So, you’ve heard how amazing group fitness classes are, and have decided that now’s the time to bring one to your studio or gym. After doing some research, including looking at the space available in your studio and the demographic of your clients, you’ve decided that the best class would be an oh-so-popular boxing or kickboxing course.

Your clients are looking forward to something new. Your employees are hyped, and are chomping at the bit to take an instructor course and lead a new class.  There’s just one hurdle left: cost.

You know that if you want a good fitness kickboxing class, you’ll need bags. At least half a dozen, by your mental math. But bags are big, and big means expensive, and expensive comes with a whole laundry list of problems, and you know, wouldn’t an eighth spin class be just as good – ?

Slow down! Before you talk yourself out of adding a program that can really benefit your gym and your members, let’s break down the real cost of fitness kickboxing. Believe it or not, there’s a way you can launch your class and pay virtually nothing – and it’s not that hard to do.

The Math

You’re thinking you’ll need six bags. Smart! That’s a good starting number. You can easily have two people work together on a large freestanding bag, making for a class of 12. 

One bag costs about $300 wholesale, counting shipping.

$300 x 12 = $1800

But Wait, There’s More

Punching bags (as opposed to punching air) takes a kickboxing group fitness class from meh to gotta do it. However, in order to safely punch the bag, your members will need gloves and hand wraps.

You need to carry these items in your studio’s pro shop. Let me repeat: You NEED to carry these items in your studio’s pro shop. This not only puts you in the position of being an (even more) valuable resource to your clients, but marks you as an authority figure when it comes to kickboxing, which some of your members may be unfamiliar with.  

Selling the gloves yourself also lets you monitor the quality of what your members are using. Even if you don’t mandate that they buy gloves from you, you can encourage them to use your gloves. That’ll probably stop at least one person from buying sketchy cheap gloves online and hurting themselves later when it turns out the padding lasted approximately one week.

A typical pair of boxing gloves will cost around $20 wholesale and retail for $45 dollars. Hand wraps cost $3 wholesale and retail around $6.

Adding It Up

You’re not going to hold just one kickboxing class a week. Most gyms and studios cycle through a rotation of group fitness classes. Depending on the size and schedule of your studio, you might hold the same class only once a day on weekdays, or up to twice each day to accommodate people with different work schedules. But we need a number for the math – so we’ll pick on the low end, and say that you’re going to hold a fitness kickboxing class six times a week.

With 12 people in each class, multiplied by 6 classes, you’ll need 72 pairs of gloves and 72 pairs of hand wraps.

GLOVES: YOU SPEND: $20 x 72 = $1,440               GLOVES: YOU RETAIL: $45 x 72 = $3,240

WRAPS: YOU SPEND: $3 x 72 = $216                      WRAPS: YOU RETAIL: $6 x 72 = $432

TOTAL SPENT: $1,656                                                 TOTAL REVENUE: $3,672 

So, how much net revenue is that?

$3,672 - $1,656 = $2,016

But, let’s not forget that you already spent $1,800 on bags! Better take care of that, too:

$2,016 - $1,800 = $216

So, you’ve actually made $216 dollars!

Now, this isn’t a perfect equation. After all, you may start at just 3 classes a week. In which case, following the same math, you’ve only made $144. Oh no.

But however much you make, at the end of the day, you’ve got a brand-new, incredibly popular class lined up to bring in new members, and new profit, to your gym.

And that counts for something!