NEW YORK — It could get harder to find an affordable gym.
Blink Fitness, the low-price gym chain with monthly memberships ranging from $15 to $45, filed for bankruptcy Monday and said it may close an unspecified number of its 101 clubs.
Blink is owned by luxury gym chain Equinox and is located primarily in cities and suburban areas in New York, New Jersey, California and Texas. Blink has more than 400,000 members.
Around 25% of US gyms and studios permanently closed during the Covid-19 pandemic – roughly 10,000 facilities, according to the Health & Fitness Association, an industry trade group. Several major chains, including 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym, filed for bankruptcy.
Blink’s bankruptcy shows the lingering impact of the pandemic on the fitness industry. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Blink temporarily closed all of its clubs, leaving it without revenue to fund operations. Blink said in its bankruptcy filing that it is still financially constrained by rent payments it had put off and was still trying to catch up on from the pandemic. An undisclosed number of its clubs are also unprofitable.
“It’s a sign that this is an industry still going through growing pains post-Covid,” Rick Caro, the president of fitness industry consulting firm Management Vision, told CNN.
The fitness industry faces other challenges, such as consumers cutting back on discretionary spending and the rise of GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss.
Luxury gyms such as Life Time Fitness are acquiring weight loss clinics with doctors who can prescribe GLP-1s, the powerful new class of medications that have proven to be highly effective at helping people shed weight, while Equinox is designing exercise programs specifically for people taking the medications.
A spokesperson for the company released the following statement:
“As part of Blink’s financial restructuring and sale process, we are right-sizing our gym footprint to align with the needs of the markets we serve. We have made the decision to close approximately 10% of our gyms. The gyms that are closing are non-core to Blink’s footprint and predominantly located outside of the New York City metro area. We regret having to take this action but have already alerted the members and staff at the impacted gyms and are taking steps to minimize the impact on employees and members.”
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