Joey Gonzalez, Barry’s CEO, joins the On The Move panel to discuss how to stay healthy and active as people are forced to stay at home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Well, if you are stuck at home like many Americans are right now, you're probably struggling to figure out what to do to get some physical exercise. We are joined now by the CEO of Barry's Bootcamp. That's Joey Gonzalez. He's been conducting classes from home-- livestreamed classes for folks. Joey, thank you so much for joining us. What have you guys have been doing, both in terms of offering classes, what you've been doing for folks who have classes that they've already paid for your various studios? And what are you doing in terms of your instructors?

JOEY GONZALEZ: Yeah, so we've rolled out complimentary live at-home workouts on Instagram. And so if you follow our handle, which is just Barry's-- B-A-R-R-Y-S-- we're featuring Barry's instructors from all around the world, really, and we go live two to three times every single day. And we started this last Tuesday, March 17, which was, you know, 48 hours after we decided to close. And I actually had the honor of teaching the first class, which was really great, and we were surrounded by approximately 20,000 of our global fit fam.

And the energy was really palpable, and people were just grateful to be reconnected and back in that red room. We're trying to keep people moving in their homes, right? Not only because it's necessary to optimize physical and mental health, but also because we're trying to keep things positive in people's everyday lives. You know, every article you read and TV show you turn on, it's spotlighting the very important but negative political, economical, and health care news. So we're just trying to give people the chance to escape from that.

We have two different types of content that we're providing. Both of them are 20 minutes long. And one is just, like, a full body, no equipment necessary option. The other is a 20-minute option as well that utilizes our exclusive Band Together fit kit, which is a-- it's a package of resistance bands, essentially, that people can use for strength training. And we sell it on our shop at Barrys.com.

And that band workout actually follows the curriculum days of the week. So people who know Barry's know that everyday you show up, you kind of a different muscle part. So Monday is arms, Tuesday's butt and legs, Wednesday's chest and back. So that Band Together workout is following that same curriculum that people love to do in the red room. And we're also doing a series of programming that's lifestyle-driven.

So we have content like Barry's and Brunch where instructors from around the world are providing different kind of healthy recipes, and we're doing a Barry's Cribs where instructors are taking you around their apartments and homes and kind of showing you where they live. So we're just trying to keep people positive and healthy.

DAN HOWLEY: Hey, Joey. You know, I was going to New York Sports Club-- obviously, they're closed. I panic-bought a gym for my basement. Probably not a lot of people want to do that or can do that. So when you're having people workout remotely at home, what are they using? And do you see people now buying more equipment? Do you think that that's something they're going to want to do? Or do you think that body workouts are going to be something that a lot of people now turn to?

JOEY GONZALEZ: I think you'll see both. We definitely have been inundated with questions from people-- like how can we buy more equipment for our home? Based on the inventory we're seeing across the country, you know, it's virtually impossible to get things from overseas right now, but inventory is very short here in the US. And so to answer your first question, for sure I think people can do a lot with their own bodies. And that's why half the content we're delivering is exactly that.

But for people that can't necessarily afford, either monetarily or space to buy a ton of equipment, our Band Together fit kit is $45. And it gets to people pretty quickly. It's within a week. And it takes up almost no space, and there are bands that people can use, both for their upper body and their lower body.

MELODY HAHM: Hey, Joey, Melody here. I know you're doing a great public service in giving us those free classes, but how are you taking care of your employees during this time? What is the kind of compensation that they're receiving? And then kind of a two-parter here-- just a cursory search through your locations on your website, I see that there are nine-- at least nine coming soon locations all around the world. Can you give us sort of a status update on any of those? I imagine that there is a bit of a pause right now.

JOEY GONZALEZ: Yeah. So communication and connectedness has been the priority over the past few weeks. And I've hosted calls with different subsets of our employee base just to walk through our two-week plan. And when I say two-week plan, that's the only way through this for us, because we can't really build strategy beyond two weeks. Because every single day we wake up, information and circumstances have changed.

So we're doing our best to continue paying as many employees as possible for as long as we can. We also have a group of international partners with whom we've been communicating every step of the way. So we place a huge emphasis on community, and our various family's everything to us. So maintaining that connectivity for us has been crucial. In terms of our development, there are some projects that we're already sort of halfway through construction. And in cities and markets where they're allowing us to continue, we are. But there has certainly been a pause on a lot of our other development just based on waiting to see what happens over the next few weeks.

JULIE HYMAN: Joey, thank you so much for joining us. And it's amazing to think about a 20,000-person class led remotely. Joey Gonzalez is the CEO of Barry's Bootcamp. Appreciate your time.

JOEY GONZALEZ: Thank you.