Boutique Fitness Studios Reduce to a Staff of One to Save Their Business
After laying off most of their employees, owners stream virtual classes and hope for rent relief.
While still an undergraduate at Brown University, Sadie Kurzban started offering dance-cardio classes in earnest. In 2012 she moved to New York City to continue preaching her fitness gospel in pop-up classes, and two years later she opened 305 Fitness in Greenwich Village.
At the start of this year, Kurzban sat atop a fitness empire. 305 Fitness had opened four additional locations in New York and expanded its neon presence with studios in Boston and Washington, D.C., as well as pop-ups in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with more on the way. Employing 300 instructors and DJs, she drew 100,000 members, including celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, to her $34-a-session classes. Investment came from the likes of Kevin Durant. A flurry of coverage in glossy magazines and social media buzz had made 305 Fitness a darling.