rice is looking to change that.

Rice, Seattle-based entrepreneur Daniel Kosh and a group of executives with experience in global sourcing and supply chain have relaunched Sodo Athletic Lab, positioning it as a high-end, men’s-only activewear brand.

Originally founded back in 2013, Sodo Athletic Lab gained a cult-like following among male athletes and entrepreneurs in the Seattle area, heralded for premium, comfortable and functional activewear pieces. Under new leadership, the brand will look to capture that same market on a larger scale. 

“The men’s athletic-wear space is growing and there’s an opportunity in the premium sector,” Kosh told Athletech News. “Our positioning is around versatile clothes with highly technical features like a unique pocketing system and a different level of attention to detail.”

Sodo Athletic Lab will primarily target males between 35 and 55 years old who tend to purchase high-end apparel and footwear options from brands like Alo, On and others. 

The brand’s current product line includes items like shorts, t-shirts, joggers, jackets and hoodies. With pieces ranging from $75 to $185, Sodo sits on the high end of the men’s activewear pricing spectrum, slightly above brands like Lululemon and Vuori which is right where it wants to be. 

“There’s not really a menswear brand in the athletic space that’s servicing that (market) right now,” Kosh believes. 

Premium Touches Make the Difference

Kosh and Rice believe Sodo Athletic Lab is worth the high price tag, pointing to the brand’s use of high-quality materials and attention to detail when it comes to designing features that men actually want in their activewear. 

That includes a smart pocket system designed to keep items like phones, wallets and keys from bouncing around, a common complaint men have with their workout gear. Sodo pockets contain special compartments, zippers and lining materials designed to hold these items firmly in place during movement. 

It might seem like a minor detail, but it could make all the difference in the highly competitive activewear market. 

“We have the opportunity to reinvent the pocket,” Kosh says. “If you think about it, pockets as we know them were designed before we had mobile phones and (headphones). What you used a pocket for 40 years ago is different from the way we use pockets today, but no one’s updated the design.”

Sodo Athletic Lab pieces also include features like utility belt loops, water-repellant fabrics and UPF 50 sun protection. 

Giving Athletes a Say

Rice, who won a Super Bowl with the Seahawks and has been wearing Sodo Athletic Lab clothing since the Seattle-based brand’s initial iteration over a decade ago, jumped at the opportunity to join the Sodo team as a co-founder of the relaunched brand.  

He points to design, comfort and versatility as differentiating factors between Sodo and other men’s activewear brands on the market. 

“I’m a huge sweats guy; I like to be comfortable and relaxed,” Rice tells ATN. “We have a few different SKUs. Some of them I wear out and about for the day, but I also wear Sodo gear when I’m going to play basketball or work out. If I could, I’d wear Sodo to all of my business meetings.”

But Rice brings more than just name recognition to the activewear brand. Already a seasoned entrepreneur as a former owner of multiple successful Wingstop franchise locations and co-founder of the Dossier Wine Collective, the former NFL standout knows what it takes to build a thriving business. 

Rice will advise Sodo on product design and development. He’ll also help the brand attract current and former athletes as brand partners and investors. 

“Those are just endorsements,” Rice says of the typical relationship most athletes have with clothing companies. “We want people who believe in the product, who want to be a part of the team and actually be able to wear what they own.”

Bringing athletes on board as true brand partners rather than just spokespeople will be a key part of Sodo’s growth strategy, the team tells ATN. 

“It’s skin in the game versus ‘wear the thing, take a picture and cut a check,’” Kosh adds. “Those relationships exist and will continue to exist, but this is very different. This is being a part of something and wearing your own stuff.”

The post Backed by Ex-NFL Star, Sodo Athletic Lab Eyes Premium Men’s Activewear appeared first on Athletech News.

Mike Gray is a fitness lifer. The current president and chief operating officer of Club Pilates franchisee Riser Fitness, Gray began his career in the summer between high school and college as a personal trainer at what would become 24 Hour Fitness. 

That term – “fitness lifer” – has taken on new meaning for Gray, who nearly died from unexpected complications from COVID-19 a few years ago.

In April 2021, Gray caught COVID, which initially caused flu-like symptoms, common for a generally healthy middle-aged man. A fitness enthusiast who didn’t smoke and rarely drank, Gray figured he’d shake off the virus in a few days or at most, weeks.

That wasn’t in the cards for Gray, who at the time was serving as president of Club Pilates, one of the world’s largest fitness brands with over 1,000 studios across the globe.

“One evening, my (blood oxygen) level dropped down to 83 and my temperature was at 106. I woke my fiance at the time (now wife) and said, ‘I need to get to the ER, I’m not doing well at all.’ So she drove me to the ER, and that’s all I remember until I woke up,” Gray tells Athletech News, recalling a night that would forever change his outlook on life and leadership. 

An Unthinkable Run-In With Death

After being rushed to the hospital, Gray was placed into a medically induced coma and strapped into an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine, a life-support system used on patients suffering from severe heart and lung conditions. Placing patients on ECMO is rare – only around 500 hospitals worldwide carry the machines, according to the Mayo Clinic, and many COVID patients who received ECMO at the height of the pandemic didn’t live long beyond the treatment.

Gray was one of the lucky ones. 

Doctors still don’t fully understand exactly what happened to Gray to cause such serious damage to his lungs and heart, but they do know one thing: he’s lucky to be alive. 

“When I was in the hospital, my lungs had completely collapsed. I had zero lung capacity and was actually on a lung transplant list,” he says. “If one of the doctors didn’t administer the ECMO unit as an experiment to see if it would help me, I probably wouldn’t be here today. I had a very small percentage (chance) of living.”

Road to Recovery

Gray spent the next few months in intensive care and acute rehab, essentially re-learning how to walk, eat and live inside a body that had been severely weakened by an unknown ailment. (Gray even had to get heart surgery during his time in the ICU due to related complications).

Eventually, Gray recovered enough to return home, but he had to live with in-home nurses, oxygen tanks and physical therapy. Around that time, he returned part-time to Club Pilates, eager to get back to his normal life as president of one of the biggest brands in fitness. 

“I jumped back into work as soon as I physically could,” Gray says, noting this was important for him physically but even more so mentally. 

Gray’s colleagues at Club Pilates and throughout the brand’s parent company, Xponential Fitness, were excited to see him. 

“The reception from everyone at Xponential was overwhelming,” he recalls. “There were a lot of emotions; a lot of people thought they were going to lose me. People would say, ‘Thank God you’re alive, we can’t believe it.’ And they supported me in every way you could think of, down to helping me carry my water bottle. I was like, ‘Guys, I got this.’”

Gray kept going on his recovery, drawing inspiration, motivation and desire from his young son. More than three years since that fateful night in April 2021, Gray feels much better, but he’s still working to regain full health. 

“My lungs will never be 100%, but my heart’s still ticking and I’m off all my medications,” he reports. “I’m able to work out, go for a walk and ride a bike, the things most people can do. Am I doing what I did before? Not at all. But I’m very thankful for where I am today, and I’m not done yet. I’m still fighting.”

A New Chapter in Pilates

Professionally, Gray hasn’t missed a beat. After several years turning Club Pilates into a global powerhouse, he took a new position as president of the Xponential-owned Rumble Boxing, eager to help grow the young boxing fitness brand in the same way he’d grown Xponential’s Pilates concept.

But Gray quickly felt the itch to return to Pilates. In September, he was announced as the new president and chief operating officer of Riser Fitness, one of the world’s largest operators of Club Pilates studios. Riser has big plans to expand internationally, including in Mexico, and will count on Gray’s expertise along with $72 million in growth capital from Fortress Investment Group.

Gray is excited to be back in Pilates. He’s even more excited to be back inside a startup-like environment with Riser Fitness. 

