Iron Tribe: How the Tribe fits into the CrossFit World

As I mentioned yesterday, I had lunch with my friend, Luan, who’s the Director of Training for Iron Tribe Fitness, the fastest growing CrossFit gym in the country.  They have 2 locations already up and running here in Birmingham and have 2 more opening soon.  Everyone wonders how is it that they have 400+ members and a waiting list for their new gyms when they charge $250+/month and there are 11 other CrossFit gyms in Birmingham to choose from.  This astonishes people.

To many it seems anti-CrossFit to have a box charge that much, have a nice facility, and have all the trainers on staff as full-time employees with benefits.  Many people see CrossFit as an underground fitness world existing in garage-type boxes with chalk-covered floors and everyone grunting with their shirt off.  Who’s going to pay $250+/month for that? 

Well as a business person, I’ll tell you who….400+ people will.  And I’m sure there are people throughout the US who would too.  I used to think that Iron Tribe simply catered to the residents of Mountain Brook McMansions and Vestavia Hills.  But that’s not the case.  I’ve started meeting some of their members at competitions and hung out with their staff at the Games this summer.

Here’s what I see is going on at Iron Tribe.  They clearly want to bring CrossFit to the masses.  They’re not focusing on selling the image of the elite athlete to every member.  They simply want to bring fitness to everyone, and they know CrossFit can do that.  But people are intimidated by what CrossFit comes across.  Honestly, my mother would never try it.  Heck, my football player brother won’t, and he’s definitely not a pansy.  But to make CrossFit appealing, Iron Tribe has wrapped it neatly into this great benefits package of fitness programming + nutrition counseling + weekend events and socials.  You might ask, “isn’t that what all CrossFit gyms provide? Hey! My box promotes Paleo and we all hang out and socialize and I don’t have to pay that much!” 

What Tribe members are paying for is the uniformity and professional packaging of those elements.  The classes are scheduled and structured to guarantee the individualized attention in a group atmosphere.  All the coaches are coached by Luan to make sure they know what’s up.  They’re not throwing newbies into a Hero Wod.  Everyone is passing a thorough but approachable intro course.  They put the membership money back into the gym through having events most weekends that are large scale and super organized.

One of the first multi-wod competitions I participated in was Iron Tribe’s Tribal Quest – their first individual competition.  I went up to Oak Mountain State Park with SB and Chuckles from CrossFit Tuscaloosa.  Sure we were the only non-Tribe people there.  Did we have a blast?  Were the events programmed well?  Was everyone enjoying themselves? Did we eat and socialize with Tribe members afterward?  Easily yes! (ok the trail run sucked Luan, just saying – but it was a legit event).  Did Tribal Quest accomplish the goal of introducing its members to competition?  Did their members get what they paid for?  Were people passing the competition stopping and asking about CrossFit? Again, easily yes!

Love them or hate them, Iron Tribe is sticking to the CrossFit model and expanding its reach.  As a business woman, props to them for finding a business model that means actually making some money.  As a CrossFitter, I love it whenever more people are doing CrossFit.  Lastly, I doubt you’ll ever here Iron Tribe mentioned as a bad gym in any of those recent articles about the “dangers of CrossFit”.

Oh and btw Key – you wanted to figure out how to be able to quit your job and be able to support yourself entirely through CrossFit.  Hijack Forrest’s model.