Background
Reshape Fitness is a new high-end club that opened on Beckenham high street on 17 October 2022. Its goal: to bring a luxe boutique gym vibe, usually reserved for London, to the suburbs.
Offering two distinct gym spaces and a group cycling studio – gym one being cardio plus lower body resistance, gym two predominantly free weights and group exercise – Reshape Fitness is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Theo Loucas and Ozzie Fadil. Identifying a growing interest in health and fitness post-pandemic, Reshape is their first venture in the fitness sector.
The whole club adopts a recurring ‘Re’ theme for a highly branded experience: Refuel for the juice bar; Recover for sauna, steam and massage; Redress for the changing rooms; and classes such as Re-heat (HIIT), Re-round (circuits), Re-cycle (cycling) and Re-build (resistance) on the group exercise timetable.
Objective
When Loucas and Fadil met Physical at a trade show, Reshape Fitness had already been designed and specced by an architect to meet their high-end vision.
“We knew what we were creating,” confirms Loucas. “We just needed to find suppliers who could deliver the quality we wanted in an affordable way, and to a fairly tight deadline.”
He continues: “As soon as we started speaking to Physical, we knew we wanted to work with them. The team there is hugely knowledgeable and helpful – they understood exactly what we were trying to do and proposed excellent solutions – and the products are great quality.”
Solution
“The standout product has to be the rig,” adds Fadil. “We shopped around, but Physical’s was head and shoulders above everyone else’s. We have it in our own pantone referenced colour scheme and it fits our space perfectly.”
Other than the tiled-floor changing rooms, Physical also supplied all flooring throughout the club, making specific recommendations for each area based on the usage and training styles it would support. The result is a perfect combination of everything from freeweight tiles to luxury vinyl to a custom turf track that’s been fully branded to Reshape.
Accessories were also supplied by Physical, including medicine balls, kettlebells, sandbags, slam balls, bands, punchbags for the rig and, says Fadil, “all the other bits and pieces we needed”.
He adds: “Physical met every need we had, identifying the perfect solutions for our concept. With its broad range of competitively priced products, we were also able to get everything we needed from one place. They made our lives very easy.”
Result
“We’ve been open for a week and already the wow factor of what Physical has helped us create is evident,” says Loucas. “The rig is now the centrepiece of our weights room, while the custom turf track that runs down the middle of the space is another fantastic, eye-catching feature.”
“And, of course, all the products we’ve got from Physical are really high quality, which is vital to our concept,” adds Fadil. “We’ve also enjoyed excellent customer service from the word go, a highly professional installation team and great aftercare.
“Physical has been a fantastic partner for us on this project.”
The Project pt
The Project PT, Oxford, Oxfordshire
Equipment & Flooring for Movement Studio
Independent Commercial Gym
Background
Alexa Hunn-Phillips and Ajaye Phunn are the co-founders of The Project PT, operating two community-focused gyms in Oxford.
Hunn-Phillips explains: “We are a business born out of Covid. At the time, we both worked for another gym operator, but during lockdown we realised we wanted to do something different. We’re both very much into helping our community, so we decided to create a gym that was more accessible and inclusive of the wider community.
“We opened The Movement Studio in 2020, a small space beneath Sweaty Betty on Oxford high street. And in spite of the various waves of lockdown, we gained a really good following.
“Our product is designed for people who may have had a tricky start with gyms, sport or PE – those who never quite felt it was for them. We often welcome members who feel the gym isn’t a natural fit, particularly women in middle age or older. In fact, many of our members come from this group; we’ve seen how creating a supportive, approachable environment helps them enjoy training and build confidence at their own pace.
“In 2021, inspired by our original purpose of helping our community, we also started working with young people who were referred to us by schools, social services and the police. We either provided our services for free or were funded by charities or the police.
“We now support young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training), in danger of child criminal exploitations and girls who are disengaged from physical activity. Our membership revenue goes directly towards funding some of our projects.”
