10 Years of Throwback - From Rowing Studio to Field Days

This Spring marks the 10-year anniversary of when Throwback opened its doors as a group fitness studio in NYC. When we first created a business plan, the brand concept was a rowing studio at its core. Our tagline was ‘Old School Fitness’.

Over the last ten years, we’ve been through many ups and downs, as all businesses do. We’ve also streered the company through a few total changes in direction.

We’ve changed our tagline from ‘Old School Fitness’ to ‘Old School Fun’ to reflect our current mission. That mission is to bring people together and create memorable experiences through friendly competition and fun. We accomplish this through a plethora of classic as well as original color war and field day games.

To celebrate 10 Years of Throwback, we're taking a trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoy reliving some of our ups, downs, and stories from our history.

2013 - Pop-up classes

Technically 2013 is several months before we’re starting the 10-year clock. But this is the year before we opened our 5th Avenue studio.

Throwback Fitness began as a PowerPoint deck. Our idea was a group fitness class centered on the rowing machine. Soul Cycle was maybe the buzziest place in NYC in 2013. The coolest place to workout and a brand people went out of their way to bring up in conversation. 

But the rowing erg is a more full-body machine. It worked the upper body in addition to lower body muscles. Plus, it was a pretty underutilized piece of equipment. Why not try to recreate the exciting vibe of Soul Cycle but with a more complete and efficient workout? 

We called our business Throwback Fitness. The rowing machine felt like somewhat of a retro workout device, often collecting dust in the back of the gym. And what sealed the name for us was the opportunity to accentuate the “ROW” in ThROWback.

We thought the perfection of a business deck was paramount to starting a company. After all, we started our careers in investment banking.

We iterated on the business plan for months. Then we realized we just needed to start testing our ideas. The real world was going to tell us if we were onto something - not feedback on a PowerPoint document. 

We hosted our first class at a fitness facility in Chelsea called Titan Fitness Studios. We rented by the hour. Our class, originally held every Tuesday at 7pm, was open to friends and family free of charge. We just asked that people provide honest feedback in return.

2014 - Our own studio

We eventually started charging for classes and opened them up to the public. These pop-up classes were a crucial step for Throwback. The real-world feedback made us realize that rowing shouldn’t be the main show of our classes. Our audience liked rowing but only for short bits of time. It wasn’t like a bike where you could pedal to a beat. 

Co-founders and former investment bankers, Brian Gallagher and Ryan Wilke signing a lease for the first Throwback Fitness studio in New York

Rowing became a bit monotonous after several minutes of repeated effort. So we added calisthenics, dumbbells, kettlebells, and other off-the-rower exercises into the workout.

But the lightbulb moment came when we began making our workouts into team-based games...

The first one we tried was a spin on shooting hoops, but we used tennis balls and a trash can. The goal was to accumulate points with your team by making shots into the trashcan. But, before taking a shot, you had to complete a circuit of exercises. Players would earn more shots for their team by quickly moving through the circuit.

The team-based and game element of classes was super unique. So we introduced more competitive workouts, many influenced by classic recess and field day activities. Players loved the nostalgia of playing an adult version of capture the flag or dodgeball. All while getting an awesome workout in the process.

Luckily, the name Throwback Fitness was perfect for our pivot to a workout with nostalgic game elements. Our class playlists included old-school hip hop and pop songs of the 80s, 90s, and 00s. We became the place for New Yorkers to burn calories while having fun and feeling like a kid again. 

ClassPass had just launched and when they revealed a list of the top-ranked classes on their platform, Throwback Fitness was #1. We were even ahead of Barry’s Bootcamp. We were especially proud of this because we were running our classes from a pop-up studio. And we used a single portable speaker connected to an iPod for our music.

If people liked us this much, we knew we needed a dedicated studio of our own. We raised some friends & family money and signed a lease in February 2014. The space was a 1200 sqft suite on the second floor of an office building across from the Empire State Building.

