ATN Week in Review: Everyone Wants To Be a Wellness Company
This week, we break down why the term “wellness” is so popular among fitness, beauty, lifestyle and fashion brands, as well as the recent push by boutique fitness owners to get members off third-party booking apps
Wellness is everywhere these days, and just about every brand wants a piece of the $6.3 trillion (and rapidly growing) market.
This week, Alo announced that it was changing the name of its digital fitness platform Alo Moves to “Alo Wellness.”
Alo’s decision to choose “wellness” rather than “fitness” as its new moniker might seem purely semantic, but it speaks to a broader trend: every company wants to be seen as a wellness brand. This is just as true for lifestyle and fashion brands like Alo as it is for tried-and-true “fitness” brands
For example, Peloton recently announced its intention to become a full-scope wellness platform under CEO Peter Stern, while Ulta Beauty says it sees a billion-dollar future in wellness as the brand known for its makeup and haircare products now fills its shelves with brands including Therabody, Vital Proteins and Bloom Nutrition.
The wellness boom is certainly good news for the fitness industry in the long run. But it also raises questions over whether the term “fitness” itself will have much staying power in a world becoming increasingly obsessed with ambiguous notions of well-being and holistic health.
Boutique Fitness Studios Are Getting Noisy About Booking Apps
“Fitness” is still around for the time being, at least, and an interesting development is taking place.
Los Angeles boutique fitness brands took a page from New York City this week, launching “Boutique Fitness Loyalty Month,” a citywide campaign to steer clients away from third-party apps and back toward booking directly with their favorite gym or studio.
The initiative builds on New York’s Gym Loyalty Month, which rolled out in August and asked NYC consumers to do the same thing.
Critics, namely independent gym and studio owners, say third-party booking apps have created an unsustainable model by driving prices down. ClassPass, the most-popular such app, has vigorously defended itself against those claims, arguing they stem from a fundamental misunderstanding about how booking apps are supposed to be used by studios.
Whatever the merits of studio owners’ arguments against third-party apps, it’s notable that boutique fitness brands on both coasts are making their voices heard.
Whether the movement becomes truly nationwide, or convinces enough Americans to ditch apps in favor of paying higher prices by booking directly with their favorite fitness brand, remains to be seen.
More news & notes:
- The fitness industry remembers Rick Caro, who passed away at 79
- Flex raises $15M to expand access to HSA/FSA purchases
- Run clubs are more popular than ever, especially internationally
- Genesis Health Clubs makes another acquisition, its 9th of 2025
- Survey: Gen Z loves working out, and they’re willing to spend on it