Gold's Gym International, Inc. is an American chain of international co-ed fitness centers (commonly referred to as gyms) originally started by Joe Gold in Venice Beach, California. Each gym offers a variety of cardio and strength training equipment as well as group exercise programs. Its headquarters is located in Dallas, Texas
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Corporate history
Joe Gold opened the first Gold's Gym in August 1965, in Venice Beach, California. , long before the modern day health club existed. Featuring homemade equipment and dubbed "the Mecca of bodybuilding", it was frequented by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dave Draper and featured in the docudrama Pumping Iron (1977), which brought attention not only to the gym itself but also to bodybuilding and physique in general. To this day, Gold's Gym is considered a landmark in bodybuilding culture and has achieved cult status.
In 1970, Gold sold the at-the-time failing gym to Bud Danits, an antique dealer, and Dave Saxe, a jeweler. They ran the gym for almost two years, and when they realized it was not feasible for them, they were going to close it and reopen the premises as an antiques shop. They offered it to a gym member, Ken Sprague, who purchased it in late 1971, and Gold's was saved as a gym. Sprague was the first owner of Gold's to actually sponsor and hold bodybuilding competitions, and his promotional skills and film industry contacts helped build the establishment's profile.
Pumping Iron
By 1975, when George Butler was going to film Pumping Iron, it was Sprague's savvy, telling Butler that he would paint the windows over to minimize back light, and let Butler mount a lighting grid to the inside ceiling that made Gold's Gym the primary location for filming Pumping Iron. After the release of the movie in 1977, and along with the 1977 Mr. America contest and Mr. America Day parade held in Santa Monica, sponsored and conceived of by Sprague, the profile of Gold's gym grew even larger. That year's Mr. America had more press requests than the 1977 Academy Awards. By 1979, when Sprague had sold Gold's Gym, it was the most famous gym in the world.
From 1979 to 1999, Gold's Gym was owned by Peter Grymkowski (a Mr. World body building champion) and his partners. After two years of ownership, they moved from the 5500-square-foot facility into a 60,000-square-foot building over a six-year period. Grymkowski's brother became the licensing director, which helped bring the Gold's Gym name from one location to over 534 throughout the U.S. and the world.The company was one of the first in the health and fitness industry to franchise, starting in 1980.
The company licenses its name to products such as fitness equipment and clothing. The original Gold's Gym logo, a bald weightlifter holding a barbell, was designed in 1973 by professional wrestler Ric Drasin, who was Schwarzenegger's training partner for four years. Notable users of Gold's Gym have included such celebrities as Jessica Alba, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Dwayne Johnson, Jim Morrison, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank, and Tiger Woods, among many others. The original Gold's Gym in Venice Beach is considered a sports landmark by ESPN and is named on its list of the 100 most important sports venues.
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Corporate information
Gold's Gym is privately owned. It was acquired from its previous owner, private equity firm Brockway Moran & Partners, by Robert Rowling's TRT Holdings in 2004 for approximately $158 million. Brockway Moran had acquired the company in 1999 for more than $50 million. Corporate headquarters are in the Dallas metropolitan area.
Since Gold's Gym opened its first international location in Canada in 1985, the company has expanded its global franchising program to include nearly 180 international gyms including operations in Russia, India, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia, Spain, Poland, Venezuela, Mongolia and the Philippines.
In 2017, the company opened its first location in Amman, Jordan. At over 150,000 square feet, the club is claimed to be the largest Gold's Gym in the world.
There were 58 new Gold's Gym developed all over the world in 2016. Chef Robert Irvine also become a Gold's Gym franchisees in 2016 and opened Gold's Gym Largo, Florida.
Corporate sales and wellness programs
Gold's Gym operates a national corporate wellness program which has over 3000 company partners including Home Depot, Bank of America, Whataburger, and Union Pacific. The corporate sales and wellness program offers custom health and fitness plans for employees nationwide including memberships, nutrition, and wellness programs.
Gold's is one of two official health clubs of the AARP, where it offers month-to-month memberships, and is the official health club of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Gold's has begun offering online enrollment.
Current operations
Gold's Gym has more than 700 locations serving more than 2 million people across six continents. In 2015 and 2016, Gold's Gym topped the J.D. Power Health and Fitness Center Satisfaction Report. In 2017, Gold's Gym launched GOLD'S AMP a fitness app that is meant to serve as a digital personal trainer for people to use anytime and anywhere. It includes numerous customization workout options led by Gold's Gym coaches and thousands of music mixes.
At select locations, Gold's Gym offers group training programs through GOLD'S STUDIO®, including GOLD'S FIT®, GOLD'S BURN(TM) and GOLD'S CYCLE(TM).
Every year, Gold's Gym holds the Gold's Gym Challenge, a 12-week body transformation contest available to members. Cash prizes are awarded annually to the winners.
Criticism
Numerous customers have reported Gold's Gym franchises of acting in dishonest and unscrupulous ways. They have reported advertised deals' not being honored, billing irregularities, contract terms' being fraudulently altered by sales staff after signing, and problems canceling accounts or relocating. A Gold's Gym in Provo, Utah was successfully sued for fraud in 2006, for changing a contract after it was signed in 1999.
An accusation of the same conduct of fraud arose again in 2017: on February 10, 2017, the billing processor for the gyms, Paramount Acceptance, and 26 companies under the VASA Fitness name (including new gyms since 2014) were served with a consumer class action lawsuit with numerous causes of action including fraudulent misrepresentation, violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and violations of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act. The plaintiff published the entire complaint.
Like many gyms, some Gold's Gym franchisees lure customers with free sign-up or gift certificates with fabricated nominal values, and then require long-term contracts that are very difficult to exit without paying cancellation fees, and following long and inconvenient procedures (such as having to send a certified letter to their central billing office a month in advance). In the past, gym websites did not give membership rates, and the gyms would usually not tell customers the rate over the phone, asking instead that customers come to the gym to have a tour and discussion, which often included a heavy sales pitch.
References
External links
- Official website
- GOLD'S AMP
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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