The boutique fitness industry is changing at a fast pace, experiencing both expansion and growing pains. Lise Kuecker, founder and CEO, Studio Grow, recently shared her insights on the sector’s trajectory during a session at the HFA Show 2025, highlighting its continued growth, shifting market dynamics, and the critical challenges that studio owners must overcome to build sustainable businesses.
“The greater boutique fitness industry was sitting at $170.1 billion with a 9.4% growth rate, roughly 30% higher than the rest of routine fitness,” said Kuecker. “If we look ahead for the next 5 years, that’s no longer holding. Market share is shifting, with 37.2% in the APAC region, excluding India — which itself is building significant market share.”
Kuecker pointed to Pilates as a dominant force in studio openings, saying, “Fast forward to 2025, Pilates will make up 46% of new studio openings, yoga — largely hot yoga — at 27%, cycling dropping to 4%, and barre down to just 2%. Interestingly, the ones who are surviving in those categories are the best of the best, and they’re still thriving.”
She also noted the growing role of strength training: “Strength training is booming. My question is, is it going to happen in the way that we are actually profitable?”
Despite boutique fitness’s appeal, Kuecker warns that financial sustainability remains elusive for many operators.
“At the end of 2023, a really staggering statistic was released that 91.2% of boutique fitness studios were not sustainably profitable. We roll past this all through 2024, and the number is correct. In fact, I think we can definitely say it is not changing. One in two studios is profitable. It is the biggest issue that we have in our industry today.”
One of the biggest culprits? A high churn rate.
“Client retention is hovering still at about 9% overall and enrolling 13-month remission rate. That means that you’re losing roughly 7.5% of your clients every single month. That means you will be replenishing your studio every single year.”
She also highlighted the struggles faced by first-time entrepreneurs.
“Rather than seeing a shift, I’m expecting an explosion of new studios, largely being opened by first-time entrepreneurs and people who are brand new in the industry. You can actually see these numbers dip down for the next 3 years and then start to climb back upwards.”
Kuecker emphasized that a strong pre-sale strategy is a crucial predictor of studio success.
She outlined three key phases:
She warns against over-reliance on automated sales processes.
“Almost everyone that we saw this year in pre-sale was relying on an automation-driven sales process. They didn’t have a sales team reaching out. They weren’t laying out the value in front of people.”
Another major hurdle for boutique fitness businesses is real estate.
“Studio owners are signing leases they can’t afford, and then they wonder why they’re struggling to turn a profit,” Kuecker said. “Lower-rent markets are becoming increasingly attractive because operators can offer competitive pricing without being crushed by overhead costs.”
She also pointed to a worsening labor crisis in boutique fitness. 
“For every three open positions, there’s less than one highly qualified instructor available,” she said. “The pandemic wiped out a lot of experienced talent, and many newer instructors simply don’t have the training depth we saw a decade ago.”
According to Kuecker, the key to building a strong team is internal training and retention.
“If you’re not investing in your people, you’re going to feel the consequences. Studios that offer salaries and benefits will have a serious advantage in the coming years.”
Looking ahead, Kuecker highlighted several key trends that are shaping the future of boutique fitness:
Strength Training’s Expansion – “Strength training post-pandemic is booming. ClassPass saw a 94% increase in bookings for strength-based classes. It remains in the top three class types booked in the U.S.”
Women’s Health-Focused Studios – “Women are not small men. The last hundred years of research would have had you believe otherwise. Looking at this, it’s important to know that women are growing up, especially the women that really founded fitness.”
Medical Fitness Integration – “We are seeing many of the major brands in fitness buy metabolic health providers. The question we need to ask is: Where should medicine and fitness fit within our brands?”
Personalized & Differentiated Experiences – “We sell the same modalities, but it’s starting to feel like we’re selling the same experience. And if you’re a marketer in fitness, you know just how dangerous that is.”
Luxury & Experiential Fitness – “Luxury isn’t always about expensive. It is about the very best experience. The ultimate luxury that we have right now, though, without a doubt, is limited edition. Pop-ups have been performing better than ever.”
For boutique studios to thrive, Kuecker believes that operators need to focus on business fundamentals.
“Marketing is your lifeblood. If you do not get this right, you lose everything else.”
She also urged studio owners to rethink their employment models.
“If you want the best instructors, you need to pay them like professionals. Salaries, benefits and structured career paths will become non-negotiables.”
While boutique fitness faces challenges, Kuecker remains optimistic about the industry’s ability to adapt.
“Our thought process is really simple. We can open almost any studio profitably if we do it right from the beginning. Now this year, we’re going to open between 92 and 145 studios in 12 different countries. All of them are right on track to open prosperously, meaning that we’re going to open more than just about any other brand in the world in boutique fitness.”
She also emphasized that the best operators are those who focus on financial strategy as well as growth.
“The best operators are the ones who are truly focusing on their profitability and understand that growth without a financial strategy is not sustainable.”

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Mar 18, 2025
EMERGENCY SERVICES — A Short Creek Joint Fire District ambulance sits at Trinity Medical Center West’s emergency department drop-off zone. — Christopher Dacanay
(Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a four-part series highlighting major Jefferson County organizations helping those with mental health issues. Wednesday’s story will look at the Jefferson County Prevention and Recovery Board and its role as a funder and regulator of local mental health and substance use prevention services.)
