Purpose Brands LLC

What does Purpose Brands own?
Purpose Brands owns seven fitness and wellness franchise brands: Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, The Bar Method, Basecamp Fitness, SUMHIIT Fitness, Waxing the City, and Stronger U. Together they operate more than 7,000 franchised locations in about 50 countries.

Is Purpose Brands publicly traded?
No. Purpose Brands is privately held, backed by private equity firm Roark Capital along with the founders and leadership of its predecessor companies. There is no stock ticker and no public financial filings.

Who founded Purpose Brands?
Purpose Brands was not founded by individuals. It was created in April 2024 by merging Orangetheory Fitness and Self Esteem Brands in an all-stock transaction. The two predecessor companies were founded by Ellen Latham and Dave Long, and by Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger, respectively.

Where is Purpose Brands headquartered?
The company maintains dual headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida and Woodbury, Minnesota, reflecting the home bases of Orangetheory Fitness and Self Esteem Brands before the merger.

How many brands does Purpose Brands own?
Seven. Anytime Fitness is the largest by location count at about 5,810 clubs, followed by Orangetheory with more than 1,400 studios. The remaining five brands are smaller regional or niche franchises.

Who owns Purpose Brands?
Ownership sits with private equity firm Roark Capital, which had backed both predecessor companies, plus founders and management who rolled their stakes into the merger. The exact ownership percentages are not public.

Purpose Brands does not have a long history of its own because it is a merger vehicle. Its story starts with its two predecessors.

Self Esteem Brands grew out of Anytime Fitness, founded in 2002 in Minnesota by Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger. The 24-hour, small-format gym concept expanded through franchising into the largest fitness club network in the world. Runyon and Mortensen later layered on adjacent concepts: waxing franchise Waxing the City in 2012, group workout concept Basecamp Fitness in 2018, barre studio The Bar Method in 2019, nutrition coaching service Stronger U in 2021, and the international variant SUMHIIT Fitness.

Orangetheory Fitness was founded in 2010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by Ellen Latham and Dave Long. Its one-hour interval workout built around heart rate monitors grew to more than 1,500 studios in about two dozen countries, generating roughly $1.25 billion in systemwide sales by 2022.

Roark Capital had invested in both companies, taking a stake in Self Esteem Brands in 2014 and in Orangetheory in 2016. In February 2024 the two companies announced a merger of equals structured as an all-stock transaction. The deal closed on April 2, 2024, creating a portfolio with about $3.5 billion in systemwide sales and roughly 7,000 locations across 50 countries and territories.

The combined entity spent its first months without a public name. In October 2024 the company revealed the Purpose Brands identity and named Tom Leverton its first chief executive. Leverton had previously run Topgolf, CEC Entertainment, and Omniflight, and had been a partner at Pritzker Private Capital. Orangetheory co-founder Dave Long and Self Esteem Brands co-founder Chuck Runyon took senior roles focused on growth and franchise relations during the transition.

Through 2025 the company consolidated shared functions while keeping the consumer brands separate, and finished the year with about 7,270 locations. Executives described the central lesson of the first year as protecting what makes each brand distinct while using combined scale to build shared technology, real estate, and franchisee-support capabilities.

As a franchise system, Purpose Brands and its predecessor companies face recurring scrutiny typical of the sector rather than a single defining scandal. Anytime Fitness clubs have drawn consumer complaints over billing and membership cancellation practices, which are administered locally by franchisees. Orangetheory faced a 2024 class action in California alleging that studio closures stranded prepaid members; the company has disputed the claims. Franchise systems are also subject to state franchise registration laws, and the predecessor brands have had the ordinary disputes with former franchisees that large systems accumulate over time.