| rev:text
| - I've been coming to this gym for what seems like a very very long time. When I joined in December 2014 it was still Hard Candy and in full swing. It was busy, vibrant and had a very defined culture. I didn't enjoy everything about that culture - it was unprofessional, grossly mismanaged and seemed a lot like high school, but had a strong identity. I watched Hard Candy's slow demise at the hands of mismanagement over a 12 month period. I complained and become infuriated with management and atrociously behaved members more times than I could count and was plotting my exit strategy. But before I made a move the axe came down. By May 2016 Hard Candy was dead and in its place was Aura Fitness. The Church-Wellesley crowd left in droves and what was left was an adequate but sedated shell of its former self.
Aura Fitness is a perfectly decent gym. It has hoards of cardio equipment, resistance machines and free weights. It is not that busy so you can get into almost every class and never have to wait long (if at all) for machines. It is spacious, light, clean and modern with excellent views of downtown to admire while you are breaking a sweat. It has a large spin room, a large studio for classes and a beautiful heated yoga studio. The change rooms are modern with showers, a steam room and plenty of large and small lockers.
Even though I say all of this I still find this gym hard to like. I don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I go here but I don't dislike it either, I'm apathetic. Essentially this gym has no personality. The staff are aloof but acceptably polite. There seems to be an excessive amount of personal trainers lurking considering how quiet it is.
When they rebranded to Aura Fitness the gym was shut for an entire weekend. This was presumably to de-Hard Candy everything. When I returned the next week the red walls were blue and the Madonna pictures were gone. But Hard Candy was still everywhere. All of the free weights are still labelled 'HC' and the Hard Candy weight room ethics posters remained for months. To this day all of the treadmills still say 'Welcome to Hard Candy Fitness' and the button in the elevator says Hard Candy. Aura renamed their social media accounts but kept all of the old posts. They still do not have a full functioning website and didn't change over their Yelp account name until I prompted them to at the front desk. I still have my Hard Candy membership card and use it every time I visit.
I don't think Aura Fitness has found its groove yet but some things have definitely improved. Email communications go out to members now about holiday hours or disruption to services. Management replies to emails and the new influx of staff behave professionally. But it still seems like a stripped down version of what Hard Candy was for the same price.
It is hard to determine who the target clientele is. I think that it is actually someone like me. A young professional who lives downtown and works in/around the Financial District. Someone who won't do Equinox or GoodLife. And yet I don't feel particularly catered to. For one thing I still cannot get the automated electronic invoices I need to claim for my insurance through work (I have to ask each month and they do it manually). The gym also needs to acknowledge that it is further from Bay Street than Equinox or TAC. Morning classes that end at 8am do not provide adequate time to shower and get to work. 5:30pm classes after work are very appealing, and 7:30pm classes are not.
Those who work downtown and attend gyms like Equinox, TAC or GoodLife enjoy access to standard classes as well as the new and trendy ones. While this gym offers heated yoga, spin and a variety of HIIT classes disguised as something else it is missing many others. There is no regular unheated yoga, no pilates (aside from one or two reformer classes that can host 6 people max) and no boxing or martial arts of any kind. They do offer some general barre and dance classes. I've expressed to the group fitness manager my qualms about class times in the morning and the lack of unheated yoga. Additionally the yoga mats purchased in the Hard Candy days do not provide adequate grip for the excessive sweating a heated class evokes. To prevent from slipping I need 2-3 towels on my mat and my feet catching on said towels inhibits my form.
The change room amenities are slowly disappearing as well. The disposable razors are now kept at the front desk and the shaving cream and Q-tips are long gone. And they take a while to fix things. Expect to see shattered but intact glass windows held together by duct tape, and expect to see it for weeks or months.
I do not know what the future holds for this gym. I suspect its saving grace is the relationship with the troubled Aura condo that provides complimentary membership to all tenants. The clientele has evolved but like Aura's identity it is yet to be defined. Will it make any bold moves to differentiate itself? I'll have to wait and see.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)