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How it Started
In an old warehouse a few blocks from a running route along the river in Old City, Philadelphia, you’ll find Evolve Fitness. It’s a functional fitness studio and HYROX affiliate run by three owners who set out to create a community, and ended up turning the HYROX hype into real business growth.
Nick Hecht, one of the founders, grew up playing sports and got hooked on coaching early. In high school, one of his teachers was Tanya Wagner, a 2009 CrossFit Games champion. Because of that connection Hecht started coaching during his college football offseasons. And after graduating, he coached at two well-known San Diego gyms, CrossFit Invictus and CrossFit Max Effort. When Hecht and his wife started thinking about starting a family, they moved back to Pennsylvania, where he finally opened Evolve Fitness, a gym he’d been planning for years.
Abby Burton came to Evolve a different way. She moved to Philadelphia for what was supposed to be a short-term job. Evolve opened just a few months after the move and she lived around the corner. Despite saying she “wasn’t especially into fitness at the time,” she connected with the community immediately. Both Burton and her husband started coaching at Evolve, and by September 2024, she stepped into an ownership role alongside Hecht and his other business partner, Fairlane Collar.
The three of them split the work according to each person’s strengths. Hecht handles coaching, programming, and staffing. Burton is the Community Director, managing special events, brand partnerships, member engagement, milestone celebrations, etc. Collar oversees social media, online content, and member-facing communication.
The Win: Sim Races that Create Revenue, Retention & Brand Recognition
In the spring of 2025, the Evolve owners started noticing that the HYROX trend was picking up steam. They were seeing it on social media and noted that leads were also asking about it.
When they looked at their current equipment inventory and space in the gym, they realized that they were basically already set up for offering HYROX programming. So, describing it as “almost on a whim,” they set up a race simulation event for 2-3 weeks later. Despite the short lead time, it worked. More than 50 people signed up for the inaugural sim race.
From there, the concept took off. Evolve Fitness became an official HYROX affiliate and now runs four full simulation races per year, plus dedicated HYROX training classes.
Since becoming an affiliate, they’ve experienced increases in revenue, retention, new leads, member engagement, and even brand recognition. People from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware who’d never heard of Evolve now come specifically for the sim series.
The retention effect is especially worth highlighting. Because HYROX is often less intimidating than a barbell or CrossFit-style workout, the barrier to entry is easier. So once leads come in the door at Evolve and see what the community is like, they end up trying a strength class too. Hecht and Burton see this play out constantly: someone shows up with no interest in a barbell and tries a HYROX class instead, but gets a taste of the community, ends up doing both, and sticking around for the long run.
How Gym Owners Can Repeat This Win
If you’re undecided about whether HYROX is a good fit for your gym, here are five steps to copy from Evolve Fitness:
1. Inventory your own equipment before buying anything.
The owners at Evolve didn’t actually have to purchase anything new for their first race. They looked at their existing equipment and space, and realized it already covered what a HYROX simulation needed.
2. Treat the first event as a test.
You’ll learn a lot simply by hosting your first HYROX simulation race, so there’s no need to wait for the perfect plan. Evolve chose to schedule an event for 2-3 weeks out and learned as it happened. Take notes, debrief afterward, and improve for the next one.
3. Invite everyone.
If you limit registration to only your current members, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to meet new people and bring in new leads. Evolve was able to get 50 signups on short notice because they marketed the race as a community event that anyone could register for.
4. Once the event is successful, become a HYROX affiliate.
If your initial event is a success and you have plans to replicate it moving forward, it’s time to become a HYROX affiliate. This allows you to use the word HYROX in your marketing, and offer HYROX classes in dedicated classes that turn a one-time event into a standing part of your business goals and marketing strategy.
5. Use it as a bridge to your other programming.
Don’t treat HYROX and CrossFit-style classes as competing offers. Instead, Evolve’s owners use it to bridge the gap, explaining that HYROX is often how someone who’s not interested in a barbell class ends up trying one.
As Hecht put it, “If you’re on the fence about adding HYROX into your programming, you’ll regret missing this opportunity to really help elevate and take your gym to the next level.”
How Wodify Helps Evolve Fitness Win
When the Evolve Fitness team switched to Wodify, they weren’t actually looking for new gym management software. They were happy with parts of the platform they were using, but found it was lacking some of the key tools they wanted for the new direction they were headed in with HYROX. Specifically, features like logging scores, viewing the week’s programming, and checking leaderboards.
Burton, who was only a couple months into her ownership role at the time, suggested exploring options, and when they checked out Wodify, they found that it checked all the boxes.
Members are able to log scores daily, see and comment on each others’ results, and be part of some friendly competition through leaderboards. They can also see the full week’s programming in advance, and register for classes and events right in the app.
For Hecht, the programming side changed how he spends his time. Wodify’s movement library uses the same terminology his functional fitness and HYROX classes already use, so he can pull in demonstration videos and build out sets without creating everything from scratch. He also uses the coaches-only notes section to pass along the intent behind each workout, the stimulus he wants, what he’s looking for from athletes, instead of sending separate texts or emails to his coaching staff every week. When it comes to programming for a full week, what used to take a few hours now takes just 20 to 30 minutes.
For leads that attend HYROX classes or sim races, Evolve now uses a landing page that collects payment and waiver signatures seamlessly, making it quick and easy for both the lead and the Evolve staff.
For Burton, Wodify makes it simple to access and analyze check-in data as it relates to her retention strategy. She can pull reports monthly to look at revenue by membership type and class. As she explained, it gives her the peace of mind to know exactly what’s going on in the business, so she can make decisions based on data, not guessing.
If you’re not a Wodify customer yet, book a demo with our team today!
To learn more about Evolve Fitness, visit the website here.
