A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter by Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up to receive future editions directly to your inbox.
Equinox’s chairman says there is a waiting list of more than 1,000 people for the $40,000 annual membership as demand for luxury health and wellness programs soars.
The luxury fitness chain’s Optimize by Equinox, launched in 2024, is one of the most expensive gym memberships in the world and includes everything from personal training and nutrition to sleep coaching, massage therapy and a “health concierge.”
Equinox executive chairman Harvey Spevak told Inside Wealth that the program has seen impressive demand, highlighting the “insatiable” demand among wealthy individuals for longevity and wellness products.
“Health is the new luxury,” Spevak said. “In the experience economy, what consumers want most, other than travel, is how they can live a high-performance lifestyle.”
The Optimize program is all part of Equinox’s strategy to become the leading luxury brand in the fast-growing health and wellness business.
The global wellness market is expected to reach nearly $10 trillion by 2030, up from $6.8 trillion in 2024, according to estimates by the Global Wellness Institute. The wealthy are driving much of the spending as the population of millionaires and billionaires ages and companies and products promising miracle cures explode.
Equinox has expanded beyond health clubs into hotels and hospitality, personalized performance programs, infusion centers and blood testing collaborations.
The company opened its first hotel in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards district in 2019, and is about to open a second hotel in Saudi Arabia. Spevak said Equinox is likely to open nearly a dozen hotels around the world, including in the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States, within the next seven to eight years.
Equinox currently has 115 health clubs and plans to open 40 more, including in Nashville. Toronto; Charlotte, North Carolina. and South Florida. Despite being New York’s largest retailer by square foot, the company continues to add more stores in its home state, Spevak said.
Optimize membership leverages Function Health, a clinical testing company, to provide clients with 100 biomarker tests twice a year to serve as a guide to a personalized fitness, nutrition and lifestyle program for each client.
Spevak said the program is being rolled out in Los Angeles and Dallas, and will eventually launch in New York.
The company also recently created a personalized program for women called EQX ARC. The program is designed to suit women at different stages of their life and health journeys, using diagnostics, wearables and expert coaching, and already has its own waiting list.
Spevak said the company’s infusion lounge at the Equinox Hotel at Hudson Yards – the only infusion lounge so far – is already a “seven-figure business.”
Equinox Hudson Yards is the truest realization of the brand’s holistic lifestyle promise, offering members access to signature group fitness classes, a 25-yard indoor saltwater pool, hot and cold plunge pools, and a 15,000-square-foot outdoor leisure pool and sundeck. Equinox at Hudson Yards offers ample opportunities to train, work, regenerate, socialize, build community, dine, and more.
Matthew Payton | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Equinox is private and does not disclose its financials, but Spevak said 2025 was a “record year” for the company and he expects 2026 to be “even bigger.” He said other high-end consumer companies have approached Equinox to partner in the health and wellness space.
“Given the economy’s shift from a product economy to an experience economy, many large consumer companies are asking, ‘How can we continue to serve consumers and health? Who do we turn to?'”
“There’s really only one brand that has the authority and brand equity,” he says.
