A gym that wanted to be a brand.

Crunch began in Manhattan in 1989, started by Doug Levine. English Wikipedia describes Levine as a former stockbroker and says the first Crunch was a basement studio. The trade magazine Club Solutions, in a profile published on 5 July 2019, placed the first club in the East Village, while English Wikipedia and a 15 April 2025 announcement from Crunch and the investment firm Leonard Green & Partners both place it in Greenwich Village.

By the mid-1990s the company was still a Manhattan business. The New York Times, in a style-section piece by Constance C. R. White published on 16 June 1996, described the gyms of Crunch Fitness International as all in Manhattan, with a club on East 13th Street, another on West 83rd Street and a further club about to open on Second Avenue. The paper reported plans for gyms in Los Angeles, Miami and Tokyo, with the first Los Angeles branch, on Sunset Boulevard, to have a disc-jockey booth.

The same article made clear that Levine saw the business as more than a set of clubs. “What we’re doing is building a brand,” he told the Times. The paper listed clothing, accessories, workout videos, a fitness programme on the cable channel ESPN2 and music releases on RCA Records, all under the Crunch name, along with a book due from Doubleday. Each gym had an area set aside for selling the new clothes and accessories, the Times said, and the clothing had also gone on sale in department stores including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, with bags, socks, watches and other accessories due in those stores the following month.

Levine also described who the brand was for. “There’s not a girl or guy behind our desks who looks like Kate Moss or Marky Mark,” he told the paper, which described the instructors as energetic and “colorfully eccentric,” and the workouts — African dance, kick boxing, yoga and spin among them — as aimed at people looking for “nonjudgmental fun.”

Yellow walls, a disco ball and “No Judgments.”

The look of the early clubs was documented in detail. The 1996 New York Times piece described a spin class under a whirling disco ball to a disco beat, and said that, unlike the light-filled, spartan spaces favoured by some gyms, Crunch preferred the atmosphere of a nightclub. Walls in the East 13th Street club were deep yellow and slick black, the paper reported, over black rubber floors; the locker rooms had conical stainless-steel sinks, and the lounges had zebra-striped banquettes and polished-wood bars handing out free magazines. The writer said Crunch was positioning itself as the industry’s Studio 54, without the exclusive door policy. One member quoted by the paper said she liked “the music, the interior design.”

The Times placed Crunch in a crowded New York market, between boutique owner-operated gyms such as David Barton’s and chains such as Lucille Roberts, and wrote that Crunch cast itself as “the hip urbanite’s gym.” Levine explained the nightclub styling in social terms. “People aren’t going to church like they did in the 50’s and 60’s,” he told the paper. “They aren’t going to bars and clubs like they did in the 70’s. People now go to gyms after work.”

The brand’s signature phrase is “No Judgments.” Club Solutions reported in July 2019 that the idea was meant to take the intimidation out of going to a gym, and that it was paired with entertainment and group classes. Chad Waetzig, then the company’s executive vice-president of marketing and branding, spoke to the magazine about that philosophy. English Wikipedia also uses the phrase to describe the company’s approach.

The clubs were later redesigned. Club Solutions described a refresh that began in 2017, which the company called Crunch 2.0: updated lighting, graphics and materials, a dedicated HIITZone area, “Relax & Recover” zones, a split front desk and an in-club video channel, Crunch TV, run with the technology company UPshow. The magazine named Keith Worts as chief executive at the time.

Design and documentation.

A gym or fitness-studio brand reaches people through spaces as much as through screens, so its identity has to work on a wide range of surfaces. Exterior signage is often the first contact: a fascia or illuminated sign has to read from across a car park or a busy street, which tends to favour a short wordmark, a simple symbol and a colour that holds up at night. Inside, the brand moves onto walls, floor graphics, wayfinding, locker areas and reception desks, where tone of voice and typography carry as much weight as the logo itself.

Lighting is a design tool in this category. Some studios use coloured light to set a mood for a class, while others favour bright, even light and pale finishes; either way, the chosen light changes how the brand colour looks in person. Apparel and merchandise extend the identity onto staff uniforms, towels, bottles and bags, so marks need to survive embroidery, single-colour print and small sizes. Apps and booking tools add another layer, translating the palette and type into icons, buttons and class schedules on a phone. A consistent system ties these touchpoints together without forcing every location to look identical.

A chain of owners, then franchising.

Crunch has had a long line of owners. English Wikipedia says Bally Total Fitness acquired the company in 2001 and sold it in 2005 to the investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. It says Crunch filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 6 May 2009, and that later that year the business was acquired by a group led by Mark Mastrov and Jim Rowley.

Under the new owners the brand moved into franchising. Wikipedia says Crunch began franchising in 2010, with the first franchised club opening in Norwalk, Connecticut, and that TPG Growth acquired the company on 1 July 2019. In February 2023, it says, the company launched Crunch+, a digital service.

Leonard Green & Partners has held a majority interest in Crunch since 2025. The 15 April 2025 announcement said the firm had agreed to acquire that interest from TPG Growth and minority holders. Wikipedia names Jim Rowley as chief executive, Chequan Lewis as president and Chad Waetzig as chief marketing officer.

For a design guide, Crunch shows how a gym can treat its interiors, clothing and slogan as one brand — yellow and black walls, a disco ball and a phrase that sets the tone at the front desk. Compare Equinox, another New York club company of the same era, and lululemon. For this guide we use deep yellow, black and an ochre with a heavy sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Crunch Fitness’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.