Most health and fitness clubs start by building the physical gym and adding in members, trainers and equipment. Usually the social aspect comes later. For the Honolulu Club in Honolulu, Hawaii, the social aspect came first.
“It actually started off as a social club, and it built up some athletic and fitness type of components,” explained Troy Henry, the general manager of the Honolulu Club. “Over the years it metamorphosed into a high-end fitness facility, so currently right now we view ourselves as a very high-end, upscale fitness facility with a social component to it as well.”
Over the past 30 years, the Honolulu Club has transformed from a social club with the gym only being an amenity to its now thriving fitness center. “When you look at the 70s and 80s, fitness was not quite the craze it is now,” said Henry. “It was in a different state, but as time went on … people had this push for fitness. Over time, this club developed to suit the science that was going into fitness and the needs that people were requesting. The gym portion of the club developed more.”
In June 2013, the Honolulu Club changed ownership. Henry said the club became an entirely new entity and saw $5 million poured into it for renovations. However, members who have been with the Honolulu Club since the beginning were not going to forget the social aspect.
“A lot of the people who were members of the previous incantation of the Honolulu Club, they’ve been a member of this site of this area for over 30 years, so they reminiscence for some of those social activities of the past,” said Henry. “They’re used to it being a dedicated social club, so over time it morphed into this fitness facility so they yearn for those days of the social activities and events that used to be thrown. We want to bring those back. So, we want to combine social activities with fitness to create a new experience — bring back an experience but take it to another level.”
Henry, who is originally from California, said he has definitely seen how the Hawaiian culture plays a role in keeping the club social. In California, he said it’s typical to go to the gym, put your headphones in, workout and leave without interacting. But in Hawaii, talking and fraternizing with people permeates even the fitness center.
“It’s more common to see people talking, having conversations,” said Henry. “The term they use here is ‘talk story.’ You’ll see people on the fitness floor actually ‘talking story’ and that’s way more commonplace here than you’d see at most fitness facilities. So it’s important when you’re dealing with the Hawaii market, is recognizing there’s an overall sense of aloha that is being shared.”
Ultimately, Henry said hosting events gives the club more value. And the social component is something the Honolulu Club will continue catering to.
By Heather Hartmann
