Strong Pilates franchise cost: $399,995 to $1,007,300 per the 2026 FDD, a $59,000 fee, 8% royalty and 2% marketing fund. Item 19 covers just 5 of 8 studios.
Quick answer A Strong Pilates studio costs $399,995 to $1,007,300 to open per Item 7 of the 2026 FDD, including a $59,000 franchise fee. The royalty is 8% of revenue, with a $2,000 monthly minimum after year one, plus a 2% marketing fund. Item 19 reports $78,678 average monthly revenue across just 5 studios.
The 2026 disclosure from Strong Pilates US, Inc., issued April 24, 2026, prices one studio at $399,995 to $1,007,300. The franchise fee is $59,000. The royalty is 8% of revenue, plus a 2% marketing fund.
Say this first and plainly: Strong Pilates is a very young franchise in the United States. Item 20 shows 1 U.S. studio at the end of 2024 and 7 at the end of 2025. Item 19 counts 8 open as of March 31, 2026. The franchisor owns none. Item 7 Note 16 states that neither the franchisor nor its affiliates have ever developed and opened a Strong Pilates studio in the U.S.; the cost estimates rest on 22 studios its affiliates developed in Australia beginning in 2019.
The concept is a Pilates class on a reformer bed with a built-in rowing machine (the Rowformer) or bike (the Bikeformer), in a 2,500 to 3,000 square foot studio. The early U.S. revenue numbers are strong. They come from five studios. Every section below cites the 2026 FDD by Item and page, and the caveats matter as much as the figures.
| Item 7 line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $59,000 | $59,000 |
| Real estate fee | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Strong Academy fee | $9,000 | $9,000 |
| Real property and site lease (4 months) | $25,000 | $150,000 |
| Design and planning | $5,000 | $18,000 |
| Leasehold improvements | $75,000 | $350,000 |
| Furniture, fixtures and equipment | $25,000 | $100,000 |
| Rowformer and Bikeformer machines | $113,850 | $163,800 |
| Signage, Strong equipment, merchandise | $9,000 | $14,000 |
| Soft costs | $2,625 | $5,250 |
| Insurance | $2,520 | $5,250 |
| Computer system and software | $500 | $3,000 |
| Training and opening assistance | $7,500 | $12,500 |
| Security and utility deposits | $1,000 | $4,500 |
| Business licenses, including fitness club bonds | $20,000 | $53,000 |
| Grand opening advertising | $25,000 plus agency fees | $25,000 plus agency fees |
| Presales fee (optional) | $0 | $2,500 per month |
| Additional funds, 3 months | $15,000 | $30,000 |
| Total | $399,995 | $1,007,300 |
Leasehold improvements, rent and the machines account for most of the spread. Note 4 says the low end assumes a smaller suburban space and the high end a larger urban one with no landlord contribution to the build-out.
The machines are the line to understand. Note 6 prices them at $6,325 per Rowformer and $6,825 per Bikeformer, about 18 beds for a standard studio and up to 24 for a large one. They must be bought from the franchisor or its affiliate at least four months before installation. Prices are locked for a year after signing and are expected to rise 3% to 5% a year before any tariff changes, and the FDD warns twice that new U.S. tariffs on overseas shipments may raise them further. The cover page says $196,875 to $260,965 of the total investment is paid to the franchisor or its affiliates.
Two items sit outside the total. The grand opening line requires $20,000 of digital advertising and $5,000 of local marketing, and you also pay agency fees of 15% to 25% of the spend, which Item 7 leaves out of the sum. The optional presales fee of $2,500 a month runs 12 to 16 weeks before opening, and up to 20 to 24 weeks if member targets are missed. Item 5 says the fee may become mandatory. At 16 weeks that is roughly $10,000 more; at 24 weeks, about $15,000.
The business license line is larger than most fitness buyers expect, $20,000 to $53,000, because several states require surety bonds for health clubs that sell prepaid memberships (Note 13). Our Item 7 walkthrough explains how to stress-test a table like this one.
Item 11 says opening should take about nine months and no more than twelve. The Franchise Agreement requires site approval within nine months of signing and opening within a year.
The initial franchise fee is $59,000 per studio, paid at signing and nonrefundable except in one case: if the franchisor terminates you for failing initial training, it refunds half the fee.
Multi-unit buyers get a tiered discount:
| Studios | Fee per studio |
|---|---|
| 1 | $59,000 |
| 2 | $55,000 ($110,000 total) |
| 3 | $50,000 ($150,000 total) |
| 4 | $45,000 ($180,000 total) |
| 5 to 9 | $40,000 |
| 10 or more | $35,000 |
Item 5 notes that all 16 franchise agreements signed in fiscal 2025 were sold at the full $59,000.
Development Agreements are offered only for commitments of 10 or more studios. They carry a development fee of $5,000 per studio, with $25,000 for units one through five paid up front, and the first five franchise fees must also be paid in full at the start.
