Planet Fitness Adds 3.3M Teens Via High School Summer Enrollment Program

A Planet Fitness program that allowed teens to work out for free at the company’s gyms during the summer drew 3.3 million participants.

The number of teens signing up for the High School Summer Pass was three times higher than that in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 — the last time the company offered the program — Planet Fitness CEO Chris Rondeau said in a Tuesday (Aug. 9) press release announcing the company’s second-quarter results.

“Nearly [15%] of all high school-aged teens in the U.S. are either enrolled in the program or are a paying member at Planet Fitness,” Rondeau said in the statement. “We’re proud to be helping them establish healthy habits that they can build upon into the future.”

The High School Summer Pass started mid-May and will run through the end of August. It’s aimed to help teens get healthy both physically and mentally after the negative effects of the pandemic, Planet Fitness said in a May 2 press release announcing the launch of the program.

Overall, among all its customers, Planet Fitness reported adding 300,000 net new members during the quarter ended June 30, bringing the total to 16.5 million.

The company expects that even as consumers become more cost-conscious, they will continue to prioritize health and wellness, Rondeau said in the press release.

“Our high-quality, affordable fitness experience resonates now more than ever as Americans are seeking value and feeling the rising costs of everyday items such as food and gas,” Rondeau said.

PYMNTS reported in May that inflation has consumers reconsidering the cost of expenditures such as subscriptions.

Read more: Today in Data: As Inflation Rises, Subscriptions Drop

For example, at the time, Peloton reported that the pace of its new subscriber growth had fallen by half.

Across all categories of subscription products and services, 22% of nonsubscribers cited cost as the reason for not subscribing to a service in March, up from just 2% who said the same in October 2021.