Every boutique operator in the world is currently trying to get the word Pilates onto their signage. Solidcore is taking it off.
Athletech reported on August 18 that the brand is moving away from the term altogether, as rivals race to own their corner of what it called the red-hot Pilates market. Solidcore has the standing to make that call. It passed 250 US locations, sold a majority stake to L Catterton in September 2024, and is tracking 30 to 35 new studios this year on top of 25 to 30 last year. It charges $35 to $45 a class and runs memberships from roughly $165 to $375 a month.
Walking away from the hottest label in fitness looks like a branding decision. It is closer to a pricing one.
Does the category name really affect what a studio can charge?
Yes, because the name decides the comparison. Price is judged relatively, and the label tells a member what to judge you against. Call your format Pilates and you enter the same mental bucket as every other studio in the city using that word, including the $29 one that opened last month. Name the outcome instead of the modality and the comparison set changes, along with what $40 feels like.
This is your comp set (comparable set), a term borrowed from hotels: the group of businesses a customer instinctively prices you against. Operators spend enormous energy on brand, interiors and instructor quality, all of which are attempts to escape a comp set they joined for free the moment they picked a category word.
What makes the timing sharp is what is happening underneath the label. The reformer boom has outrun its own supply of qualified instructors. In April, The Guardian reported that industry bodies including the Society for the Pilates Method and EMD UK were warning of a wild west of studios: Pilates carries no formal legal regulation, instructors are teaching packed reformer classes on limited training, and one person is often supervising a room of dozens. Training providers report personal injury claims climbing alongside it.
That same reporting puts a London reformer drop-in between £20 and £37. Read that range next to Solidcore's $35 to $45 and the problem becomes visible: the label now spans nearly the full width of the boutique price band, and it is the low end that defines it for anyone shopping.
That is what a category looks like when its quality floor drops. And when the floor drops, the word stops being an asset and starts being a liability you share with everyone else using it.
What the label puts you next to
| If you call it | The member compares you to | The question they ask | Effect on price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilates | Every studio in the city with that sign | Why is yours more expensive? | Anchored to the cheapest in the set |
| Reformer Pilates | Studios with the same equipment | Is the equipment the same? | Anchored to equipment, not outcome |
| Strength, named format | Personal training, small group strength | Will this work? | Anchored to results, ceiling rises |
Read the right-hand column and the logic of Solidcore's move gets obvious. Its actual competition for a $40 class is not the Pilates studio down the street. It is a semi-private strength session, and that comparison is far more forgiving on price.
The trade is real, and it is not free
Leaving a hot category costs you the search demand attached to it. People type Pilates into Google and Instagram in enormous volume right now, and a brand that stops using the word gives up some of that traffic. Solidcore can absorb this because it has 250 locations and national recognition doing the work the keyword used to do. A three-location independent does not have that cushion, and copying the move wholesale would be a mistake.
The transferable version is narrower. Keep the category word where it does discovery work, in search, in listings, in the copy people find you through. Stop letting it do positioning work on your pricing page, your membership tiers and your intake conversation, which is where the comparison actually happens. We made a version of this argument when we wrote that Pilates had stopped being a workout and become a business model, and the pricing mechanics sit in how to price a boutique studio without racing to the bottom.
There is a second-order effect worth watching. If the strongest operator in the category stops calling itself Pilates, and the injury coverage keeps building, the word gets left to the studios that cannot afford to leave it. That is how a premium category becomes a discount one, and it has happened before in format fitness, which we covered when we argued the vibe era was over for Pilates, boxing and barre.
Solidcore is not abandoning what it sells. It is abandoning what it lets people compare it to.