“I saw what they were building, and it excited me because I enjoy working with people. I felt the bigger we got at Club Pilates, the less opportunity I had – as a franchisor – to help impact people,” Gray says of his motivation for joining Riser. “What excites me now is I’ve got a great group of employees who are hungry and have done really good work. I get to help elevate their career personally and professionally.”

The people part is important. For Gray, appreciating the people he works with more than the work itself is perhaps the most important and lasting mental change he’s experienced from his near-death experience. 

“At the end of the day, this is a job, and it’s gonna keep going with or without me,” he says. “This experience has made me realize how much impact people have on other people. The job is the job, and it was what I showed up to. But the people are what I really work for.”

He’s also learned to stop sweating the small stuff.

“My outlook has changed: the things that typically would have gotten me worked up rarely do nowadays,” Gray says. “And when I do get worked up – because I’m human – I’ve learned how to walk myself through it mentally and compose myself in a way that gets me back into a state of awareness.” 

The post For Longtime Club Pilates Exec Mike Gray, Fitness Is More Than a Job appeared first on Athletech News.

Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers has emerged as one of the fastest-growing franchise brands across health, wellness and fitness, recently hitting 620 locations and earning a spot on Entrepreneur’s coveted “Franchise 500” list. 

Brian Belmont is responsible for much of that growth. Since joining Fyzical as its CEO in 2018, Belmont has helped the physical therapy franchise expand from around 170 locations to over 600 by prioritizing sound franchise economics and responsible yet aggressive growth. 

A former executive vice president at Quiznos and part of the C-suite leadership team that took Planet Fitness public in 2015, Belmont has taken his franchise learnings to Fyzical, which focuses on fall prevention and vestibular balance in addition to offering a full suite of traditional physical therapy and holistic wellness services. 

Belmont sat down with Athletech News to discuss what separates Fyzical from other physical therapy clinics across the United States, share his keys to franchising success and outline Fyzical’s plans for continued expansion. 

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background and why you decided to join Fyzical in 2018?

Brian Belmont: I started my career in the Marine Corps for 10 years. In my early 30s, I joined Quiznos, which at that time was one of the fastest-growing franchise concepts in the U.S. We grew Quiznos to over 5,000 stores, and I went from national director to executive vice president of development and operations. From there, I went to Camp Bow Wow as chief operating officer. After that, I moved to Planet Fitness as chief operating officer, helping the company go public in 2015. 

So I’ve been lucky to have been with growth brands. When it comes to franchising, I look to see whether there’s a niche – a place in the market that no one else is addressing. For Fyzical, that’s balance and vestibular wellness. On top of that, our founder (Jim Abrams) is an iconic figure in franchising. All of that attracted me to Fyzical. When I got here, we were at about 170 stores. We’re at 620 today, so it’s been a pretty rewarding process. 

ATN: What separates Fyzical from a typical physical therapy clinic?

BB: Our founder realized that no one in academia – or in the market at all – was addressing falls and fall prevention. So he brought on Brian Werner (currently Fyzical’s national director of balance center development, education and training). We adopted his diagnostics as well as his clinical protocol and pushed that throughout our whole system. The reason we’re able to open a clinic in a market that has many, many PTs already is because no one (else) is addressing vestibular imbalance. There’s a huge demand in the market, and all we have to do is capture it. That’s number one. 

Number two is that we have great physical therapists. There’s something I call the “puppy mill” of physical therapy – treating a bunch of people at the same time. We don’t do that. We do individual, episodic, one-on-one care. Over time that creates a lifetime partner. You might have busted your shoulder, but sooner or later, you’re going to have something else that happens to you. You’re going to think of Fyzical because you had such a good experience when you were there. 

ATN: What’s the age range of a typical Fyzical client?

BB: We definitely skew older because of the fall prevention. But it varies by state. I’ve got a 24-year-old daughter who was a dancer, so she’s had a lot of hip and back issues. She became a Fyzical client because she needed that care. If you come to Southwest Florida, however, where demographics skew much older, our average age is probably 58 to 60. So it’s across the board.

ATN: Fyzical has more than tripled in size since you took over in 2018. What’s been the key to scaling the brand? 

BB: At the forefront of everything in franchising is whether a franchisee can make money. At the end of the day, it’s the economic model that solves it all. We provide the systems that help us grow, like business intelligence data, which allows franchisees to know whether they’re making money that day, and track their visits and referrals. Your operating systems need to be adapted system-wide and they need to be uniform within a franchise system. 

ATN: As Fyzical continues to grow, what types of franchise owners are you targeting? 

BB: The best way to build wealth and create a strong brand in a franchise system is through multi-unit ownership, so over the last four or five years, we’ve come to prefer multi-unit operators. You get to a point with franchising where you have the luxury to super select.

We focus on folks who have either already been successful in a career as an executive or who’ve grown a couple of other brands and want another growth brand. We’ve got over 60 area reps who’ve bought anywhere from five to 10 units to grow over five to seven years. Most of our multi-unit owners partner with a physical therapist as a clinical lead.

ATN: What’s your pitch to franchisees about why they should choose Fyzical over other health, wellness and fitness concepts?

BB: Because no one else is doing what we do; there’s no one else in the market that can provide what we do for our patients. And If you want a growth brand, this is easily a brand that can reach a couple of thousand stores. We’re still under-penetrated: for instance, we have almost 80 stores in Florida, which has one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the U.S., and we’re successful there. There are markets like Seattle where we have just a handful of stores. So it’s pretty attractive.

ATN: What are your long-term expansion goals for Fyzical? Could international expansion ever be in the cards?

BB: Based on regression studies, we can get to at least 3,000 over time, so we’re very confident. But it’ll be thoughtful growth. You can’t just grow for the sake of growth, you need to consider, “What’s the impact on an existing clinic? What’s the right market penetration?” However, we do want to continue gaining market share because that’s what keeps everyone behind us, not ahead of us. 

Internationally, there’s a great opportunity to go to Canada. It’s a completely different medical system – they call it physiotherapy – but it’s almost 50% cash-based. We’re exploring that right now. I also believe England or Australia could be good markets because their healthcare systems are similar (to Canada).

The post CEO Corner: Fyzical’s Brian Belmont on the Art of Franchise Growth appeared first on Athletech News.

ABC Fitness, one of the fitness and wellness industry’s largest software providers, has hired SweatWorks founder Mohammed “Mo” Iqbal as its chief strategy officer, the company announced Tuesday. 

In the newly created role, Iqbal will establish a strategic consulting practice within ABC Fitness to advise the company on partnerships, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and general innovation, including artificial intelligence (AI). Iqbal will work closely with ABC Fitness chief product officer Finn Hegarty in the new role, the company said. He’ll be based in Arlington, Virginia. 

“Mo brings a wealth of experience and a visionary approach to the fitness industry, leveraging his expertise in strategy, partnerships and technology, “ ABC Fitness CEO Bill Davis said of the appointment. “ABC Fitness is already helping over 30,000 fitness operators around the globe, and with Mo’s leadership, we will establish a strategic consulting practice that will help support our customer’s increasingly specialized needs and the wellness industry as a whole.”

Iqbal comes to ABC Fitness with high-level experience in digital innovation, consulting and entrepreneurship. He founded SweatWorks in 2012, a digital agency specializing in fitness technology that’s worked with top brands including EGYM, Flex and Pvolve.

Iqbal has served as the CEO of SweatWorks since founding the agency in 2012; he’ll now transition to a chairman role, advising SweatWorks on strategy and vision.

“There are only a few companies in the world I’d consider joining, and ABC Fitness was certainly at the top of that list,” Iqbal told ATN, praising the software firm for its large client roster of gyms and studios, and its commitment to establishing long-term partnerships with fitness operators.

In his early days on the job, Iqbal will focus on setting up the strategic consulting arm within ABC Fitness, with a particular eye on partnerships, M&A opportunities and driving innovation around AI. 

