Two brothers, a franchised gym and a borrowed name.

Planet Fitness began in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1992. That year, Foster’s Daily Democrat reported in November 2009, the local residents Mike and Marc Grondahl took over a Gold’s Gym franchise in the old Cochecho Falls mill in downtown Dover and struggled with it for several years. A third partner, Chris Rondeau, joined about a year later; a 2013 announcement from the investment firm TSG Consumer Partners dated his arrival to 1993 and said he had been a partner in the business since 2003.

The name came from elsewhere. The partners bought the name “Planet Fitness” from a gym in Florida, Foster’s reported. English Wikipedia names the seller as Rick Berks, who it says opened a gym called Planet Fitness in Sunrise, Florida, in 1993, and dates the purchase of the name to 2002. In Dover, the partners shed much of the heavy weight equipment and concentrated on treadmills, stationary bikes and other cardio machines, the newspaper said, aiming the clubs at people who wanted a place to exercise casually rather than among serious weightlifters.

Franchising began in 2003, according to Foster’s, which described the clubs of 2009 as open around the clock, with no contracts and no salesmen, “all this wrapped in the firm’s purple colors and signature logo.” The company kept its base on the New Hampshire Seacoast: its headquarters were in Newington until, as Seacoastonline reported in November 2016, it announced a move to a new building in Hampton in 2017, with a fitness centre and café for staff. A company representative told the paper that a state tax law that had led the company to consider leaving New Hampshire had been addressed by a bill passed that year.

The franchise model drew operators from elsewhere in the gym trade. One franchisee quoted by Foster’s in 2009, Dave Leon of Schenectady, New York, said he had signed on in 2004 after visiting the Planet Fitness club in Manchester and talking to Grondahl.

Purple, yellow and a siren.

The brand is built around a slogan. The partners trademarked the phrase “Judgement Free Zone,” Foster’s reported in 2009, as a summary of the company’s aim of offering an ordinary person a place to exercise without intimidation; the company spells it with an “e,” while several newspapers print “judgment.” Slate, in a May 2011 essay critical of the chain, described a purple design scheme with painted signs reading “Judgment-Free Zone,” a bowl of candy on the reception desk and a monthly pizza night.

The colours reach the machines themselves. When the company listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on 6 August 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported that its gyms were known for purple-and-yellow workout equipment, and that the company had touted its locations as a “judgment free zone,” where intimidating “lunkhead” behaviour such as grunting and dropping weights was discouraged.

One piece of that identity is an alarm. Slate in 2011 and Business Insider in October 2015 both described the “lunk alarm,” a siren meant to go off when someone grunts loudly or drops heavy weights. Business Insider also reported signs on the equipment reminding members that they “belong,” free pizza on the first Monday of each month and bagels on another morning. Chris Rondeau, by then chief executive, told the magazine that the pizza began in 1999 at the company’s third club, in Concord, New Hampshire, as a thank-you to members after a day without hot water, and became a monthly fixture across its clubs. He said the Tootsie Rolls kept at the front desk were there partly to give members a reason to come up and talk to staff.

Rondeau told Business Insider that the company was going after first-time and casual exercisers, and the magazine noted that the clubs offered no classes; Foster’s had described the same niche in 2009 as people who wanted to exercise casually and have fun, away from serious weightlifting.

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.

From franchise to listed company.

The founders eventually stepped back. In January 2013 Planet Fitness announced that it had partnered with the private-equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, that Michael Grondahl had stepped down as chief executive while staying on the board, and that Chris Rondeau had been appointed chief executive, according to TSG’s announcement, dated 17 January 2013 and issued from Newington. English Wikipedia places TSG’s arrival in the autumn of 2013.

Two years later the company went public. Its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 6 August 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported, under a headline describing it as a “judgment-free” budget gym chain; the newspaper’s photograph showed dancers performing on treadmills outside the exchange. Planet Fitness, Inc. has been a listed company since 2015, headquartered in Hampton.

The leadership has changed again since. On 16 April 2024 Planet Fitness announced that it had appointed Colleen Keating as chief executive, effective 10 June 2024, with Craig Benson, who had served as interim chief executive, staying on the board, according to the company’s release. English Wikipedia says Rondeau left the company in 2023.

For a design guide, Planet Fitness shows how a gym can make its tone of voice into a brand: a slogan painted on the walls, a colour carried onto the machines and a siren that puts a house rule into sound. Compare Anytime Fitness, another franchised gym brand, and Crunch Fitness. For this guide we use purple, a deep violet and a bright yellow with a heavy sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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