The Athletic Clubs Rebrands as Club Athletic, Eyes National Expansion

The New York social fitness brand built on squad-based training is going national. Here’s what founder Dane McCarthy had to say about the rebrand and what’s in store for 2027

What started as one Australian transplant trying to find people to work out with is now a seven-club operation in New York with leases in Chicago, sights on Washington, D.C., and a new name to carry it across the country.

The Athletic Clubs is rebranding as Club Athletic, the social fitness brand announced today, formalizing its squad-based training model that founder Dane McCarthy built around the idea of collective pursuit.

The parent brand is the only piece of nomenclature changing. Individual locations will keep their neighborhood naming convention, with West Village Athletic, Williamsburg Athletic and the rest staying as-is.

A new Pegasus logo, developed with Sydney-based agency Fortem Media, accompanies the rebrand and nods to McCarthy’s Australian roots.

Built on Showing Up

McCarthy, a former semi-professional rugby player in Australia, launched the concept in 2021 with a small group of friends training on New York’s West Side Highway. The premise has not changed since. Members train with the same 20-person squad twice a week, every week, with a dedicated coach. Time is reserved at the end of each session for coffee and conversation.

The model has been a hit, growing to serve more than 2,000 members across seven New York City locations. Squad members get two strength and conditioning days, an optional Run Club two days a week, and elective classes Friday through Sunday based on individual goals.

The unique yet simple concept has also resonated with active wear giant Lululemon, which selected Club Athletic as one of only three brand partners for its brick-and-mortar fitness push. 

“There was no intent to grow a business or really do anything like that. Initially, it was me just scratching an itch,” McCarthy said. “I came to the States and was really just looking for a community of people to work out with, and had become really familiar with training in teams playing rugby growing up, and found the workouts that I’d gone to in New York to be quite transactional.”

The squad model has produced a member base that McCarthy splits into three groups: ex-college athletes who want a team environment, general fitness members looking for accountability and a third group that might otherwise spend its dollars on a Soho House membership, eager for social opportunities.

“That group of people seems to care less about the modality … They’re there to move their body and get to know people,” McCarthy said.

The brand’s members are 60% female and 40% male, with a core demographic of 25 to 40 year olds. Eight squad-formed marriages have followed, along with the first Club Athletic baby on the way from a couple that met in a squad.

Growth Without Franchising

Club Athletic plans to enter Chicago this summer with two locations, Lake Street Athletic and Old Town Athletic. The pipeline also includes at least three additional New York City clubs, a Washington, D.C. debut and more cities in 2027.

McCarthy is taking that footprint national without selling franchises, a deliberate choice in a category where operators have leaned on franchisee capital to fuel expansion.

“I draw a lot of inspiration from Solidcore,” McCarthy said of the boutique fitness brand with a cult-like following that has opted not to franchise. 

Solidcore’s founder and serial entrepreneur, Anne Mahlum, invested in McCarthy’s vision last year, leading a $3.5 million funding round. At the time, she said the brand had everything she looks for in an investment, calling McCarthy a “top-notch” founder and describing the community he’d built as so sticky it needed a new word.

“We’ve been really capital efficient so that we can fund growth on our own balance sheet,” McCarthy added. “Then we control our brand and our destiny. The franchise model, to me, you have to execute it really well. You’re essentially doing two business models. You’re selling a franchise, and you’re trying to run a gym. I think it’s hard enough to run a gym well enough, so we’re just going to stay focused.”

AI as Relationship Protection

McCarthy is also building an AI roadmap for the business and has developed multiple agents.

“What I’m working towards is to have a digital clone of every one of my staff, because most of my staff, the biggest value they bring is time with clients, having coffees, checking in on people, knowing birthdays, actually spending time with the humans,” he said. “The idea is to have a digital clone of each one of our coaches that can support them in supporting our members.”

The Collective Pursuit

The squad model has produced what McCarthy calls his biggest surprise: random groupings of strangers becoming close friends. He references one squad that included a mother of three in her mid-50s, and a 20-year-old who’d just finished at NYU, who became friends.

Club Athletic will continue its events programming under the new name, including the annual AC Games and the recent club-to-club race across all seven New York locations. The brand also has more than 150 members enrolled in Hyrox out of one of its gyms.

“The idea of training for a purpose is hand in glove to squad training, because that’s when the magic really comes to life,” McCarthy said. “If you’re training with people that you know and like for a purpose, fitness becomes easy and enjoyable.”

Ultimately, everyone deserves a squad, he said.

“This next chapter is about bringing that sense of belonging to more communities across the country,” McCarthy said.