WINTERSVILLE — Challenges to a person’s mental health, potentially with copious variables at play and nuances that demand sensitivity, can be a complex issue to handle.
As defined by the Centers for Disease Control, mental health is “the component of behavioral health that includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. (It) is a state of well-being that enables us to cope with the stresses of life, realize our abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to our community.”
Without professional assistance, symptoms of mental health disorders can impede a person’s ability to perform everyday tasks, manage relationships or control stress. Disorders, as well as trauma or other life difficulties, can compound and lead to personal mental health crises, which may put a person at risk of hurting themself or others.
A person experiencing a mental health crisis might feel overwhelmed and be unsure of where to turn for help.
Recognizing the importance of a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach, multiple organizations in Jefferson County — from first responders to behavioral health service providers — are working together to help those experiencing mental health issues get the treatment they need.
In a dire situation, many people are inclined to call upon emergency services by dialing 911. That places local dispatch centers at the front line of mental health response, necessitating a highly trained staff and an effective plan of action.
Rob Herrington has served as director of the Jefferson County 911 Center since its facility was built 32 years ago. He’s also the fire chief and a paramedic at Wintersville Fire and Rescue, meaning he’s served on both sides of 911 operations, he said.
Fundamentally, the dispatch center’s role is to receive emergency calls, assess callers’ needs and coordinate the appropriate response. Jefferson County 911 functions as the dispatch center for 54 agencies in the county.
The center operates 24 hours a day and has 23 employees. Staffing varies depending on the time of day, Herrington said, with between two and four people typically answering calls at a time, though busier periods are more highly staffed.
Mental health-related calls — whether they’re self-reports or originate from a person’s family member or friend — account for only 1 percent or 2 percent of the center’s call volume, Herrington estimated. Law enforcement, fire or EMS incidents occupy the bulk of that volume, he said, but mental health calls “all have the potential to be very serious, so there’s a lot of attention placed on handling those.”
Herrington said all employees are trained at the EMT or paramedic level, with training also imparted for “pre-arrival” software. The center’s information-gathering system receives keywords and provides relevant questions for dispatchers to ask the caller — “attempted suicide” might prompt dispatchers to ask about the presence of a weapon, for example.
Dispatchers undergo intensive training and recertify their skills every year in accordance with state law, Herrington said. Also, the center will review calls with more factors at play, including mental health calls, which tend to be more complex and can involve multiple agencies and response strategies.
“When we have these calls, we review them to see that we followed the protocol, if there’s anything we can do better,” Herrington said. “The agencies we work with, we’re constantly reaching out to them if the system doesn’t work. … A lot of what we do here is kind of (based) on the idea of the implementation cycle: We study something, we implement a program, then we evaluate and change it.”
Herrington said the 911 center’s initial job is to determine a call’s “chief complaint” — what’s wrong and who’s involved. Once the basic information has been obtained, the center will decide internally what outside resources are necessary. That may include EMS or law enforcement if there’s an immediate threat to the subject or others.
If an individual is suffering from mental health issues and simply wants to speak with someone, the 911 center would turn to one of its partners, Trinity Health System or Coleman Health Services.
Trinity is the center’s go-to for cold calls, where the subject has no history of interaction with a mental health service provider, Herrington said. Coleman is normally sought if the subject is an existing patient of the agency.
Trinity and Coleman have 24/7 over-the-phone crisis intervention capabilities, Herrington said. For either agency, dispatchers can bring an intervention specialist into the call to speak with the subject. Depending on the time of day, there may be a brief wait for a specialist, but dispatchers remain on the line until the call comes through.
“We’re trying to help the person get through that moment of crisis,” Herrington said. “What we don’t want to do is have a person who’s depressed get off the phone with us and then sit there and wait for (another agency) to call. And even though it might be a minute or two, it’s still the idea that we don’t allow any dead space.”
Dispatchers will remain on call in the event that the agency requests ambulance service to bring the subject to Trinity Medical Center West for evaluation. Not all subjects require an emergency room visit, Herrington said. For some, a regular appointment may be scheduled for treatment, but every case is different.
A few different services may loop the Jefferson County 911 Center in with their calls to help resolve a situation or send for emergency response. Ohio, for example, operates the call/text 988 suicide and crisis intervention lifeline, as well as the 247 behavioral health call service CareLine.
National lines may also loop in the center for calls about someone in Jefferson County from a third party in another jurisdiction, in order to facilitate localized response.
In the most urgent situations where a person is seriously contemplating suicide, the pre-arrival software becomes a great asset, Herrington said. Even though members of the staff are highly trained, the software provides critical assistance through recommended prompts, in order to keep the subject safe until help arrives.
“We are all that person has until someone pulls in front of their house,” Herrington said.
The 911 center, which handles about 38,000 calls a year, is in a pretty stable position when it comes to response efficiency, Herrington said. Gaps in service have only appeared when agencies are changing staffing or capabilities, he added, but the center has some “pretty good resources” at its disposal.
Herrington reflected on the foundation behind dispatchers’ approach to every call: Getting the information and helping to close the loop between the subject and whatever help they need, whether it’s physical or over the phone.
“By classification of calls, we have several hundred. The only commonality in that is trying to … get a solution to the problem. Mental health is no different in that.”
Wednesday’s story will look at the Jefferson County Prevention and Recovery Board and its role as a funder and regulator of local mental health and substance use prevention services.
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