Health + Fitness Industry
HEALTH + FITNESS INDUSTRY
During this webinar we covered how health and fitness studios and platforms are managing through covid-19 and finding creative solutions to support their businesses.
Moderated by LWL Executive Director Julie Kikla and co-founder of The Kula Project, she joined panelists Shari Castelli from ClassPass and Kari Saitowitz, founder of Fhitting Room to dive into how these business leaders are supporting their customers, tips they are learning about livestreaming fitness classes, and how they are not just surviving, but pivoting to thrive.
“We’re going to keep moving, keep launching ideas. I can’t promise exactly what’s going to work, or what it will look like. I will not sleep until this entire team is working and earning. That’s my motivation, by far my driving force.”
Watch the full webinar here
PANELISTS
Kari Saitowitz
Founder of Fhitting Room
Kari is the Founder + CEO of Fhitting Room overseeing three Fhitting Room studios in NYC, Fhitting Room On Demand and Fhitting Room LIVE virtual classes.
Prior to creating Fhitting Room, Kari, was a marketing executive at Pepsi. She focused on building equity for powerhouse brands and launching new product innovations. In 2007, she left the world of boardrooms and bubbles and entered the world of diapers and sleepless nights. Exhausted and time-starved, Kari began Functional High-Intensity Interval Training as a means to work off her pregnancy weight in her scarce free time. As someone who hasn’t always loved exercise, Kari was blown away by the physical and emotional results of HIIT and the efficiency of her new, only 2x weekly, workout routine.
Around this time, specialized boutique fitness studios started popping up, and people were getting instantly hooked on the fun, social dynamic classes provided. Kari loved the idea of working out with friends but couldn’t find a studio that offered functional HIIT workouts with enough personal attention from certified trainers. Her friends were taking classes 2-3x weekly and seeing personal trainers 1-2x per week, a time consuming and expensive practice.
Kari took her love of planning unique consumer experiences and finding creative solutions to develop a new way for anyone to access the benefits of a personal training session in a motivational group setting. This “Gym Idea” became the subject line of an email Kari sent to a close friend in 2012 and led to the opening of the first Fhitting Room location in a small studio on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in March 2013. The lease for Fhitting Room’s flagship Flatiron location was signed six months later, followed by the Upper West side flagship in 2017. Kari grew Fhitting Room sales from $600K in 2013 to $5MM in 5 years and expanded the Brand through high profile press & media, pop-ups, and partnerships with brands such as Nike, Lululemon, Outdoor Voices, Carbon 38, Glam Squad and NFL players
Kari has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated with honors, and she graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
MORE ON FHITTING ROOM
Shari Castelli
Director, Partner Expansion + Funding ClassPass
Shari Castelli has a deep understanding of the fitness market, having spent the past six years supporting boutique studios and gyms as the Director of National Brands at ClassPass. In this role, Shari consulted with studios of all sizes to implement yield management systems that maximize revenue and unlock growth at each studio.
Due to the massive impact Shari made on studios, she was promoted to Director of Partner Expansion, where she has spearheaded the ClassPass Empowerment + Expansion Program. This initiative offers in depth regional analysis and expansion support for eligible studios.
The program has already helped 50+ fitness partners to develop, optimize and execute on plans to open new studio locations around the world. In her six years at the company, Shari has represented ClassPass on various stages across the country, from conferences to panels, conventions, podcasts and more. She also has firsthand studio experience from her time as a boutique fitness instructor, where she taught HIIT classes at As One Fitness in New York City and earned her Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification.
Since joining ClassPass as a member, and later, an employee, Shari has run 7 marathons and taken over 1,800 boutique fitness classes at over 200 studios worldwide. She holds a B.A. from New York University and currently resides in San Diego, California.
MORE ON CLASSPASS:
ClassPass needs your help with “Save the Health and Wellness Industry from COVID-19!”. Sign the petition here.
Interested in adding your digital offerings to ClassPass as a partner? Join our platform here.
ClassPass' Partner Resource Hub here