“Core Tips”
What kind of business experience is behind HYROX, which is valued at 600 million euros?
作者 | 詹方歌
編輯 | 邢昀
On September 12, at the HYROX Beijing Station, Joanna Wietrzyk, an Australian player in the women’s elite group and the record holder of this event, suddenly became incontinent during the game and contaminated the track. However, the referee did not stop the game, and she still finished the race and won the championship.
The resulting double-standard penalties, as well as the health concerns of other participants in the venue, have once again put HYROX in the spotlight of public opinion.
An audience member who was there that day told “Leopard Change” that she arrived at the scene two hours after Joanna finished the game. At that time, “a lot of sweat was mixed with a bit of stench, and it was hard to tell where it came from.” Perhaps it was for psychological reasons. Now that she thinks about it, she “still feels like vomiting.”
At five o’clock in the afternoon, Wang Fan arrived at the competition as a player. He said that there was no smell in the venue at that time, the track was also cleaned, and no traces were visible.
On September 14, HYROX issued the latest rectification statement stating that it would commit to promoting the addition of detailed rules for event suspension in the scenario of “extreme physical discomfort and public health risks at the venue”, but it has not yet re-explained the penalties for this game.
The volume of controversy is directly proportional to the size of the business. The reason why this controversy quickly emerged is inseparable from the popularity of HYROX in the past two years. Although the HYROX competition will only be launched in China in November 2024, it has quickly become the new favorite of the middle class with its standardized competition system, quantifiable performance system and strong social communication attributes.
In less than ten years since its establishment, HYROX has built a business feast around sports consumption and become the most lightweight winner among them.
1. It is a competition venue and a huge traffic pool.
If you look at it from a business perspective, HYROX is actually not just a venue for athletes, but also aA giant traffic field that boils people, cameras, and topics.
Public information shows that different HYROX stations have their own title sponsors, such as Ulike for the Beijing station, Taobao flash sales for the Chengdu station, and Zhongan Insurance for the Shanghai station. Zhongan Insurance is also its strategic partner for 2026. At the same time, it also has long-term sponsors such as Puma, Amazfit, and RedBull, and BYD has won the naming rights for events in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to Wang Fan’s description, this time in Beijing Station, from the moment they entered the venue, the moving line was full of booths, including but not limited to Lululemon, Didi, Land Rover, etc. Participants and audiences could participate in games set up by the brand, take photos and check in, and other activities. Land Rover even drove a car into the venue and placed medicine balls for interaction.
In addition to brand partners, participants are also trying to take a share of this huge traffic field.
The vast majority of ordinary sports fans can earn some social currency by checking in, taking photos, and sending them to social media. This is also part of the consumption of this movement.
For sports practitioners, fitness KOLs, and even celebrities, such commercial events are part of traffic monetization.
A fitness coach told “Leopard Transformation” that in the last two HYROX Beijing stations, he participated in the competition with 30 or 40 members and coaches. This time, they have reached a cooperation with a sports nutrition brand, which provides supplement products and follows the whole process. In exchange, they will put brand tattoo stickers on the competition uniforms and cooperate with interviews. This is a common brand swap.
Celebrities and bloggers are extremely important content carriers in this business feast. Celebrities such as Zhang Jike and Wang Shi participated in the competition before. This time in Beijing, the participation of Zheng Kai and Wu Jianhao brought a lot of topics to the event. As for bloggers, “They don’t make a living through competitions. Instead, they need competitions to bring traffic, and then rely on the traffic to sell goods and receive brand sponsorships.” A person close to fitness KOL said.
On the social platform, a blogger said that even if he saw the chaos in Beijing on social media, he would not be able to withdraw from the Shanghai station because the sponsorship products sent by the brand have been used, so he must participate.
More closely related to the event are elite players like Joanna, the protagonist of this controversy. When participating in the competition, they often carry many advertising spots, such as competition clothing. Public information shows that Joanna was originally a coach at a gym in Melbourne. She only came into contact with HYROX for the first time in the summer of 2024. In November of the same year, she won the women’s elite championship in Hong Kong. In less than two years, she became the women’s world record holder, an Amazfit contracted athlete, and also participated in HYROX’s offline training master class in China.
In HYROX’s business model, brands, star athletes and event parties are a community of interests:Elite athletes are walking billboards, and brands spend money to sponsor athletes and events，HYROX relies on the achievements and topics of star athletes to continue to generate large traffic and serve the brand.. The three parties achieve mutual success.
From this perspective, we may better understand HYROX’s controversial statement. According to reports, HYROX supported Joanna in a previous statement and warned that anyone who attacks athletes in comments, private messages or social media will be “permanently banned from all HYROX events.” Officials pointed the finger at the public but said nothing about the penalties.
Under this commercial narrative, every ordinary contestant who bought a ticket and completed the race seriously was ignored. The track is polluted and the only people who are really put at risk are the ordinary people who are on the same track and those who come after. They also used real money to support this business, and they should have been treated with fairness and respect.
2. Sudden explosion
While ignoring ordinary contestants, HYROX is open to the publicThe registration fee is actually quite expensive。
It is reported that the registration fee for a single group is between 638 yuan and 799 yuan, a double group starts at 1,199 yuan, and a four-person relay starts at 1,488 yuan. In comparison, the registration fee for domestic marathon events is generally in the range of 100 to 200 yuan.
So, why is such an event so popular among the middle class?