“ABC Fitness is going to be diving heavily into AI in various capacities,” Iqbal said. “We already have some good partners in the AI ecosystem, and AI is going to be something you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot from ABC Fitness over the next year.”

As fitness and wellness brands race to integrate AI into their digital offerings, Iqbal believes ABC Fitness has a leg up on the competition thanks to data – the software firm’s products serve around 40 million members and over 30,000 fitness businesses across the world. 

“In order to build truly good AI that’s structured in the right way, you need data,” Iqbal said. “The scale of ABC Fitness allows us to innovate in ways – especially leveraging AI – that no other company in our category can today.” 

The post ABC Fitness Hires SweatWorks’ Mohammed Iqbal, Eyes AI Innovation  appeared first on Athletech News.

Fitness enthusiasts are spoiled for choice these days, with enough workout classes, wellness concepts and tech gadgets to fill their calendars many times over. 

For marketers and brand-builders, navigating this landscape requires a deft hand – and some outside-the-box thinking. 

At the Connected: Health & Fitness Summit 2025 held in Los Angeles this week, executives from top brands including Barry’s, Flex, Les Mills and Whoop took the stage to share how they’re building brand loyalty in the digital era. 

ATN breaks down some of the key takeaways from their conversation, including Barry’s balancing act, Les Mills’ targeted approach to influencer marketing and Whoop’s mission to turn wearables into a lifestyle. 

Barry’s Looks To Scale a Unique Culture

Jackie Lamping, a Silicon Valley tech vet, joined Barry’s as its chief marketing officer this past September. She takes over at a pivotal time for the iconic group fitness brand, which just received a strategic investment from Princeton Equity Group to drive expansion in the United States and international markets. 

Barry’s is a cult favorite among fitness enthusiasts on America’s coasts and in big cities across the world, but the brand won’t be without its challenges as it looks to scale beyond an already impressive 89 locations in 15 countries. 

“Barry’s is a workout that I would categorize as probably high friction to join at first. … there’s an intimidation factor with the reputation of the brand,” Lamping said during a panel discussion at the Summit. “We’ve put two things in place to solve for that.”

The strategies include adding a “first-timer experience” that guides new Barry’s members through their first class with touches including a handwritten note. The other strategy is flexible pricing strategies such as the ability to purchase a drop-in class and cancel a membership at any time.  

As Barry’s seeks to become welcoming to all types of fitness consumers, it will need to do so without compromising the culture that’s made it stand out in the boutique fitness scene since its founding in 1998.

“What we want to do is obviously execute against that growth plan but not lose a community-personal feeling of coming in and your GM knows your name, you know the names of your fellow community members and the next person on the (treadmill),” Lamping said. “How do we make sure that we’re scaling while continuing to focus on the hospitality elements of what makes Barry’s so amazing?” 

Les Mills Takes a Measured Approach to Influencer Marketing

When it comes to influencer marketing, sometimes it’s better to think small, noted Tabitha Green, U.S. head of marketing and B2B digital content for Les Mills. 

Green noted that Les Mills prefers to pursue social media partnerships with people who are already familiar with the group fitness brand’s signature workout classes like Bodypump and Bodycombat.

“One of the things that we’re doing differently is instead of using some of our funds to invest in influencers outside of our space, (we’re) really trying to help create more advocates and create more influencers that already have an affinity to our brand,” Green said. 

She explains that Les Mills invests in helping these devotees “grow their communities so that then we can leverage them as internal influencers, as opposed to hiring that person that has a 500,000 (person) following that may or may not have taken the Bodypump class.”

While it might be tempting for fitness brands to chase mega-influencers, there are financial and community-building benefits to aligning with smaller creators who are enthusiastic about your brand, since they can speak passionately about it to their followers. 

“It’s more authentic when you can invest in an advocate that already has a huge brand affinity and might have a smaller … audience, but the quality of their audience is a lot stronger,” Green noted. 

Green also stressed the importance of fitness brands identifying their target audience before spending big on marketing, especially on social media. 

“Not all platforms are built the same; they reach different audiences,” she said. “Meta reaches … primarily people (from ages) 35 to maybe 54, and we know that Tik Tok is the platform where you want to reach … Gen Alpha and Gen Z.”

Whoop Aims To Humanize Wearables 

Whoop has carved out an impressive niche as the wearable of choice for hardcore fitness enthusiasts. While the Boston-based brand tracks data from sleep to strength training strain, it’s also taking strides to humanize the experience people have while wearing a Whoop. 

“We collect a bazillion data points; that can be a really cold experience (for users),” Whoop’s vice president of brand Tatiana Kuzmowycz said at the Summit. “We can market to you, we can show you the data, (but) everybody can do that. How do we then take that to a level that … creates affinity for the brand and a uniqueness to it?”

In its marketing and advertising campaigns, Whoop seeks to position itself as a lifestyle brand for health and wellness enthusiasts rather than just a fitness tracker. 

“Nobody wants to be a product or tool,” Kuzmowycz said. “Those are instantly replaceable. The next thing is going to come out, (and) someone’s going to beat you on price. You actually have to be building something that is considerably more compelling.”

To tell its brand story, Whoop leans on partnerships with top athletes, including soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo. Whoop is highly intentional about the way it curates partnerships – run-of-the-mill athlete endorsements won’t do for a brand that’s trying to create meaningful connection with its consumers. 

“When we bring up partners, what we ask for is authenticity and intimacy, meaning they have to share their data with us,” Kuzmowycz said. “When we worked with Ronaldo, we literally shot at his house; he was in a bathtub in his house. It was one of the most chaotic moments in my career. But we have to be able to actually bring (our partners) to life.”

For Flex, Digital Payment Solutions Are Essential

For fitness and wellness brands, getting people to your website is only half the battle when it comes to customer acquisition and retention. 

Sam O’Keefe, the co-founder and CEO of Flex, a payments platform that helps fitness and wellness brands accept Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds, pointed to the importance of having a robust and user-friendly online check-out experience.

“Once people have discovered your brand, they’ve landed on your page and they’re considering checking out, what is that experience like?” O’Keefe said. “That whole user journey is a reflection of your brand.”

Flex has partnered with top fitness brands including Echelon and Tempo to streamline the process of accepting HSA/FSA funds during online check-out. Besides accepting HSA/FSA funds, O’Keefe says fitness and wellness brands should ensure they’re leveraging other alternative payment methods like “buy now, pay later” and the ability to accept ACH payments. 

“All of these different payment methods have been demonstrated to not only attract users but really increase conversion,” O’Keefe said. 

Alternative payment methods can also help brands reach consumers who might not have been able to afford their product or service using traditional methods, driving additional revenue. 

“Through offering alternative methods of check-out, you can actually make things more financially accessible,” O’Keefe added. 

Eager to hear more elite marketers discuss their strategies for the future of fitness and wellness? Register now for the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a can’t-miss two-day event to be held on June 17th and 18th in New York City featuring the biggest names, brands, and ideas across fitness, health, and wellness.

The post Barry’s, Flex, Les Mills & Whoop Talk Brand-Building in the Digital Era appeared first on Athletech News.

Nike and Gymshark are two of the biggest brands in activewear, and they both see a massive opportunity in fitness. 

At the Connected: Health & Fitness Summit 2025 held this week in Los Angeles, Calum Watson, global partnerships director at Gymshark, and Tal Ziv, vice president of strategic business ventures at Nike, took the stage to share how their respective brands are marketing to gym-goers across the world. 

ATN breaks down the key takeaways from their conversation, including the importance of social media as a consumer research tool, why in-person events are must-haves in 2025 and why the market for fitness apparel is poised for growth in the years ahead. 