We converted it into something that fit our vibe. Rowing machines, free weights, and a collection of our favorite throwback movie and band posters.

We opened at 303 Fifth Avenue on April 7, 2014.

2015 - First Adult Field Day

In 2015 we hit our stride in our own dedicated studio. Classes were full and our repertoire of recess-inspired fitness games was growing. Men's Fitness even named us the Best Gym in New York STATE!

Another opportunity came our way that summer. ClassPass was looking for a host for a summer team building event. They wanted a memorable activity for their office of fitness-minded employees. Most importantly, they wanted to bond over some fun and laughs!

Throwback Fitness was their obvious first choice of all the team building activities in New York.

The 60-minute field day consisted of a variety of activities. We included versions of our studio games, but leaned in harder to classic field day games from childhood. During Sponge Relay, teams filled buckets of water by passing a wet sponge over players’ heads. We created a unique twist on Steal the Bacon and played a version of Capture the Flag with Super Soakers.

The event turned out to be a total blast for the participants and us coaches. It marked the beginning of Throwback’s new field day offering and corporate clientele.

2016 - Enter the Color War Games

Outdoor events were great but the weather in NYC made it a seasonal offering. We weren’t going to convince any groups to play in a park in late November through March.

Another thing we were seeing is some groups were a bit hesitant to book a team event with a fitness brand. Our team bonding events had already scaled back the intensity of our fitness classes. But they were still mostly about physical activity.

Some groups were interested in a competitive experience that was even lighter on movement. Games where participants could remain in business casual attire. So we created Throwback Color War!

Originally known as 'Office Play', this was a chance for groups to bring field day fun indoors. The venue was often whatever we could find available in Manhattan. The limited options forced us to think creatively about games that would work in small spaces. One of our first Color Wars was in a conference room in Macy’s midtown office. 

A Macy’s team putting together a puzzle while the assembler is blindfolded

Our color war activities included non-physical versions of games played in our fitness classes. Showdown is our novel music trivia game that is always a hit with every group. We continue to take inspiration from TV game shows, pen & paper games, and nostalgic puzzles. Our game variety allows us to host color wars at venues ranging from corporate offices to indoor soccer fields. 

Check out this page for color war ideas.

2017 - End of the Studio Era

Our original dream was to open Throwback studios across the country. Maybe that meant owning and operating more studios ourselves. Maybe that meant a franchising model. Either way, our goal was to be more than a single unit.

While we were having some success, we failed to achieve our membership goals at the studio. We knew the road to open more units would be incredibly difficult and expensive.

So when our lease was up in the fall of 2017, we made the decision to not renew.

Throwback would continue but in a different format than our original brick-and-mortar studio.

Ryan Wilke and Brian Gallagher with a thank you and farewell message upon leaving Throwback’s 5th Avenue studio

2018 - Pursuit of a licensing model

We continued running Throwback classes at a shared gym space in Midtown. But our primary focus became creating a program we could sell to other gyms. Our unique approach to fitness was something other facilities could use to inject fun and community into their classes.

We developed an app that served as a learning tool. It hosted lessons to teach coaches how to run our engaging classes. The secret sauce was videos and animations on playing each of our unique games.

One of our first major clients was a group of YMCA branches in Ontario, Canada.

2019 - Marquee Field Day Partners

We continued to work on selling licenses to our workout classes. But we also continued adding some major brand names to our corporate event client list.

We hosted field days for finance firms including Goldman Sachs, PwC, DE Shaw, BMO, and American Express. We lead a charity color war for Credit Suisse at their Madison Avenue offices. Tech companies from small (Gear Patrol) to large (Oracle) hired us to boost camaraderie in their office. Apparel and fashion brands like On Running and PVH loved their Throwback experiences.

We introduced field days to groups in cities outside New York too. We went as far as Missoula, Montana where we hosted another ClassPass field day for a firm-wide offsite.

