Today, I’m joined by Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s, an international boutique fitness studio chain.
Founded in 1998, the Barry’s experience centers around high-intensity interval training (HIIT), with time split between cardio and strength training, in its signature Red Room. Transforming a tough workout with top instructors into an aspirational lifestyle, Barry’s has expanded its community to over 80 studios across 14 countries, as well as online with an extensive digital library.
In this episode, we discuss the launch of RIDE, the company’s new indoor cycling concept. Joey explains how Barry’s weathered the pandemic without closing a single studio, and we lay out a framework for making boutique fitness irreplaceable.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How Barry’s is leveraging their brand to add new services
- Joey’s strategy for scaling a brick-and-mortar fitness company
- How Barry’s survived COVID without permanently closing any of their studios
Links & Resources
- Subscribe to the Fitt Insider newsletter
- Visit the Fitt Insider jobs board
- View current Fitt Insider investment and get in touch
Joey’s Links
- Barry’s website
- Barry’s RIDE website
- Follow Barry’s on Twitter
- Barry’s is on Instagram
- Connect with Barry’s on Facebook
- Follow Joey on Twitter
Episode Transcript
This is a machine-generated transcript. Please excuse any errors.
[00:00:00] Joey:
What is the community like? Are you actually in the business of creating and fostering relationships? If you aren’t, I think it was a really hard re-ramp out of COVID. If you are, I think people were more likely to come back sooner, which is why we continue to invest in staying connected to our consumers. That relationship remained our mission and our vision throughout even the worst times.
[00:00:38] Joe:
Welcome back to the Fitt Insider podcast. I’m your host, Joe Vennare.
Today I’m joined by Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s. In this episode we discuss the launch of RIDE, the company’s new indoor cycling concept. Joey explains how Barry’s weathered the pandemic without closing a single studio, and we lay out a framework for making boutique fitness irreplaceable.
Let’s get into it.
Hi, Joey, welcome back to Fitt Insider. Thanks for joining us again.
[00:01:00] Joey:
Thank you. Thanks for having me, Joe.
[00:01:02] Joe:
Yeah, I think most folks who are listening are familiar with Barry’s, the premier Red Room fitness experience, fitness studio. If they listened to our previous conversation, or if they didn’t, we talked a lot about lockdowns, COVID, how that was impacting the industry, launching a digital product, all those things that I think a lot of fitness brands and fitness operators were dealing with at that time.
But maybe just to jump ahead now to the present day, can you give us an update? What the status of Barry’s is, and maybe what’s top of mind for you?
[00:01:38] Joey:
Yeah. So, it’s certainly been a roller coaster of a few years. We are seeing, in terms of industry trends, a 60-65% average recovery rate right now in the market. I’m very grateful to say Barry’s is hovering between 90-95% recovered. So, life is finally looking hopeful, because we were in the in the sixties around March, and very quickly over probably about 60 days we grew 30%.
So, it’s nice to see. We all worked really hard at making that happen, and inquiring and converting new customers, reconnecting with some of our older customers. It’s just really been a labor of love and passion. Everyone has been hard at work making sure that we’re delivering quality content and experience across every modality of Barry’s, because there are a lot.
[00:02:42] Joe:
Yeah, I think it’s exciting to see, you know, the pendulum swing back to in real life exercise or even the fact that. People have a choice, right? If they, they did find something to like in the digital or at home that they’re continuing to do that. And hopefully moving more or as often as they were previously.
And if they, you know, can’t get enough of that community social experience that they’ve back in the studios, to that point around reopening, was it a matter of, or maybe even, how did you approach saying. Yeah. Now it’s, it’s safe. We want you to come back it’s to the extent that you’re safe with, was it a push in terms of, you know, reaching out to those existing members, a push on social, leveraging the instructors, or were there kind of those members feeding down the doors and kind of saying, when are you opening? When can we come back?