Three more one-time fees go to the franchisor: a $5,000 real estate fee at signing for site selection help, a $9,000 Strong Academy fee before training, and $2,000 to $4,000 in travel reimbursement for the opening support team. You also buy a starter equipment package ($2,500 to $3,000), technology equipment (about $1,000) and branded merchandise ($4,525 to $6,165) from the franchisor or its affiliate.
The recurring fees, all as a share of revenue unless stated:
At the Item 19 median studio, with $82,788.68 in monthly revenue, that works out to about $6,623 in royalty, $1,656 to the marketing fund, $1,242 in local marketing and $500 for technology: roughly $10,000 a month, or about $120,000 a year. That is our arithmetic on the disclosed rates, before rent, instructors and the CRM subscription.
Other Item 6 terms that shape the deal:
| Fee or term | Amount |
|---|---|
| Transfer fee | 40% of the then-current initial franchise fee, plus costs |
| New term (renewal) | $10,000 plus out-of-pocket costs |
| Meetings and conferences | Up to $1,500 per day per person |
| Required training | Up to $5,000 |
| Late payment | 1.5% of the overdue balance, plus 12% annual interest |
| Premises upgrade | Required within 2 months of notice, including a complete fit-out |
Three contract terms deserve as much attention as the fees.
Minimum Performance Criteria. Item 12 (page 38) sets minimums for each six-month assessment period: average revenue of at least $4,000 a week, loyalty program transactions of 10% of revenue, no more than 2 complaints a week, at least 5 “Strong Human” memberships sold a week, 50 Rowformer classes a week and at least 30 classes a week. Miss them and you attend a meeting at your cost and may be sent to retraining. Miss them again within six months and you must sell the studio within three months, and the franchisor may terminate. The franchisor can reset the criteria from the second anniversary and add sales or membership targets.
Buy-back option. Item 17 gives the franchisor an option to buy your studio if it changes ownership, does a roll-up, converts to a corporate network, makes a large trade sale or goes public. The price is your start-up costs plus $50,000 in the first 12 months, or three times the last full year’s EBITDA after that. The state risk page warns this may be below what a third party would pay.
Personal exposure. The risk page also notes that the franchisor can require your spouse to guarantee the franchise obligations even without an ownership interest, and disputes must be litigated in Texas.
The territory is defined by population, generally about 90,000 people around the studio (Item 12), and Item 12 states that it is not exclusive. The franchisor agrees not to put another franchised Strong Pilates studio inside it, but reserves online sales, marketing and other channels.
Item 19 reports average monthly revenue for five “Reporting Studios” from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
| Reporting studio | Full months included | Average monthly revenue |
|---|---|---|
| A | 8 | $97,154.78 |
| B | 7 | $84,180.09 |
| C | 12 | $82,788.68 |
| D | 9 | $79,550.36 |
| E | 9 | $49,718.93 |
| Average | $78,678 |
The median, Studio C, did $82,788.68 a month. Four of the five came in at or above the $78,678 average.
Multiplied by 12, the average works out to about $944,000 a year and the median to about $993,000. The FDD does not state annual figures; those are our arithmetic, and they assume a studio holds its monthly pace all year, which only one of these studios has shown.
The caveats are the story here.
The sample is 5 studios. Eight were open on March 31, 2026. The franchisor excluded three: two had not been open more than six months, and one did not have a studio manager in place for six months of the period. Excluding a studio for management turnover removes exactly the kind of studio a new owner might run.
Most of the data is partial-year. One studio contributed 12 months. The others contributed 7, 8, 9 and 9. Item 19 also drops each studio’s first partial month and states that a studio needs about six months to ramp up, so the months included lean toward each studio’s better period.
The data is unaudited. Revenue was pulled from the studios’ CRM and aggregator platforms such as ClassPass, and the franchisor says it has not independently audited or verified it.
Revenue is not profit. Item 19 discloses no rent, payroll, instructor cost or owner earnings.
The spread inside five studios is telling. Studio E ran $49,718.93 a month, almost half of Studio A. At Studio E’s pace, about $597,000 a year, the fee load above comes to roughly $75,000, and a build at the high end of Item 7 looks very different. Use Studio E, not the average, as your downside case, and remember that the excluded studios may have done worse. Item 19 explained and our note on average versus median cover why small samples and exclusions push reported figures up. The Strong Pilates financials facet shows how this disclosure sits in our database.
| Year | Start | Opened | Closed or terminated | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 7 |
At the end of 2025 the seven studios were in Texas (3), New York (3) and New Jersey (1). There were no transfers, terminations, non-renewals or closures in any year, which in a system this young says little either way.
The pipeline is three times the open base. Item 20 lists 24 signed franchise agreements for studios not yet open: 8 in Texas, 5 in New York, 4 in California, 2 each in Illinois and New Jersey, and 1 each in Maryland, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The franchisor projects 21 franchised openings in the next fiscal year.
