L.A. import gym mixes luxury and high intensity
Barry’s Bootcamp aims to make the Toronto condo crowd sweat
High energy, high-end group fitness gyms seem to get big in a major U.S. city, attract celebrity fans and then spread out. Eventually, they set up digs in Toronto, usually near King or Queen Sts.
Barry’s Bootcamp, a Los Angeles import, is the latest to follow this path. It offers a gritty but fun highintensity workout with weights that apparently burns 1,000 calories a class.
The newly opened location, on Richmond St. W. near John St. is both the first in Canada and the largest in the world — and the company says there are going to be more than 40 worldwide by the end of the year.
And while Barry’s appears to be expanding rapidly on something of a hot new trend, the company’s legacy goes way back.
“When we started, there was no such thing as boutique fitness,” says CEO Joey Gonzalez.
Founder Barry Jay was teaching group classes at the Gold’s Gym in Hollywood in the 1990s and wanted to offer classes with more bang.
“One day, he broke protocol,” says Gonzalez. Jay nabbed some heavy weights from the training room and started doing intense cardio workouts mixed with weights.
In 1998, Jay opened his own place in West Hollywood with partners John and Rachel Mumford and then launched a second location in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Gonzalez started working for the company in 2003 because he loved the workouts and the sense of community. But he also saw potential for growth. He soon advocated for becoming a partner and opening more studios. As a partner and COO (he was named CEO in 2015), he started with San Diego, which opened in 2009, in an area hard hit by the recession.
“It was bad timing, but we did OK,” recalls Gonzalez. That proved to everyone the concept had serious potential.
Gonzalez then went to New York, where other upscale group fitness studios were doing well. To launch in Chelsea, he tinkered with the concept, adding lockers, nice showers and an overall more upscale approach. Gonzalez’s husband, chef Jonathan Rollo, helped develop the Fuel Bar concept, developing power drinks that were actually healthy.
“The efficacy of the workout is the core of our success.” JOEY GONZALEZ CEO, BARRY’S BOOTCAMP
“It was explosive,” says Gonzalez of the success of the launch in 2011. “I knew this was going to be so big.”
While Jay himself still teaches at the West Hollywood location — Gonzalez calls him a “made scientist” and “the talent”— he’s remained focused on fitness, not business.
Meanwhile, the rapidly growing Barry’s team went into expansion mode globally.
Requests kept coming in for a Toronto Barry’s, so this is one of the dozen or so locations started by the company this year. The 8,000-square-foot space opened on Oct. 21. It’s a walk-up, with the Fuel Bar on the ground floor ($9 to $11 for drinks) and the gym up the escalator.
In the roomy reception area there’s merch for sale, including Barry’sand-Toronto-monikered ball caps ($58) and Lululemon workout tights ($120 to $130).
There’s a small fitness room called Barry’s Flex Lab, for custom classes, to one side, and the huge main work- out room on the other. It houses a long row of treadmills, plus fitness steps and weights. It holds 50 who do 50-minute workouts (at $32 a class, $300 for 10) by dim, red lights. (Per- fect for those not comfy in their skin, and celebs looking to sweat anonymously.)
The spacious and posh locker rooms offer up a certain vibe, in something of a contrast to the fun quotes on the walls (“Join the Hustle”) and the location’s large, graffitistyle mural.
This gritty but comfy branding should be fine with the condo and office crowd clientele. After all, they’re really here for the illustriously hard-sweating workout.
Says Gonzalez, who does his media interviews in a workout tank and shorts, “The efficacy of the workout is the core of our success.”