POV 12 - Wellness: Where to ?

The recently introduced GLP-1 agonists have not only revolutionized weight management, but are reshaping industries like food and health consumables, extending their influence into the fitness and wellness spaces.

Beyond impacting the digital health and dietary supplements ecosystems, these drugs might support a second post-pandemic wave of return to gyms and fitness centres by 1- emphasizing the significance of strength training to promote metabolic health and mobility and by 2- improved self-image and reducing the feeling of gymtimidation.

Individuals undergoing or having successfully lost weight thanks to GLP-1s represent the biggest new gym member opportunity.

Their presence might even already be felt and account for the increasing revenues & outlooks reported by major fitness operators like Life Time, Planet Fitness, and Xponential Fitness. An opportunity that connected equipment manufacturers like Peloton and Tonal could not yet take advantage of; still struggling to replicate their pandemic growth & revenues and devising all the more creative strategies to return to profitability.

NIKE JUST DID IT and made it clear that it believed in the opportunity to enter the fitness studio and training hardware spaces.

The growing number of individuals and franchises devoted to their health and fitness should also catalyze the wellness industry - and specifically a niche segment within the industry, namely Boutique wellness.

ENTER THE BOUTIQUE WELLNESS ERA

It is now well ingrained in the majority of people that a healthy and performing body is unsustainable without properly balancing the physical, mental, spiritual and social aspects of life.

Wellness - or the sum of all these aspects - still is all the more important priority for consumer and is a growing multibillion-dollar industry such that 4 of the top 5 reasons Gen Zs exercise are intrinsic to wellness - namely, fitness, health, wellbeing and stress relief.

Boutique wellness (or studios) dedicated to offering all things wellness in a unique and personalised experiences to wellness seekers have skyrocketed in recent years. They typically offer a range of treatment from compression for muscle recovery, red light therapy and sauna & cold immersions to peptide IV infusions - all in support of one or many pillars of cellular & metabolic health and longevity.

Some exemples of the rise of Boutique Wellness

• Higher-end franchises such as Life Time and Equinox now offer massages, cold plunges & cryotherapy, and saunas.

• The Covery - offering a range of wellness therapies from cold plunging to intravenous peptide infusions - has plans to grow by 100 more locations in US by year-end.

• Restore Hyper Wellness growing to 225 locations in 2023, offering cold - heat experiences, red light, hyperbaric and compression therapies, nutrient infusions and more.

• SweatHouz gaining 100 + franchisees in the past year.

• Remedy Place opening new high-end NYC locations and Sauna house is planning a cross-country expansion and is rolling out its first at-home proprietary massaging device.

• Othership having members line-up at their Toronto locations for their heat and cold therapies and are opening a Flatiron bathhouse soon.

WELLNESS OVERREACHING

The increasing demand for wellness has also sparked a series of partnerships with Wellness Tech companies and airlines, travel & hospitality brands, and even employee care plans.

• Oura rings are now being offered to Equinox premium Circle members

• Therabody will cater its line of sleep aids onboard United flights and will support recovery areas in Qatar Airways’ lounges

• Hyperice tools now complete SweatHouz contrast temperature therapy offering

• Hyperice joins hardware manufacturers Escape fitness to create wellness pods

• Hyperice - soon to become the partnership leaders - devices can now be purchased through Sika healthcare marketplace using employee-health benefit credits

LangLeven’s LOOK AHEAD

Wellness is among LangLeven’s top priorities as it aligns perfectly with our vision of how fitness and human athletic performance should contribute to holistic health and longevity. It is therefore all natural for us to be bullish about the Boutique wellness space.

Just like juice bars in any self-respecting gym, we see areas dedicated to all things wellness appearing across the spectrum.

A majority of Boutiques appeal to a more exclusive and select clientele and will surely continue thriving and increasingly become a profitable B2B revenue channel for the Sports & Wellness Tech industries. Concomitantly, we see mid to lower-range gyms joining suit with recovery & wellness areas as a relatively low cost solution to maximizing often underused gym space and to elevate brand attractiveness and in-person experience - a priority that ranks high among market driver GenZs and Millennials.

CATEGORIES LINE BLUR 

Wellness, by definition, spans many aspects of everyday lives. As such, we expect more partnerships between the wellness industry and companies outside the space. Airlines & airports, hotels & real estate, and insurers & employee-care plans are just exemples of what’s to come. 

The line between wellness and healthcare coud also become increasingly thinner with the arrival of weight-loss drugs and other medical therapies - such as The Covery & Restore’s peptide & nutrient perfusions - in the wellness space.

LifeTime trialing weight-loss drugs with some of its members signals a trend for other franchises to follow suit with their own home blends.

Consumers and wellness seekers can’t get enough of self-care and are willing to invest in their well-being even during economic uncertainties. 

The time is right for the wellness industry to reach new heights.  

STAY TUNED

We hear more POVs are coming soon.