[00:03:32] Joey:
I think it depends on, you know, the city and even trade area. Right. We’ve seen a lot. Different types of customer behaviors. and you know, there are some markets where we have literally just been trying, to keep the towels clean and water stacked, you know, because there, the demand has been so high and then others where we’ve really been reaching out to lapse clients, trying to demonstrate for them, you know, How safe it is at Barry’s and you know how we’d love to see them come back.
So it’s been really different behaviors across a lot of different types of markets. It’s.
[00:04:13] Joe:
I think that’s, you know, across all industries, I guess, right. It’s different levels of comfort and different restrictions and, and all of that still, Having its impact felt years on at this point. are all studios open fully? Is there some level of restriction again? Is that based on city regulations or is it like full go,
[00:04:33] Joey:
Yeah, in the us, it has reopened. With one exception. Well, actually two exceptions, our Hollywood studio, and our Soma studio Hollywood is actually opening imminently. so potentially by the time this airs, it will be open. and those are actually just as a result of how unkind COVID and the last two years have been to certain neighborhoods.
We were really tracking, Attendance at, you know, local studios trying to gauge whether or not it was time to reopen our doors based on, you know, those, those customer behaviors. And so Hollywood were finally seeing an uptick, in, traffic, in pedestrian traffic and in, you know, visits across some of our competitors and just across the fitness space in general and Soma, which is up in San Francisco, you know, we’re hoping to see the same and to launch before the end of.
[00:05:25] Joe:
Yeah, fingers crossed. Hopefully get ‘em get ‘em back and fully open.
[00:05:29] Joey:
Which is great, right? because that will mean we didn’t have one studio closure due to the pandemic, which, you know, I see as a massive success.
[00:05:39] Joe:
Yeah, that’s huge. Congrats on keeping everything together and, and, you know, pushing through that. It was a, it was a crazy time. And you hear now, like, this is one of the things that I wanted to touch on. It’s. It’s almost like now you see at home connected equipment. So many of the brands struggling, unfortunately, and there’s layoffs and folks thinking about, you know, how do we chart this path forward?
Now that consumers do have an option between at home and in person. And at the same time, you have some studios who are also struggling, right? There’s studio closures, or maybe they’re pulling back from certain markets and layoffs across brick and mortar brands. When seemingly they should be performing super well. how do you put those two thoughts and hold them in your head and think like, why is it that, you know, across the board brick and mortar, isn’t kind of thriving. What have we done differently at, at Barry’s that has enabled us to kind of sustain that and not have the studio closed and get everything back to, to fully opened.
What are your thoughts on that kind of shift and how it continues to play?
[00:06:39] Joey:
So I think it’s a couple different things. Number one. What is the community like? Right. And are you actually in the business of creating and fostering relationships? And if you aren’t, I think it was a really hard RERA and if you. Are, I think people were more likely to come back sooner, right. Which is why we continued to invest in staying connected to our consumers because that relationship remained our mission and our vision throughout even the worst times.
And then the second I think is just what are you selling in terms of the product and its efficacy? And is it easy? To capture that at home. Right. And so I think what you’re seeing is in terms of closures and studios that aren’t making it, I’d say the majority of them are cardio based workouts. Right? A spin studio let’s use as an example.
I think a lot of consumers spent two years on their, at home bike or device. And are realizing they’re paying, you know, 5% of the cost and their experience, isn’t that different, the Delta between what they were getting from that business before and after isn’t significant for them to reinvest. Right. And so I think sometimes when you’re product, the efficacy of the product that you’re offering, the service that you’re offer.
Isn’t that substantially different from you can get at home. And the piece that I mentioned earlier in community, isn’t that significant, then people just choose to stay at home, right. Barry’s, and you know, RIDE, which is launching imminently. I think all of these sort of cross training hit workouts have a little bit more stickiness to them because it’s much harder to copy at.
It’s also challenging to even purchase a Woodway treadmill, right? They’re $12,000 a piece. So if you want to have a workout that includes cardio and that allows you to sustain, you know, the biomechanics of your body and your joints, and then you’re probably gonna, you know, pay for and visit studios like Barry’s. So I think that’s working for us as.
