A woman stretches before Pop Sculpt class at Pop Physique in Baltimore, Feb. 5, 2013.
Most women said they only learned their studio had shuttered when they checked the class schedule and found it empty. And while many said they felt blindsided by the closures, court records and interviews with former employees suggest Pop Physique’s owners knew for months they would have to shut down several locations over legal and financial troubles.
Barre classes, like Pop Physique, are full-body workouts that incorporate elements of ballet and low-impact, high-intensity exercises to strengthen and tone muscles. The fitness classes have exploded in popularity in the last decade, attracting a clientele of mostly women. Today, just the Silver Lake studio, two locations in New York City, and a franchise in San Marino, California, remain open.
In San Francisco, the property owner for the Russian Hill studio filed an unlawful detainer complaint against Pop Physique on Nov. 30, 2018, to evict the business after it failed to pay rent and other charges for three months. Tuttle repeatedly asked for a refund through mid-March to no avail. Now, more than three months after the studio’s closure, she and other clients may be able to use their outstanding class packages at another barre studio.In response to BuzzFeed News’ inquiry, Williams said another fitness studio in San Francisco, Pure Barre, has agreed to honor outstanding class packages purchased by clients at the former Pop Physique location in Russian Hill.
While the Upper East Side customer eventually managed to get a refund from her credit card company, most who spoke with BuzzFeed News sought refunds for up to $185 but never saw their money again. “One of the receptionists actually looked at me dead in the eye — she was like, ‘OK, we took care of it. It’s been refunded to your card,’ but it was just a lie,” Phillips said.
“Why was I able to buy this package when my location had closed?” the 29-year-old Culver City resident asked. “They apologized and said that they could move my passes to a different location, and I said it’s a little inconvenient, but sure. I don’t want these to go to waste.” “It's not my decision and it’s not my ... I can't pay them out of my personal money when I don't own that location, but it’s never what Pop Physique has stood for and it’s not what I would do,” she said. “I do know that many refunds have been done.”
Four former instructors and one front desk employee, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Williams struggled to pay them on time and sometimes resorted to making payroll through app platforms like Venmo or Zelle. Another former employee who worked at the front desk at multiple studios in Los Angeles in 2017 said she occasionally had to borrow money from her parents to make ends meet because of the late paychecks.But Williams told BuzzFeed News all employees who worked at studios she owned were paid appropriately.
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