As Alpha Fit Club prepares for another wave of expansion, the boutique strength and conditioning brand is putting a greater emphasis on consistency — not just in how its studios look but also in how members train.
The company announced an exclusive partnership with PLAE that will make the performance company the brand’s exclusive partner for all newly awarded franchise locations. The partnership is designed to create a standardized training environment across future Alpha Fit Club studios as the brand expands beyond its New Jersey roots.
Alpha Fit Club expects to have nearly 30 studios operating by the end of 2026, with additional locations planned throughout 2027. The brand is currently expanding into markets including Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, with plans to reach its first 50 open units within the next 18 months.
For CEO Sam Tooley, however, the growth is less about simply adding locations and more about making sure the experience that helped differentiate Alpha Fit Club in its early days can continue to translate across markets.
“Growth only matters if the experience improves along with it,” said Tooley. “As we expand into new markets, we’re committed to delivering the same premium training experience in every studio. PLAE shares our belief that the environment plays a critical role in performance, making them the ideal partner as we continue building Alpha Fit Club across the country.”
Building a Different Kind of Boutique
Tooley’s approach to Alpha Fit Club has been shaped by his background as a track and field athlete and strength and conditioning coach.
After returning home in 2016, Tooley initially focused on coaching before opening a 700-square-foot training space. At the time, boutique fitness was beginning to gain significant traction,
with concepts such as Orangetheory and F45 expanding rapidly.
Rather than replicate what those concepts were doing, Tooley wanted to create something that combined the energy of boutique fitness with a more structured strength and conditioning foundation.
“When we launched Alpha Fit Club, the idea was could we take that city-inspired boutique fitness and then bring it to the suburbs where the lights were low, the music was bumping, the coach was on the mic,” said Tooley. “They were doing their thing. They were creating this incredible energy and atmosphere, but I also wanted to pair it with real progressive programming.”
That emphasis on strength became a central part of the Alpha Fit Club identity.
“And that’s not to diminish what other concepts do or were doing at the time,” said Tooley. “But because of my background as a track and field athlete and as a strength and conditioning coach, I really wanted to make sure there was this foundation of fitness and really anchored in strength.”
When the first Alpha Fit Club opened in April 2019, the studio incorporated strength alongside modalities including the SkiErg, RowErg, self-propelled treadmill and AirBike.
The result was a concept that Tooley said was intentionally different from what was already available. “It kinda felt like we were just doing it our way and it certainly spoke to people,” he said.
Proving the Model Could Travel
Alpha Fit Club’s growth model was tested almost immediately.
The first studio opened in 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived roughly 10 months later. Rather than pause its expansion plans, Alpha Fit Club signed its second and third corporate studio leases in 2020 and opened those locations in 2021.
For Tooley, those locations provided an important test: Could the brand recreate the same community outside of the market where it had established its roots?
The answer helped shape the company’s next phase.
In 2022, Alpha Fit Club launched its franchise system and sold 20 franchises before opening its first franchised location. Many of those early franchisees already had a connection to the brand as coaches, members or friends.
“A lot of the people who helped us grow to start were people who were part of the room from the jump,” said Tooley. “And so that fourth studio, that fifth studio, that tenth studio were all people who felt the impact of Alpha Fit Club in the early days and kind of have just helped us kind of carry that forward as we expand.”
That strategy has helped the company grow while maintaining a level of consistency across its locations.
Last year, Alpha Fit Club grew from 13 to 20 studios, opening seven locations over a six-month period.
“Maybe the experience is slightly different based upon the coach or whatever it may be,” said Tooley. “Maybe it’s just that the franchisee’s bringing their own personality into building that community. But at its core, it all started with what we did in Westfield, and fortunately for us, we’ve remained really true to that over the years because of who we’re bringing in from a franchise partner perspective.”
Why the PLAE Partnership Matters
The partnership with PLAE represents the next step in that evolution.
Rather than simply selecting equipment for new studios, Alpha Fit Club is using the partnership to establish a more standardized performance environment as it scales. The new performance package includes flooring, racks and integrated strength and conditioning systems and will debut at the company’s Larchmont, New York location.
