New trail Cycling & Strength

Pivoting a community-focused indoor cycling studio During COVID.

We helped New Trail Cycling and Strength find their place in the fitness world and pivot during COVID, without losing their mission to build an inclusive, supportive environment.

CHALLENGE

The fitness world is a crowded space, with high-end, party-like cycling studios on one side and bland national chains on the other. New Trail was founded on the vision of a better way to practice fitness – one built on inclusiveness and warm, supportive community. But when COVID disrupted their business model, they had to find a way to keep going while staying true to their community values.

INSIGHTS

To stand out in a crowded marketplace, brands can’t rely on reactive messaging that focuses on the competition. Resilient brands differentiate themselves by drawing from values deep in their DNA. When values come first, they can make a promise that is difficult to imitate, building lasting relationships with the customers they want.

OUTCOME

With a clear mission and brand, New Trail was able to form local partnerships with like-minded business owners, quickly attract customers interested in their fitness philosophy, and prepare them well for the challenges COVID threw at them. They carried their philosophy online and broadened their offerings to include strength training.

“We felt like Giant Shoulders understood our vision and had our best interest at heart. Their branding process challenged us in unexpected ways but it became clear how critical it was to our business.”

Liz Kamp, Founder of New Trail Cycling

01 / BRAND STRATEGY

A Manifesto for Community-Driven Fitness

Fitness is more than just equipment and disciplines. Fitness takes motivation and desire, and the most successful brands in this space find their niche by transforming motivation into a lifestyle.

We believe fitness can be a catalyst to create community. We don’t believe in striving for perfection but pushing ourselves to our own personal greatness.

Don’t look to the person next to you to see who you should be – you are enough.

We believe fitness should be challenging yet fun and can improve your whole life - a great body is a by-product.

Using our Brand Action System and workshops, we brought together the whole team to clarify their vision, build consensus, and renew a sense of mission throughout the company. This collaborative process allowed individual team members to co-create a vision they could all get excited about, making them a stronger, internally aligned company.

02 / COVID PIVOT

Reposition to thrive during a pandemic

For a fitness studio based entirely indoors and focused on the local community, responding to COVID was challenging, but not impossible. They were looking for creative ways to keep serving the community they worked so hard to build. This meant moving classes outdoors, offering virtual options, and expanding their offerings to include strength training. The problem was their website was still made for a pre-COVID world.

We believe the best way to serve your community is to meet customers where they are and show them how you can meet their needs. So when we rebuilt their website, we made sure COVID pivot strategies and policies were clearly communicated. Something as simple as a prominent safety policy section and a focus on COVID-safe options can go a long way in proving a commitment to community care.