Equinox Group is an American

luxury Luxury may refer to: * Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge pu ...

fitness company which operates several lifestyle brands: Equinox, Equinox Hotels, Precision Run, Project by Equinox, Equinox Explore, Equinox Media, Furthermore, PURE Yoga, Blink Fitness, and

SoulCycle SoulCycle is a fitness company owned by Equinox Group which offers indoor cycling and spinning workout classes. It was founded in 2006, and has operations in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In early 2020, before the COVID-19 ...

. Within the portfolio of brands, there are more than 300 locations in major cities in the United States, as well as in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The global headquarters is in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where there are currently 35 Equinox Clubs. Equinox Group also has a digital platform, the Equinox+ App, that provides access to digital classes with world-class instructors. Equinox is owned by a group of investors including

Harvey Spevak Harvey Spevak is the Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Equinox Group. Career In 2000, he led a management buyout of Equinox to two private equity firms, North Castle Partners and J.W. Childs. In 2006, he partnered with Related Principl ...

, Executive Chairman and Managing Partner, as well as Principals of

The Related Companies The Related Companies, L.P. is an American real estate firm in New York City, with offices and developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, London, São Paulo and Shanghai. Related has more than 3, ...

.
Equinox Group
could also refer to a Malta-based Group of companies by the same name that is active in the fields of business advisory, AI, RPA, business Intelligence, legal services in the area of technology, education, as well as corporate and compliance services.

History

The first Equinox location opened on September 23, 1991 in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. It was started by the Errico family. In 2000, Spevak led a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

of Equinox to two

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firms, North Castle Partners and J.W. Childs. In 2006, he partnered with Related Chairman principals to acquire a

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majo ...

in Equinox and secured a significant minority investment from private equity firm L Catterton in 2017. In 2008, Equinox brought Pure Yoga to the United States from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, which it operates separately. In 2011, Equinox launched Blink, a separate fitness company with a value-driven membership model and acquired

. In January 2018, Equinox made a minority stake investment in Rumble Boxing. In July 2019, Equinox launched Equinox Hotels in

Hudson Yards, Manhattan Hudson Yards is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, bounded roughly by 30th Street in the south, 41st Street in the north, the West Side Highway in the west, and Eighth Avenue in the east.Chapter 11: Figures The area is the s ...

Employment practices controversy

A 2019 article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reported that

trainers Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used f ...

often worked long hours, sometimes as many as 80 a week, forcing some to sleep in employee locker rooms or their cars between shifts. Former and current trainers also described intense pressure from the company to recruit and retain clients drawn from the club's members. The company

settled out of court In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other meanings in t ...

two lawsuits in California in 2013, both related to unpaid

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), ...

for trainers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Equinox Fitness Health care companies established in 1991 American companies established in 1991 Health clubs in the United States Companies based in New York City Medical and health organizations based in New York City 1991 establishments in New York City 2006 mergers and acquisitions