DEFINITIONS
LEISURE DB
WHAT IS A BOUTIQUE?
In return, customers should enjoy a premium quality experience across all touchpoints. There should be 20+ classes on offer each week, with each class able to accommodate a minimum of eight people, and no long-term commitment. Excluded from our definition are non-standalone studios (e.g. big box clubs’ own in-house boutique- style offerings), pop-up and non-permanent studios, outdoor fitness – however premium – and PT studios. To once again quote David from 2018: “We love and use small PT studios, and some even offer small engaging classes that are wonderful. However, with fewer than eight in a class and the economics working differently from a boutique, they remain PT studios in our eyes and not boutiques.” Please bear this in mind as you digest the data and interviews in this report. Our definition of boutique may differ slightly from your own, but we believe it captures the vital essence of boutique fitness, even as this sector moves into a new phase of its life. (See page 19 for the full definition used in this report.)
“Defining a boutique studio is probably the most difficult part of this report. It has taken many hours of debate and even more hours of challenging discussion around each brand to make sure it fitted the definition, and the definition fitted our boutique purpose. Some red lines had to be drawn.” These were the observations of Leisure DB founder David Minton in his foreword to the inaugural 2018 London Boutique Studio Report. Fast-forward to 2023 and what’s interesting, in spite of the many changes in the market over the past five years, is that defining a boutique studio is still challenging. If anything, it’s harder now than it was in 2018. On page 66 of this report, UFB’s Richard Smith and Steph Davies explain how “boutique has become a buzzword” and that this has “led to a lack of clarity around its definition”. Emma Barry – boutique fitness expert and author of 2020’s international bestseller, Building a Badass Boutique – elaborates on this topic on page 20: “In its heyday, ‘boutique’ meant uniqueness, expert focus within a single discipline, elevated touches and the one-off specialness of a small business that people were willing to travel across town for. “As boutique brands have scaled, big boxes have created high-quality in-club boutiques and some regions became oversaturated by genre, that uniqueness has dissipated. The perspectives that used to set boutiques apart have begun to be absorbed into other businesses such as big box gyms, corporate sites and residential communities. These businesses are taking the elements of boutique and placing them in their own spaces.” OUR DEFINITION Given this ongoing discussion and evolution, for the sake of constructive comparison with 2018 data, we’ve used the same broad criteria and definitions in this report as we used previously. That is, a boutique must be a permanent, standalone group exercise studio that charges a premium price tag – typically a monthly membership of over £100 and/or a 10-class package priced at over £120.
CLASSIFICATION & REMIT A few other important points to note on our
methodology (which you can read in full on page 87). First, although boutique studios are increasingly appearing in other cities and locations, this report focuses specifically on London as the continued hub of the boutique fitness scene in the UK. All references to ‘total market’ therefore relate to the total London boutique studio market. Second, as in 2018, we have classified each London boutique studio as Cardio, Mind & Body or CrossFit (in 2018, Cardio was referred to as ‘HIIT’, but for 2023 we wanted to acknowledge that not all feelgood, high-energy cardio classes are based on high- intensity interval training techniques). Of course, one of the big trends in the boutique fitness sector at the moment is a move towards diversification of the offering, either through collaboration between distinct brands or brands introducing their own additional formats. So why do we persist in pigeonholing every studio into one category?
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LONDON BOUTIQUE STUDIO REPORT 2023
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