We all shared how much we’re all hurting during these tumultuous times.
The fitness space was always white and cis-dominated. A bro-culture as it were. As a person of color who really enjoyed teaching movement and health this was an issue as there weren’t too many faces like mine, especially in 2006. Affording the nearest CrossFit affiliate (which happened the be the first one ever) was difficult even when the people and the mentors were great so I decided to start my own. It was barebones, but we did a lot of good work building a community and relationships that last to this day.
Tony and I moved Foundation to Capitol Hill in 2009 and have operated in 3 different spaces (4 if you count Foundation Athletics aka CrossFit SLU), until we settled in the spot we consider home now.
We created the business would want to proud members. An inclusive club for people to be taught how to improve their movement to improve their lives. To literally change lives. A safe place that redefined what fitness could look like, and how it was achieved. A way to break the stigma that wanting to be fit and healthy meant only doing curls and eating boiled chicken and brown rice (though there’s nothing wrong with any of that.)
At any time you could peek into our space and see that our athletes are a great mix of gender, creed, age, and color- and we’re very proud of it.
Affiliates simply license CrossFit for advertising purposes. It allows us into the largest international gym network available. You may have used it yourself when traveling. Support was there if we needed it (which was few and far between), but the work HQ did with creating the Risk Retention Group, getting the CF-Level 1 certification the ANSI stamp of approval, and fighting legal battles to allow the CrossFit affiliate community to truly separate ourselves from the rest of the fitness/strength & conditioning space while allowing us the freedom to create our own businesses however we wanted.
The truth for Foundation is that our only monetary commitment to them is taken care of by the drop-ins who come to workout. Memebership dues go to maintaining our location, team wages and benefits, taxes, insurance, and equipment.
If you don’t want your money going to CrossFit the company it’s simple: don’t get your CF-L1, don’t register for any CrossFit official events like The Open, don’t open a CrossFit affiliate.
Our decision to re-up our affiliation will be based on if CrossFit HQ follows through with the demands of the affiliate community. These are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-driven goals: GG divests ownership of CF, provide transparency into the organization chart and upper-level management, create a diverse board of directors with BIPOC faces, allocate funds and create scholarships or programs specifically for the underserved BIPOC youth, giving the affiliates ownership of the company.
We’re waiting on Phase 2 of the WA State Reopening Plan- there we will be able to offer Personal Training and classes with up to 5 people. We’d ask that you come in during a certain time (already dressed), and we have the gym laid out in a manner similar to The Open where we have specific “lanes” you would be in for the duration of your class. We’d start slowly with tons of back squats, strict/bench presses, deadlifts, snatches, clean & jerks, and accessory work to re/develop the strength we may have lost during the Stay-At-Home mandate.
1. Our athletes want an action plan: we told you that we want change in how CFHQ operates and even since this Town Hall Meeting we’ve been in direct communication (we really do live on Zoom) with them to discuss what you want from them, what we need from them, and that we need it soon.
2. More communication and transparency. It’s so important to a working relationship- Tony and I always want to do as much as we can behind the scenes to provide you a seamless experience within our services. Sometimes trying to be more clever bites us in the ass. We want to collaborate with our own community more and that will mean more transparency and asking for hand more often. We haven’t decided on the platform yet, but a monthly newsletter may be the move, if not a Town Hall (maybe replaces one of the weekly Shoot the Sh*t Thursdays). Like we mentioned earlier we want to have SMART goals to make sure we’re actually making a difference and that the progress is measurable.
3. Athletes are willing to help. We don’t lean on you and your expertise and it sounds like volunteers are ready and able to assist us in any way we can- this is a failure on our end as we try to please people more than we need to. We hear you and are reenergized to have our community share the magic that happens in our space. Committees will be made (more on those soon) and we’ve already tapped a handful of you since there’s magic going on with our neighborhood. LONG LIVE THE #CHAZ!
4. Clarity – I’ll say it again for the people in the back: HQ will have to earn us back. We will not renew our license with them. The Foundation brand and community has always been more than constantly varied functional movement at high intensity, and we want a chance to save the methodology that created the opportunity to exist in the first place, but it’s not our responsibility.
Sandi Philippen says:
i did this in my backyard, & boy, will i enjoy doing snatches on a level surface when we’re back in the gym again! this one was just spicy enough & a nice balance of cardio & strength.
