A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for wealthy investors and consumers. Register to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Equinox’s $40,000-a-year membership has a waiting list of more than 1,000 people as demand for luxury health and wellness programs skyrockets, according to the company’s president.
The premium fitness chain’s “Optimize by Equinox,” launching in 2024, is one of the most expensive gym memberships in the world and includes everything from personal training and nutrition to sleep coaching, massage therapy and a “health concierge.”
Harvey Spevak, executive chairman of Equinox, told Inside Wealth that the program has seen remarkable demand and highlights the “insatiable” demand among the wealthy for longevity and wellness products.
“Health is the new luxury,” Spevak said. “In the experience economy, the first thing the consumer wants, besides travel, is: “How can I live a high-performance lifestyle? »
The Optimize program is part of Equinox’s strategy to become the leading luxury brand in the rapidly growing health and wellness sector.
The global wellness market is expected to reach nearly $10 trillion by 2030, up from $6.8 trillion in 2024, according to estimates from the Global Wellness Institute. With the population of millionaires and billionaires aging and the number of companies and products promising miracle cures exploding, the wealthy are driving much of the spending.
Equinox has expanded beyond fitness clubs to hotels and hospitality, personalized performance programs, IV centers, blood testing collaborations and much more.
The company opened its first hotel in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood in 2019 and is about to open a second in Saudi Arabia. Spevak said Equinox will likely have nearly a dozen hotels around the world, including in the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States, within seven to eight years.
Equinox currently has 115 fitness clubs and plans to open 40 more, including in Nashville; Toronto; Charlotte, North Carolina; and South Florida. Although it is New York’s largest retailer by square footage, it continues to add more in its hometown, Spevak said.
The Optimize membership leverages Function Health, a lab testing company, to provide clients with tests for 100 biomarkers twice a year, which could then serve as guides for a fitness, nutrition and lifestyle program tailored to each client.
Spevak said the program has been rolled out in Los Angeles and Dallas and will eventually launch in New York.
The company also recently created a personalized program for women called EQX ARC. Using diagnostics, wearable devices and specialist coaching, the program is designed around the different stages of a woman’s life and health journey, and already has its own waiting list.
Spevak said the company’s IV lounge at the Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards — its only infusion lounge to date — has already become “a seven-figure business.”
Equinox Hudson Yards is the brand’s truest realization of its holistic lifestyle promise, giving members access to group fitness classes, a 25-meter indoor saltwater pool, hot and cold plunge pools and a 15,000-square-foot outdoor leisure pool and deck. Equinox’s footprint at Hudson Yards provides ample opportunities to train, work, rejuvenate, socialize, build community, eat and much more.
Matthew Peyton | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Although Equinox is a private company and does not disclose financial data, Spevak said 2025 was a “record year” for the company and he expects 2026 “to be even bigger.” He said other high-end consumer companies are reaching out to Equinox to partner on health and wellness.
“When you think about the economy moving from a product economy to an experience economy, many large consumer companies are asking, ‘Well, how can I continue to serve my consumer and my health and well-being, and who do I talk to?’ »
“There’s really only one brand that has the authority and the brand equity,” he said.