[00:09:02] Joe:
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s so interesting how this experience of the pandemic really, in some ways, took us. Back to basics, which is like, what is defensible? What of the experience is defensible? And then how many of those things can you stack up from community to the instructors, to the, you know, in studio experience like it’s, you can’t replicate the, the red room, so to speak in the full effect at home, the equipment now the workout and folks feeling like I have to be in the studio to get this workout, to get this experience, to get this community.
And then Proof that people are coming back. No studios have closed that it is super defensible and it is hard to replicate. so I think across those things, when you look at another thing I wanted to talk about was instructors. Obviously, when you talk about Barry’s, all the kind of pillars that I mentioned, one of them that stands out as like the instructors and how incredible they are and the, the type of workout they provide.
What was it like, you know, maintaining them through the pandemic where it was lockdowns. Maybe they were doing these digital workouts across every platform and just saying, Hey, everyone, like stick with us. Like, let’s get through this. And now getting them back into the studios as well.
[00:10:13] Joey:
Yeah. Very challenging. We definitely had Barry’s has been a place that has retained talent for.23 years, right. Founded in 1998. and the pandemic was the first time that we were unable to do that. And we had, you know, dozens of instructors who decided to leave to pursue their own ambitions. And to try, and you know, exploit what was a completely different landscape in terms of fitness and what people were looking for. and I don’t fault those instructors for doing that at all. Right. It’s, it’s a job. I will say that since life has sort of returned to normal in a post pandemic environment, if we’re allowed to call it that we have had at least. I don’t have an exact metric for you, but 60%, I would say of those instructors who left have tried to come back.
And I say, try, because in some cases we’ve, you know, welcomed them back with open arms and then others ultimately decided like, this is actually maybe not the right place for you anymore. so there has just been this incredibly dynamic, atmosphere you can call it of like, What works best for the organization.
It doesn’t work best for me. And now actually what works best for me does is what works best for an organization. and we’ve really in, in all of our decision making around our people, we’ve always been values driven organization. So that’s really, when you have that at the heart of you, of your organization, it actually makes. That existence bearable, because it becomes very clear what the right thing to do is.
[00:12:06] Joe:
Yeah, for sure. It’s also, you know, that idea of. We’ve kind of talked about it in the newsletter and podcast is like the fitness creator opportunity now going from, you know, am I just in the gym? Am I doing my own thing online? Am I working for a digital platform and trying to sort that out? And I think we’re kind of seeing now across the industry, right?
Like it’s still not totally figured out. And some brands are, you know, hiring back personal trainers and mass and looking for them. Some have. Gone out on their own and been able to sustain themselves. And, you know, frankly, like you were mentioning others haven’t and now we have to figure out where that kind of fits in.
I. Along those lines, the same case with, you know, digital platforms. I remember, I think talking to you last time, it was kind of like, Hey, we are launching this digital platform. We wanna make it best in class. We wanna do it as a way to continue to engage our community and provide something for them. But maybe it will be a standalone thing that is a juggernaut, or maybe it will be a compliment to what we do in the studio.
Have you has. Clarified at all in terms of how you’re thinking about it, has it taken off and been a big success on its own or is it more of part of this like complimentary experience?
[00:13:19] Joey:
Yeah, definitely the latter. and I think that’s mostly because we didn’t give it the opportunity to be the former. We had paused on All our marketing spend until the beginning of 2022, just so that we could really perfect the product before we like really took it to market. And then 1 22 came along. It was really hard for us to pull the trigger. And I think we essentially just deprioritized the continued expansion of that product based on the meaningful reduction in demand. In the digital fitness market, right? Not only for Barry’s ex, but what some of the biggest players were experiencing. And you couldn’t read an article without seeing another company now, digital instead of brick and mortar going under or having challenges.
I think the upside has been that we’ve been able to really spotlight our old studios and our new studios. We actually opened, you know, half a dozen new studios last year. To once again, be able to pursue development opportunities, which were kind of on hold for a while. not only with our, you know, in real life red room, but also with new products like RIDE.
