Planet Fitness Sees Record Membership With Gen Z’s Help

There was a time before the pandemic when Generation Z was the smallest portion of Planet Fitness’ membership base.

Now, this group is among the brand’s largest customer population, company officials said Tuesday (Nov. 8), helping Planet Fitness end its third quarter with a record 16.6 million members.

“Members trends remained strong in the quarter with joins back to historical pre-pandemic seasonality,” the company said in a news release. “Also, members who are visiting the gym continue to visit more frequently, and cancels are lower compared to 2019, which we believe are signs that members are generally more committed to fitness.”

Among the things attracting younger members was the company’s High School Summer Pass Program, which lets teens work out at Planet Fitness gyms for free during summer, the release stated.

As PYMNTS reported in August, this year saw the program draw 3.3 million participants, three times higher than in 2019, the last time Planet Fitness had offered the program before the pandemic. CEO Chris Rondeau said at the time that close to 15% of all high school-aged teens in America were either enrolled in the program or paying Planet Fitness members.

This year has also seen Planet Fitness benefit from cost-conscious consumers, with company officials saying in August they were seeing members coming from more high-priced gyms.

The company’s Tuesday earnings release showed a 58.4% increase in revenue from the previous year, to $244.4 million. Planet Fitness opened 29 new stores during the quarter, for a total of 2,353 locations.

Meanwhile, the company said it is dealing with an HVAC shortage that could impact the addition of new equipment at its locations in the weeks and months ahead.

“I think we’re doing everything possible … the demand exceeds supply,” Rondeau said during the earnings call. “And I know we’re not alone. We’re hearing it from other multi-unit folks.”

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