ClassPass Supports Fitness Studios Via New Streaming Service

NEW YORK, United States — ClassPass has launched a new live-streaming platform aimed at supporting fitness studios and instructors’ efforts to survive Covid-19’s impact.

The feature, which enables its fitness and wellness partners to offer live-streamed classes through the ClassPass app and website, not only creates a new way for the fitness platform to carry on serving its own customer base, it also generates much-needed revenue for studios and their employees — with 100 percent of proceeds going directly to them, until 1st June 2020.

In addition, ClassPass has created a Partner Relief Fund, enabling consumers to donate to their favourite studios directly through its app, with the brand matching all studio contributions up to the value of $1 million. 

“Almost 90% of our 30,000 gym, studio and wellness partners across 30 countries have indefinitely closed their physical locations. We need to act now to protect these businesses,” commented CEO Fritz Lanman.  

Adding: “The next few weeks are crucial for the health and wellness industry to survive. ClassPass has rallied to help our community of studios and fitness enthusiasts get through the coming weeks. But we need our governments to intervene and help studios get through the coming years. Now is the time to come together as an industry.”

By utilising its technology and database of over one million subscribers, ClassPass hopes the new live workouts will help its members to interact in real-time with instructors, keeping them engaged with both its platform and the fitness brands it partners with. However, the service isn’t something Lanman predicts will become a permanent fixture once the market returns to normal. 

Having previously launched its own live service — ClassPass Live back in 2018, which was subsequently repackaged into a library of on-demand video workouts — Lanman told TechCrunch that in the brand’s experience: “You cannot yet replicate the real-world experience digitally. The ambience. The immersiveness (sic). The sense of community.”

Adding that in the future, ClassPass will continue to give both partners and customers a choice as to how they interact with both digital and offline fitness offerings.

In the meantime, with the industry collectively being forced online ClassPass is doubling down on its new initiative, offering training and resources to educate fitness professionals on best practices when it comes to getting them started on its platform, as well as aiding studio owners in understanding available financial resources.