Barrys & FORME Launch Content Partnership Catering To Rise In Digital Fitness

LOS ANGELES, United States — Boutique fitness phenomenon Barry’s has partnered with connected fitness brand FORME, enabling users of FORME’s training device to access its digital fitness content at home.

The exclusive partnership will also see the FORME device displayed and available for sale in Barry’s studios across the US.

The move comes as an increasing number of consumers continue to partake in at-home fitness, either exclusively, or alongside in-person fitness offerings. It also follows a speight of similar partnerships between wellness brands pivoting towards an omnichannel approach.

According to Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez, the collaboration marks the first time its digital workouts will be available on any platform other than its own. It is hoped the partnership will enable the brand to “transform lives on a much larger scale than ever before,” he revealed.

Also a first for FORME, the deal kicks off a pipeline of planned collaborations across hospitality, fashion and design — all of which will be announced over the coming months.

“We are thrilled to be launching with Barry’s X content on our Studios and see collaborations like this one being central to our strategy moving forward,” Trent Ward, Founder & CEO of FORME told Welltodo.

“Our goal is to bring our members the best fitness content out there from the names you know and love, like Barry’s, and introduce you to the most inspiring trainers out of LA that we’ve discovered in strength, yoga, pilates, dance, barre, meditation, pre/postnatal, boxing and recovery.”

According to Ward, the startup will also be launching a collection of speciality content that will set it apart from other platforms on the market, including surf, ski and golf conditioning. 

As the battle of the connected fitness device hots up, differentiation through exclusive content such as this is a strategy that’s begun to take priority.

Peloton’s heavy-hitting partnership with cultural phenomenon Verzuz — a ‘face-off’ musical platform that has grown to prominence amid global lockdowns — and exclusive content with artists including Beyonce and DJ Tiesto has played a crucial role in propelling its growth.

Elsewhere, at-home boxing brand Liteboxer’s recent partnership with Universal music has enabled the startup to use popular music, not available anywhere else, to create a selection of “punch tracks” in which users must throw certain punches at shock-absorbing pads as they light up to the beat of the music. This is helping the brand to generate buzz and boost visibility.

Lululemon’s acquisition of Mirror, meanwhile, has enabled the fitness device to create exclusive content and activations in partnership with the athleisure behemoth — a move which is likely to have contributed to the fitness brand’s spike in revenue from $170m in 2020 to an expected $275m in 2021.

With the expectation now being that fitness brands should be content creators and innovators in their own right, investing in the user experience in this way is fast becoming a business model that’s separating the top-tier from the mediocre.