mornin’ merrymakers 💊🧖♀️🏌️🛁👜
thank y’all so much for all the kind words about last week’s letter on the tulipmania happening right now with pilates. i feel validated in my theory & excited to write more letters like that.
today i wanna highlight how the lines are blurring more and more across retail, fitness, healthcare, hospitality, food, and fashion.
what used to be separate categories… doctor’s office, gym, spa, store, club… are quietly collapsing into the same physical places, many at your favorite luxe mall. these winning concepts are very effective at getting you to leave your house.
call it the experience economy. third-place renaissance. digital life fatigue.
places now are as much about showing up as shopping.
today’s openings are a perfect snapshot of that shift. different categories. same strategy. all newish renditions of retail.
in today’s letter, you'll scroll:
→ brand new franchise born from three of wellness's biggest names
→ 8-year-old social bathhouse that trademarked the word "bathhouse"
→ 9-year-old golf concept that quietly became a fitness club
→ a "living lab" that changes its entire identity every 6 months
the ultimate longevity center
an unexpected recurring character of my letter this year has been franchises. i find most of them predatory and working for the benefit of the franchisor. so this “star” studded founding team really caught my attn.
meet the ultimate longevity center.
the brainchild of the 3 most prominent biohacking bros:
anthony geisler: the man who helped build club pilates, cyclebar, row house,etc at xponential fitness (which should sound familiar if you read last week’s letter). he got pushed out after a federal investigation…
gary brecka: host of one of the most listened-to health podcasters on earth, literally calls himself "the ultimate human." honestly don’t know what that means.
tony robbins: needs no intro as one of the most well known motivational speakers remding the world “where focus goes, energy flows.”
thhe ulimated longevity center has three parts: "the playground" (cold plunge, hyperbaric chambers, red light, hydrogen baths), "the lab" (biomarker testing, metabolic profiling), and "the apothecary" (NAD, GLP-1, HRT, peptides, IV therapy).
franchise investment runs $508K–$1.18M.
20 licenses sold already.
on a related but different note, very eager to see how kira swisher take downs the booming longevity industry in her new series on cnn. on a sxsw panel, she shared some hot takes on hyperbaric chambers & red light…
bathhouse
bathhouse opened its first location in williamsburg, brooklyn in 2019. back when that was my neighborhood. how i miss it!
the second location in flatiron opened in early 2024 with over 35,000 sq. ft.
their spaces include thermal pools, dry saunas, tropical saunas, event saunas, steam rooms, & rooftop pools accessible with a day pass or a massage/scrub. this thermal community spa concept is having a moment (not as much as pilates), but many similar concepts are popping up in most major cities.
they’re on the list today because of their announcement to open 8 new locations through 2027:
nashville tn
stamford ct
minneapolis mn
berkeley heights nj
downtown brooklyn ny (opening spring 2026)
chicago il (40,000 sq ft, west loop)
philly pa (former tiffany & co. space in the bellevue hotel)
los angeles (with a 100,000 sq ft space on sunset blvd in hollywood on a 25-year lease….)
i break a sweat just thinking about all of these openings with oversized footprints and long lease terms.
five iron
five iron golf (indoor golf + bowling + bar concept) announced that members at their rockefeller center location now get access to a private gym and wellness center in the same building.
on the surface this may just seem like another amenity add. but zooming out, it's part of a broader pattern of entertainment-first brands quietly becoming fitness brands, and vice versa.
a golf simulator bar that also has a cold plunge is now competing with equinox for the same wallet.
i’m not a golfer, but for the right person this seems like such a hole in one 😉
coach play
coach (founded 1941) has been navigating its brand identity for many decades. a journey i loved learning about in the book, bag man. written by lew frankfort who was a gov employee turned coach ceo that led the brand for almost 30 years. (did you know they coined the term accessible luxury?)
coach/his brand philosophy = magic + logic
which is perfect imo.
coach ow is going after gen z & gen alpha with a concept called coach play. introduced in 2023, the stores the are part immersive environment, part community hub, part tactile playground. think customization stations, local artist partnerships, local cultural references baked into every surface.
stores see 4-8x longer visits than standard coach locations.
this concept is now open in 12 locations including chicago, singapore, tokyo, kuala lumper, salt lake city, & more.
soon they’ll be opening in atlanta in ponce city market.
(in the old allbrids spot).
think i might do a roundup of who’s taking over all the old allbirds leases as that’s very telling of which brands are spending big on premium real estate.
113 spring
this one is only kinda new. technically opened in september 2025, but changes themes every 4-6 months so it counts.
113 spring is a 3,000 sq ft "living lab" in soho, designed by snøhetta (the architecture firm that built the oslo opera house). the idea is that seasonal themes inspire new paths to living well.
the current theme is "presence is the present."
focused on mindfulness and cognitive longevity (clearly all the buzz right now). experiences include a 75-minute neurosensory “emergence” meditation where you wear a device that tracks your brain activity to determine what you need.
reminds me a bit of STORY in meatpacking in the late 2010s.
skeptical this will work…. but we shall see.
what openings excited you the most this month? i always love hearing from y’all!