We all shared how much we’re all hurting during these tumultuous times.
The fitness space was always white and cis-dominated. A bro-culture as it were. As a person of color who really enjoyed teaching movement and health this was an issue as there weren’t too many faces like mine, especially in 2006. Affording the nearest CrossFit affiliate (which happened the be the first one ever) was difficult even when the people and the mentors were great so I decided to start my own. It was barebones, but we did a lot of good work building a community and relationships that last to this day.
Tony and I moved Foundation to Capitol Hill in 2009 and have operated in 3 different spaces (4 if you count Foundation Athletics aka CrossFit SLU), until we settled in the spot we consider home now.
We created the business would want to proud members. An inclusive club for people to be taught how to improve their movement to improve their lives. To literally change lives. A safe place that redefined what fitness could look like, and how it was achieved. A way to break the stigma that wanting to be fit and healthy meant only doing curls and eating boiled chicken and brown rice (though there’s nothing wrong with any of that.)
At any time you could peek into our space and see that our athletes are a great mix of gender, creed, age, and color- and we’re very proud of it.
Affiliates simply license CrossFit for advertising purposes. It allows us into the largest international gym network available. You may have used it yourself when traveling. Support was there if we needed it (which was few and far between), but the work HQ did with creating the Risk Retention Group, getting the CF-Level 1 certification the ANSI stamp of approval, and fighting legal battles to allow the CrossFit affiliate community to truly separate ourselves from the rest of the fitness/strength & conditioning space while allowing us the freedom to create our own businesses however we wanted.
The truth for Foundation is that our only monetary commitment to them is taken care of by the drop-ins who come to workout. Memebership dues go to maintaining our location, team wages and benefits, taxes, insurance, and equipment.
If you don’t want your money going to CrossFit the company it’s simple: don’t get your CF-L1, don’t register for any CrossFit official events like The Open, don’t open a CrossFit affiliate.
Our decision to re-up our affiliation will be based on if CrossFit HQ follows through with the demands of the affiliate community. These are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-driven goals: GG divests ownership of CF, provide transparency into the organization chart and upper-level management, create a diverse board of directors with BIPOC faces, allocate funds and create scholarships or programs specifically for the underserved BIPOC youth, giving the affiliates ownership of the company.
We’re waiting on Phase 2 of the WA State Reopening Plan- there we will be able to offer Personal Training and classes with up to 5 people. We’d ask that you come in during a certain time (already dressed), and we have the gym laid out in a manner similar to The Open where we have specific “lanes” you would be in for the duration of your class. We’d start slowly with tons of back squats, strict/bench presses, deadlifts, snatches, clean & jerks, and accessory work to re/develop the strength we may have lost during the Stay-At-Home mandate.
1. Our athletes want an action plan: we told you that we want change in how CFHQ operates and even since this Town Hall Meeting we’ve been in direct communication (we really do live on Zoom) with them to discuss what you want from them, what we need from them, and that we need it soon.
2. More communication and transparency. It’s so important to a working relationship- Tony and I always want to do as much as we can behind the scenes to provide you a seamless experience within our services. Sometimes trying to be more clever bites us in the ass. We want to collaborate with our own community more and that will mean more transparency and asking for hand more often. We haven’t decided on the platform yet, but a monthly newsletter may be the move, if not a Town Hall (maybe replaces one of the weekly Shoot the Sh*t Thursdays). Like we mentioned earlier we want to have SMART goals to make sure we’re actually making a difference and that the progress is measurable.
3. Athletes are willing to help. We don’t lean on you and your expertise and it sounds like volunteers are ready and able to assist us in any way we can- this is a failure on our end as we try to please people more than we need to. We hear you and are reenergized to have our community share the magic that happens in our space. Committees will be made (more on those soon) and we’ve already tapped a handful of you since there’s magic going on with our neighborhood. LONG LIVE THE #CHAZ!
4. Clarity – I’ll say it again for the people in the back: HQ will have to earn us back. We will not renew our license with them. The Foundation brand and community has always been more than constantly varied functional movement at high intensity, and we want a chance to save the methodology that created the opportunity to exist in the first place, but it’s not our responsibility.
i did this in my backyard, & boy, will i enjoy doing snatches on a level surface when we’re back in the gym again! this one was just spicy enough & a nice balance of cardio & strength.