6 steps to give your club a boutique boost

What would you do if someone gave you an empty box to launch a club in?

It’s long been a popular question at fitness conferences, and until recently, ‘launch my own boutique’ was one of the most popular answers. The boutique segment saw a decade of dizzying growth from 2010-19, but it’s been perhaps the hardest hit of all fitness categories over the past two years.

With their reliance on office workers and prime city center locations, the pandemic proved particularly tough for boutique operators, with 27% subsequently closing and the shift towards home working continuing to sting.

But despite these setbacks, appetite for boutique experiences is higher than ever among consumers, sparking a surge of new partnerships and boutique-influenced club models.

‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ has been the mantra, with leading clubs around the world investing in their group fitness offering to create boutiques within their clubs. November 2021 saw boutique collective Xponential announce a deal to retrofit boutiques into LA Fitness and City Sports Clubs; West Wood Clontarf in Dublin has seen stunning results from its cycle boutique The Chain; while big-hitters like Pure Group and Virgin Active in Asia have reaped rewards by investing in THE TRIP.

By offering a world-class boutique experience alongside established benefits like pools, parking and unrivaled gym floors, mainstream clubs are making a compelling case for a greater share of their members’ wallets, while negating their need to look elsewhere for boutique workouts.

And the boutique breakout doesn’t stop there. As well as big boxes getting in on the boutique act, we’ve also seen the emergence of new operators – like Styles Studio Fitness in the US and Coach Gyms in the UK – fusing the best of big box and boutique in a bid to bring luxury group workouts to the masses.

Now may be the most competitive and turbulent period in club history, but the core principles still apply. Ours remains first and foremost a motivation business – people could exercise anywhere, yet they come to clubs for motivation. With this in mind, providing compelling fitness experiences that give great results is essential to keeping members coming back for more. And if the pre-pandemic rise of boutiques taught us anything, it’s that people still see value in exercise and are willing to pay up to US$30 per class for a truly great experience.

So what are the key points to consider when bringing a boutique offering into your club?

Legendary operator Jaci Griffin, Manager of Les Mills New Lynn in New Zealand and a fitness veteran of 35-years, has first-hand experience in this field. In early 2022 she transformed under-utilized space in her mid-market club into a boutique studio to kickstart a COVID recovery and compete with the string of F45s and other boutique offerings that had sprung up nearby. In her own words, Jaci shares 6 key learnings for leveraging boutique demand to build your club back better:

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