We were lucky to catch up with Tim Haft recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tim, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Punk Rope was decades in the making, but it came into sharp relief in 2003 while I was recovering from knee surgery. As my mobility and strength improved, I began testing my limits and quickly realized that I could no longer safely play any of the sports that I enjoyed including basketball, football, and soccer. At 43 I was an old dog and needed some new tricks. Although I had never participated in group fitness classes, I decided I might as well give them a shot. For several months I tried more than a dozen classes at various gyms and community centers around New York City and while some were just fine, none really got me excited. In general, I didn’t like the music; I didn’t like that the participants were working out in their own bubbles (a microcosm of the society at large); and I didn’t love the movements. After much pondering, I decided that what I would enjoy was a playful, interactive class fueled by rock ‘n’ roll that would make me feel like a kid again. And voila, Punk Rope was born! I’m not sure if I was solving a problem that anyone else perceived at the time, but 20 years later the problem of “lack of play” is more prevalent than ever so maybe I was on to something after all.

Tim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in 1960 so technically I’m a baby boomer. I grew up at a time when my friends and I would spend hours and hours playing on the streets, in the parks, and in the playgrounds of New York City. We had no smartphones or computers, and some of us had no TVs. It was a very different time. And yet humans have always been social animals and that’s just as true today as it was when I was a kid. In fact, I would argue that now more than ever, children and adults need social play and recreation. Our fellow citizens are not moving nearly enough as is evidenced by an explosion in the prevalence of obesity and lifestyle diseases. Punk Rope—and the other programs I’ve created—are an attempt to get people of all ages to get fit together through play. The term frequently used for this approach is “exercise in disguise.” The approach is still not wildly popular—actually it’s not popular at all—but the potential is there. I’m not sure I’m all that different from others in the fitness arena, but I am willing to take chances and risks and make myself vulnerable and I don’t really worry if I fall on my face. I’m also not afraid to be creative and think outside of the box, so to speak. I’m most proud of the communities I’ve built over the past 20 years. I’ve met some remarkable people doing incredible things and I hope I’ve played a small part in inspiring them to do what they do.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Shana, my co-creator, in 2005. I was teaching a Punk Rope class at the Greenpoint YMCA in Brooklyn, New York. The musical theme that night (every week I pick a different theme) was the Clash. Shana was a member of the Greenpoint Y but had never attended a Punk Rope class as it was still quite new. She was just heading home from oral surgery so was in an altered state, but wanted to squeeze in a workout before calling it a night. As she walked into the Y, she heard Joe Strummer’s unmistakable growl emanating from the gym and poked her head in to investigate. Unbeknownst to me, at the time she was studying exercise science at Queens College and putting together a research project on rope jumping. She stayed for the class, and impressively, had more stamina and better technique than anyone else. 19 years later we’re still collaborating.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As was the case with so many folks around the world, I had to pivot at the start of the pandemic. Since we no longer had the option of holding in-person classes indoors, we took to Zoom and the streets. The Zoom classes were exciting in that folks joined from all over the world, but they lacked the energy of an in-person class. Once we believed it was safe to do so, we began offering outdoor Punk Rope classes in various locations—in our backyard, in playgrounds, and on rooftops. It was a challenging few years, but we weren’t going to go quietly into the night. That’s not the punk rock spirit. With a little luck and a lot of fight we made it to the other side and are still rocking today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://punkrope.com
• Instagram: punk_rope
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-haft/
• Twitter: https://x.com/punkrope
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/punkropenyc

Image Credits

Emma Rose Milligan (last photo only)