VANCOUVER -- A well-established Vancouver gym is searching for a new name as it joins a growing list of fitness centres that are severing ties with CrossFit.
“It’s been an ongoing problem with CrossFit headquarters,” said CrossFit 604 owner Jason Darr. “There are constantly things that are really cringe-worthy. We got a Christmas card one year that was a cartoon of sick children.”
But it was controversial remarks and then tweets by CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman, in which Glassman compared the death of George Floyd to COVID-19, that was too much for owners of the Vancouver gym.
“To hear comments that he would make about, ‘Oh, we’re not mourning for George Floyd’ is just like, oh my God, absolutely appalling,” said Darr.
Changing a company’s name is costly. Letterheads, business cards and signage have to be changed, not to mention paying for a new design and advertising. Darr figured it will cost at least $10,000. His gym will also be walking away from $4,000 worth of merchandise that was created just before the facility was shut down due to the pandemic.
Glassman has since quit the company, but not before some 1,250 gyms have cut ties with CrossFit. Annual dues cost U.S. $3,000.
“I know that by not sending another cent to CrossFit headquarters, that is one way that I can immediately be in control of a change we can make,” Darr said passionately.