So it’s actually been really great that people have been rushing back to the studios because that’s our core competency, you know, that’s what we do best. And it’s great that we created X because. People can now stay connected to Barry’s. And, you know, in some cases the trainers that they know and love whether or not they’re in the studio, you know, that their home studio or they move or they travel.
So allowing for that omnichannel experience, I think was just a level up in general for the brand. I do think, you know, I did so much press during the pandemic. And every single journalist, it seemed like showed up with the same series of questions, which was like, is boutique fitness over. And I just felt like I was on another planet because to me the answer was so obviously no.
But it’s because, you know, I selfishly missed it so much and I knew soon as I was able, I would rush back to the studios, but sometimes we get caught up. Right. And what is the reality today is going to be the reality. A year from now. And that’s why a lot of these digital companies are in trouble.
Right. Because they weren’t able to see themselves like, wow. The demand that we have this year is absolutely 100% not going to be the demand we have next year. Right. and so, yeah, it’s been interesting to see it play out this.
[00:16:12] Joe:
It was, yeah, it’s something I think about too. It’s it’s this idea that for. A reason, you know, the at home brands wanted to play this role of disruptor where coming in, we are taking over the industry. Gyms are dead. Like the people aren’t going back. And that’s so contrary to, I came up right. Working in brick and mortar gyms and studios, personal trainer, group fitness owned gyms.
From our perspective, if I can say it that way, like it was always. You wanna work out at home? Great. Like, I hope you have a setup at home. I hope you have a bike at home. I hope you do things outside of the hour that we’re here half hour that we’re here, like a couple times a week. And it was nobody from like the brick and mortar side was saying like, oh, at home’s dead.
It was, it was more so like, no, there will, the pendulum will swing back and hopefully people will figure out something to, you know, that works best for them that ultimately gets them healthier. So I just think that the, the kind of reasoning or the, the contradiction in that, like. Trying to crush the gym or studios and people aren’t going to go back, was interesting at the time.
And it’s, it’s kind of playing out now that, whatever that hybrid experience is like that like you said the demand is not what it was going to be at P C. You talked about, that demand the expansion opening new studios last year. and now with the launch of Barry’s RIDE. So getting the cycling experience into the studios, can you just talk about what people can look out for and, what that kind of modality and class entails?
[00:17:45] Joey:
Yeah. So I’ll actually tell you something that not many. People know, I don’t even know if I’ve said it yet publicly, but RIDE has been my dream for over a decade. and I even have some studios approved by different cities. For RIDE to exist either, you know, adjacent or basement, because I always wanted to launch this concept because I loved it and I really believed in it.
And so it is selfishly so exciting for me to be able to formally bring it to market. RIDE is very similar to our run lift concept. It’s just, instead of treadmills, you use bikes. so people will be getting, you know, half their interval, cardiovascular training through cycling, and then the other half through floor programming with equipment that looks exactly like weights, booty bands, mini bands, et cetera. so we, we actually tested this. February of 2020, we had really good timing. And, we did it both in Venice, California, and in Chelsea, New York city. And it operated at 90% utilization. So people really loved it. I remember feeling like it was a bit of a gateway drug, you know, like people finally could bring their brothers or moms or people that always said that they were afraid of Barry’s, because there’s just something much more inviting.
About a bike, then there is a treadmill. and by the way, now that I’m six months out with an ACL surgery, I totally get what , what that is. and so, it’s going to be, I think, a big moment for the brand because we’re broadening sort of. Who we appeal to which is obviously gonna increase our Tam, you know, our addressable market and going to ultimately continue to serve on our vision statement, which is to transform lives worldwide, just in a different way.
Right. And we’ve seen, how that works, because we’ve already launched a concept called lift. So we’ve been able to see how that looks lift has no cardio. And so we’re really, you know, marketing that to people who want their strength training only from a brand that they trust. And now, you know, we have run lift, we have lift, and now we’ll be, introducing RIDE lift to the Barry’s ecosystem, which is just super, super exciting.
