The fitness space is crowded. From wearable technology to specialised gyms, it feels like everyone is competing with each other to make the world healthier — except for Athlo, the app hailed as the next fitness unicorn.
Founded by former professional rugby player Matthew Mansell, Athlo is disrupting the rapidly expanding health and fitness space by taking the opposite course from most apps and influencers.
Instead of competing against an increasingly cramped field of mixed martial arts gyms, fitness trackers, and yoga classes, Matthew Mansell’s app is gaining popularity by creating cooperation among the many choices facing today’s consumers.
With the Athlo app, users can pick and choose where, how, and when they train without the messy sticking points of long-term contracts. Instead of signing up for a year or a month at a time, users can rent a membership or class from other users. In addition, gyms, fitness centres, and instructors have the ability to sell single-use options to users interested in testing out their facilities’ services.
“Navigating the world of fitness is a bit like choosing a single streaming service these days,” said Athlo founder Matthew Mansell. “They all offer something different, and it’s hard to know which services you’ll actually stick with long-term. So, we’re allowing people to pick and choose what they want, when they want it. And, at the same time, it allows instructors, fitness groups, and facility managers a chance to offer their services in a different format.”
How Athlo Fits into the Fitness Space
If the ultimate goal in the fitness space is to make someone better, the aim of Matthew Mansell and his Athlo app is to make everything better.
That means it has to work for three separate categories of users if it plans to become the next fitness unicorn. Those categories are people who want to curate their own workout regime among a wide variety of offerings; those who want to sell their less-used memberships and class spaces on the app; and the workout centres that want to grow their base of users.
The idea of getting everyone on the same page was the revolutionary part, Athlo founder Mansell said.
“The idea isn’t to undercut the offerings of gyms or fitness instructors. The idea is to grow their business by allowing more people to access it,” he explained. “If you’re unable to make it to your Tuesday night Bikram yoga class because something has come up, you’re ordinarily out of luck. You just don’t go. But with Athlo, you can sell that space to someone who may be interested in trying out Bikram yoga. If they like it, maybe they’ll buy their own full membership from the instructor. The member benefits, the instructor benefits, and the newcomer benefits. It’s a win-win-win scenario.”
Worldwide, the fitness industry has seen rapid expansion in recent years. Expert estimates place its total global value at £72.3 billion (over $88 billion) for 2022 — a figure that’s rapidly increasing.
After the pandemic shuttered gyms and health centres across the globe, the fitness sector has begun a swift rebound that could see it increase its value by five times in the next five years.
As more and more people ditch their home workout regime or start a new, post-pandemic routine, the benefits of the next fitness unicorn will be tremendous.
“People have become comfortable using fitness apps, but with so many new gyms and fitness centres opening up, and more influencers competing for their attention, it’s hard to know which choice to make,” Matthew Mansell said. “The beauty of Athlo is that it allows you to choose what you want at your own pace. It also reduces your risk. If you decide your weekly boxing class isn’t for you, you can sell your space to someone else. That makes the whole getting-back-in-shape thing a lot easier to try.”
