At-home fitness, just a trend or here to stay?
The fitness economy has drastically changed in the last 10 years. Not only has fitness been digitized through the app revolution but it has also become more personal due to smart trackers and smartwatches. Features like a step counter, activity trackers, and even EKG monitoring or blood oxygen monitoring (previously only possible in a hospital) are now easily accessible to everyone and thus help us to understand our health better and live healthier lives.
The last year (2020) has turned the world upside down, with fitness being no exception. The sector has been severely impacted by the pandemic — gyms have been forced to close, in-person fitness classes cancelled and personal training sessions no longer able to take place.
Many people have shifted to home fitness and companies like Peloton, which are optimized for the at-home fitness experience, have seen immense growth in the last 10 months.
Not only have people shifted to overpriced fitness tech gear but the majority of people have shifted to digital solutions like fitness apps, zoom training sessions (provided by their trainers or gyms), and to fitness creators offering fitness content on social media platforms. All these streams of fitness activities are giving customers a wide selection to choose from, ranging from device fitness companies like Peloton all the way up to an artificial trainer within an app.
This raises questions. Which one of these alternatives can keep the customer/user most engaged and how this will influence the at-home fitness movement?
The role of the creator within the fitness economy
Social media has made it incredibly easy for people to distribute content and engage with others around the world. It has become much easier for creators to understand what their followers find engaging and, in turn, build a much closer relationship with their online community.
The fitness industry has been greatly impacted by this with trainers offering workout advice and training videos on social media. Even fitness apparel brands like Gymshark rely almost entirely on influencer marketing to grow their brand and reach their target audience.
However, one of the biggest success stories of fitness creators/influencers is Kayla Itsines. Kayla is an Australian fitness trainer who used her following on Instagram and Youtube to co-found a fitness app called “Sweat with Kayla”, promising high-quality content at a fraction of the price of a personal fitness training session. Since it was founded in 2015 the company has taken off, hitting 77m USD in revenue in only three years.
On YouTube, Instagram etc., similar success stories can be found where creators offer a variety of fitness/workout advice and fitness training sessions to their communities. Another of these huge success stories is Pamela Reif who through her at-home fitness content is now one of the most popular fitness YouTubers / Influencers in Germany.
The coronavirus pandemic has catalyzed this trend. Pamela’s already highly successful fitness channel on YouTube nearly quadrupled its following in the first month of the pandemic and reached almost 5.2 million subscribers by December 2020.
Whilst this emergence of fitness influencers creating valuable content for their subscribers is no longer new, the creator/influencer economy shows no signs of slowing down. The creator-centric approach to fitness is really just getting started. More on this particular topic you can find in one of my previous articles called the Influencer/Creator Economy: A Broken System.
Growth & Trends of the fitness economy
Regardless of the fact that covid accelerated the growth of the digital fitness market, healthy living has been a trend for a while. More and more people recognize the importance of maintaining and nurturing a healthy mind and body through things like meditation, yoga, fitness and food.
The global wellness economy reflects this. Growth in this area is “over five times as fast as global economic growth” according to the Global Wellness Institute.
The global fitness economy (excluding mindful movement) is showing similar patterns, having been valued at 109 billion USD in 2018. The online virtual fitness training market is further expected to increase this. As of right now, the online virtual fitness training market is valued at 8 billion USD and is growing at a whopping 33,1% annually. This translates to a market size of around 59 billion USD by 2027 — more than half the size of the current overall fitness economy.
The fitness app mobile market in particular — which is part of the online virtual fitness market — saw a steep rise in the first half of 2020 (Q1 & Q2) when the pandemic first hit. With billions of people forced to stay at home, fitness apps were booming as the number of downloads increased by 46% worldwide. Whilst the growth of daily active users (DAU) showed an increase of 24%, validating that the people downloading these apps were actually using them.
Some of those who were forced to switch to fitness apps have committed to staying with them beyond COVID. Cancellations of gym memberships are on the rise as people recognize the ease and convenience of an at-home work out. A survey by OnePoll found that “64% of Americans are now more interested in at-home fitness options.”
Putting things into perspective…
Put bluntly, it seems like at-home fitness is here to stay. It is now more important than ever for fitness trainers, fitness creators and gyms to offer their members and followers a digital experience to keep them engaged and maintain retention (Zoom fitness classes are simply not the answer).
One may argue that when the world opens up again, people will go back to doing fitness at the gym and thus the covid accelerated at home fitness trend will die out. And that‘s a valid challenge. However, as people have been adapting to superior digital products and a creator centric approach to fitness throughout the pandemic I believe that people will not switch back entirely to an analog fitness experience once the pandemic subsidies. Rather than one becoming more popular than the other in the short run, consumers will always strive towards the experience that keeps them most engaged in the long run. Therefore, a digital in-human experience has the edge over the purely analog one.
. . .
🙌 Special thanks to Charlotte Lane for the contribution
. . .
Hey! if you liked this article, have different thoughts on the topic, or are an investor / researcher / founder / startup operator, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or florian@dayone.one. I would love to compare notes and discuss the future of this topic or related ones.