Tooley said the decision was driven in part by the natural evolution of a brand that is now several years into its growth.
“The idea to change things up and switch from what we were doing was honestly a byproduct of us now being seven, eight years into building this brand,” explained Tooley. “And while I love what we did from the jump, eventually things have to evolve, and we want to continue to be this very premium product and offering in the communities that we go into.”
That evolution also gave Alpha Fit Club an opportunity to reconsider what its physical environment could contribute to the member experience.
“And sometimes when you first start a business or a brand, things can feel duct-taped together,” elaborated Tooley. “You’re figuring it out as you go. You’re kind of building the plane while you fly. And so this was an opportunity for us to take a step back and say, ‘How do we continue to elevate our rooms? How do we continue to really bring the best experience to our existing members and our future customers?'”
Tooley said PLAE stood out because of the company’s focus on premium performance environments and its alignment with Alpha Fit Club’s vision. But the partnership ultimately comes down to more than what members see when they walk into a studio.
“When people walk into an Alpha Fit Club, they see the equipment just like they can see it anywhere else, right?” said Tooley. “But they start to kind of move around the room and actually touch the dumbbells and get on the bike and, and run on the treadmills, they just feel everything is quality.”
Standardizing More Than the Room
The physical environment is only one piece of the strategy.
Tooley said the PLAE partnership will also help Alpha Fit Club strengthen and standardize the programming methodology behind the member experience.
“Part of what the PLAE partnership is going to allow us to do is to double down on our programming methodology, the way that we’re able to put together a four-week progressive program that lends itself to itself week over week actually get results,” explained Tooley.
That distinction is important to the brand’s growth strategy.
Alpha Fit Club’s members may come for the energy, community and experience, but Tooley believes the programming has to deliver tangible fitness outcomes as well.
“Because ultimately our members, yes, they’re coming for a good time,” said Tooley. “Yes, they’re coming for a community. Yes, they’re coming to escape the chaos of their day or what have you, but they also want to get in killer shape.”
The goal is for that approach to remain consistent as the company expands.
“And this partnership is going to allow us to enhance our programming and standardize what happens across every single studio as we go from 20 to 30 to 50 to 100,” said Tooley.
For Alpha Fit Club the partnership represents more than a new equipment package. It’s part of an effort to protect the elements of the brand that Tooley believes made it successful in the first place while giving the company the infrastructure to scale. “Part of what we’re trying to accomplish here is not just the aesthetic, is not just what that room looks like, but rather what it allows us to do in that room for our members,” he said.
Scaling Without Diluting the Brand
Maintaining that consistency becomes increasingly difficult as a franchise system grows.
Tooley said franchising creates a fundamentally different operating model because the brand is responsible for serving two distinct customer groups: its members and its franchise partners.
“You now have two sets of customers,” explained Tooley. “You’ve got your members who show up every day, they sweat, they do their thing, they come to the competitions and the barbecues, and then you’ve got your franchise partners who are betting big on you to deliver in, quite frankly, a completely different way.”
That has required Tooley and his team to shift from simply coaching members to coaching franchisees and developing systems that allow others to replicate the Alpha Fit Club experience.
As the company enters new markets, Tooley said that process requires continual evaluation. “Every single time we go to open a studio, we take a moment to pause, reflect, and revamp our process to make sure it’s that much more thorough, detailed and granular,” he said.
That mindset may become increasingly important as Alpha Fit Club moves toward its next stage of growth.
The company plans to open another 10 locations over the next six months and 20 locations during 2027, according to Tooley. At the same time, the brand is entering new markets while introducing a refreshed identity and a new performance standard for future franchise locations.
For Tooley, the challenge is not simply figuring out how to grow. It’s figuring out how to make growth work without losing the identity that made the brand worth growing in the first place.
“I think we’re always in this constant state of asking ourselves as we go into new communities across the East Coast, what needs to change and how do we need to change in how we’re showing up to ensure that we’re successful at the end of the day?” said Tooley.
That could ultimately be the test for Alpha Fit Club’s next phase: whether a concept built around a highly personal coaching philosophy, a strong community and a distinct training environment can maintain those characteristics as it moves from a handful of studios toward a national footprint.
