Being able to vote with your feet takes on a whole new spin — sometimes literally — with ClassPass, a service that allows people to exercise at more than 140 different Vancouver gyms for $99 a month.
First launched in New York more than two years ago and now available in the U.K., Australia and more than 30 U.S. cities, the wildly popular ClassPass expanded to Canada this March when the service opened in Toronto and Vancouver.
Clara Chandler joined right away. “Going to the gym by myself doesn’t work for me,” said the UBC creative writing student. “I really like it. For me and how often I work out, I’m paying $10 a class.”
Chandler sees a personal trainer twice a week at Fit in 30 and uses ClassPass to access other fitness studios. Drop-in rates are out of her price-range, and Chandler likes variety. She said she most frequently goes to Barre Fitness and Cadence Cycling Studio, where single class drop-in rates are respectively $22 and $23.75.
Additional Vancouver studios include Moksha Yoga, Dailey Method, Urban Fitness and Eastwood Cycle. The most popular are Semperviva Yoga, Barre Fitness and various spinning classes such as Method Indoor Cycling and Spin Society.
Chandler has ventured to new gyms but otherwise returns to the places and instructors she likes best, including classes at Fit in 30 where she is already exercising. “That’s part of the reason it really worked for me,” she said.
Fit in 30 offers only four classes a week because the gym’s main focus is personal and semi-private training, said co-owner Jesse Benson. Personal training accounts for more than 90 per cent of their business, much more than the classes, which count for two per cent. The small classes top out at eight participants, and two of those spaces are accessible to ClassPass members.
“It’s nice to see the classes fully booked,” said Benson, who opened Fit in 30 with Hannah Fletcher in August.
In April, the New York Times reported on gym members not using ClassPass in that city who complained about not accessing the classes they wanted because they were full or, when they were able to sign up, were sweating next to someone who had paid less to get in.
The head of operations for ClassPass, Michael Wolf, said gym owners have always had complete control over which classes and number of spaces accessible to ClassPass members. Vancouver is one of the fastest-growing markets, he added.
“We see in Vancouver a very fit-minded culture. When we decided to go international, it was one of the first places we looked,” he said.
New York counted more than 450 participating gyms in April and now has more than 800, according to the company. That's nearly six times the number in Vancouver. Wolf would not say how many individuals have signed on in Canada so far, but said class reservations have reached 48,000 since launching in this city seven months ago. (Toronto has recorded more than 90,000 reservations. And in New York, the number of reservations has topped four million since June 2013.)
An individual ClassPass member pays a monthly fee (as low as $69 for Vancouverites who acted fast following the launch) and can access up to three classes per month at the same fitness centre, signing up for yoga, spinning, kick-boxing, ballet-inspired workouts, dance, Zumba and a range of exercise classes.
Gyms are paid a percentage of each individual reservation, a value negotiated on a case-by-case basis that is roughly 40 per cent of the gym’s drop-in rate. So, for a $10 drop-in rate, ClassPass takes $6 and the gym retains $4. As one Vancouver owner put it: It's not the full rate, but it's a client that might not have been there otherwise.
As the owner of the only downtown location for Oxygen Yoga and Fitness, Kate Marshall welcomed ClassPass members in order to create awareness, reach new customers and fill classes at the Yaletown location she opened earlier this month.
“I give them the full option to come to all of our classes,” she said, adding Sept. 22 was the first day their classes were accessible through the service. (ClassPass announces new partnering gyms on the same day of the week, depending on the city. In Vancouver, that day is Tuesday.)
For owners like Marshall, the potential of ClassPass is not just clients but returning clients.
“The atmosphere of a full class is really rad, and I want them to experience that," she said. "At the end of the day, I want people to say, ‘I really love that studio and I really want to purchase something additional.’ Once they find out they love us, I can offer them something that works for them.”
This story was corrected to reflect how ClassPass pays participating gyms. Gyms receive 40 per cent, not 60 per cent as initially reported.
Twitter and Instagram: @MHStewart
