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Alphaland & the weird world of influencer gyms
Inside Christian Guzman’s 30,000 sq ft fitness wonderland
Updated September 23, 2024
What’s up Gym World?
It turns out that fame is a good business model. The formula is simple:
Step 1: Build a massive audience
Step 2: Launch auxiliary businesses that pair well with your brand
Step 3: Use your platform as your primary distribution channel
Step 4: Profit
We've seen this playbook over and over again:
Mark Sisson
Mark launched the popular diet blog Mark's Daily Apple. In 2015, he started Primal Kitchen, a sugarless sauce brand, and sold it for $200M just four years later.
Mr. Beast
Mr. Beast built one of the largest Youtube channels, watched by over 100M people. In December 2020, he launched MrBeast Burger, a ghost kitchen-based burger chain. Six months later, it surpassed $100M in revenue. In 2022, he announced plans to raise money for his ventures at a $1.5B valuation.
The Rock
The Rock built a massive Instagram following and frequently posted pictures of himself drinking tequila. Rather than promote someone else's tequila brand, he launched Teremana. In 2022, the 2-year-old brand was on track to ship 1,000,000 cases, making it the fastest-growing tequila brand in history.
In fitness, no one is running the playbook better than Christian Guzman.
Alphaland: The Disneyland for bodybuilders
Christian Guzman is an OG YouTuber with over 1M subscribers and 1.1M Instagram followers. He built his following by vlogging about his life as a bodybuilder and gym owner.
After becoming one of the most recognized fitness personalities on YouTube, Christian launched an affordable athleisure brand called Alphalete. In 2023, he shared that the company did over $100M in revenue but revealed it was making less profit than ever. Other sources indicate that Alphalete’s annual revenue is closer to $150M.
Despite Alphalete's success, Guzman continued operating his gym. In February 2020, he bought an 18.5-acre commercial complex to house both the clothing brand and the gym.
The gym portion, called Alphaland, opened in January of 2022 and was an instant success. With over 30,000 square feet of space, it ranks as the 10th largest single-location gym in the world and features:
3 gyms
A food court
A VIP lounge
Retail space
A soccer field
2 basketball courts
Aside from being massive, what makes Alphaland unique is that it’s tailor-made for influencers. Members and guests are encouraged to take selfies and vlog their workouts.
Influencers travel from all over the world to create content at Alphaland, and some have even relocated to Houston to train there every day.
This TikTok with almost 1M views does a good job of explaining the appeal:
@connorsinann Gym reivew #fypシ #alphaland #gymtok
How much does Alphaland membership cost per month?
Because the gym serves a specific niche, Guzman could charge a premium price. When Alphaland first opened, the monthly membership was estimated to be around $300.
As of 2024, a website quote for a monthly membership is $94.99, or $109 for Alpha Recovery Lounge access. The gym also offers frequent membership specials.
How much is an Alphaland day pass?
Since Alphaland has turned into the ‘Disneyland for bodybuilders,’ people happily pay $30+ for day passes. Alphaland’s website shows the following day pass options:
1-day pass: $29.99 (valid for 24 hours)
3-day pass: $69.99 (includes unlimited visits for 3 days)
7-day pass: $149.99 (includes unlimited visits for 7 days)
Does Alphaland make any money?
In 2022, Guzman shared Alphaland's year-to-date revenue numbers:
And in a podcast with MogCast, he also mentioned that Alphaland was on pace to do ‘$11-12M’ that same year.
As a former gym owner, these numbers are staggering.
Every year, Club Industry publishes a list of the Top 100 Health Clubs by revenue. The top spots are taken by fitness juggernauts like Planet Fitness, Equinox, and LifeTime.
In December 2022, Alphaland would have ranked as the 3rd largest single-location gym on the list and #34 overall. That's crazy, considering it had been open for less than a year.
For context, Two-Brain Business looked at revenue data for 10,657 gyms in 2022 and found that the average gym generates $190,800 per year. In comparison, Alphaland made $228,000 in day passes during its first month of operation.
Alphaland's real estate made Guzman $9.5M
Thanks to the gym's success and Guzman's great timing, Alphaland has opened up new opportunities for him. He mentioned that private equity (PE) firms have approached him to expand the Alphaland concept into different markets.
But the primary wealth builder for Guzman has been the real estate.
He bought the complex in February 2020 for $8.5M and put $1M into renovations. By March of 2022, the property appraised at $17M, meaning Guzman built $9.5M in equity in just two years. This additional equity allowed him to take out a $7.7M line of credit against the property.
So, not only does he own one of the largest gyms in the world with a nice tax write-off, but he also got $7.7M that he can use to grow his clothing brand.
Not too shabby!
One hit wonder?
So you're probably thinking, ‘A famous influencer opens up a gym for other influencers, so what? There can’t be that much demand for something like this?’
You'd be wrong.
Influencer gyms have popped up in Texas, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania.
The playbook for marketing these gyms is completely different from anything I've seen work for traditional gyms.
Take my second favorite influencer gym, Absolute Recomp (AR), as an example. The frontman for AR doesn't have a massive social media presence like Guzman, but he leverages TikTok as his primary marketing channel.
In a TikTok video that has since been deleted, he gave a tour where he mentioned that 'gym baddies' are a selling feature of the gym.
While this repels your traditional gym-goer, that may be the whole point.
Alphaland gym reviews: what are people saying?
Alphaland has a 4 out of 5-star rating on Yelp, with most reviews mentioning how fun and aesthetically pleasing the gym is with all its amenities.
But there are mixed reviews about the front desk staff and customer service. Some visitors weren’t fans of the influencer wonderland at all:
For a closer look at Alphaland, this YouTube video gives an ‘honest review’ of its cleanliness, affordability, and overall vibes:
Overall, most people say they’d go back to Alphaland and recommend checking it out.
Is Alphaland a viable business model?
It's no secret that I think Planet Fitness has the best business model in the fitness industry. I’m skeptical of the influencer gym business because they're running the opposite playbook:
Instead of a compact footprint, they want the biggest space possible.
Instead of members who don't use the gym, they market to fitness influencers who use it every day for hours.
Instead of a non-intimidating environment, these gyms are filled with attractive people filming social media videos.
Look at this video taken at Alphaland. It seems like a horrible place to workout:
@josh_nabbie I need me an empty ass gym #alphaland #summershred #bodybuilding #gym
Granted, this was during a special weekend, but I've seen other video tours where the gym looks equally intimidating. Check out this take from a fitness influencer with 319k+ followers on TikTok:
So, will an influencer gym be coming to your town soon?
Unless you're in a tier-1 city, probably not.
This niche will likely resemble the nightclub industry more than the gym industry. The best influencer gyms, like Alphaland, will make insane amounts of money, while the second-tier gyms flop.
It's going to be fun to see how this plays out.
What do you make of it all?
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In the meantime, watch or listen to Gym World’s take on another viral influencer gym that claims to be ‘the best gym in the f***ing world.’
until next week,
j