For Gymshark, It Goes Down in the DM

Co-founded in 2012 by pizza delivery boy turned billionaire Ben Francis, Gymshark has set the activewear world on fire over the last decade-plus, becoming the clothing brand of choice for gym-goers across the globe, especially Gen Z. 

The U.K.-based brand is known for having a strong presence on social media – Gymshark’s Instagram account has 7.5 million followers and the brand has partnered with fitness influencers including Steve Cook and Nikki Blackketter. 

For Gymshark, social media is more than just a marketing tool; it’s a way for the brand to gain rich intel about its target audience. Watson and other Gymshark executives often head into the comment sections of the brand’s various social media pages to find out what consumers really want.

“Some of the some of the … enlightened moments from my career where we find true human insights, a lot of times, it’s been in the comment section,” Watson said.

Watson believes social media can be a “gold mine” for brands when it comes to understanding their customers.

“I think a lot of brands and businesses tend to overlook the comment section on social media, but when you actually really delve into … the DMs coming through in your Instagram accounts,  your customers are reaching out,” he said. “They’re giving you real-time feedback.”

The Importance of IRL Events

While mining social media comments is helpful, both Ziv and Watson stressed the importance of in-person events, especially following the pandemic. 

According to Ziv, Nike is placing a bigger emphasis on creating events and experiences around fitness and wellness. 

“We haven’t been as consistent as I wish we would have in our ground game, and that’s something we’re trying to get back into,” he said. 

In 2023, the sportswear giant launched Nike Studios, a chain of in-person boutique fitness gyms with locations in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. 

Beyond that, Nike is placing a particular emphasis on run clubs, which have exploded in popularity with Gen Z-ers and Millennials since the pandemic. The brand just announced the launch of Swoosh TC, a nationwide network of distance running clubs with hubs in Utah, Oregon and Arizona. Swoosh TC came on the heels of Nike announcing its 2025 After Dark Tour, a global women’s race series featuring evening running events in major cities across the world.

“Run clubs are massive opportunities,” Ziv said. “They’re all over the place and a ton of fun.”

Gymshark is embracing in-person events, too. Last weekend, the brand held #LiftMiami, a two-day event that saw around 11,000 people descend on Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood to sample Gymshark gear, work out and meet famous fitness personalities including popular bodybuilder Chris Bumstead. 

Watson highlighted the importance of events like #LiftMiami in helping bring the Gymshark brand alive for consumers.

“That’s a massive event that costs us millions of dollars,” Watson said, but he believes it’s worth the cost in the long term. 

“For the marketeers out here, you need to look beyond just the return on investment and the short-term metrics of success,” he advised. “When people talk about community building, you’ve got to have skin in the game. You’ve got to build it over time.”

Bullish on the Future of Fitness Apparel

Both Ziv and Watson see a bright future ahead for activewear brands seeking to reach fitness and wellness enthusiasts. 

Last year, Nike partnered with recovery tech brand Hyperice to unveil the Nike x Hyperice boot, a high-top shoe that combines heat and air compression massage for athletes’ feet and ankles, along with the Nike x Hyperice vest, a chest sleeve that offers heating and cooling for warm-ups and cool-downs. The Nike x Hyperice products are expected to become available to consumers this year. 

“We’ve tried tech before and we’re not great at it ourselves, so let’s partner with the guys that know what they’re doing,” Ziv said of Nike’s philosophy in linking up with Hyperice.

Watson noted that while the Gymshark team was visiting a gym in Houston, Texas, recently, they noticed teenage powerlifters who were wearing what he described as “$1,500 Jordan off-white” sneakers to squat heavy weights. While Jordans aren’t the best squatting shoes in the world, Watson says the story speaks to the desire young people have to marry fitness and fashion. 

“There’s definitely a level of expression that’s being seen in the gym space,” he said.

Watson expects to see mainstream fashion brands attempt to enter the fitness and wellness space, pointing to Hermès, which launched a workout clothing line and pop-up gym experience in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood back in 2021.

“I think there’s going to be some really interesting cross-overs in the future as more and more brands from outside the industry start to come into the industry,” he predicts. 

Eager to hear more elite marketers discuss their strategies for the future of fitness and wellness? Register now for the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a can’t-miss two-day event to be held on June 17th and 18th in New York City featuring the biggest names, brands, and ideas across fitness, health, and wellness.

The post How Nike, Gymshark Market to Fitness Consumers appeared first on Athletech News.

One look at your local strip mall should be enough to put to rest any ideas to the contrary, as big-box gyms, Pilates studios and wellness centers increasingly fill the spaces once occupied by now-shuttered department stores and retail giants. 

Athletech News breaks down the key trends dominating the fitness and wellness franchising space, spotlighting the brands, modalities and executives poised to define the sector in the years ahead. 

Pilates Is Booming

Pilates has officially hit the mainstream. Once reserved for trendy studios in coastal cities, the mind-body modality developed by Joseph Pilates in the 1920s can now be practiced in towns across the United States as brands race to open franchise locations. 

The OG in the Pilates franchising space, Club Pilates, continues to dominate, with over 1,000 studios across four continents. The Xponential Fitness-owned brand has done as much for the growth of Pilates as any entity or person, but it’s now got some competition. 

JetSet Pilates, a Miami-based brand, launched its franchising arm in 2022 and has already sold over 50 locations nationwide, most recently opening in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. The brand offers 50-minute classes that feature a modern, upbeat take on traditional Pilates workouts. 

JetSet founder Tamara Galinksy believes the brand can open 600 locations domestically while also pursuing international expansion as the Pilates market shows no signs of slowing down. 

“Pilates may seem like a crowded space, however, I see a renaissance and reinvention of reformer Pilates as a modern method that attracts so many and not just an elite few,” Galinsky has told ATN. “Reformer Pilates is still in the early stages of its growth phase within the market. Experts forecast the Pilates market to reach $277 billion by 2028, which is huge growth from 2022 when the market size was around $150 billion.”

Australia-based Studio Pilates is also beginning to spread its wings in America, with 10 franchise locations open in Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Minnesota and Tennessee. Additional Studio Pilates locations are planned for California, Idaho and Tennessee as the brand eyes more growth. 

Established fitness brands are getting in on the action, too. F45 Training is so bullish on Pilates that it’s opened two new standalone boutique fitness concepts, Vaura Pilates and FS8, both of which offer a distinct take on the mind-body modality. 

Wellness Franchises Emerge 

Often maligned for promoting a sedentary lifestyle, America’s suburbs are quickly becoming hubs for next-gen wellness. That’s due to the emergence of wellness, recovery and longevity franchises that offer everything from GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to infrared sauna sessions to IV therapy.

Restore Hyper Wellness leads the way with over 200 locations and a presence in almost every state in America. Restore offers services including red light therapy, cryotherapy, sauna, peptides and much more. Under co-founder and CEO Steve Welch, the brand is eyeing 500 locations nationwide. 

credit: Restore Hyper Wellness

Restore isn’t alone in jumping on board the wellness train. Similar concepts including Serotonin Centers, Lindora, and Next Health are planning large-scale franchise expansion in the coming years. 

Serotonin Centers founder Eric Casaburi, who also founded gym chain Retro Fitness, believes there’s a massive market for wellness franchises as more and more people embrace the longevity movement made popular by podcasters like Andrew Huberman. 

“I think the pandemic was an incredible eye-opener,” Casaburi told ATN. “People became enlightened to how little control they’d been given over their health and then more enlightened to how much control they actually could have over their health when they started to do their due diligence.”

The business of hot and cold is booming, too. Perspire Sauna Studio, which offers infrared sauna and red-light therapy, is expanding quickly, with over 55 open studios and 200 signed franchise agreements as the brand eyes 500 locations by 2027. 

SWTHZ, a contrast therapy brand founded by franchising expert Jamie Weeks, is just starting to scale. The brand offers infrared sauna, cold plunge and vitamin C showers in fancy private rooms. 