And it’s starting in Chelsea. So it’s starting in New York city, and people will just head in. Go down the stairs. they’ll be using Shimano cycling shoes, which are pretty incredible because you clip in, but it’s built up into the shoes. So once you clip out, you can squat, you know, you can do burpees, you can lunge, you can do everything in these shoes.
So it’s actually really great. and the experience is gonna be very much the same, right? you can, pre-order your fuel bar shake. people will start either on the bike or on the floor. They’ll spend half the class doing that. And then they will all switch. And the RIDE component is very rhythm based, but it’s also metrics driven, obviously low impact, but it’s still very high intensity. And the instructor’s gonna guide the participant through all of the intervals, you know, calling out our PM resistance levels for beginners, intermediate in advance. So we’ve done a, you know, Great job. I think at making it feel a lot like Barry’s, it will feel very different than any spin class that somebody has taken in the past.
And I think for some people that will be good. And for others, it will be hard, you know, to adjust because the, the instructors for the most part going to be off the bike. so it’s, it’s really exciting. and yeah, we’re doing that on September 10th.
[00:21:45] Joe:
Yeah, it’s awesome that you get to bring this to fruition. It was something you’ve been stoked on and now bringing it to life. when you talked about having some of the studios where, you know, kind of already. With this idea in mind, basement or adjacent, is it a totally standalone building? Are they all going to be, you know, part of, or co-located with an existing Barry studio? How do you think about rolling those?
[00:22:09] Joey:
So, I mean, I wish it’d be so great, right. If that was the case, we we’re. Over 45 studios in the us. And very few of them have the space to add something like this. so I would say, you know, if we do scale RIDE in the same way that we’ve scaled Barry’s, our first choice would always to be, to have it adjacent to our other studio or in some cases, studios.
But in the case That we can’t we’ll obviously have standalone Barry’s RIDE studios.
[00:22:40] Joe:
And then I think you mentioned this, there was initial kind of tests of it pre pandemic, two plus years ago now, was that the plan then was to roll them out and kind of scale them down to fulfill this vision? Or was it truly a test at that point and then backed off of it irrespective of the, the pandemic or was it the, you know, COVID that derailed this launch, ultimately of RIDE.
[00:23:02] Joey:
You know, that was always the dream, but Barry’s, you know, tries to be humble. and we, so we don’t just assume that we do everything right. So we wanted to bring a product to market in a way that felt. Exploratory and very open to feedback much in the same way we brought Barry’s X to market.
And so we did get a lot of feedback and we’ve continued relationships with a lot of people who took RIDE back in the day. and we’ve had surveys, we’ve had focus groups and we’ve spent a lot of time improving some of the things that they asked us to. And so this product that we’re bringing to market in September is the.
[00:23:46] Joe:
It’s exciting. Maybe, you know, jumping too far ahead now that this is just getting off the ground and see how the expansion goes. But is it, you know, in the back of your mind, or maybe in the forefront to say like you have the run lift, you have the lift RIDE. What are the other modalities that you can explore from, you know, you look at things that are trending now, certainly like a Pilates or stretch, or, you know, all these other things.
Is it like, Hey, let’s go down the list instead of opening X number thousand of Barry’s studios let’s have the modalities and scale that way. or is it more so, like you said, kind of feel it out, get that feedback and go from.
[00:24:21] Joey:
Yeah, I think this was the most obvious to me. and if it’s successful, you’re absolutely right. There are a couple things you can do with a brand. You can expand it, which we’ve been doing with Barry’s for, you know, a couple decades now, but you can also extend it. And, you know, we have proof of concept and lift.
We hope to have proof of concept with RIDE And, lift. and I would say, you know, we’re a very disciplined organization as well. So if, RIDE lift is a success. We have to focus on being able to, to, to launch and scale it across many markets. And I’m not sure that the R and D required into a new modality, if we’d be able to prioritize that.
