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The affordable and scalable fitness franchise, which gives fitness professionals a chance to turn their passion into a lucrative business, officially opened its doors in late November.
Minooka, Il. — fitWAVE, the low-cost fitness franchise that started in a locally-owned Illinois gym by a former college athlete, opened its first branded location in Minooka. It’s located next to the Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs on South Ridge Road, a move by executives of the two fitness brands to attract members to both the fitness club and group-workout options.
The fitWAVE concept comes from fitness industry veteran Josh Chrestman, a former D1 football player, and high school wrestling champ. fitWAVE offers a group workout that puts members through phases or “waves” for 16 weeks — with each session lasting approximately 60 minutes and focusing on mobility, core, balance, and strength through a series of 60-minute workouts. Chrestman created fitWAVE at his gym in Sandwich, Illinois as a fusion of these different fitness styles, incorporating the science behind each to offer the best programming to the most diverse group of fitness levels. This innovative programming creates a dedicated fan base in the community and increases member retention exponentially by targeting a wide array of demographics - kids, teens and adults.
In addition to helping athletes and casual exercisers alike achieve peak results, fitWAVE was designed by Chrestman and fitness industry expert, Jason Markowicz, CEO of Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs, to provide franchisees with a proven business model based on satisfied members. Operators of fitWAVE’s Minooka location are part of the Fitness Premier 24/7 Club family.
“We are excited to open in Minooka and bring this unique and effective group workout concept to this community,“ said Chrestman. “As a business, fitWAVE allows fitness professionals to take their fitness center to the next level and get access to a killer workout regime. It’s low-cost, flexible with real estate and has a proven membership model that can scale to fit markets our competitors can’t reach.”
Following the opening of the Minooka location, the fitWAVE concept is ready to take the fitness industry by storm. fitWAVE’s flexible footprint can scale from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet. While most fitness concepts need a large, densely populated city to work, fitWAVE’s small scale allows it to take root in towns like Minooka with as few as 15,000 people, where the average income is as low as $65,000. This translates to a lower initial investment, lower ongoing costs like rent and the ability to avoid many of the rules and regulations that come with entering larger concepts.
“We believe the biggest opportunity in the fitness industry right now is a lower-investment and more lifestyle-flexible concept,” said Markowicz. “Josh had the program, we had the franchising background and we had an interested franchisee prospect who didn’t have the capital to open something big but could hustle and scale something smaller.”
“I am thrilled to see the fitWAVE vision come true as we gear up to open our first branded fitness center,” said Chrestman. “We started in Illinois, and we are confident Minooka will be the perfect market for the fitWAVE brand. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue bringing our concept to new communities across the country.”
About Fit For You Franchising:
Fit For You Franchising is a franchisee-first franchisor and franchisee consultancy. It is the franchisor behind low-cost group-fitness franchise fitWAVE as well as Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs, a larger-box fitness brand. As a franchisee consultancy, Fit For You offers guidance for future franchisees on finding the best fit for their personal and financial goals. Fit For You is run by Jason Markowicz, a former multi-unit franchise owner of Massage Envy and current developer of Prose Nails, a membership-based nail salon. For more information, visit https://fitforyoufranchising.com/