As of this summer, SWTHZ had 25 open studios with plans to open 100 additional locations over the next 12 months.

HVLP Gyms Race to Expand

For all the innovative new franchise concepts that have popped up in recent years, the gym is still the lifeblood of the fitness industry. High-value, low-price (HVLP) gyms, in particular, are dominating the market, winning over young fitness consumers with memberships starting as low as $15 per month. 

Planet Fitness is still the undisputed top dog with around 2,600 gym locations. However, Crunch Fitness has emerged as a formidable number two thanks to its strong franchise economics and premium offerings like group fitness classes and Olympic lifting platforms.  

Under CEO Jim Rowley, Crunch is expanding across the country at breakneck speed. Fueled by a spate of private equity investments and partnerships with sports stars like James Harden and Dak Prescott, Crunch is eyeing large-scale expansion in the southeast, southwest and midwest. 

Crunch currently has more than 450 open gyms and over 2.5 million members, both of which are poised to grow significantly over the coming years. Rowley believes the franchise could one day reach 1,500 locations in the U.S., and double or triple that number when taking international expansion into account. 

“Hold on to your hat for what you’re going to see in the next five years,” Rowley told ATN in late 2023.

credit: CR Fitness

The third-largest HVLP gym franchise by unit count, Retro Fitness is also eyeing massive growth. Under CEO Andrew Alfano, a former Starbucks executive, Retro has rebranded its clubs, eschewing its previous yellow-and-red aesthetic in favor of a modern look and feel that includes new turf training areas and communal gathering spots featuring premium furniture. 

A testament to this new approach, Retro Fitness signed a deal with the BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund under which the investment group committed to open a minimum of 80 franchise locations in Black and Brown neighborhoods in New York, Texas and Southern Florida. 

Retro currently has around 200 locations open or in development, and Alfano believes the brand will open at least 1,000 clubs in the U.S. while also pursuing international expansion. 

Boutique Brands Embrace Strength

The rise of strength training is the single most dominant fitness trend of the post-pandemic era, and boutique brands are looking to get in on the action. 

Orangetheory Fitness, which made its name on heart-rased-based interval training workouts that take place primarily on the treadmill and other cardio machines, is embracing strength training in a big way. The boutique fitness brand added Strength 50, a 50-minute class featuring exercises with dumbbells, TRX suspension trainers and bodyweight movements.

Orangetheory’s strength move came in response to strong member demand. 

“66% of our members (named) strength training as one of their preferred fitness formats (so) we determined it was the right moment to roll out Strength 50,” Scott Brown, Orangetheory’s vice president of fitness, told ATN following the launch.

credit: Orangetheory Fitness

Xponential-owned brands Pure Barre and YogaSix have added strength training formats of their own, bringing equipment like free weights and TRX straps into traditional barre and yoga classes.

Some boutique franchises, however, have built their entire identities around strength training, and it’s starting to pay off. 

MADabolic targets “high-performers” with its barbell-free group workout classes that include kettlebells, dumbbells and medicine balls with movements led by expert coaches. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based brand now counts at least 35 open locations, with another 60-plus units in development.  

A 13-year-old brand that’s seen a resurgence thanks to the rise of strength training, MADabolic could open at least 200 locations, co-founder and chief concept officer Brandon Cullen has said. 

This article originally appeared in ATN’s Fitness & Wellness Franchise Outlook Report, which explores the essential questions that can help determine if a franchise aligns with your personal and professional aspirations. Download the free report.

The post These Fitness & Wellness Franchising Trends Dominated 2024 appeared first on Athletech News.

Sleep is becoming big business. From wearable tech to smart mattresses to luxury hotel offerings, companies of all sizes are entering the race to help people sleep better for longer, pushing the global sleep market to a projected $950 billion by 2032, per Emergen Research. 

The NBA is getting on board, too, choosing sleep wearable maker Somnee as part of its 2025 NBA Launchpad cohort, the basketball league’s “Shark Tank”-style program that puts a spotlight on emerging technologies. 

Founded by a team of neuroscientists including University of California, Berkeley, professor and social media personality Dr. Matt Walker, Somnee makes a sleep headband that uses EEG sensors to help people fall asleep faster, sleep longer and improve their sleep quality. 

In late 2023, the company hired former Fitbit chief marketing officer Tim Rosa as its CEO, counting on Rosa to build Somnee into the next big wearable brand. 

Rosa sat down with Athletech News to discuss Somnee’s new partnership with the NBA and how the brand is using wearable tech to revolutionize the way people around the world sleep.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background and why you decided to join Somnee in 2023? 

Tim Rosa: I started my career on the brand side and then got recruited over to Sega Sports and ESPN Video Games to run sports marketing. After we got acquired, I launched the 2K Sports brand. NBA 2K was my baby, and we grew it from under 7% market share to 100% market share in five years. From there, I ended up at Electronic Arts and EA Sports. I then joined a tiny startup called Fitbit. We grew Fitbit from the U.S. to 100 countries, selling around 140 million units during my 10 years there and doing the biggest IPO in history for a consumer electronics company. We ultimately sold to Google. 

I then took some time off, when I got a call from Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and Dr Matt Walker – probably the most famous sleep scientist in the world – who’s the co-founder of Somnee. They called about a CEO opportunity. I actually struggled with adult insomnia – I was taking THC and CBD edibles to help me fall asleep, which I’ve since learned are bad. I said, “Look, I don’t know that much about (sleep science). But if this thing works, I’ll be open to it.” During my third Somnee session, I fell asleep with it on.

ATN: What have your early priorities been since taking over as Somnee’s CEO?

TR: I’m deeply passionate about consumer experiences. Our gen-one product is great, and the technology is amazing, but it looked like a bunch of engineers and scientists had assembled it for a “Star Trek” episode. It was scientists speaking to scientists. I said, let me relaunch the brand, because we have the opportunity to scale to general population consumers. We’ll be rolling out some new products this year. I can’t talk about it in too much detail yet, but it’ll be a game-changer for the category. 

ATN: At a high level, how does Somnee help people get better sleep?

TR: We’re like a sleep lab for the bedroom. We’re taking the technology that Dr. Matt Walker and our scientists use at UC Berkeley, and we’ve miniaturized it into a product that not only helps with sleep onset, but helps with sleep maintenance as well as overall quality. 

We use what we call EEG-plus, which essentially maps your brain, because every brain is different. What we’re trying to do is figure out each individual’s optimal state for sleep. That takes about 21 sessions because there are different stages: mapping, personalization and optimization (adaptive). By the end of that, we’re affecting your ability to fall asleep, your ability to stay asleep and your overall quality of sleep. So it’s a unique product, and pretty groundbreaking. 

ATN: What was it like to be selected as part of the NBA Launchpad program?

TR: I have an almost 20-year relationship with the NBA (dating back to Rosa’s time in video games). When I was at Fitbit, I brokered one of the very first jersey patch deals with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was an awesome partnership and relationship. During that time, I met (NBA executive) Tom Ryan. He reached out to me a few months ago and said, “Hey, I love what you’re doing at Somnee. Would you be open to participating in this?”

But it wasn’t something they just gave us. We had to make a “Shark Tank”-like pitch in front of the chief medical officers and trainers for the NBA, G League and WNBA, along with executives and team representatives. It was really important to them that the science was there. Obviously, we have four of the most famous neuroscientists in the world who founded the company, so there’s a lot of respect that already comes with that. But (the NBA) looked at our clinical data and our product roadmap. They love the new products and how those are being positioned. We’ll now do a six-month pilot study with the NBA. Assuming all goes well – we’re confident the results will be good – Somnee will go to referees, coaches, training staff and players across the NBA, WNBA and G League.

