BREAKING THE CYCLE
New fitness studio in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood is an exercise in branding,
On one level, Leslieville’s newest fitness venue, Torq Ride, offers a trendy looking venue for a still-popular type of workout, indoor cycling.
On another, it’s a lab for longtime branding expert Julie Mitchell to execute her ideas about running a consumer-facing business.
Mitchell already has more than a decade of small-business experience via her firm Parcel Design, which does brand strategy for other companies. She launched in 2004 and took on two partners two years ago.
Looking for something new, she turned to fitness. A frequent traveller, she often exercises on the road. In the U.S., she’d hit spin studios and liked what she found.
But she didn’t see a studio that offered the same kind of clean look, quality workouts, diversity (in instructors and music) and accepting environment here. “I wanted to create the kind of studio I wanted to go to,” she says.
The east end was a must: with Parcel’s office on Eastern Ave. and her own home just off Queen St. E., she knew her new venture had to be within strolling distance.
She launched Torq, torqride.com, in late May with — as you might guess — all the brand elements in place. The location has a distinct orange logo and matching decor. The look is minimal, with lots of extra service perks: numerous lockers, main floor private showers and single-stall bathrooms (all with extra space to double as change rooms). The studio is cosy and geared up with a stellar sound system and a monitor that lets cyclists track their results. (Members can get their metrics emailed so they can track workouts over time as well.)
Mitchell is used to fixing companies where the brand messaging or company values have gone astray. Here is her chance to get them correct right out of the gate and ensure that things such as customer service and employee loyalty just get better all the time.
“I wanted to create the kind of studio I wanted to go to.” JULIE MITCHELL OWNER TORQ RIDE
She’s also trying to create what she calls a “self-managed” company. Since this is her second business, she has no desire to micromanage, or to be here all the time. “You make things highly structured, but not a lot of rules,” she says.
She’s not a fitness instructor, so she plans to let her teachers and staff be the attraction. They’ll be empowered to make day-to-day decisions about things like dealing with customers.
She’ll commute between her two businesses — probably in sneakers — to keep an eye on the big picture and take a class or two.
And she’ll check in on company mascot Hank, an English bulldog who lazes in the Torq lobby, complete with an orange collar. He’s welcoming, non-judgmental and wearing the right tones — very on-brand.