For Pvolve, boutique fitness is booming.
In an effort to grow both virtually and physically over the next few years, the brand — which has experienced a 471 percent increase in sales across product, subscriptions and its studio and franchise business since Jan. 1 — is leveraging franchise expansion, products and a key partnership with Pvolve loyalist Jennifer Aniston.
As the brand, which launched in 2017, looks to expand its reach both digitally and in-person, bringing on Aniston as an ambassador was key. According to company president Julie Cartwright, Aniston had been a user of Pvolve since 2021 and her team reached out to share her story, seeking ways to partner. With this, the brand is now doubling down on campaign imagery and press featuring Aniston to showcase the workout’s results, gaining additional credibility in the fitness market.
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“Jennifer [Aniston] provides a tremendous platform for awareness and education and when we’re talking about a brand new-to-market modality that is the hardest mountain to climb,” said Cartwright, who has been with the company since 2017.
Pvolve calls its workout “functional movement,” and considers it a key differentiator, as it competes with other boutique fitness models on the market.
“What functional movement means is that you’re mimicking your everyday movements, really supporting this idea that you pick up your kids or you get out of your car or you’re balancing on something,” Cartwright said. “All those things is what functional fitness is meant to support, so we move in all planes of motion.”
While functional movement can apply to any customer, the core Pvolve user is a woman 40-plus, according to Cartwright. However, in working with its clinical advisory board, composed of four doctors and the company’s top certified trainers, Pvolve is rolling out programming for specific needs to promote healthy aging for all of its users. Most notably, the brand rolled out its Movement During Fertility Program, which was designed in partnership with Spring Fertility for those going through egg donation, egg retrieval and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The brand has produced other programming around prenatal, postnatal, menopause and conditions like endometriosis.
“We have a big focus on women’s health,” Cartwright said. “As we started to listen to our member base, [we learned] there’s these underserved, massive, totally addressable markets that just don’t have a solution.”
Cartwright explained these specific fitness programs typically take between eight and 12 months to develop. While Pvolve has its own clinical advisory board, it also partners with additional doctors and experts, such as in the case of the fertility program, to establish credibility.
While the low impact, functional movement workout was the perfect work-from-home fitness platform for consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand is now betting on a hybrid model.
“It’s almost mandatory that there’s a hybrid option,” said Cartwright, of today’s fitness landscape.
Between 20 to 25 percent of Pvolve’s in-studio guests also participate in the brand’s virtual offerings, according to Cartwright.
“The way our business model is built is a hybrid omni-channel business, so those studio members that are going into a real location have access to the digital subscription too,” she said. “That was strategic in order to allow this modern-day woman to be able to work out no matter what was going on in her life.”
In an effort to reach additional consumers and address the increase in in-person classes, Pvolve also lowered the price of its virtual subscription from $20 to $15. With that, the brand’s digital member base has increased by 43 percent, according to Cartwright.
“There is price sensitivity as it relates to digital subscriptions nowadays. People have five to seven different digital subscriptions going on at any one time. As a part of that, which is very different than three years ago, you want to make sure that your price is right,” she said.
With studio classes on the rise, the brand is also betting on physical expansion through a franchise model. According to Cartwright, Pvolve, which currently has four locations, expects to open nine studios in 2023, 50 to 60 in 2024 and 200 to 250 in 2025.
“We decided to go down the franchising route for various strategic reasons,” Cartwright said. “We wanted passionate owner operators, and we knew that having 30 to 40-plus studios in-market could help us to build brand awareness and to expand the reach of what this method can really do for the population.”
However, this physical expansion still doesn’t outnumber the brand’s digital reach. Cartwright says the split will likely remain around 70 percent digital users and 30 percent in-person users for the time being. And in an effort to bring the Pvolve in-studio experience to those at home, the brand is doubling down on product, which it plans to expand with participation from Aniston.
While the brand offers branded merchandise, its real focus is on its patented equipment that is central to its workouts, such as its P.ball, $70, a workout ball and resistance band combo, or the P.3 Trainer, $90, a resistance band that attaches to the ankle. To further expand Pvolve’s results, the brand’s head of physical product Stephanie Wineman collaborated with physiologist and chief science officer at Ritual Dr. Nima Alamdari to create its post-workout supplement Recover 9, $50, which launched in 2022. However, according to Cartwright, the brand does not have plans to expand on this sector in the near future.
“We’re definitely focused on physical product, like additional pieces of portable equipment that accelerate the results of functional fitness,” Cartwright said. “We try and stay very focused on the member journey. We’re very focused on her starting with equipment and a subscription, whether it’s digital, in-studio, or some combination.”