Right. Cause it’s really all about competing prioritize and what you’re asking the people in your organization to be focused on. And, and I think that would be, that’s, that’s a big task, in of itself, but yeah, you’re onto something that’s exactly sort. What we hope to be able to do.
[00:25:26] Joe:
You know, to that point in the, in being disciplined, which is not always easy, right. Especially when something starts to work and maybe you look around and you have other, you know, brand studios who are saying, we’re gonna open 1,005 thousand, 10,000 studios globally. Do you feel that kind of drive?
Like we have to compete, we have to keep up. We have to have a certain number of studios. How do you balance that?
[00:25:49] Joey:
I look at a lot of other fitness brands and, have thought many times like you are going way too fast. There’s no way what you’re offering is going to feel organic and that you’re gonna be able to like, Dot all your I and cross all your Ts. What we do is so complicated. I mean, it is a very complicated retail business.
And so no judgment, but I’ve just looked around at other brands that I feel don’t take the time to truly curate their community and their concept. And, you know, sadly, those are, I think a lot of the brands that haven’t been able to survive long term. So in no world did I ever look around at, plus I also think you have to be aware of what.
Offering and who you are. And Barry’s for me has always been, our brand equity has always been the most valuable thing. And you know that when somebody says to you. Man. I feel like there’s so many more Barry’s than that, right? So when you say there are 80 in the world, and you’re talking to somebody who lives in Cairo, Egypt and is obsessed with the brand, they’re like 80 Barry’s in the world. are you serious? It seems so much bigger than that. And I’ve been dealing with that since there were only two Barry’s, right? So that’s, that’s brand equity. There are a lot of other players, in our space that have such scale yet. People don’t care at all about their brand. they would never wear a t-shirt.
They don’t, it’s not a badge of honor to go work out at these places and there’s no right or wrong. You just have to know who you are and you have to figure out what it is you’re building towards.
[00:27:26] Joe:
I think that’s really well said and, and often overlooked, to your point in this space, sometimes where, you know, growth and you feel this pressure and, you know, you gotta scale at all costs and oftentimes it doesn’t go exactly. According to
[00:27:39] Joey:
Yeah. another way to explain it. Like the difference between the two is if you had a Barry’s London client and you had a Barry’s LA client, they would go to dinner and they would sit down and talk about the instructors that they take and the instructors that they’ve taken in other markets and, and what their favorite studios are.
I don’t think that happens across a lot of fitness experiences and maybe I’m wrong, but it just there’s. You’re when you’re a Barry’s member, you are a part of a global community and it just feels very different and resonates differently with people
[00:28:12] Joe:
Yeah, it’s, it’s intentional. It’s one of those. A good way. People are just, you know, there’s something about it. And what you’re saying internally is like, we know we’re, we’re trying to engineer that and make sure that that comes through and make sure that in, in terms of how we, and where we go and how we, and what we launch that it feels that way.
It’s not by accident. That that just happened. yeah, maybe one more thing as we get towards the end of the conversation down that path of expansion and thinking about extension, Globally, obviously launching globally and open locations around the world has been, a priority. And then also I saw, I think it was in maybe the UK that you opened a concept inside, like a, either a mall or like a shopping retail location as well.
How are you thinking about this kind of, mixing this with other. locations be like, retail, for example, versus just like a standalone studio or opportunities to integrate this into, different, whether that’s a mall or a resale experience or, something that is not their traditional kind of like standalone fitness studio.
[00:29:14] Joey:
Yeah. So that’s actually, Barry’s Liverpool opened in a brand new flannels. I dunno if you’re familiar with flannels, but it’s a, you know, a very high end premium, department store essentially. And we’re on. I don’t recall if it’s the fourth floor or not. We do have our own dedicated entrance with an elevator and stairs as well.
Cause that’s just something we always need, but it’s, really interesting. You know, you go up to the, I think it’s the men’s athletic area and you see a huge sort of like doorway that enters into Barry’s and there’s, you know, our fuel bar where you can get shakes, you can shop and grab our apparel, or you can get information at the desk if you’re not dressed for it and just go.
