The Battle for CrossFit’s Soul
First things first…
Yeah I know, CrossFitters love to talk about CrossFit. If you don’t like CrossFit or want to argue about kipping movements, just leave. I’m not talking to you and don’t feel like debating the merits of CrossFit vs whatever.
CrossFit as disruptive innovation
I started CrossFit in late 2017. I knew about CrossFit and had always worked out but just never really went to a “box”, for no particular reason. My main attraction was that I had done some of the workouts, but didn’t really understand the methodology. I wanted to do muscle-ups, wanted to climb ropes, and mix all that up with the various barbell movements. I had done all sorts of strength programs (5–3–1, etc), but always grew tired of them.
Having immersed myself in CrossFit culture over the past 5ish years, learning about Greg Glassman and Dave Castro, and all the other cast of characters, I realized this: Glassman was very intentional about disrupting the fitness (and health) industry. In many ways CrossFit was founded as a grass-roots movement, being intentional about NOT being just another place where people waste their time on a treadmill.
As an innovator/disruptor, Glassman was intentional about his product architecture. For example, how the workouts were structured (group classes that defied all the typical bro-logic of working out), mixing typical strength training with olympic lifting, with gymnastics, and running, and plyometrics; where it would be delivered (the box), with workouts posted online for the world to consume. He intuitively understood how to disrupt the fitness industry. He did it thru innovating at the product and customer level. If the fitness industry norms were one way, he purposefully chose to do things 180 degrees different.
2017–2018 Timeframe
I remember thinking the Open was so cool. The weekly Open announcements were every Thursday evening, being held all over the world, many at CrossFit affiliates (the boxes). They were these awesome events, streamed live on the internet. The Games athletes would do them and make them look easy. Then I would prepare myself to do them and not be nearly as performant. Kinda like playing golf and then watching the PGA tournament that weekend. I would put my scores in the CrossFit website and it would show me how fit I was in comparison to my peers (age group, etc.).
Little did I know at the time, but underneath the covers, Glassman was not happy. There are rumors that a certain shoe company was ready to make a game changing investment in CrossFit, but it was scuttled. Glassman felt the Games had become a circus and was a distraction to the mission of CrossFit (improve population health). For the 2019 Games, Glassman changed the way that people qualified for the Games (a long-standing, well understood process), and forced there to be cuts at the Games (like any tournament, athletes eliminated from competition based on how they perform). Then, after the 2018 Games, he fired all the media staff, reportedly unceremoniously. In short, Glassman felt that the Games were distracting from what he saw as the mission of CrossFit.
2019 and Pre-Covid
For the 2019 Games, one way to qualify would by going to a “Sanctional” and finishing above a certain level(These were CrossFit approved events that took the place of what was previously called Regionals). The Sanctionals were an opportunity to really expand the money athletes could make. You had businesses running these events (e.g. Loud & Live Sports), you had tourism to see the events, and there was prize money for the top athletes. Athletes could choose which Sanctionals to train for, set their own schedules, compete at multiple events, go to the ones with the most money, etc.
Covid happened, and like everything, the wheels started to come off
In retrospect, I don’t think I need to say anything more than people lost their damn minds (maybe literally), and honestly, I think its going to take years for us put the pieces back together due to the mental health damage. At least that is what it looks like in mid-2022, imo.
CrossFit wasn’t immune to 2020 either: Glassman got “canceled” and CrossFit seemed completely lost. Games athletes took to social media to state they were “out” on CrossFit until “serious” changes happened. Sanctionals didn’t happen due to Covid. In the end, CrossFit the company was sold, a new CEO as appointed (Eric Roza), and Dave Castro swept in to save the Games by hosting them on his family land in Aromas, CA. As a fan, I thought it was awesome to watch the Games that year, and typical to CrossFit, it was them giving the middle finger to the rest of the world and not “hunkering down”.
