BOUTIQUE FITNESS STUDIOS WANT CAPACITY EXPANSION

As fitness centers and gyms open as part of the city’s reopening phase, boutique fitness studio owners are asking the mayor and governor to expand the capacity percentage to allow them to serve more customers. Photos courtesy of Israel Idonije/RSTR
As fitness centers and gyms open as part of the city’s reopening phase, boutique fitness studio owners are asking the mayor and governor to expand the capacity percentage to allow them to serve more customers. Photos courtesy of Israel Idonije/RSTR

Boutique Fitness Studios want capacity expansion

BY TIA CAROL JONES

Gyms and fitness centers opened on Friday, June 27, as part of Illinois’ Reopening Phase 4. A collective of boutique fitness studio owners is asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to expand the current capacity percentage from 25 to 75.

The Chicago Boutique Fitness Alliance is led by Israel Idonije, former Chicago Bear, an entrepreneur and owner of RSTR gym. The alliance includes more than 600 community fitness studios.

The alliance wants the expansion because it says boutique fitness centers and studios will have a challenge staying in business following the same guidelines that make it easy for larger gyms to reopen and if they can’t stay in business, that would be a travesty, Idonije said.

“We’ve always felt that boutique fitness and fitness health and wellness is really an essential business,” Idonije added. In the midst of the pandemic, he stressed the importance of being mentally and physically fit.

Idonije said that most of the gyms in the alliance closed their doors during this pandemic and his gym, RSTR, opened on Wednesday, July 1.

“The coming together of this association was really focused on unifying the voice of boutique fitness, across the city, across the state and really sending the message to the leadership across the city,” he said. Idonije added the message which is at the forefront of the business owners’ minds, is the health and safety of the people who are members of the boutique fitness centers and studios.

A healthier Chicago - in body and mind - is what will make a stronger city, he said. That’s what “our city needs as we’re looking to bounce back from the pandemic,” he said, adding in his opinion, the health and wellness space is one of the most “critical components” of a person’s well-being.

While safety is their number one focus as a group of fitness experts in the city, Idonije said that boutique fitness centers and studios are a significant part of the economic engine on both the city and state levels, adding “we employ a lot of people, we generate a lot of revenue economically for the city, for the state, we create so many jobs.”

He added the goal is to be hand-in-hand with the leadership to come together on the protocols and making the decisions about how to open boutique fitness centers and studios back up. At RSTR, a regular class would be comprised of 30 members, but with the reopening, there would be only 6-10 people per class. “Every one of our gyms in our alliance, we’re going to have to make those adjustments. We’re going to have to change the format, the protocols, how people actually work out,” he said.

A change in the protocol includes members having zones and not moving from those zones during circuit training. Cleaning protocols involve cleaning and steaming before and after every class. Also, members will have to come dressed and ready to work out.

Gyms have integrated virtual classes once they had to close due to COVID-19. It has expanded the reach of the gyms, but the goal is still to get people inside to do the work outs and the ask from the boutique fitness studio owners is that there be an occupancy of 50, 75 percent.

“That component when it comes to occupancy, it comes to survival. The numbers, the models have to work. [In] the gym business, you need volume, you need membership, you need people coming in daily and being able to manage those protocols, those workouts and you want to get as many members in the gym daily,” Idonije said. He added the boutique fitness studio owner’s job is to keep people healthy and to get people to build the best versions of themselves and that’s a role that they take “very seriously,” he said.

Idonije added he’s hopeful that the mayor and the governor will consider expanding the capacity percentage to allow boutique fitness studio owners to serve more customers.

“When you talk about advancing or making positive movements in any sector, it’s really important there’s two voices at the table in that conversation. The voice of the industry expert and the voice of the leadership. I think we have that here, in this equation,” he said.

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