2025 Member Letter
Members,
Every December, I try to slow things down long enough to reflect on what the year actually meant; not just what we accomplished, but who we became along the way as a team and a business.
2025 asked a lot of us.
It asked us to grow. It asked us to stretch. And at times, it asked us to sit in discomfort while still showing up. It also showed us that we’re capable of some beautiful moments when we are all pushing in the same direction.
We saw the city come together for Seattle Fitness Week, an idea I had last year that we pulled to life. It was an incredible amount of work, but it was inspiring to expand on what the mission of SSP has always been to more fitness environments and modalities across the entire city. To see 70+ gyms and studios participate and to have raised well over $20k for charities made for an incredible moment in Seattle fitness.
We opened SSP Ballard, welcoming new faces, new stories, and a new neighborhood into our family. From lease signing to first day, we opened Ballard in 10 weeks which is a testament to our entire team.
We continued to travel and bring SSP to more places. Parts of our team traveled to Toronto, Denver, Bozeman and Long Beach, learning, sharing, and coming home with a deeper appreciation for what makes this place special.
And we paused to celebrate at our SSP5 Party. Five years. A moment to look around and realize that what started as a simple idea has become something real, lasting, and deeply impactful.
One of the biggest themes of this year was growth; not just in locations or numbers, but in people.
We continued to invest heavily in our team: more full-time roles, clearer career paths, increased compensation, better benefits, and higher expectations. Building a place where great coaches can build real careers remains one of the things I’m most proud of and a key cornerstone to SSP’s philosophy.
As the team has grown, my own role has shifted. This year was an adjustment year for me, spending more time on expansion, long-term planning, and initiatives outside the four walls of the gym. That shift hasn’t always been easy, but it’s a necessary part of building something that lasts. The year has also unfortunately brought for me some deeply personal changes. And while I won’t share details here, I will say this – going through change has given me even more appreciation for community, consistency, and the power of having a place where you can show up as you are and be supported.
SSP has always been about more than training. This year reminded me just how true that is.
As we grow faster and scale bigger, we know this comes with challenges.
Fast growth brings pain points. It brings moments of misalignment. It brings critical feedback, and we take that seriously. We review member and team feedback regularly, and what matters most to me isn’t perfection, but how consistently we execute on our values every single day.
Those values haven’t changed.
We still believe:
- Strength training is for everybody
- Community is everything
- Continuous learning is in our DNA
- Safe, welcoming fitness spaces are non-negotiable
We can grow quickly and stay human. We can scale systems without losing heart. And when things feel hard, it means we recommit to our mission.
I’ve said this before, and it rings even truer to me now:
I’m not personally in fitness to do fitness. I’m in fitness to do what we do at SSP.
Next year, we’re going to be more aggressive with growth. Bigger goals. Bigger bets. Bigger responsibility to get it right.
But no matter how big SSP gets, the heart of who we are has to stay the same: the coaches who know your name, the sessions that make you feel stronger and more confident, the community that shows up for each other on hard days and great ones.
If you’re reading this as a member of SSP, please know this:
You matter here. Your presence matters. Your trust matters.
Thank you for choosing to train with us. Thank you for being patient as we grow. Thank you for being part of a community that continues to inspire me more than you know.
I can’t thank you enough for being such an important part of SSP.
Here’s to closing out 2025 strong…and heading into year 6 to build what comes next, together.
With gratitude,
Chris