SoulCycle (above) and Emma Barry (below).
Building a Badass Boutique Set to present a FILEX Masterclass, global fitness authority Emma Barry, explains how to design a fitness studio that rocks
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s an advisor to the fastest growing segments in fitness: budget clubs, boutique fitness studios, digital workouts and fit-tech startups; I’ve seen it all - owners acting on the wrong insights, getting the business basics wrong, hiring on ‘hype’, blindly following what’s happening across the street and joining the pricing race to the bottom. At FILEX 2020 we are taking a deep dive into the 10-touch journey to designing a fitness studio that rocks. Why Boutique Studios and Why Now? We are in the most exciting times the fitness industry has ever known. There has never been more variety of exercise to choose from, more money being invested, more technology enabling the experience nor more explosive growth in the boutique-fitness market. Boutique-fitness by definition delivers a specialised offering to a likeminded community within an intimate, high-touch experience. These smaller, curated experiences are enticing more people to move as they enjoy the luxe touches of ‘hyperpersonalisation’ demanded by Millennials and GenZ today. It’s a great time to be in boutique-fitness but like all highgrowth opportunities, it comes with its caveats. Competition is fierce, customer expectations are ever changing, and operators exist in the financial reality of a pay-as-you-go model. Whether you are an existing operator in a studio, boutique, micro-club or big-box club, or a budding entrepreneur or investor; to capitalise on this exciting and lucrative sector, key steps for success must be in place. 36 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 137
The Opportunity We had already witnessed the rise and fall of retail stores making their pilgrimage from big department store to uber-cool fashion boutique and back to luxury department store. The irony was that boutique fitness was now moving into the very basements and malls that retail and food had previously occupied, before the long product and delivery arm of Amazon, Uber Eats and all their lookalikes had usurped ‘location, location, location’ and replaced it with ‘convenience, convenience, convenience’. Good will scale, bad will fail My own ‘a ha’ moment centred on two simple but powerful insights. One, the whole fitness industry needed to get better
