If a company went public at nearly $1.4 billion, boasted Mark Wahlberg as a celebrity investor, and scaled to 63 countries, would you trust them enough to hand them $300,000 to $500,000 of your own money?
Thousands of people did exactly that—and then the brand unraveled into a 2023 bankruptcy, a 99% stock collapse, and a mountain of legal drama. While F45 Training remains a household name in high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a look behind the curtain reveals a structurally fragile model, rising studio closures, and a history of telling franchise buyers one thing while reality painted a completely different picture.
Yes, F45 Training is a global fitness franchise. Founded in Australia in 2011 and franchising since 2013, the company relies entirely on independent operators to fund, build, and run its studios. F45 provides a highly standardized, turnkey circuit model where daily workout programming is broadcast directly to in-studio TV screens, allowing franchisees to focus primarily on membership sales and community culture.
While F45 peaked with thousands of locations globally, corporate instability and low unit profitability have triggered notable shrinking. In the United States, the brand operates roughly 650 to 750 active locations. These studios are typically positioned in high-traffic, premium suburban strip malls and dense urban residential pockets to target affluent fitness enthusiasts.
F45 mandates a structured onboarding process for new owners, which includes:
According to F45's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), the total initial startup cost to get a single studio open ranges from $362,000 to $857,000.
| Expense Category | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
| Initial Franchise Fee | $60,000 | $60,000 |
| Equipment Pack & Setup | $115,000 | $115,000 |
| Leasehold Improvements & Build-out | $1,000 | $300,000 |
| Grand Opening Marketing | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| Additional Funds (3-Month Runway) | $60,000 | $100,000 |
The initial fee to buy an F45 territory is $60,000. However, the ongoing fixed overhead is what catches many buyers off guard. Franchisees are required to pay:
Critical Note: This means before you pay your rent, your coaches, or yourself, you owe corporate at least $5,000 to $5,500 every single month in fixed fees regardless of how many members you have.
F45’s 2026 FDD reveals that the average franchise location generates about $480,000 in annual gross sales. While their absolute top-performing "unicorn" studio brought in $1.8 million, the vast majority of their 676 tracked locations sit far closer to the average.
When you look at a median startup cost of roughly $550,000 against average sales of $480,000, the math isn't mathing.
In brick-and-mortar franchising, a strong benchmark is a 2:1 sales-to-investment ratio (meaning a $550,000 investment should ideally yield $1.1 million in annual sales). With average revenues sitting below the actual cost to build the gym, net profit margins are incredibly thin, making it exceptionally difficult for owners to recoup their capital.
At Franchise Empire, we have helped hundreds of people find, vet, buy, and launch proven, money-making businesses. To be totally blunt, we talk more people out of buying a franchise than we help get into one. When it comes to F45, the picture is incredibly clear: this is a high-risk gamble you do not need to take.
Here are the six major warning signs that make F45 an unfavorable investment right now:
As noted above, when your average sales ($480k) are lower than your median setup costs ($550k), your return on investment is fundamentally broken from day one.
F45 is starting to exhibit severe location erosion. In 2024, 38 out of 789 studios closed down. In 2025, another 44 out of the remaining 751 closed their doors. Seeing roughly 5% of a network close its doors year over year is a major red flag. It proves how brutally hard it is to survive when your fixed corporate fees, rent, and labor eat up a sub-$500k revenue stream.
We counted 12 major non-franchisor-initiated lawsuits in their FDD. Crucially, F45 signed a consent order with California regulators for making unlawful, unregistered financial performance representations between 2015 and 2019. They were caught explicitly using Facebook ads and sales pitches promising buyers $600,000 to $700,000 a year in earnings—numbers that were legally kept out of their official FDD because typical locations weren't making that kind of money.
Lawsuits allege that F45 purposefully facilitated aggressive financing schemes to push buyers into multi-unit development pipelines they couldn't afford. In a healthy franchise system, strict net worth requirements protect the buyer. Allegedly, F45 bypassed these safeguards simply to pump up their pipeline numbers, making the company look hyper-growth oriented to Wall Street while leaving individual buyers holding massive debt when the capital dried up.
F45’s parent company saw its stock price crater by over 99% from its 2021 IPO peak before being delisted from the NYSE in 2023 and declaring bankruptcy. While individual studios can still operate during restructuring, franchisor stability is everything when you are signing a 10-year agreement. A broke corporate office cannot properly support your local business.
Even without the drama, boutique fitness is a brutal, hyper-crowded sandbox. F45, Orangetheory, Pure Barre, and Burn Boot Camp are all aggressively fighting for the exact same local customer willing to drop $100 to $200 a month on a membership.
Because F45 studios are small, class capacities are strictly capped. This places a hard ceiling on your daily revenue. If you miss your membership targets by even 20%, your fixed overhead will quickly flip you from profitable to deeply unprofitable.
F45 has a genuinely great workout product, and a handful of select owners have made money. But with over 3,000 franchise brands available today, you do not need to choose the one anchored by a federal lawsuit, a 99% stock wipeout, and shrinking store numbers. You deserve a brand with transparent earnings, clean numbers, and a corporate team whose sole incentive is to see you succeed.