Big box gyms are well and fine, but sometimes you want a boutique fitness experience.
You won’t find Zumba classes, hot yoga, or Bhangra dance lessons at every gym—you’ll have to go somewhere specialized. All those specialized studios fall under the broad umbrella of boutique fitness, a type of exercise center focused on tight-knit group classes and community-building. These aren’t niche fitness players, either. Per Azoth Analytics, the global boutique fitness market is already worth over $49 billion USD.
Gym owners and trainers like you need a top-level view of the boutique fitness sector to stay ahead (and command those tasty premium prices). At Glofox, we’re building the next wave in gym management software, so we already support thousands of boutique fitness brands. Here, we’ll start with an overview of boutique fitness, explore some key trends in this fitness industry segment, and introduce you to some power players. So come on, let’s go!
What is boutique fitness?
The boutique fitness industry encompasses all those niche, specialized fitness studios—whether they specialize in high-intensity interval training (HIIT), CrossFit, Zumba, yoga, pilates, or Latin dance. In a boutique workout studio, you’re not just an anonymous Sweaty Betty™ trying to raise their heart rate. You’re an actual community member, you know your fellow gym-goers, and instructors get enough facetime with you to provide personalized training. That makes the premium price well worth it.
Boutique fitness has grown like mad since the mid-2010s, especially in markets like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The number of boutique fitness studios in London grew by 281% between 2013 and 2018, and by the early 2020s, nearly 22% of Americans belonged to a health club or studio. (That’s 66.5 million adults.) COVID-19 took a toll on this sector, but studios have stayed resilient with specialized programming that generalist competitors just can’t match.
5 important boutique fitness trends
Boutique fitness studios are constantly shifting to adapt to consumer demands and hot new fitness trends, but there’s some evergreen themes in programming at all the top studios. Here’s some key trends we’ve noticed:
- Specialized fitness: Most boutique fitness studios niche down instead of casting a wide net. For instance, our customer Posto Nove specializes in reformer Pilates, a sub-practice of Pilates requiring niche equipment and expert-level instructors.
- Community focus: Community is everything for boutique fitness studios, where the community ethos is part of the value. Beyond group classes, that community focus often includes unstructured after-class hangouts or even organized outings.
- Data-driven metrics: People want to track their progress. Many boutique studios use gym membership softwares like Glofox to collect tangible data that makes performance-tracking easy. Seeing results in real-time helps keep clients motivated and tuned in, week after week.
- Online and on-demand classes: Fitness isn’t just IRL, it’s online. Many boutique workout studios are live-streaming classes and offering on-demand workouts. A little digital integration will expand your reach beyond the local and let you expand your client base. Our customers Komo Studio and Studio Integral both offer online classes, and they’re thriving.
- Experiential, personal fitness: Right now, many gym-goers want their exercise to support their social and community needs—as well as their fitness goals. That’s exactly what boutique fitness studios offer. Top studios go beyond the regular degular fitness experience by creating immersive environments and chances to build real connections.
6 popular boutique fitness brands
Let’s take a closer look at six boutique workout studios that are absolutely killing it right now:
Pin Up Pole Studio
Rio De Janeiro’s Pin Up Pole Studio focuses on pole dancing—which is an incredible workout. Led by founder team Thomás Martinoia and Fernanda Figueira, they’ve scaled their audience rapidly to over 60K followers on Instagram and seen a 124% increase in revenue throughout the pandemic. Glofox helped them manage the expansion in memberships, classes, and payments all in one place, and we’re pumped about their growth.
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JourneyFit
JourneyFit’s classes are laser-focused on high-intensity intervals training (H.I.I.T), as well as developing strength around functional movements. They’re based in Dallas, Texas, and have driven a whopping 36% revenue increase through streamlining their gym operations with Glofox. They’re a success story if ever the boutique fitness industry ever saw one!
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Posto Nove
Posto Nove’s niche is reformer Pilates, and they juggle two thriving practices in Lebanon and Ivory Coast. The studio started out offering everything from Muay Thai to pole fitness and reformer Pilates, but narrowed in on their most popular discipline. This made quality control way easier, and they’ve since launched a membership app that makes the fitness experience absolutely seamless.
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BeatBox
Dublin’s BeatBox Boxing Club is, you guessed it, a boxing studio. But they’re not just any boxing studio: they offer a unique blend of boxing and HIIT workouts. They’re the first of their kind in Dublin, and they’ve used Glofox to scale up rapidly—achieving up to 23% month-over-month growth throughout 2021. Now that they’re onto multiple locations, the sky’s really the limit
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Studio Integral
São Paulo’s Studio Integral focuses specifically on yoga—that’s their niche. Led by Wal Nunes, the studio offers has scaled rapidly by building community among members, which keeps gym memberships renewing back month-after–month. Despite the pandemic, the studio has grown quickly, seeing an increase of 150% in membership and a 52% boost in bookings. Their IG is popping off too, with over 20,000 followers. (We love to see it.)
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Komo Studio
Based in Kailua, Komo Studio is one of Hawaii’s most popular boutique fitness centers. They’re high-intensity interval training (HIIT) specialists, who focus on leading low-impact workouts on the spring-based Megaformer—Lagree’s fitness machine that lets you perform 1,000+ movements in one place. Glofox helped them launch a custom members app, and they’ve seriously streamlined their operations, even as their practice expands.
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Where’s boutique fitness going next?
Boutique fitness studios are only going to get bigger. Everyone’s busy these days, and fun, community-oriented workout spaces are an irreplaceable value-add to a hectic schedule. Plus, the digital integration many specialized health clubs offer makes managing your own fitness and tracking your results bone-easy. That’s a win-win-win-win-win.
If you’re leading a boutique fitness studio, you’re probably wondering how to start scaling up and simplifying your workflows. That’s where Glofox comes in. Our simple dashboard makes it easy to unify your studio’s admin tasks, memberships, and billing, so you can laser-focus on supporting your clients. Soon, you’ll be growing a serious specialist rep and serious recurring revenue. (Love that.)
