America's Hottest Workout Spins Through Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A dark room, pounding music, sweat. It feels like nightclub -- and that is by design.
SoulCycle is the latest trend in fitness that has grown a fanatic following on the coasts.
"SoulCycle is a 45-minute indoor cycling workout. We're different. We ride to the rhythm of the music in a dark, candlelit room," instructor Lindsey Simcik said.
A pop-up gym in Minneapolis, lasting only three days, was sought after by thousands of local fitness enthusiasts. Minneapolis was one stop on a 10-city tour for Target's latest collaboration with SoulCycle.
"We are known for pulling rabbits out of our hat and doing just spectacular things with our brand," Katie Boylan, Target's vice president of communications, said. "We're always looking for those cultural moments, those brands, those people, those experiences that will get our shoppers really, really excited and draw them in in new and different ways."
Target brought Missoni on board in 2011 for a line of clothing and home goods that sold at a frenzied pace. And their collaboration with Lily Pulitzer was an instant sellout last spring.
"This partnership with SoulCycle really takes that model and flips it on its head. And so this time it's about wellness and it's about bringing this preeminent fitness experience to people from coast to coast," Boylan said. "And we're doing it at a time of year when people are really focused on health and wellness."
While Target offered the SoulCycle class for free, people in New York City pay as much at $35 per class to ride.
"When you look at the price per hour, sometimes they're paying as much for a class as other people pay for a month's membership at a gym or more," John Tauer, social psychologist at the University of St. Thomas, said.
Tauer says this is the next step in the way people work out; something anyone can essentially do for free at home or outside.
"Some of it is just sort of the evolution, like in any industry, of how can we make things more special, more unique, more individualistic," Tauer said. "I think these boutique gyms really have tapped into a niche where people like that feeling of, 'This is different, it's something special.'"
Beth Hundley of Golden Valley calls SoulCycle "energizing."
"It's my first SoulCycle class, and it's like a little bit spiritual, a little bit of sweat," Hundley said.
Then there is the scarcity principle at play. Boutique gym classes can be cost-prohibitive, and there are only a certain amount of spots per session.
"Part of it is there is something, whether it's going to the nicest restaurant in town or joining this type of gym, it's being able to do something that feels a little different," he said. "So whether it feels cleaner, it feels like I get more personal attention, it feels like I have something exclusive that not everybody else has access to. Psychologically, that's a powerful process."
So why would Target offer this for free?
"We want to go out into the world and find those things that we know people love and we know that people will respond really favorably to, and bring then we want to bring them in and make them accessible," Boylan said.
And with a health-focused initiative in 2016, a fitness collaboration was just the next step for Target.
The closest SoulCycle location is in Chicago. There do not seem to be any plans to bring a studio to Minnesota, but company representatives say they did take note of the response in the Twin Cities.
