True Movement

When serious investors ask whether the True Movement franchise opportunity deserves a place in their portfolio, they are really asking a more fundamental question: is there a durable, science-backed concept in the fitness and wellness sector that has moved beyond the hype cycle and into verified real-world performance with professional athletes, and does it carry the structural economics to reward a franchisee who executes well? That question sits at the heart of this independent analysis. True Movement was founded in 2009 by Erin Baker, who also serves as CEO, and the brand was built from the ground up in Canada with a mission as specific as it is ambitious: help the world move better, feel better, and live pain-free. Rather than entering the saturated group fitness or big-box gym market, Baker constructed an entirely proprietary system, the patent-pending True Movement Platform and the True Movement Method, a three-dimensional movement methodology that addresses stability, mobility, and strength simultaneously using a spring-loaded platform engineered to build lower-body strength without overloading joints. The company spent years earning credibility not through mass marketing but through adoption by professional sports organizations, including teams across the NHL, CFL, and NCAA, and more recently the Denver Broncos beginning in spring 2025, along with North Dakota Hockey and the Seattle Thunderbirds. That professional validation is not incidental to the franchise investment thesis, it is the thesis. For investors evaluating the True Movement franchise, the brand enters the U.S. market carrying institutional-grade credibility at a moment when the boutique fitness and functional wellness space is accelerating toward mainstream scale. The total addressable market for health and wellness globally is projected to reach 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025, and the boutique fitness segment specifically, where True Movement competes most directly, is projected to grow from 37.15 billion dollars in 2024 to 59.91 billion dollars by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent. This is not a brand inventing demand. It is a brand entering a market where demand already exists and is growing faster than supply.

The fitness and wellness industry context surrounding a True Movement franchise investment is one of the strongest structural backdrops available to franchise buyers in 2025 and 2026. The global fitness club market is projected to reach 111.11 billion dollars by 2025, while the broader health and fitness industry is currently valued at approximately 87 billion dollars globally. The compound annual growth rate for the boutique fitness segment of 8 percent from 2025 through 2030 outpaces the fitness industry's historical baseline growth rate of 3 to 4 percent annually, which itself has been consistent for the past decade. The number of gyms in the United States has grown approximately 56 percent since 2012, outpacing the 38 percent increase in total private business establishments over the same period, demonstrating that consumer allocation of spending toward fitness is secular, not cyclical. What separates True Movement's competitive position from traditional fitness concepts is its alignment with three of the most durable consumer shifts currently reshaping the industry. First, recovery-based services are growing 33 percent faster than traditional fitness models, and True Movement has embedded recovery infrastructure directly into its studio model through integrated wellness modalities including HaloSauna, a fusion of infrared heat and dry-salt therapy that promotes circulation, respiratory health, and deep relaxation. Second, the intelligence-over-intensity trend is displacing the old no-pain, no-gain paradigm, with consumers across all demographics prioritizing sustainable movement, personalized programming, and long-term joint health over high-impact intensity training. Third, consumers aged 50 and above are engaged and actively seeking tailored, accessible fitness solutions, while the 35-to-50 cohort represents the highest-spending segment balancing performance demands with recovery needs, both of which align precisely with the True Movement Method's positioning. The industry's shift away from fragmented, independently owned studios toward branded, system-driven boutique franchise concepts creates a consolidation opportunity that early-stage franchise investors have historically captured at the highest multiples.

