They’re young, they’re female and they like working out on Tuesdays. Lizzie Broughton, insights manager at ukactive, outlines the results of the organisation’s first survey of the boutique fitness market

New from ukactive, the Global Boutique Trends report (2018 edition) highlights demographics and behaviours driving the boutique boom in London, New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City.

The report is based on data gathered by booking software company zingfit and analysed by the ukactive Research Institute in London from a sample of one million customers and five million bookings.

The team looked at who attends boutique fitness classes, when they book and attend classes and where they’re from.

Even though the traditional perception of boutiques is of female-dominated environments – think yoga and spin – the extent of women’s influence on the sector is still surprising.

ukactive researchers found that more than 80 per cent of boutique fitness customers are female across three of the four cities in the study – an overwhelming figure, which highlights the strong demand amongst women for boutique fitness classes. (See Figure 1)

In London and New York, women make up 83 per cent of classes booked, while in Los Angeles and Mexico City they make up 81 per cent and 68 per cent of bookings respectively.

INTERNATIONAL CLIENTELE
There’s also a clear international demand for boutique fitness in London, attracting customers from across the globe, and the research highlights the growing popularity of boutique exercise classes among inbound visitors to the British capital.

Fifteen cities around the world had more than 50 residents who attended classes in London over the period of the study, including visitors from the USA, Hong Kong and Australia.

LUNCHTIME WORKOUT
The study also identified London as home of the lunchtime workout – with almost 20 per cent of classes in London taking place during lunch, compared to less than 5 per cent in Mexico City, where workouts before work are preferred.

Boutique fitness has traditionally been seen as a Millennial-driven subset of the fitness market and the Global Boutique Trends report supports that assertion, as less than eight per cent of bookings were made by the over-45s across all cities, with the average age of those attending boutique classes in London just under 32-years-of-age.

The report also explored the appetite for advanced bookings and found a clear discrepancy between one city and the others. While more than 65 per cent of customers in Mexico City booked on the day, more than 60 per cent book in advance in London, New York and Los Angeles.

This difference in booking times highlights a trend within the US and the UK for customers to want to plan their fitness week ahead of time, by booking exercise classes around their weekly schedule.