Understandably, the Games athletes basically formed a “players union”, kinda like other mainstream sports. I say understandably because their livelihood is based on a counter-cultural fitness movement, where the founding CEO was creating significant instability. And they were perhaps not making as much money as they could, like the above shoe deal, or big TV deals. And the athletes wanted defined seasons, just like any other pro sport.
But, did the new investors and corporate leadership understand the business architecture of CrossFit? Was CrossFit going to be a sell-out and lose that grass-roots movement kind of feel?
The Affiliates let their voices be heard as well — they are the ones that pay CrossFit a franchise fee. They were at the mercy of Covid since almost all of them were shut down and not making money. The affiliates are also the ones who have the ability to change many people’s lives thru fitness, and nutrition. The affiliates are where people can go to change their lives. The affiliate is where people go to learn CrossFit after they see it on TV and want to be like whatever athlete they saw on TV. Its not really any different than when people go to a golf course to try and be like Tiger Woods.
2021 turned out to be a mirage…2022 happened
The 2021 Games happened and overall, everything seemed somewhat normal in CrossFit world. Mysteriously, Eric Roza was nowhere to be found. Then we hear of a mental health issue with Roza. Then, right before the 2022 Open, Dave Castro is fired. WTF.
People began to speculate that advertising, TV sponsors, who knows who else, were campaigning for CrossFit to be more mainstream. Bigger money would come. Others decided that CrossFit went “woke” and got rid of Castro because he is definitely not “woke”. Was it because they have international plans and feel that Castro would not be the right face of the Games in the future? To this day, we still have no idea why Castro was fired.
But for all intents and purposes, Dave Castro was THE face of CrossFit. Besides being responsible for the Games and the face of the Games, he is all over social media as well. He was on every broadcast for the Open. People love to meme about how much Dave Castro makes their lives suck, due to how hard his workouts are. At this point, there really is no one else who embodies the soul of CrossFit, for the vast majority of its followers. Does Roza even know this, does anyone know what’s going on with CrossFit? Then Roza resigns as CEO and decides to become Chairman of the Board. WTF.
For the first 5 months of 2022, CrossFit has been all over the place, with all sorts of little things happening that make you shake your head, and expose them to all sorts of criticism.
A new model emerges
In June 2022, Dave Castro has been re-hired. WTF. His new role is rumored to have something to do with the affiliates. Why would you want Dave Castro to focus on the affiliates? If I’m being cynical, I would say it is just to save face. But I think there is something greater at play here.
Does CrossFit now realize that the Affiliates where are where new customers come be a part of the CrossFit family? Undoubtedly, yes. More-so than people watching the Games on YouTube.
Affiliates are what create customers who buy all the new CrossFit shoes (every couple months when a new colorway comes out, btw). And we buy all the new workout clothes (have you seen the price of Lululemon stock?), and energy drinks, and recovery drinks, and new mattresses that help you sleep better, and fitness trackers to help you know how hard you can go tomorrow, when you show up at the box to do CrossFit. Many of the people who go to the affiliates usually watch the Games (like the golf tournaments), some will travel to the Games, which might be hosted outside the USA soon, which speaks to the global growth opportunity.
So does CrossFit now realize that it’s not binary, as having to invest in either the Games or the Affiliates? Is there an emerging business model that acknowledges a virtuous value chain of the affiliates AND the Games? Can we have all the benefits of the Sanctionals, as mentioned earlier? Allowing the athletes to make more money, and have dedicated seasons and offseasons, no different than any other professional sport?
And so what if the Games become the circus for CrossFit, no different than the SuperBowl, right? I suppose it’s only a matter of time until we have a Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg concert at the CrossFit Games, right? I’m sure the hosting city would love that. Think how much cities bid to host Super Bowls.
Can CrossFit maintain its soul, in this environment? I would argue it can only do that with a strong affiliate program that helps the everyday people be their best version of themselves. So who else other than Dave Castro could do that? He knows where the Games can go (he built it). And he knows the power of the affiliates, and the power of the methodology, and is the soul of CrossFit.
Let’s hope so.
