Alpha Fit Club Scales From 700-Square-Foot Studio to 20 Studios

Sam Tooley sold 20 Alpha Fit Club franchises by the end of 2021 — before his company ever opened a second studio of its own. That dealmaking pace, pulled off during a pandemic that froze brick-and-mortar leasing nationwide, turned a 700-square-foot personal training room in New Jersey into a boutique fitness franchise with 20 studios open and 30 more sold across the East Coast today.

The next proof point arrives October 3, when Alpha Fit Club hosts its largest event yet: Alpha Games, where 1,550 members on 750 teams will compete at American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Tooley expects another 3,000 spectators. Registration opened August 1. The event took a year to plan and, in Tooley's words, "I think the walls are going to shake."

The origin story is unusually raw for a franchise pitch. Tooley, a former state champion runner and high school record holder who ran in college, moved home to coach after graduation. His first season back, his father died suddenly. "That turned my world upside down," he said. He needed income to support his mother and his brother, a college freshman, so he started an Instagram account and coached endurance athletes worldwide — including three Olympic trial qualifiers in the marathon.

The online business grew, but Tooley wanted physical space. He leased a 700-square-foot studio. "It was me, my dog and a squat rack," he said. "At first people were coming just to play with my dog and I was okay with that." The first month after signing the lease, a fire destroyed the family home. His younger brother died in it. Tooley and his mother were home at the time. "It was something you see on the news and never expect to happen to you," he said. "And yet I was living it." He calls his coping philosophy "selfish selflessness" — pouring into others because it helps him too. Work and coaching became the outlet.

The franchise concept emerged from his client base. In 2017, two clients who had become like family were exploring buying a local Orangetheory or opening an F45. After reviewing the options, Tooley told them: "I think we have an opportunity to build something ourselves." The thesis was New York City-style boutique fitness — "lights low, music bumping, coach on the mic" — paired with genuine strength training methodology, a combination Tooley says competitors rarely execute together. "More often than not, people focus on the experience and do that well, but the programming falls by the wayside," he said. "Or they focus on the programming and there's no experience."

The first Alpha Fit Club opened in Westfield, New Jersey, in April 2019 and signed 400-plus members within 10 months. Then COVID-19 shut gyms down. Tooley's reaction: "You've gotta be kidding me" — said, he notes, with a smile, because after his family's losses the pandemic "contextually, this wasn't that big of a deal." The company pivoted to Zoom and outdoor workouts. Tooley hauled a boombox and a whiteboard downtown and drew 250 people to workouts in the middle of Westfield. The demand confirmed his thesis that people "were craving community and connection." Because Alpha Fit Club had built its operations with replication in mind from day one, the company signed leases and sold franchises while almost nobody else would. Those 20 franchise sales closed by the end of 2021, before the first franchise location opened.

The product itself runs on a fixed structure: six stations, six minutes each, one minute to rest and rotate, with an equal balance of strength and conditioning. Tooley brands the positioning as "approachable athleticism" — members range from 18 to 65, and the only prerequisite, he says, "is a willingness to do the work." The front of house operates on what the company calls "lobby life": staff greet members by name in a warm, hometown-gym atmosphere, while the back office runs on professionalized systems.

Tooley's advice to would-be franchisors is blunt about the economics. "Until there are economies of scale and you understand what it takes to run multiple studios yourself, and can confirm it's replicable, I'd have a very hard time standing in front of a prospective franchisee saying, 'Bet on us,'" he said. He notes that franchisees have taken out second mortgages on their homes to buy in, and that "the caliber of franchisee you select is going to dictate your success as a franchisor."

Alpha Games itself grew out of competitive data. Four years ago, HYROX New York drew 5,000 participants and Alpha Fit Club members made up 500 of them — 10% of the field — despite the gym not training specifically for HYROX. Tooley reasoned that if members were getting hooked on competitions the gym didn't host, they would eventually leave to train elsewhere. Year one of Alpha Games drew 550 people across nine studios, nearly hitting the 600-person capacity. Year two sold out in 72 hours with 900 competitors across 13 studios. Tooley then moved the event to American Dream Mall, deciding on the venue the day after seeing a friend's photo of the ice rink under its glass dome ceiling: "This is it. Non-negotiable."

Tooley will not compete this year. He made that mistake two years running, most recently after a 12-hour event day spent facing a station of 60 burpees split with his partner — an All-American 400-meter hurdler who is also the company's graphic designer — before a one-mile run finish. This year he plans to watch from the beer garden. With 30 sold-but-unopened studios in the pipeline, the October 3 event doubles as the largest live demonstration yet of the community-driven model Alpha Fit Club is selling.