ATN: What does partnering with the NBA mean for Somnee – and for the future of sleep science? 

TR: It’s a great validation for us. But the reality is that our mission goes beyond sports. We’re trying to affect sleep fitness at every level with everyone from athletes to shift workers to what we call performance-optimizers. So we’re going to go after much bigger population sizes than just elite athletes.

I also think it speaks to the importance and impact of sleep. Sleep is a superpower, as Matt says. It affects your mental health, general health and physical health. There’s a ton of research around sleep and athletic performance, so the league, agents and players are becoming wise to the importance of quality sleep.

There’s research showing that sleep can improve sprint times (by 4.3%) and shooting accuracy by almost 10%. Andre Iguodala during his championship season (in 2014-15) had a huge improvement – decreased turnovers, improved shooting accuracy and points per minute – when he went from sleeping less than seven hours a night to over eight hours a night.  A product like Somnee is great, especially for athletes in leagues like the NBA and MLB who travel between time zones, which throws off your circadian rhythm. 

ATN: Looking ahead, what’s your vision for the future of Somnee? 

TR: Rolling out the best products that the sleep category has ever seen – and consumers in general have ever seen – that actually help them achieve their goal of getting better sleep. I’m really excited about where we’re headed as a company; this is going to be the first of many products that we have in our roadmap. It kind of reminds me of when we started at Fitbit. Then, sitting was the new smoking. Now, not sleeping is the new smoking.

The post CEO Corner: Somnee’s Tim Rosa on Sleep Science, NBA Launchpad appeared first on Athletech News.

The MAX Challenge, a group fitness brand with 27 locations in New Jersey and a handful of studios in surrounding states, is rebranding as it eyes continued franchise growth, potentially nationwide. 

The Morganville, New Jersey-based brand has become known for its namesake “challenge,” a 10-week body transformation program that combines group workouts, nutrition coaching and motivational tools. 

The brand will now be known as MAX Fitness & Wellness Center, a move founder and CEO Bryan Klein says is in line with the industry’s shift toward holistic, long-term wellness. 

“The word ‘challenge’ is kind of limiting. Wellness is about your entire life; it’s not about 10 weeks,” Klein tells Athletech News, although he notes that for MAX members, the program “has always been about your entire life, not just about 10 weeks.” 

More Than Just a Fitness Business

Klein founded MAX back in 2011, inspired by his own journey of losing over 100 pounds after he gained weight coping with stressful life events including complications from his first son’s birth. 

“I noticed people walking in and out of gyms every single day looking the same; they didn’t look like they were making any progress,” he recalls. “I thought, “Somebody’s got to combine fitness, nutrition and motivation to help people make amazing changes in their lives.”

Through its signature 10-week challenge program, MAX combines weekly strength training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts with personalized nutrition guidance and group-based motivation to help members lose weight, gain strength and build generally healthy habits. The challenge’s nutrition portion emphasizes clean eating and progressive dietary changes over time, while members perform exercises with equipment including dumbbells, kettlebells, machines and battle ropes, along with cardio.

The typical MAX member is between 35 and 55 years old, and most members are new to fitness or haven’t been following a consistent workout program at the time of joining. Classes run five times per week, typically Monday through Friday, with an optional sixth day on Saturday. Classes start as early as 5:00am for morning people. 

“At first people think it’s absolutely insane,” Klein says. “Two weeks in, they’re like, ‘I can’t believe it, I thought I would never be able to get up at four-something in the morning to get here by five Monday through Friday. Now, I can’t imagine not doing this every single day.’”

The brand started slow at first, enrolling just 32 members during its pre-sale process back in 2011. But Klein’s concept quickly caught fire as MAX members shed pounds, got stronger and saw their confidence increase by the week, thanks in no small part to the camaraderie of group exercise. 

“Six months in, we had over 500 people with no advertising,” Klein says. “For one reason: results. People were getting amazing results. Their friends were saying, ‘What are you doing?’ They would tell them, ‘The MAX.’ And people just started showing up like crazy.”

Since then, MAX has gradually expanded through franchising, establishing a large presence in New Jersey and then adding locations in Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York as well as Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and even Ohio. 

Rebranding for a New Era

As it looks toward its new chapter as MAX Fitness & Wellness Center, the brand will look and feel a bit different for members. Over the next 12 months, all MAX locations will be redesigned with a new visual identity, interior design and brand messaging.

“Our (new clubs are) going to be modern, sleek and inviting, but even more important than that, we’re going to be incorporating new equipment” and services, Klein says. 

New services include My Wellness Coach, a premium membership program that offers a more robust version of MAX’s traditional personalized coaching. For an add-on fee, My Wellness Coach members get access to one-on-one coaching and advice that “addresses everything related to wellness” including sleep, anxiety and tools for members on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. 

While the rebrand is meant to bring MAX in line with the modern fitness and wellness industry trends, the 10-week challenge will remain a core part of the brand’s identity under its new name. 

“I think it’ll always exist, whether we call it a challenge or something else,” Klein says, noting that people often find it easier to commit to a 10-week program compared to a long-term fitness goal. 

“If I ask somebody to change for the rest of their life, they’re probably not going to do it. But if I ask them to try something for 10 weeks, that seems much more manageable,” he says. “We’re constantly breaking (the program) down into small pieces. By the end, people want to continue; they never want to go back to the way they were.”

Eyeing Expansion, New Franchisees

Armed with a new name and an evolved fitness philosophy, MAX is eyeing serious expansion. Recently, the brand signed new franchise partners in Staci and Jeff Force, a husband-and-wife duo that owns eight Checkers locations, to run MAX’s Old Bridge, New Jersey, location. 

Moving forward, Klein says MAX will target other multi-unit franchisees like the Forces who have experience running successful franchise businesses in other verticals and are now looking to make a difference in people’s lives through fitness. 

This year, MAX intends to add around 6 to 12 new franchise locations before embarking on what Klein calls a “hyper-growth strategy” in 2026 and beyond. If all goes according to plan, the brand could look to expand beyond just the Northeast and into other markets across the United States. 

Asked what separates MAX from competing gyms and studios in a highly competitive American fitness market, Klein circles back to his reason for creating the brand fourteen years ago. 

“It’s simple: you know how so many people set a New Year’s resolution to get in the best shape of their lives and they don’t do anything about it? Our job is to help people finally draw a line in the sand and do something about it by combining exciting fitness classes with nutrition coaching and motivation to help people make amazing changes in their lives,” he says. 

The post MAX, a Northeast Gym Staple, Rebrands, Eyes Nationwide Growth appeared first on Athletech News.

FightCamp is on a mission to make boxing accessible and fun for the masses. The at-home fitness brand is off to a strong start, raising millions in funding and receiving backing from fighting legends like Mike Tyson. 

Founded in 2014 by a team including CEO Khalil Zahar, FightCamp’s flagship product ($799) features a smart boxing bag that allows users to track their punches and kicks in real-time. The bag connects to TVs and smartphones, offering a library of coach-led, on-demand workouts that teach people the fundamentals of boxing and kickboxing.

In 2021, the at-home fitness brand raised $90 million in a funding round backed by venture capital firms and professional fighting icons like Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Georges St-Pierre, and Francis Ngannou.

Since then, FightCamp has revamped its tech, expanded internationally and released new products and features, including the ability to track kickboxing moves and a two-player mode that allows users to compete with friends and family members. 

Zahar sat down with Athletech News to discuss his journey from mechanical engineer to entrepreneur, the future of connected fitness and why FightCamp is poised to help bring boxing into the mainstream. 

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background and how you got the idea to create an at-home boxing fitness brand?

