![]() ![]() The industry’s boutique fitness category is no stranger to this phenomenon, especially because the average age of a studio gym member is 30 years old, according to the IHRSA. This trend, which research has shown is heavily driven by the millennial generation, has changed the way many businesses attract and retain customers. Right now, being on that cutting edge means improving the customer experience, Winzenried said.Ĭonsumer-facing industries, including fitness, retail and entertainment, have seen a shift toward an experience-driven economy in recent years as people choose to spend more money on experiences than they do on products. “For me personally, as a business owner of a gym that’s been around for eight years and who’s been a trainer for this long and has seen the changes (in the industry), you’ve got to be on the cutting edge, on the leading edge of these trends because now, everybody else is catching up to what we were doing for the past 20 years,” he said. But as that quickly changed over the past five years, Winzenried has worked to adapt his business to industry trends. ![]() Winzenried, who has been a trainer for 15 years, opened the company’s Milwaukee affiliate location in 2011, during a time when there were only a handful of boutique gyms in the area, he said. Construction on the 1,300-square-foot addition at Anytime Fitness in Wauwatosa was completed in April 2018. It offers functional fitness programs centered on natural training (“no machines, no shoes, no mirrors and no egos”), yoga and clean eating. Monkey Bar Gym first opened in Madison in 2000 and has since grown to operate 10 locations in Wisconsin, Washington, Colorado, New York, Louisiana, Montana, Connecticut and Canada. The recent influx of fitness concepts has made the local market more competitive, especially for gyms that were initially ahead of the trend, said Jeff Winzenried, owner of Monkey Bar Gym in the Third Ward. They include, but are not limited to, Milwaukee-based PowerCycle in Wauwatosa and Shorewood Milwaukee-based Spire Fitness in the Historic Third Ward Chicago-based Shred 415 on the East Side and in Elm Grove Irvine, California-based Cycle Bar in Mequon and Brookfield Chicago-based The Barre Code in the Third Ward Milwaukee-based Brew City Fitness in Walker’s Point Milwaukee Power Yoga on the East Side San Diego-based Club Pilates in Mequon Milwaukee-based Empower Yoga in the Third Ward and Whitefish Bay Denver-based Pure Barre in Elm Grove and Whitefish Bay AddeoFit in Glendale and Orangetheory in the Third Ward, Wauwatosa, Shorewood, Delafield and Mequon. Wisconsin’s first Orangetheory opened in Brookfield in 2014, and since then, boutique and studio gyms have been popping up throughout the Milwaukee area. ![]() “I believed in and spent a lot of time talking to other (Orangetheory) owners – at the time there were very few – and other people that have tremendous fitness backgrounds, and felt that boutique fitness category was about to really take off,” he said. When Scharnek discovered Orangetheory, the boutique fitness trend had been gathering steam throughout the East and West coasts, but had not yet hit the Midwest, he said. According to a 2017 report by the same organization, 24.6 million Americans were members of a studio. Boutique gyms are characterized by specific disciplines – cycling, barre, yoga, HIIT, CrossFit – and seek to give members a personalized, hands-on experience and a sense of community, experts say.Ĭonsumers in recent years have responded to this model.Īccording to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, studio membership grew by 121 percent from 2013 to 2017. Such concepts differ from traditional gyms of the past by offering specialized, instructor-led classes, rather than rows of treadmills and weight machines. Orangetheory belongs to an increasingly popular industry category known as boutique or studio fitness. Classes incorporate treadmills, rowing machines and various strength-building equipment. The fitness concept is based on achieving a target heart rate zone that yields physical results when maintained throughout a 60-minute, high-intensity interval training session. ![]()
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