SoulCycle is closing 19 of its 82 studio locations nationwide within the next few weeks, CEO Evelyn Webster announced Friday in a town hall-style Zoom meeting with employees.
About 75 workers will be laid off out of its workforce of 1,350, the company said.
“The timing was appropriate to look at our studio footprint by market to understand whether we continue to believe that we had indeed oversaturated some markets, and the conclusion is that after much work and analysis that perhaps we have,” Webster said, according to Business Insider.
The closings are being blamed on the changing exercise habits following COVID lockdowns.
“As riders continue to return to in-studio classes, there have been many shifts as a result of the pandemic,” SoulCycle said in a media statement. “Some of these shifts have been based on geography and therefore we are naturally reevaluating our portfolio of studios to assess whether there is an opportunity to right-size in certain markets. This will allow us to continue to provide riders with the SoulCycle experience they know and love.”