Khalil Zahar: I moved to Toronto to complete a master’s in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) at the University of Toronto. I ended up joining a boxing gym and I completely fell in love with everything about it, from the vibe to the coaches to how intense, engaging and effective the workout was. I found myself going to the gym four or five times a week, sparring a lot and getting in the best shape of my life, even though I had already had a strong athletic base as a breakdancer in Canada. I realized though, that boxers weren’t really measuring anything; even the most high-level boxers were just counting their punches with a clicker. 

I thought, “What if you could put a device on your wrist that did all of the tracking for you?” That idea resonated with the Canadian Olympic boxing coach, who agreed to lend me some funding for research and development. That led to the first version of the company, which was called Hykso. We started that in 2014, but the product was just for professional boxers. In 2018, we launched FightCamp for consumers. 

ATN: How did you evolve from Hykso, a product for professional boxers to FightCamp, a product for everyday fitness consumers? 

KZ: We wanted to think bigger. We’d converted a lot of professional athletes, but that was a very small market. We saw that boxing for fitness was trending and gym chains were popping up.  At the same time, at-home fitness also was becoming more and more popular. 

We knew to make a successful product, we had to make it interactive to help people stick with their workouts. So we took the tracking technology that we built for professional athletes and then we put it on top of engaging content and workout classes. That was the first version of FightCamp. 

ATN: FightCamp released a new and improved version of its flagship product a few months ago. What’s new with FightCamp gen-two?

KZ: The gen-two features completely redefined hardware, including a console. We still have trackers but instead of communicating directly to a phone, the console projects the full experience on-screen, which makes for a better user experience. 

We also added a couple of new features that are exclusively available on the console. The first one is partner workouts. We added more trackers so you can now work out together with a friend, partner or family member, and both people can see their profiles on-screen.

The second feature is kick tracking. We went from having two trackers on the wrist to four trackers – two on your wrist and two on your ankles. That allows users to do kickboxing as well as boxing movements. We have a lot of new things in the works as well.

ATN: Can professional boxers still use FightCamp or is the product mainly for amateurs?

KZ: Our typical customer demographic is 100% fitness-focused consumers, not professionals, although pros can still use us to keep up with their conditioning. 

For around 60% of people joining us, it’s their first time boxing or kickboxing. Our typical user is between 30 and 50 and is looking to do something other than traditional cardio or weightlifting options. They want an engaging workout and they’re intrigued by boxing, but they don’t know where to start. We have a lot of young parents among our customers. 

ATN: FightCamp’s $90 million funding round included names like Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Georges St-Pierre and Francis Ngannou. How important was it to get that type of buy-in from pro fighters? 

KZ: It really legitimized the effectiveness of our workout and our vision of keeping it authentic. One of the biggest criticisms of a lot of products in the boxing world is that they’re not authentic; you’re going to learn the gimmicks but not true boxing or kickboxing. We believe it’s our mission to bring true boxing culture and true boxing foundations to the masses, not just some bubble-gum, diluted version of it. A lot of our customers start with us, learn strong fundamentals and wind up joining a boxing gym. 

ATN: Many connected fitness brands have post-pandemic as people have returned to gyms. How do you assess the market for connected fitness in 2025 and the years ahead?

KZ: The pandemic made a lot of concepts viable while the pandemic was happening and then maybe not so much right after it ended, because you’re taking away the majority of gym-goers who were stuck without a gym. Some concepts that were already working before the pandemic, however, and I think they’ll continue to work. We started before the pandemic in 2018 and grew very healthy until 2020. And while Wall Street is mixed on Peloton right now, they have a very healthy user base. 

I think connected fitness will continue to do well because there’s a growing segment of people who don’t want to hit the gym anymore. At some point, it just doesn’t fit into people’s schedules to always go through the gym commute. 

ATN: Boxing as a form of fitness has become quite popular over the past few years, especially with women. What’s your vision for the future of FightCamp?

KZ: There’s no reason we can’t become as big as Peloton or even bigger. There are a couple of reasons why.  First, we think boxing is going to continue to be thought of as one of the best workouts you can do. Just look at the conditioning levels of fighters – these guys are literally going to war, and they’re extremely fit. At FightCamp, we’re making it engaging to learn and stick with boxing, which will make us a superior offering in the future. 

The second thing is that martial arts in general is a very worldwide phenomenon, as opposed to something like indoor cycling that’s a bit more Westernized. When you’re thinking about the market as the entire planet, we have a big potential for international expansion.

The post CEO Corner: FightCamp’s Khalil Zahar on the Boxing Fitness Boom appeared first on Athletech News.

When Christian Toetzke founded Hyrox back in 2017, he sought to create the “marathon of fitness,” a series of mass-participation events that would bring gym-goers together in the same way marathons and triathlons attract endurance athletes from across the globe. 

Eight years later, Hyrox is well on its way to making Toetzke’s dream a reality. The brand currently stages competitive fitness races in countries around the world as its popularity surges (online searches for the term “Hyrox” have increased 233% year-on-year, outpacing just about any fitness trend, while attendance numbers have grown 100% per year with over 600,000 athletes set to participate in Hyrox this season).

“We’re realizing that fitness is truly universal,” Douglas Gremmen, Hyrox’s chief operations officer, tells Athletech News “The language of fitness is probably one of the only sports that resonates in every country of the world: the way Americans consume fitness is similar to how the Chinese perceive fitness.”

In a Hyrox race, participants run a one-kilometer lap, followed by a functional exercise station like sled pushes, SkiErgs or kettlebell farmers carries, repeated eight times. Races are run for time, and the format stays the same across the globe, allowing participants to compete in global leaderboards and, if they’re good enough, at the season-ending World Championships event.

This May, Hyrox will stage its second annual outdoor race in New York City, a follow-up to last year’s event that effectively marked the German brand’s arrival onto the American fitness scene and set the stage for global growth. 

Ahead of this year’s New York race, Gremmen sat down with ATN to discuss the event, chronicle Hyrox’s rise to prominence and outline the brand’s goal to make fitness a worldwide sport. 

Betting Big on the Big Apple

Hyrox has been popular in Europe since its founding, staging races in cities from London to Berlin. But the brand had some trouble gaining critical mass in the United States in its early years, challenges that were exacerbated by pandemic lockdowns.

That all changed eight months ago, when Hyrox took over New York City for a weekend in early June, transforming Manhattan’s Pier 76 on the Hudson River into a custom racing track. The two-day event marked Hyrox’s first-ever outdoor race (events are usually staged in indoor exhibition halls). It was also the brand’s most-attended event in the U.S. to date, drawing around 5,500 athletes. 

“To get Americans to take notice, we had to take a massive risk,” Gremmen says, noting that Hyrox viewed NYC as the key to unlocking the wider American fitness market. 

“Christian’s motto was, ‘Go big or go home,’” Gremmen adds. “I had the opposite vision in terms of the execution part, which was to go local, knock on gym doors, and instigate conversations with anybody meaningful in New York around the sport of fitness to start working on our grassroots awareness.”

Those grassroots efforts quickly paid off. Hyrox sold out the New York event ahead of time in March, gaining some timely mainstream media coverage from outlets like the New York Times in the process. 

“That created a buzz and FOMO,” Gremmen recalls. “Celebrities started calling us saying, ‘Hey, I didn’t get a ticket.’ The media was starting to get involved and before we knew it, we not only had 5,000 athletes but the social impact it created during that weekend was massive. People from Lance Armstrong to the stars of Peloton and other notorious fitness influencers participated, completely organically.”

The exposure Hyrox gained from New York 2024 led to accelerated sales for upcoming races across America, including Chicago and Dallas. 

“Before we knew it, we’d sold out every event in 2024 on the back of New York,” Gremmen says. 

US, Global Expansion Plans

This spring, Hyrox will return to the Big Apple for F45 Hyrox New York, a three-day event to be held on the weekend of May 30 – June 1, again at Pier 76. Around 15,000 athletes are expected to attend this year’s race, which would set a new record as Hyrox’s biggest-ever event in America.

