Imagine if your daily workout could cost less than your daily coffee and you’ve basically got the concept behind FitHouse. In a time when everyone from ClassPass to Peloton is attempting to bring the studio workout experience home, this buzzy new boutique brand is going a different route: The studio startup is set to open 12 locations in New York City by the end of the year, each of which will offer unlimited classes for $99 per month.
How does FitHouse plan to pull this off? To start, by opting to use its own custom booking platform á la Flywheel (instead of a service like Mindbody). They’re also tapping instructors from some of the city’s buzziest studios. Plus, its founders say they’re being super strategic about where and how they open locations, too. We’ve got an exclusive look inside their first space, which is now open at 276 Bowery in SoHo. (More locations will launch around the city each month.)
Keep reading for everything you need to know about FitHouse.
It’ll be a full house
Members (there won’t be individual class or pack options, only unlimiteds) have access to all locations and each one will offer workouts in virtually every modality—including yoga, HIIT, and barre—with instructors coming from places such as Tone House, Fhitting Room, and Y7. According to its founders, talent is where FitHouse’s making its biggest investment.
It seems boutique fitness is poised to move further into this free-agent territory as more instructors with cult followings are willing to go on tour teaching around the city.
“For us, instructors are the most important piece of the equation,” says Clement Benoit, founder and CEO at FitHouse. “And people follow their instructors. They’ll go wherever they teach if they’re happy with the workout.” It’s a similar move to what other one-stop-workout-shops (like the more-expensive members only spot Performix House, as well as Project by Equinox, Studio B, and Soul Annex) are currently trying to master. And it seems boutique fitness is poised to move further into this free-agent territory as more instructors with cult followings are willing to go on tour teaching around the city.
It’s aiming to make boutique fitness about access instead of exclusivity
If you were to work out daily at FitHouse for a month, your classes would cost approximately $3.30 each, a fraction of the $40 price tag you pay on average for a class in the city. But just because you aren’t paying a premium, don’t expect your sweat sessions to be any less designer than the ones you’d find at its more-expensive contemporaries. The SoHo location has a single studio with hardwood floors, exposed wood pillars and two walls of mirrors, which will house 45- or 60-minute classes five or six times per day, seven days per week. You can book classes online or through its app.
It’s banking on the idea that being able to find your fitfam for less will attract a steady clientele to the studio. “I think that fitness shouldn’t be exclusive and the price ranges that all of the boutique studios have make it feel that way,” says Callie Gullikson, founding trainer at FitHouse. “Fitness should be about community, [and] I think that with this brand developing, that’s exactly what we’re going to get at an affordable rate.”
What you won’t find at FitHouse SoHo that you will find at other spots like Barry’s Bootcamp and SoulCycle are changing rooms stocked with luxe beauty products. The space has lockers but no showers (so pack some shower sheets). Better still, with the money you’re saving, you could afford to buy a gym membership too, if only for the sauna and spa services.
Speaking of buzzy fitness studios, SoulCycle just launched a new super-intense class. And, ICYMI chocolate yoga is *really* a thing.
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