Orangetheory’s tech-forward all-in-one workout program has captured the hearts and health of fitness fans across the globe
By Daniel McIntosh
As consumers aim to look and feel better, fitness brands are reaping the rewards of a growing client base looking to improve their mental and physical health through exercise. Orangetheory Fitness, a fitness franchise brand, has pledged to give clients longer and more vibrant lives.
What was once the domain of elite athletes can now be experienced by people of all shapes and sizes looking for an innovative, tech-driven workout program. The brand provides data-driven workouts, bringing together total-body, strength, and cardio training in an energizing one-hour workout. Clients wear heart rate monitors to collect biometric data through classes that are designed to drive metabolism, leading them to burn calories and body fat while also building lean muscle.
Blake MacDonald, the president and master franchisee for Canada, recalls being impressed by this tech innovation when he joined Orangetheory Fitness. In 2010, he and his business partner, David Hardy, took a closer look at the company after a workout with the brand.
“It was the perfect fusion of science, technology, and coaching, all rolled up into one thing,” says MacDonald. “It was like nothing we’d ever experienced before.”
MacDonald and his team immediately bought the Canadian rights for the brand. When they opened the first Canadian location in 2012, it was only the eighth unit in the brand’s history. Now the brand has over 1,500 studios in more than 20 countries.
Its quick ascension is due in part to its unique fusion of fitness and technology. When the brand got its start in the early 2000s, there was nothing of its kind.
Science-backed, technology-tracked
Orangetheory’s founder, Ellen Latham, was an exercise physiologist driven by her passion for health and wellness. She ran classes through her Pilates studio, coached celebrities, and built up her cache as a health and fitness columnist in newspapers across the Florida area.
Latham noticed that many of her clients struggled to meet their goals with existing programs. So, she devised her own program—Ellen’s Ultimate Workout—that contained elements of interval cardio, strength exercises, and rowing. That program formed the bedrock that Orangetheory Fitness is built upon. She began running the program out of her Boca Raton studio in 2007, and it became a massively popular fitness option—so popular, in fact, that by 2009 classes were consistently booked solid.
One of the first clients to see the benefits happened to be an entrepreneur who also saw the potential for a franchise concept in the nascent brand.
An Orangetheory class blends strength training with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) cardio and rowing for a full-body workout. Clients use the brand’s heart rate monitors to collect data and glean insights into their performance. The goal is to keep clients in the coveted “Orange Zone,” where they use 84 to 91 per cent of their maximum heart rate. Twelve minutes in this zone per hour can reportedly result in the burning of calories for up to 24 hours after a workout.
The breakneck pace that Orangetheory grew is a testament to its value for clients. The brand was one of the first franchises in the world to open 1,000 locations without any closures, according to MacDonald.
“It’s a global brand,” he says, “and in the boutique studio space, we’re definitely an industry leader.”
MacDonald opened the first Canadian location in St. Albert, Alberta, and at the time, the system lacked the structure it needed to properly thrive as a franchise brand. MacDonald and his Canadian office team helped shape the concept past its early iterative stages. “There was no music or workout templates, no real consistency or guardrails,” recalls MacDonald. “I think the Canadian operations were the sharp edge of the sword on the innovation side.”
The small team set guidelines for operations, moving away from package pricing to a monthly recurring membership model. The brand also developed workout guidelines and music templates that made scaling easier, divesting from the expectation of traditional fitness brands.
“What ends up happening [at other workout studios] is their coaches come up with workouts, and so they’re content producers and coaches and motivators within the concept,” notes MacDonald. “By having templates that were consistent and tested and built by exercise physiologists, we took all the work out of actually building the workouts themselves.”
These templates gave trainers and coaches the opportunity to lean into motivating clients and providing a more focused presence in the studios. MacDonald says that developing those workflows were essential keys to helping scale the brand.
As for the tech, Orangetheory developed its own proprietary heart rate monitoring system (another initiative led by the Canadian team), which allowed them to control and compile all the data to develop better workouts.
“Canada’s always been on the cutting-edge of all the innovation and technology, and we continue to try and be that for the brand,” MacDonald adds.
That’s the case within the brand and for franchisees as well.
MacDonald says that Orangetheory seeks out engaged owners who have a desire to be social and love being able to sell a high-end, value-based customer experience. Orangetheory franchisees don’t need to come from the fitness industry, but they should be passionate and accountable to the customer experience, making them great executors.
Fitness franchisees
Despite both being native to Quebec, Jean-Sébastien Carré and Sophia Stiperski met through mutual friends while they were performers in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was a musician playing in Celine Dion’s residency band, while she was an acrobat for Cirque du Soleil. A mutual friend of theirs was the master franchisee for Orangetheory in Nevada. Stiperski left her role as an acrobat after 19 years and leveraged her passion for personal fitness to become the studio manager for Orangetheory’s first Las Vegas location before it officially opened in 2014.
An experienced athlete, she became accredited to teach Pilates, barre, and several other fitness styles. She says none of them were as valuable as Orangetheory.
“It was really the workout that, for me, gave the most results. I could see we were really changing lives.”
Stiperski found that clients were in better health: losing weight and meeting their goals, and reducing their reliance on medications for cholesterol and diabetes. Stiperski saw all the benefits from the one-hour sessions with Orangetheory that other workout concepts were lacking. “People really love Orangetheory, and you could see really true results.”
When the opportunity to buy the franchise rights in Quebec arose, the pair jumped at the chance to bring the brand back home.
“We’re both Canadian, so when we were done [in Las Vegas], we moved here with the purpose of sharing Orangetheory with the Québécois and Canada. That was our purpose.”
The pair opened their first studio in Boucherville, Quebec in 2017.
Both Stiperski and Carré had family in Quebec, and following their high-flying careers, they rediscovered an entrepreneurial part of themselves as the province’s master franchisees.
“We put almost everything we had into this project, and I think that’s part of the success we have because we didn’t have a choice but to make it work,” says Carré.
Although Stiperski already had experience with the brand from her days living in Las Vegas, training included a two-day discovery session at the brand’s Canadian head office in Edmonton and a week of further training at their Boucherville location.
MacDonald adds that there’s a national pre-sale and training manager who guides franchisees through the grand opening and ensures coaches have all necessary certifications.
“We’re very hands-on with launching the business. Every single department that we have, whether it’s construction, design, signing the lease, or your operations, we have departments that are holding our franchisees’ hands through the entire process,” says MacDonald. “That’s really where we hang our hat in terms of our success.”
Carré and Stiperski echo these details, saying that the brand provides all the tools to succeed.
“I’m a very by-the-book girl,” says Stiperski, “and they have 1,500 studios around the world, so obviously they know what they’re doing.”
One fit future
By combining cardio, weightlifting, and high-impact technology, Orangetheory has carved out its own niche in the franchise industry. MacDonald describes it as “prescribed” fitness.
“We’re very prescriptive in everything we do, whether it’s how many times you’re working out in a week, what exercises you’re doing, what types of classes you need to include in your weekly program,” he says.
Since finding success in Boucherville, Carré and Stiperski have since opened two more locations, and are actively seeking out real estate for their next two locations. Both mention their community of clients as a core facet of enjoying franchising with Orangetheory Fitness.
“The members are almost family to us now. We all know their names, know what they do in life, and know their kids,” says Stiperski. “We get so close with our community.”
She adds, “It’s a people business, and that’s what I like the most about it.”
Learn more about Franchising with Orangetheory Fitness