Grab a schedule and take a class. and it’s just this it’s, it’s an experiment really, which is like is there synergy between these two concepts? Right. And is this a world that consumers are looking to exist in? and is it something that will work for everyone? Right. And I think. VO someone covered it on our opening day and said, it was like, Barry’s in Botox.
You can do it all, you know, here in flannels. and it’s it’s, it seems like it would make sense, right? Like a lot of people would, would love to have that all in one experience, but remains to be sort of tested and seen. and they’ve been great partners and, and I think could be, you know, a really great development opportunity for us in the future throughout the. we have seen, I think, a change in consumer behaviors with, as it relates, you brought up malls, malls are a little bit of a different thing. And I’m, I’m noticing that I I don’t think consumers are enjoying, going to a mall for their workout. I know that. Most malls are seeing a dip in pedestrian traffic, and that’s always kind of just depressing to show up to.
So I hope that that business turns around. but I wouldn’t at this point in time, say that’s, that’s a big part of our, you know, future development strategy. I think our customers love the ease of getting in and out. They really care a lot about parking co-tenancy is a nice to have, But not a must have, you know, we have, stores like in, in Venice, our Barry’s, Venice is one of our busiest in the world.
And for years there was absolutely no co it was really just Barry’s on Lincoln Boulevard. That was it. He got in your car so much surface parking was amazing. One of the best locations. It’s great. But yeah, that’s kind of where we are in a development.
[00:31:48] Joe:
Yeah, it’s interesting. And I mentioned it because back to this conversation around Gym studios are dead people aren’t going back, right. It’s all gonna be at home. And the conversation being like, you know, COVID accelerated this shift at home. And I think in reality, what we’re seeing. It certainly did accelerate the shift, but to what omnichannel or multichannel means and how brands are approaching experiential, co-location, you know, giving consumers this experience where they are, where it’s convenient in a way that engages them. so I think we’ll continue to see different approaches to that. And this is certainly, one of the more unique ones.
And just kind of, as we wrap up the conversation, I know, obviously it’s huge thinking about all studios, getting them back to fully open, getting, recovery back to a hundred percent plus with RIDE launching.
Is there anything else that’s top of mind for you or something we should look out for? Or is it Hey, beyond lockout for RIDE and maybe these are the, the markets or locations to check it.
[00:32:50] Joey:
I, I would say in closing, we talk about hybrid. We talk about digital, right? We talk about brick and mortar, and then we talk about the future. When we do that we have to think about the customer of the future.
Right. And so I, can’t not mention gen Z and what an interesting generation that is and how, Nice. It is to see their appetite for in person experiences and relationships. because I think everyone assumed that a, a generation that grew up on screens would wanna continue living their lives that way, but that’s actually not the case.
And they actually, they like to buy clothes in person better than online. They’re just a lot of surprising things about gen. We have a whole, you know, our entire marketing department is constantly attending, you know, seminars and learning experiences to just make sure that our brand understands how we can best and most effectively serve our customers of tomorrow.
[00:33:49] Joe:
No, I think that’s a great point and really interesting to see how that plays out, and the opportunity there to engage an entirely new generation and what that looks like. I think it’s promising. Like you said, the community aspect, the socializing, getting off of screens, and certainly being physically active and seeking out exercise experiences like Barry’s.
So, that bodes well for all of us, healthwise, in general.
Wrapping up, we’ll go back to the RIDE experience. You mentioned it’s in New York—Chelsea right now. Are there plans for it to start to pop up in other places, or should we just be on the lookout?
[00:34:28] Joey:
Definitely be on the lookout. Our social handles are @Barry’s, and our website is Barrys.com. We are pretty good about communicating outward to the world what we’re up to. So, stay tuned.
[00:34:44] Joe:
Yeah, we’ll be following along, and we’ll get this out and of course help spread the word.
Thanks for making some time today. I’m excited to share the conversation.
[00:34:51] Joey:
Thank you. Have a great day.