“I want 15,000 people to have the best experience ever and convince five or six of their best friends to do it the year after,” Gremmen says of his hopes for the event, noting that based on current growth trends, Hyrox can foresee as many as 25,000 to 35,000 athletes participating in 2026 in New York. 

Beyond New York, Hyrox aims to eventually stage 15 races per year in the 15 largest cities in America, and many more across the globe.  

During the 2024-25 season, the brand will host races in places like Brisbane, Johannesburg and Shanghai. Demand is strong: Hyrox sold 5,000 tickets in one day for Hyrox Bangkok this May, and has done similar numbers in Mexico, Gremmen reports.

“We want to be in every major city in the world,” he adds. “If you look at the world map, that’s probably between 100 and 150 cities. If every event has at least 10,000 – numbers we’re already at now – we’re talking about 1.5 million people participating (in Hyrox). If we can get to 25,000 to 35,000 people per event, we’re talking about a global movement of three to five million participants.”

Blue-Chip Brands Take Notice

Hyrox isn’t just an events company, though. Through Hyrox365, the brand delivers digital fitness content, training and education resources to gyms around the world, enabling them to train their members for Hyrox events. 

More than 5,000 affiliate gyms are signed up as Hyrox Training Clubs, from mom-and-pop fitness studios to large chains like F45 Training. In the U.S. alone, there are around 1,200 Hyrox-affiliated gyms. 

The end goal, according to Gremmen, is to make Hyrox classes a staple in gyms around the world. 

“We believe the sport of Hyrox can be trained inside every fitness facility around the world in the same way you go to yoga or HIIT class,” he says. 

Hyrox isn’t hurting on the sponsorships side, either. Last year, the brand signed Chris Hemsworth’s Centr as its official race-day equipment supplier. It also signed sportswear giant Puma as its official apparel and footwear partner for all races from 2024 to 2027. Puma now sells Hyrox-branded gear along with a special Hyrox-themed edition of its Deviate Nitro 3 running shoe. The fitness race also counts energy drink giant Red Bull as one of its sponsors.

“I think we’re a bridge to the (entire) fitness community, which is why some of the bigger brands like Puma and Red Bull see Hyrox as a credible way to associate themselves with fitness more holistically rather than saying, ‘Pilates is my sport.’ or ‘CrossFit is my sport,’” Gremmen says.

While Hyrox has several irons in the fire, the brand assures it’s focused on keeping the main thing the main thing as it chases global growth. 

“We’ve got to make sure our events business is the biggest driver of what we do,” Gremmen says. “We’ve got to keep impressing, innovating and delivering a best-in-class experience so that people are wowed every time they come.”

The post How Hyrox Took Over New York – and the Rest of the Fitness World appeared first on Athletech News.

While the wellness industry is booming, projected to become a $9 trillion market by 2028, a large percentage of the global population is as stressed out and unhealthy as ever. 

Amid this wellness paradox, researchers, journalists and industry experts believe people are more eager than ever to unplug as they seek refuge from the mental health perils of modern tech.  

In its newly released Future of Wellness Trends 2025 report, Global Wellness Institute (GWI) researchers pointed to a recent Harris Poll finding that 77% of people aged 35 to 54 and 63% of those aged 18 to 34 said they wanted to return to a time before the internet and smartphones. 

Amid this backdrop, GWI research director Beth McGroarty predicts that this will be the year of the “great logging off,” or as she calls it, “analog wellness.” 

“The online world’s relentless manipulations, marketing, disinformation and division campaigns, causing general brain and culture rotting, have gone too far,” McGroarty wrote in the report. “‘Digital detox’ may be as old as the Internet, but 2025 will be the year more people get aggressive about logging off, and new tools and destinations will help them.”

Digital Detoxes Becomes Big Business

The concept of a digital detox isn’t new, but it’s starting to gain mainstream appeal. Entire brands are now being built around the concept of helping people un-plug.

The Offline Club hosts digital detox retreats in the Netherlands and France where people can enjoy phone-free getaways featuring nature walks, chef-prepared healthy meals and creative hobbies like reading, yoga and games. The brand also hosts experiences in London and Barcelona, and is said to be pursuing expansion into new markets. 

Othership, a popular social bathhouse experience with locations in Toronto and New York City, offers emotional wellness programming against a backdrop of hot and cold therapy using saunas and ice baths. While Othership doesn’t market itself as a digital-free concept per se, its classes are phone-free by nature, offering people a way to connect that isn’t rooted in technology.

Hobby clubs are also gaining traction as offline wellness hubs.  

Social Pottery, a pottery, painting and handbuilding club, now has five locations in the United Kingdom. Book clubs are also reinventing themselves as modern hangouts for Gen Z-ers and Millennials: Reading Rhythms, which calls itself a “reading party,” hosts large meet-ups in cool spots from New York City to California to Italy. 

“These new analog clubs and salons are rewriting nightlife, what self-care means and will increasingly give fitness studios and pricey social wellness clubs competition as grassroots third spaces,” McGroarty said this week during a GWI event.  

Saunas (Re)Emerge as In-Person Hubs

Sauna culture has been around for thousands of years, but the practice of getting a sweat on is becoming increasingly communal – and creative. 

According to Jane Kitchen of “Spa Business,” who contributed to the GWI report, 2025 will be marked by a continued evolution in the way we use saunas. 

“From urban saunas in New York City and Chicago, to rustic waterfront saunas in Oslo or Brighton, to saunas with immersive art installations in Tokyo, today’s saunas represent a reinvention of an age-old tradition – and an increasingly younger, hipper crowd is taking notice,” Kitchen wrote. 

There’s no shortage of innovation in the sauna industry.

Social bathhouse brands like Othership and Sauna House continue to expand in America and across the pond – WYLD Sauna in Liverpool brands itself as the U.K.’s first floating public sauna, offering communal sauna spaces for up to 30 people. 

For those seeking a more private, contrast therapy studios like SWTHZ are becoming popular. 

Kitchens also pointed to the rise of “sauna-tainment” around the globe. Two brands leading this charge include SALT, a sauna project in Oslo, Norway, that hosts events like concerts, drag shows and DJs, and Farris Bad in Norway, where you can listen to entire albums from bands like Pink Floyd and The Doors. 

Teens Seek Spaces to Unplug

Today’s teenagers might be more connected than ever, but they’re also starting to realize the importance of putting the phone down, at least for part of the day.  

“Teenagers today face mounting mental health challenges, shaped by societal crises, social media pressures and lifestyle changes,” wrote Kate O’Brien, a journalist and well-being author who contributed to the GWI report. “The wellness industry has a vital opportunity to support this generation and foster healthier, more balanced lives.”

Brands are starting to answer this call to action. CorePower Yoga, one of the world’s fitness brands by studio count, has sought to introduce teenagers to the physical and mental health-boosting benefits of yoga. CorePower has offered free summer passes for teens and recently partnered with Matthew and Camila Alves McConaughey’s just keep livin Foundation to make yoga more accessible to inner-city high school students.

U.K.-based Rewire, meanwhile, offers phone-free immersion retreats for teenage girls that include yoga, decision-making workshops and other forms of creative exploration. 

Family wellness is also starting to take off. The Place Retreats in Bali offers family-based off-the-grid health and wellness programming including sound healing sessions designed to help parents and their children un-plug so they can better connect with themselves and each other. 

“Beyond simply recommending less screen time, healthier eating, or more sleep, teens need tangible guidance and a sense of being heard,” O’Brien wrote. “Integrating neuroscience-based strategies – teaching young people to regulate dopamine, for instance – can help them navigate tech-driven environments.”

To view the Global Wellness Institute’s Future of Wellness Trends 2025 report in full, click here.

The post The Future of Wellness Is Offline, Experts Say appeared first on Athletech News.