Open Access

Alexander Glücklich

• The fitness studio industry in Germany is a growing market, offering a density of loca-tions to members and potential members. The presented scientific paper examines the setup and development of German fitness studios and reviews whether it is contempo-rary, according to the progress of technology and customer preferences. This paper hypothesizes that the setup of the fitness industry is contemporary and meets the needs of the people in modern day Germany. In order to test the hypothesis, first, relevant secondary literature sources available on this topic, are reviewed and reported. Second, an online survey is conducted to answer the hypothesis from the potential customer’s perspective and scrutinize whether there is a need for change within the German fitness industry. Based on the reviewed secondary literature, it is exposed that the different aspects, upon which fitness studios compete, seem to be stagnating since the beginning of the development of the modern fitness studio surrounding. Examples of the current setup are chosen and elaborated in depth, concerning the offerings of individual fitness stu-dio chains. The history of the development of knowledge and interest in sports and the fitness environment is investigated in a previous point of this paper. For the cause of receiving first hand statements and insights of a test group, which stands representable for the rest of the German people, the questionnaire is construct-ed and placed on an online media channel. The main findings of the survey are the following: 1. A large number of participants visit or are members of fitness studios in Germany. 2. Depending on the frequency of physical exercising, the mostly young par-ticipants are willing to pay a certain amount per visit. 3. The majority of the test group has a wish for more flexibility in the fitness studio environment. In the conclusion of this research paper the hypothesis is rejected. The decisive analy-sis concludes that the system of the fitness studio industry is growing, but no innova-tions are included to provide a contemporary user experience to the German sports people. As a final step, examples for minor changes in the system, with a possible ma-jor outcome for the industry as well as the person active in sports, are given as a future outlook.