The franchisor’s finances are the other half of Item 20’s picture. Item 21 attaches audited statements for fiscal 2025 showing revenue of $875,136, a net loss of $2,103,918 and a shareholder’s deficit of $3,712,969 at year end. The fiscal 2024 net loss was $1,500,091. The balance sheet carries $3,269,500 in unearned revenue and an $853,057 note payable to a related party. The notes to the statements report positive operating cash flow of about $510,000 in 2025 and say management’s projections are sufficient to support operations for at least a year. The state-required risk page still lists “Financial Condition” and “Short Operating History” among its special risks.
The people running the U.S. business come from the fitness franchise world. Item 2 lists Director of Operations Heather Christie, formerly chief operating officer of F45 Training in Austin, and the Australian franchisor’s general manager, Kat Hegarty, a former F45 senior vice president. President Michael Ramsey and CEO Mark Armstrong are both officers of the Australian parent. The U.S. franchisor’s principal place of business is in South Melbourne, Australia, with a mailing address in Austin. Item 3 discloses no litigation and Item 4 no bankruptcy.
Item 8 shows where franchisor revenue comes from. Of the $875,136, $580,818 (66%) came from franchisee purchases of products and services. Separately, the Australian affiliate Strong Pilates Global Pty Ltd received $1,392,000 from equipment sales to U.S. franchisees in its 2025 fiscal year.
| Brand | Item 7 range | Fee | Royalty | Units on file | Item 19 median on file |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong Pilates | $399,995 to $1,007,300 | $59,000 | 8% | 7 | $82,788.68 per month (5 studios) |
| Club Pilates | $403,289 to $1,029,811 | $65,000 | 8% | 1,179 | $978,300 |
| Studio Pilates | $502,732 to $869,732 | $50,000 | 8% | 20 | $595,224 |
| YogaSix | $533,999 to $1,026,853 | $60,000 | 7% | 191 | $501,800 |
| Pilates Addiction | $320,532 to $752,335 | not on file | 8% | 11 | none on file |
| Pilates Republic | $375,137 to $584,106 | $50,000 | 6% | 4 | none on file |
Figures for the other brands come from each brand’s most recent FDD in our database, and sample definitions differ.
Strong Pilates prices itself almost exactly against Club Pilates: a near-identical Item 7 range, the same 8% royalty and a fee $6,000 lower. Its annualized Item 19 median lands near Club Pilates’ $978,300. The difference is the evidence behind each number. Club Pilates’ median rests on more than a thousand studios. Strong Pilates’ rests on five, only one with a full year. Our Club Pilates cost breakdown and the Club Pilates Item 19 analysis show what a mature Pilates disclosure looks like, and our best yoga, Pilates and barre franchises ranking covers the wider field. The fitness and wellness category lists every brand we track.
Strong Pilates has early numbers that compare well with the category leader. It does not yet have the history to prove them. Underwrite at Studio E’s revenue, hold reserves beyond the Item 7 additional funds, and treat every figure above as a first reading.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
Item 7 of the 2026 Strong Pilates FDD estimates $399,995 to $1,007,300 for one studio. The biggest lines are leasehold improvements ($75,000 to $350,000), Rowformer and Bikeformer machines bought from the franchisor or its affiliate ($113,850 to $163,800), and four months of rent ($25,000 to $150,000). The total excludes agency fees on grand opening advertising and the optional presales fee.
The initial franchise fee is $59,000 for a single studio (Item 5). Multi-unit buyers pay $55,000 per studio for two, $50,000 for three, $45,000 for four, $40,000 each for five to nine, and $35,000 each for ten or more. You also pay a $5,000 real estate fee at signing and a $9,000 Strong Academy training fee before training.
The royalty is 8% of revenue, paid monthly by direct debit (Item 6). It is waived for the first three months after opening, and from twelve months after opening it becomes the greater of $2,000 or 8% each month. The marketing fund adds 2% of revenue from the third month, you must spend at least 1.5% on local marketing, and the technology fee is currently $500 a month, capped at $1,500.
Item 19 of the 2026 FDD reports average monthly revenue of $78,678 across five reporting studios from April 2025 to March 2026, with a median of $82,788.68. The range ran from $49,718.93 to $97,154.78. Only one studio was open all 12 months, three studios were excluded, and the figures are revenue, not profit.
Item 20 of the 2026 FDD shows 7 franchised U.S. studios at the end of 2025 (3 in Texas, 3 in New York and 1 in New Jersey), up from 1 a year earlier. Item 19 counts 8 open as of March 31, 2026. There are no company-owned U.S. studios, and 24 signed agreements had not yet opened.
The U.S. franchisor is Strong Pilates US, Inc., a Texas corporation formed February 3, 2023, with its principal place of business in South Melbourne, Australia. Its parent is Strong Pilates Holdings Pty Ltd. An Australian affiliate has franchised the brand there since January 2020, and Item 7 cites 22 Australian studios as the basis for its cost estimates.
It is an early-stage bet. The FDD's own risk page flags a short operating history and the franchisor's financial condition, and Item 19 rests on five studios. The disclosed revenue is strong for the category, but the fee load runs above 11% of revenue and the franchisor can buy your studio back at three times EBITDA if it is sold or rolled up.
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