RAW Athletic Club: Feature Gym

A supplement brand put 19,000 SF of rare equipment, a barber shop and a members lounge in a Port St. Lucie industrial park, and people drive hours to train.

A supplement company built a gym. RAW Nutrition, founded by Chris Bumstead, Domenic Iacovone and Matt Jansen, put 19,000 square feet in an industrial park off the highway in Port St. Lucie, filled it with world class equipment, and put a barber shop and a members lounge upstairs. It is a location most operators would never touch. People drive hours to train there anyway.

What's inside

Newtech
Prime
Atlantis
Gymleco
Cybex
Lounge
Sauna + Cold Plunge
Barber Shop

What they got right

The equipment package: Newtech, Prime, Atlantis, Gymleco and Booty Builder alongside the discontinued Cybex and Strive. As rare as they come.
A full barber shop operates inside the building, upstairs next to a members-only lounge.
The smoothie bar and supplement shop are owned inventory, not a vending concession. RAW, Revive MD, Bum Energy and Vaughn’s Treats sold at the source, with a hot food program alongside it.
Recovery is included rather than upsold. Sauna and cold plunge sit in the membership.
Access is controlled on purpose. Members only, with day passes released every other weekend. A gym in a warehouse district behaving like a club with a door policy.
Opened Memorial Day weekend 2024 out of RAW Nutrition’s home base, with a second club since added in Stuart running 24 hours and carrying a turf field.

Love & Miss

Love: They gave up location as a business model on purpose. Almost every gym in America wins because it is the closest option, not the best one. RAW took cheap industrial square footage ten minutes off the highway and spent the savings on the equipment instead of the address. The equipment mix, the recovery, the barber shop, the lounge. When the experience is good, people drive. Most operators do the opposite, paying for the address and then running out of budget for the thing members actually show up for.
Miss: Not necessarily a miss, but RAW had existing brand equity from the supplement brand, and that base skews more bodybuilding. The equipment look and feel. And can't forget CBUM. I don't know the vision, but if the gym had a different audience in mind it would be a tough one to re-curate.