The True Movement franchise cost structure positions this opportunity in the upper-mid tier of boutique fitness franchise investments, with an initial franchise fee of 50,000 dollars. For context, that fee reflects a brand entering its U.S. franchise ramp-up phase rather than a mature system, which typically means earlier access to premium territory at fees that will almost certainly increase as the brand scales. The total investment range spans from a low of approximately 334,650 dollars to a high of 1,056,200 dollars, with a secondary estimate of 496,000 to 797,500 dollars, and the spread within those ranges reflects the variables any prospective franchisee must underwrite carefully: local real estate costs, buildout complexity, equipment configuration, and market size. The minimum liquid capital required to open a True Movement franchise is 115,000 dollars, which sits at an accessible threshold relative to the broader boutique fitness franchise category where liquidity requirements frequently exceed 150,000 to 200,000 dollars for established systems. The True Movement franchise investment includes the proprietary spring-loaded platform equipment and buildout of a studio environment consistent with the methodology's operational standards, which means franchisees are acquiring tangible, purpose-built assets rather than simply paying for brand access. While specific royalty and advertising fund rates are not detailed in current public disclosures, general boutique fitness franchise structures typically carry royalty rates in the 5 to 7 percent range and marketing contributions of 1 to 3 percent of revenue, figures that a prospective investor should confirm directly through the Franchise Disclosure Document. The brand's integration of a wellness revenue vertical, specifically the HaloSauna and related modalities, is a meaningful economic differentiation, as it creates a second revenue stream within the same physical footprint, reducing the unit's dependence on session volume alone. For investors evaluating SBA financing eligibility or veteran incentive programs, the brand's structured training model and proprietary equipment qualify it for consideration under standard SBA franchise lending programs, though investors should confirm current SBA registry status directly.

The daily operating model of a True Movement franchise is built around the True Movement Method, which follows a three-stage protocol: restoring posture by identifying body-awareness deficiencies and aligning joints through deep core stabilization, increasing mobility through progressive three-dimensional movement sequences, and then enhancing performance by layering strength and sport-specific output on a stable structural foundation. This methodology is executed on the patent-pending True Movement Platform, a spring-loaded platform engineered specifically to load the lower body progressively without compressive joint stress, a technical differentiation that distinguishes studio sessions from general fitness programming. Sessions follow a consistent structure across all locations, which is a deliberate franchisor decision: the uniformity of the method is the product, and every True Movement franchise is expected to deliver the identical experience that professional athletes receive from the flagship system. Instructor training is comprehensive and standards-driven, with each franchise leader trained to convey and relay programming information in a tailored manner, analyze movement patterns in real time, interpret recovery data, and guide members through sustained progressions beyond individual sessions. This expertise-forward staffing model is also designed to solve one of the boutique fitness industry's most persistent operational problems, which is staff turnover driven by limited career advancement, by embedding every role from customer success representative to trainer to manager to regional leader into a structured career growth system. The corporate support architecture includes business consulting resources for franchisees looking to optimize their market entry, equipment sourcing assistance, and marketing systems designed to activate local demand in pre-opening and launch phases. Territory information for current openings is focused on the U.S. debut market, with the first franchise scheduled to open in Algonquin, Illinois, just outside Chicago, in February 2026, under the leadership of Beth Potter, who is directing the U.S. franchise expansion effort.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document. This is not unusual for an early-stage franchise system entering its U.S. ramp-up phase, as franchisors are not legally required to include Item 19 financial performance representations, and many emerging brands choose not to disclose until they have a sufficient number of operating units to produce statistically meaningful and legally defensible representations. What the available data does reveal is meaningfully directional. True Movement studios are documented to generate 40 to 70 dollars more in average member value per person compared to industry norms, which is a material advantage in the boutique fitness sector where member lifetime value and average revenue per member are the primary economic levers. The wellness modality integration, specifically the HaloSauna and recovery services, is documented to increase member retention rates by 30 percent relative to studios without such integration, and retention is the single most powerful driver of boutique fitness unit economics because the cost of acquiring a new member in this category consistently exceeds the cost of retaining an existing one. Client outcomes reported across the existing studio network include dramatic improvements in range of motion, reduced joint soreness, increased movement capacity, and greater consistency of physical performance, outcomes that drive word-of-mouth referral rates and reduce paid acquisition costs. Using public boutique fitness benchmarks as a proxy, established boutique studios in the 37-billion-dollar segment generate average annual revenues ranging from 400,000 to over 1 million dollars depending on market density, session pricing, and membership conversion rates. The 40-to-70-dollar premium in average member value, compounded over a retention base that is 30 percent larger than the industry baseline, suggests that a well-executed True Movement franchise operating in a market with adequate addressable demand should be capable of unit economics that compare favorably to the category median, though investors must complete independent financial modeling using actual FDD data before drawing conclusions about their specific investment.

