Tony De Leede reveals all in an exclusive interview with Wexer!

At his home in Bondi Beach, Australia, we spoke with serial entrepreneur Tony De Leede. After 35 years in the industry, and endless experience in developing brands Tony reveals all about his new venture Move 123 and why he feels the next five years are going to be the most exciting yet!

• What is the biggest change you have seen in the last 5 years and where do you think the industry is heading?

Tony, in the last 5 years, the industry has moved at a faster pace than it has in the around 35 years! The emergence of boutique fitness has been rapid and the blending of different types of exercises has been amazing. There are no rules anymore. The other emerging trend which is growing fast is digital and virtual fitness. Fortunately, I think Move 123 are at the forefront here as we produce high-quality and relevant virtual content specifically for clubs.

• How did the idea of Move 123 come about?

Quite a few years ago, we looked ahead, we started thinking about digital. What we immediately realised was that the virtual content out there was not appropriate for clubs and what I mean by that is the duration of content was not appropriate.

Clubs schedule classes in blocks, ranging from 15 minutes, 30 minutes to one hour blocks. We therefore established Move 123 and created virtual content which fits into these time blocks, and also break down time barriers.  Move 123 specialises in 10, 20 and 30 minute classes that engage two distinct markets. The first is those people who already exercise and use virtual fitness to supplement their training. Second are those people who are new to exercising, maybe in a low-cost gym where group exercise classes are limited.

• What was the last group fitness class that you attended?

I have recently taken up yoga and a little bit of Pilates! More recently, I have attempted to meditate, but with very limited success, but that is a journey too. For me personally, it’s all about evolution and it’s all about change.

• What are you doing to ensure Fit n Fast continues to grow in this new digital-centric landscape?

Fit n Fast is moving in two directions, and that involves developing two new brands under our umbrella. One is more boutique focused, which is also less digitally focused. The second is the development of virtual only clubs. Within the next 6-12 months we plan to open our first prototype of a virtual only club. It will probably have four virtual rooms and what we call, an active educational area; these are not necessary for the millennials, but for the forgotten generation, called the baby boomers, people like me, and also my sister, who at the age of 61 has never exercised in a health club before!

Such baby boomers are intimidated by traditional gym environments and will therefore feel much more comfortable in a virtual environment, where there are no instructors looking at them. Our virtual workouts will start at 10 minutes, allowing consumers to easily progress to 20, and then 30 minute workouts. We’re creating a fast-moving concept that has never been done before, so stay tuned because it is coming!

For more information about Move 123, please contact Morten Anderson at Morten@www.wexer.com