We recently connected with Colleen Kirk and have shared our conversation below.

Colleen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

Revolution was founded on the principles of “Mind, Body & Community.” We sweat together to better our minds and bodies, but also to take a piece of that positivity and spread it back into the community – aka “Sweat it forward.'” This is brought to life through many avenues – donation classes where proceeds are shared with local organizations like Black Boys Read Too, Compass House, GLYS, Candles in the Sun, Colored Girls Bike too, and many more. We invite staff and clients to organize classes of this nature to support the causes that mean the most to them personally. We also participate in Ice Cycle Buffalo for Roswell Park and host the Parkinson’s revolution annually – with team fundraising reaching over 100K combined for this year’s efforts! We are proud to use the platform of wellness to support our neighbors and community and keep this mindset at the forefront of all decision-making and event planning each year as we continue to grow.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Revolution is a women-owned boutique fitness studio in the heart of Buffalo, NY, offering more than 70 group classes a week including indoor cycling, running, rowing, strength, and more. We first opened in 2014 in a small carriage house on Delaware Ave with 18 classes, all taught by the owners. Fast forward today and we have approximately 24 employees, 8,000 square feet of space and the best workout classes and community Buffalo has to offer. No amenity is overlooked, from off-street parking to full-service locker rooms stocked with local products, and the ability to pre-book classes, to the small details like extra hair ties – all these special touches help remove any barriers from making your workout happen.

Colleen Kirk, Rachel McCrone and Amanda Meyers are the co-founders and owners of Revolution Buffalo. They joined forces more than years ago after many years working in the WNY fitness community – to bring Buffalo a boutique fitness studio that offers clients the both the opportunity to better themselves and the community around them,

Any advice for managing a team?

Open communication – informal and formal at all times! Between the three of us, we make a conscious effort to have regular sit-downs with staff to ensure we’re all on the same page regarding expectations, scheduling, and offering up the formal opportunity for anyone to bring anything on their minds to the table. Informally, we’re available via phone or email, almost 24/7 for anyone on the team who needs us! We’ve also recently started utilizing the chat platform Discord to help organize communications and give all team members a place to communicate with each other on topics ranging from sub/schedule requests, general announcements, to events and random fun!

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

One of the toughest moments for our business was the pandemic. Gyms were closed in Buffalo, NY for almost 18 months, and Revolution, despite not being a gym in the traditional sense, was still included in that bucket. We made the most of the situation renting bikes out to clients, creating a makeshift content studio filming team members coaching workouts solo on-site to bring fitness into out clients’ homes, and relied on grant funding and a few other small areas of financial flexibility to help the business stay afloat. Our customers expressed unprecedented loyalty, and once the bans were lifted, we took classes to outdoor locations and even a location with additional square footage to help folks feel safer more spread out from each other. We are grateful to have worked through it all with a staff and clientele that showed us an enormous amount of grace and faith in a very tough period for the business and industry, and are proud to be on the other side of it all!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.revolutionbuffalo.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/revolutionbuffalo

Image Credits
Meccay Photography; Moonshine Studio of Photography