The best gym in the f*cking world

If you’re new here, an influencer gym is an audacious gym built for fitness influencers.

They’re remarkable by design, and members are encouraged to film in the gym.

The best ones serve as a destination for fitness lovers, with fans traveling thousands of miles just to visit.

Youtuber Christian Guzman proved that this is a viable business model when he revealed his 4-month-old gym Alphaland was doing $1M/mo.

The craziest influencer gym ever?

Last month, a guy that goes by Relentless Tony started posting videos about a new $10M influencer gym.

Highlights include:

• A Lambo in the lobby
• Over $500,000 in marble
• 4 basketball courts and an indoor football field
• 36 squat racks, 20 competition benches, 50k lbs of dumbbells
• A restaurant, barber shop, recovery lounge, salon, podcast studio, and workspace with decked-out computers for editing content

Multiple videos went viral and racked up over 3M likes.

@fusiongyms

Grand tour of the best gym in the world part 2 #bestgymintheworld #part2 #gymtour #fusiongyms #influencergym

Your boy had to dig in and find out more about Fusion Gym.

Influencing on the outskirts

When I talk about influencer gyms, your mind probably conjures up images of Miami, LA, or Dubai.

No one would think of a blue-collar neighborhood in Northeast Philly, where you can buy a 3-bedroom home for less than $300k.

@fusiongyms Always be prepared for unexpected problems #fusiongyms #fusiongym #viralgym ♬ original sound – Fusion Gyms

Your boy had to dig in and find out more about Fusion Gym.

Influencing on the outskirts

When I talk about influencer gyms, your mind probably conjures up images of Miami, LA, or Dubai.

No one would think of a blue-collar neighborhood in Northeast Philly, where you can buy a 3-bedroom home for less than $300k.

Fusion’s two closest competitors are Planet Fitness and Crunch Fitness.

Crazy price point

Successful gym chains typically fall into two categories:

Low cost (<$30 mo): Planet Fitness, Crunch, Blink, etc.

High cost (>$200 mo): Equinox, LifeTime, & boutiques

Stuff in the middle, like Gold’s Gym and NYSC, tends to struggle.

Fusion Gym wants to be perceived as high-end; why else would you put a Lambo and a bunch of marble in the lobby?

So I expected the price to be in line with Equinox or LifeTime.

The LifeTime near me charges $259/mo + a $200 initiation fee.

Fusion which has more amenities and better equipment, plans to charge $69/mo with no initiation and no contract.

While my background is in small coaching gyms, that seems like a tough price point.

The type of people who’ll be attracted to Fusion are the type of people who use their gym membership.

This isn’t a Planet Fitness where you sign up 6,000 members and 3,000 never show up.

Fusion caters to fitness influencers, and fitness influencers spend a lot of time in the gym.

As a destination gym, they’ll also receive a lot of drop-ins. I, for one, will go out of my way to visit the next time I am in Philadelphia.

I don’t know how they plan to make money with a marble gym filled with people who pay a little and lift a lot.

So what’s the play?

Relentless Tony is involved with an equipment manufacturing company called Relentless…

Fusion is stocked with Relentless equipment.

When influencers create content at Fusion, they’re indirectly promoting Relentless.

If Fusion is viewed as a marketing expense for Relentless, that’s an interesting strategy.

The gym is already getting millions of views every day, and many of the largest fitness influencers are already making content there.

For example, this video by Alex Eubanks has been seen over 5 million times.

With that kind of exposure, the gym can operate at a loss as long it’s selling more Relentless equipment.

Christian Guzman runs a similar playbook.

Alphaland serves as a flagship store for his clothing brand, Alphalete.

Since Alphaland is a destination for fitness influencers, there’s a high probability they’ll get Alphalete clothing while they’re there.

If Alphaland lost money, it could still create wealth for Guzman if Alphalete benefitted from all the exposure.

It’s common for fashion brands to operate flagship stores at a loss for clout and brand recognition.

If Fusion is successful, Relentless will get a ton of social media exposure without having to compete against Rogue or Eleiko to sponsor major events.

I am interested to see how this plays out.

Until next week,

John