She continues: “In 2022, we moved to a larger gym on Magdalen Road, now under The Project PT brand. It still wasn’t huge, but we had significantly more space than before, meaning we could run a lot more projects for young people as well as continuing to cater for our apprehensive, non-typical gym-goer demographic.
“Then in January 2025, we expanded to open our second gym in Botley, on the other side of Oxford. This time, we partnered with Physical for the full fit-out.”
Objective
“The vision was always for a multi-use space,” confirms Matt Pengelly, managing director of Johnson Health Tech UK and the driving force behind the project. “We envisaged a Google-esque satellite office that our sales team, customers, prospects and partners could use at any point: swing by, hot desk, meetings, training sessions, workout, shower, coffee.”
Entering the showroom through a museum-style zone – a celebration of JHT’s 50 years of business – plans came together for visitors to arrive at a fully-equipped gym floor showcasing JHT’s Matrix and Vision ranges in situ. In a separate room, a premium, hotel-style space would house the high-end Onyx range.
Complementing this equipment, a series of carefully selected partners would be invited to bring the gym experience to life and help ensure the space reflected the latest fitness trends. A flooring partner was one of the key requirements – and it was Physical to whom Pengelly and his team turned.
“Our third-party partnerships are always centred around people we know we can rely on. We’ve known the Physical team for years and enjoy a deep-seated, easy-fit relationship with high levels of trust.
“We also worked with them on a number of flagship projects recently: Alpine Formula 1, Cardiff Rugby and Wigan Warriors. Once again, Physical demonstrated not only its quality but also its ability to turn things around quickly and go the extra mile to make things perfect.
“Crucially, Physical also shared our vision for the showroom, understanding the value of having this fantastic showcase so close to its High Wycombe head office – with an open door for its sales team, customers and prospects.
“We didn’t go to anyone else for this project. We knew Physical would do an incredible job.”
Matt Pengelly, managing director, Johnson Health Tech UK
Solution
Working directly with John Halls, managing director at Physical, the brief was simple, says Pengelly: “Install the flooring you’d choose if it were your own gym.”
The result is a zoned flooring solution that instantly identifies and accentuates the distinct equipment ranges and training concepts on show.
For all zones, EcoSurfaces was the go-to choice – a new premium collection from flooring specialist Ecore that’s exclusively distributed in the UK by Physical. So new, in fact, that JHT’s European Training Centre and Showroom is the first EcoSurfaces installation in the UK fitness sector.
For the main gym, the Vision zone and the Sprint 8 zone, EcoFit rubber flooring was installed in Beech Glass, Gravel Rock and Final Cut respectively – the latter featuring a large Sprint 8 logo.
In the free weights area, EcoMax tiles subtly echo JHT’s red colour palette, with Red Hots the shade of choice.
Meanwhile, the red colour scheme hits front and centre in the middle of the gym floor: bright red with white markings, a 10m x 4m, four-lane Custom Grass track is surrounded by all the equipment needed for the red-hot trend of fitness racing.
Finally, high-end hospitality replaces gym vibe in the Onyx room, with a panelled wall and black equipment offset by Valera RXT wood-effect planks in Featherstone, laid in a herringbone pattern. “At the HFA event in Las Vegas, John and I were running between our stands with flooring samples to find the perfect shade!” laughs Pengelly.
Result
He adds: “Everyone who came to the opening day said this was unlike any showroom they’d ever been to. They were blown away by what we and our partners have created.”
And with its open-door ethos – complemented by a dedicated training room and a branded partner meeting room – demand is already far exceeding expectations.
Says Pengelly: “Less than a month from opening, we’d already hosted Your Reformer’s European training and had PureGym and JD Gyms booked in to do their training here too. Dr Paul Bedford is also going to be using the space for a conference.
“We have an online booking calendar and I’d expected perhaps a couple of bookings a week – but we’re currently averaging one day a week when something isn’t happening and we haven’t even welcomed all our customers yet!”
Importantly, he concludes: “Opening up for wider use isn’t about driving ROI; we aren’t renting the space out. It’s about driving footfall and with it, understanding of our brands, our equipment, our story – and of course, those of our partners too.”