The growth trajectory of the True Movement franchise system reflects a deliberate, credibility-first expansion strategy rather than a volume-first franchising push, and that distinction matters enormously to sophisticated investors. The company spent its first decade and a half building professional athlete validation, accumulating partnerships across the NHL, CFL, and NCAA before approaching franchise expansion, a sequencing that produces a fundamentally different quality of brand equity than concepts that scale franchising first and credibility second. The announcement of True Movement's collaboration with the Denver Broncos beginning in spring 2025, combined with the adoption of the True Movement Method by the Seattle Thunderbirds and North Dakota Hockey, represents institutional endorsement that individual studio operators can leverage in local marketing and corporate wellness sales. The June 2025 acquisition by True Movement Tech, a related entity based in San Marcos, California, of Mancino Manufacturing Co., Inc., a U.S.-based manufacturer of safety padding and equipment for gymnastics, cheer, martial arts, and other sports facilities, significantly expanded the operational ecosystem, bringing the total enterprise to six complementary businesses including True Movement Tech, AirTrack, Superior Trampoline Manufacturing, XR Sports, SD United Training Center, and Mancino Mats. This acquisition signals supply chain integration, manufacturing capability, and a broadening platform that creates a competitive moat around proprietary equipment that franchise competitors simply cannot replicate. Beth Potter's appointment to lead U.S. franchise expansion and her commitment to sign the first U.S. location personally demonstrates leadership skin-in-the-game, a signal that institutional investors and franchise buyers treat as a positive alignment indicator. The brand's core values of knowledge, excellence, longevity, personalization, and fun are structured to create a differentiated studio culture that resonates with both the premium athlete segment and the increasingly wellness-oriented general consumer.

The ideal True Movement franchise candidate is an owner-operator or hands-on owner who brings either a background in health, fitness, or sports performance, or strong community management and business operations experience combined with genuine alignment with the brand's science-based movement philosophy. The True Movement Method requires instructors and studio leaders who can analyze movement, interpret recovery data, and communicate personalized programming recommendations, which means the franchisee's talent acquisition and retention strategy is as important as their real estate and marketing execution. Multi-unit operators from adjacent fitness or wellness franchise categories who are seeking a differentiated concept with professional sports credibility and a defensible methodology may find the True Movement franchise particularly attractive as an addition to a diversified portfolio. Available territories are currently focused on U.S. markets, with the first location opening in Algonquin, Illinois in February 2026, and the brand's broader North American expansion plans indicate that investors who move during this initial ramp-up period will have access to primary metropolitan markets that will be unavailable once the system reaches scale. The total investment range of approximately 334,650 to 1,056,200 dollars and the 115,000-dollar minimum liquidity requirement make this an accessible entry for investors who have previously owned or operated a fitness, wellness, or sports performance business and understand the staffing and retention dynamics of the category. Investors should engage with the FDD carefully, reviewing item by item with a franchise attorney who specializes in the fitness sector, and should conduct validation calls with Canadian studio operators to understand the operational rhythm and member experience delivery before committing capital.

True Movement represents a franchise opportunity that arrives at a genuinely uncommon moment: a science-backed, professionally validated movement concept with proprietary equipment and methodology, entering U.S. franchise expansion as the boutique fitness market accelerates toward 59.91 billion dollars by 2030 at an 8 percent compound annual growth rate, carrying documented evidence of above-average member value, above-average retention performance, and above-average professional credibility at a total investment range that remains accessible relative to established boutique competitors. The combination of the recovery services integration, the HaloSauna modality as a discrete revenue vertical, and the 40-to-70-dollar premium in average member value per person creates a unit economics profile that warrants serious, rigorous due diligence rather than dismissal or uncritical enthusiasm. The acquisition of Mancino Manufacturing and the expansion of the True Movement Tech platform to six complementary businesses in 2025 signals corporate infrastructure investment that reduces supply chain risk for franchisees. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark the True Movement franchise cost, structure, and performance signals against every competing boutique fitness concept in the database. For investors who are serious about understanding this opportunity at the depth a six-to-seven-figure commitment demands, independent data is not optional. Explore the complete True Movement franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.