As our client list grew, so did our field day game options. 'Battlechips' was a game we created that quickly became a client favorite.

Pong Feud is our mashup of beer pong (sans alcohol) and Family Feud. We began playing it in 2019 and it continues to be one of Throwback’s greatest hits today.

We continue to take inspiration from classic games like sack races, relay races, and scavenger hunts. We've dabbled in fun with water balloons too.

Each of our adult field day activities has a unique Throwback twist. Well, except maybe for tug-o-war. That is perfect as is.

Tug-o-war face off on Roosevelt Island in New York City

Interested in more adult field day games? Check out our blog post here.

2020 - The End… Part 2?

March 2020 is a month that will live in infamy. COVID began to take hold and the first lockdowns began. Demand for in-person experiences grounded to a halt across the globe.

Our traction with licensing our fitness classes was already slow. COVID drove the final blow into those plans. 

With no demand for corporate field days either, this might have marked the end of Throwback Fitness. But, opportunity exists almost anywhere. Corporate offices, with their teams now isolated to at-home workspaces, needed ways to maintain a culture.

So we created ‘Virtual Recess’. The goal was to bring the same energy and teamwork of field days to remote groups participating behind their computer at home. We designed virtual activities to include spins on field day favorites and TV game shows. Plus, as always, some of our own unique creations.

Check out one of our two blog posts about our virtual team building games here.

We hosted events for many corporate groups, but also organized virtual birthday parties. and even a parent's night at a school on the Upper West Side. 

Players participated from countries across the globe. Virtual recess brought teams together in a way HR departments couldn’t imagine before COVID.

The COVID work-from-home era was the height of our ‘Virtual Recess’ demand. But we still host today for remote teams searching for the best way to make Zoom meetings awesome.

2021 - Revival as the Field Day Company

People emerged from COVID with a pent up demand for in-person experiences. The urge to bring people together was strongest at corporate offices. Businesses had sent their employees to work from home for over a year. Now, they were looking for ways to rebuild their in-office community.

Throwback offered a way for teams to reconnect with old colleagues and build relationships with new ones. A team dinner or bar night may have been an initial idea, but Throwback offered something much more engaging. 

Colleagues could break the ice with lighthearted competition. They could develop strategy and practice working together through a series of low stakes games. They would create enduring memories through shared fun with their colleagues.

Throwback ran most of our 2021 events in the New York City area. But we also began hosting in Boston, with field days for Uppababy and Boston Dynamics.

2022 - 2023 - Continued Small Group and Large Group Team Building

The next two years marked exponential growth for our field day and color war events. We hosted for companies including Unilever, Uber, Merck, Ouai, Sony, Netflix, Google, Estée Lauder, the NFL, and many more.

We expanded further across the country too. We held events in 16 states in 2023 and now have coaches in most major cities.

We continued to develop more color war and field day games for adults. ‘Mind Racer’ is a relay that incorporates memory and trivia elements. ‘Secret Striker’ features the suspense of a soccer shootout and the stealth of laser tag.

We found creative ways to make Red Rover adult-friendly. We made the handheld memory game ‘Simon’ into a large-scale team challenge. We design everything with nostalgia, fun, and friendly competition in mind. 

2024 - Present

A favorite saying among entrepreneurs: An overnight success takes 10 years. 

10 years after we opened Throwback Fitness on Fifth Avenue, we humbly cannot say we’re quite there yet. But it’s feeling like we could be close. 

We have more field day activities for adults to debut this year. Plus, we're organizing kids field days to celebrate birthdays and graduations.

We have an outstanding team of over 100 coaches (and growing) across the country.

We have events scheduled in cities we haven’t visited. We’re working on some multi-city color wars to happen simultaneously with employees of the same company. And hopefully, Throwback's first international event is right around the corner. 

Maybe Throwback’s overnight success is just a few years away.

A Phoenix AZ team takes a final group photo after their corporate team building event with Throwback