Tony de Leede launches Club W concept, a new ‘third space’ for women’s wellness

Fitness industry innovator Tony de Leede has launched an all new wellness concept for women, Club W, a boutique fitness and lifestyle space designed to provide an intimate, social ‘third place’ beyond home and work.

The newly opened club, located in the southern Sydney suburb of Caringbah, is according to de Leede “part community teahouse, part social club, part wellness education centre, and part fitness/movement studio – specifically designed for older Baby Boomer women who crave community and conversation in a space where they can also immerse themselves in wellness”.

It combines virtual studios that serve up unintimidating and ‘smaller bite’ virtual group exercise classes (including yoga, Pilates, stretch, strength, dance, fight, cardio and meditation) and virtual education on everything from nutrition to relationships. Sourced from de Leede’s co-owned Mind123 and Move123 virtual content library, the facility offers over 200 classes, with content delivered in five, 10, 20 and 30 minute classes across Club W’s four studio rooms.

De Leede comments “we do far more classes per day than even bigger clubs do per week.”

The 400 metre² space also offers a massage room, plus three consultation pods where local lifestyle businesses – offering services ranging from nutrition to naturopathy, life coaching to manicures – can come in and offer complimentary 20-minute appointments for members. A Somadome meditation pod is to be added in the near future.

While content is delivered virtually, employed hosts and volunteer ‘club ambassadors’ are on site to make members feel welcome and provide assistance where necessary.

Beyond its fitness component, Club W aims to offer more than a boutique fitness space, but to be a place where women can just come and ‘be’ and connect, a place to spend hours.

With a capacity of 1,000 members and priced at a competitive $19.50 a week, de Leede is confident that virtual is appropriate for Club W’s target market, explaining “in the US alone, over 30 million women aged 50 years and older are online, and 59% of them think they’re just as tech-savvy as their children and grandchildren.”

Developed at a cost of $650,000, the ‘third space’ would appear to have enormous potential in large retails environments and shopping malls, where owners are looking to drive visitation against a backdrop of declining retail sales.

de Leede is already in conversation with “a number of major department stores” about introducing the Club Ws within their retail space, explaining “Amazon is the enemy for these retailers. They have to look at ways to make going in-store an experience again, and that can’t rely on anything people can buy online.

“You can’t have a haircut online, or go to the cinema, or go to Club W. This is the sort of thing they’re now actively looking at.”

Similar discussions with Weight Watchers – whose focus has recently broadened to include movement and mindset as well as nutrition – may see small, Club W-branded virtual studios set up inside Weight Watchers shop fronts in the USA, while de Leede is also exploring offering Club W locations as site for meetings of Weight Watchers’ Australian division.

De Leede adds “I wanted to create somewhere I could imagine my mum or my sister coming to get out of the house - a place that offers not only movement, but also community.

“Club W isn’t about being fit. It’s about living longer, well.”

Lower image shows Tony de Leede at the opening of Club W Caringbah.

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