State’s cycling studios pivot during pandemic era of at-home workouts
Heading to a spin class is about more than squeezing in a workout — it’s about camaraderie. At least, that’s what vice president of experience at CycleBar Tevia Celli thinks. According to Celli, it’s the very thing dedicated spin class attendees lost when the COVID-19 pandemic closed studios for several months.
“It’s great to be able to work out at home, but the one thing you’ll never get at home is that community — riding with other people and that added support,” Celli said.
Riding at home was what many spin class enthusiasts turned to when in-person lessons paused. At-home cycling options like Peloton became the next best thing, and Peloton’s nearly $3.15 billion 2021 global revenue highlights cyclists’ desire to carry on from home. The cycling brand even has two brick-and-mortar stores in Connecticut, in Westport and in West Hartford. Stationary bikes as a whole had triple-digit sales increases in the height of the pandemic, recording a 170 percent sales gain in 2020, retail market research firm NPD reported.
The impact was felt across the fitness industry, according to Amy Hochhauser, co-owner, founder and CEO of JoyRide Cycling + Fitness.
“The fitness industry, and small, independent fitness studios in particular, have been decimated by the pandemic,” she said in an email. “Thirty percent have closed and 1.4 million jobs have been lost. One in three studios are still facing bankruptcy.”
Hochhauser’s JoyRide studios took a similar hit.
“We were mandated to close for three months and have been running at a reduced capacity since July 2020,” she said. “Prior to the pandemic, we had seven thriving locations, and now only two remain open: Westport and New Haven.”
As studios closed, they learned to pivot, and to do it, they had to meet their riders where they were: at home.
At the onset of the pandemic, Celli said CycleBar’s parent company, Xponential Fitness, launched an on-demand fitness platform called XPLUS. Allowing members to access live and on-demand workouts that range from cycling and rowing to barre and boxing, Celli said the platform became a reliable way for their customers to continue working out despite shuttered studio doors.
“Maybe they didn’t have a bike at home, but they could do the PureBarre,” Celli said. “They could do pilates, and they’d work out with the different things that we had.”
Nearly two years past the onset of the pandemic in the U.S., Celli said the on-demand platform offered by the company, which has cycling studios in Fairfield, West Hartford, Canton and Waterford, still proves beneficial as positivity rates fluctuate nationwide.
“It’s something that we’re still falling back on in certain areas that are really hot spots right now,” Celli said. “Where we’re seeing a decline, we offer this.”
JoyRide made a similar pivot during the pandemic and launched JoyRideGO that provides an at-home selection of 50 cycling and “off-the-bike” Pilates and strength classes. JoyRide also streams their cycling classes using Forte.Fit, which offers fitness classes from fitness studios around the country.
Hochhauser said their virtual offerings have “been a nice way to keep customers who haven’t been able to come back into the studio connected to JoyRide.”
For Celli, having CycleBar’s courses and then some available on demand for their customers has been an “added bonus,” even now as the lockdowns and travel restrictions that marked the early days of the pandemic have dissipated.
But that doesn’t mean CycleBar and JoyRide’s clients have fully converted to their digital class offerings.
Both Celli and Hochhauser said their studios have continued COVID-19 safety protocols, which include sanitization of machines and high-touch surfaces, as well as spacing out machinery in classes, among other measures. JoyRide also requires proof of vaccination, Hochhauser noted, and mandates staff to wear masks. CycleBar has added UV air filters to its studios and opted for touchless check-ins for classes.
SoulCycle's studios in Greenwich and Westport follow suit in their COVID-19 safety measures, requiring proof of vaccination for cyclers, increasing equipment and surface cleaning and installing new air filtration systems.
Beyond the coronavirus safety measures that have become standard at fitness facilities, Celli and Hochhauser said what keeps their customers coming back is the in-studio community that can’t be replicated online.
“You have these people who have been working out together or have been taking the same class and instructor for maybe a few years,” Celli said. “They spend time with these people on the worst day of their lives, or they’re going to have some of the best moments of their lives and they’re on a bike with these people — there’s this unspoken community.”
At Hochhauser’s JoyRide, the community that the brand is centered around is the very thing that’s keeping them afloat as the pandemic continues to evolve.
Despite the studio’s “energetic marketing,” Hochhauser said typical marketing efforts to fill JoyRide’s studios like loyalty programs and class pack sale offers have not been as effective in recent months. The studio’s riders have since taken matters into their own hands to keep its doors open.
“Over the past 11 years, we have hosted dozens of fundraising rides for philanthropies close to our riders’ hearts, as well as the needs affecting our community,” Hochhauser said, noting that JoyRide has raised around $1 million for such causes. “Now, we are humbled by our community rallying together to help our studio thrive. Several of our loyal customers also started a GoFundMe campaign to help us stay afloat until the world returns to ‘normal.’”
“Small fitness studios need support,” she added. “Unlike restaurants, the fitness industry hasn’t received targeted government support (restaurants could receive loans and grants; gyms could receive loans and are currently lobbying for additional funds). With the neverending variants, it’s difficult to gain momentum and build back our customer base. We need people to come back to JOY, bring their friends and spread the word.”