HYROX’s competition format is not complicated and combines running and fitness: 8 kilometers of running are alternated with 8 functional training stations, including push and pull sleds, rowing machines, burpees, kettlebell farmer’s walks, wall balls, etc. Senior fitness coaches and many fitness enthusiasts told “Leopard Transformation” that the threshold of HYROX is not high, especially in the four-person relay mode, the physical requirements are lowered, and certain social needs are also taken into account.
“It does not have difficult movement skills, such as the farmer’s walk. It is actually very similar to carrying shopping bags when you go to the supermarket to buy things. Putting many basic exercises together will make the threshold of this exercise lower.” A fitness coach told “Leopard Transformation”.
In addition, all HYROX competitions are held indoors and according to unified equipment and timing standards, so the results of different cities and different players can bePut into the same global ranking list, players can easily see their global ranking after completing the game.And continue to hit your personal best next time. This may also partially explain why HYROX is so popular among the middle class.
According to Jiemian News, there were about 1,700 contestants when HYROX China’s first station landed in Beijing in November 2024. By May 2026, the number of participants in the Shanghai station had exceeded 10,000, and the scale had grown significantly within 18 months.
Wang Fan runs a fitness center BIG FUN Fitness Club in Beijing. According to his observation, HYROX suddenly became popular this year. He said that at the Beijing Station in March this year, the popularity of the event was not that high. “I can still hesitate a little and report again in two days.” But by September, registration was as difficult as grabbing concert tickets. You had to stay in advance and the ticket grabbing system collapsed.
Ticket prices are also rising. Wang Fan recalled that in March this year, audience tickets at Beijing Railway Station only cost 60 yuan. By September, at the same Beijing Railway Station, ticket prices rose to 80 yuan.
What is even more intriguing is that a HYROX contestant told “Leopard Change” that he observed that although there were vacated spots in Sanya Station due to recent public opinion, some people withdrew from the competition, but the vacated spots were quickly taken away by other members of the group. On the one hand, public opinion is increasingly criticizing and boycotting the organizers; on the other hand, this event does have quite loyal fans.
From a capital perspective, this is definitely a good business.
Public information shows that HYROX was founded in Hamburg, Germany in 2017. Infront Sports, controlled by Wanda Group, made a strategic investment in HYROX in 2019 and obtained a controlling stake in 2022. On September 8, 2026, Infront Sports announced that it would sell its majority stake in HYROX to a consortium led by consumer investment institution L Catterton (part of LVMH). The two co-founders of HYROX and investment institution WndrCo also participated.
In this transaction, the overall valuation of HYROX is approximately 600 million euros. According to Jiemian reports, Infront Sports has received dozens of times in returns in 7 years.
3. Asset-light business: the binding of gyms and coaches
For HYROX, selling tickets is only part of the business. It is also selling its own IP to gyms and fitness coaches. At the same time,Gyms and fitness coaches are the best traffic funnels for HYROX。
In public reports, one of the founders of HYROX and Olympic hockey champion Moritz First once said that his original intention was to use a cost of about 200,000 euros to create an event that looked like 2 million euros, which determined its asset-light gene.
Specifically in China, at the beginning of 2025, HYROX had only a dozen partner gyms across the country. According to official news released in July this year, the number of cooperative gyms has exceeded 600, including some stores of Lovefitt and Super Orangutan under Lox.
Two documents related to the cooperation between the gym and the HYROX project obtained by “Leopard Transformation” show that the HYROX brand licensing fee is 10,850 yuan per year. In addition to the right to use the brand, the gym will also receive an operating service guide. The logic is to dismantle HYROX into a replicable transformation chain: from member ability assessment and grading, advanced courses, to “no less than once a month” in-venue theme games to attract new traffic, to coach training, etc. are all mentioned. Authorized gyms must meet hardware requirements, such as equipped with a certain number of wind resistance bicycles, equipped with equipment according to standards, and the track must reach a specified length, etc.
This licensing fee can also provide gyms with stable revenue driven by event popularity.. The above-mentioned contestants told “Leopard Transformation” that in Super Orangutan’s group classes, there are several preparation courses for HYROX, some focusing on strength and some focusing on cardiopulmonary. Another gym operator said that when the competition is approaching, HYROX competition preparation courses are full.
It’s not just gyms that can make money by relying on HYROX. Personal coaches can also get involved, such as obtaining HYROX certification, becoming a HYROX coach, and then monetizing it by teaching competition preparation courses.
It is reported that HYROX’s coaching education is operated by the sub-brand HYROX365, and the certification is divided into three levels. Information on the official website shows that the entry-level Foundation course is priced at US$49; the advanced Level 1 is priced at US$299 (packaged with Level 2 for US$629).
All three courses are 100% online and self-paced, with no offline practice. According to fitness media Inspired BySports, the completion rate of Level 1 is over 98%, and there is no passing line. However, the prerequisite for registration is that the students themselves have national-level personal training qualifications. in the country, HYROX has a set of offline courses undertaken by Saipu, a fitness training institution.
In addition, if you want to use the title of “HYROX Performance Coach”, enter the official coaching directory to be trafficked, and use the HYROX brand, the coach must pay an additional annual franchise fee that is separate from the course, priced at US$1,150 per year.
More than one fitness instructor told “Leopard Change” that this course “is not that valuable.”
HYROX’s rapid expansion in China demonstrates the commercial efficiency of an asset-light event IP business, making only the best money.
It does not run gyms, does not raise coaches, and hardly buys traffic. Instead, it easily shuttles between gyms, fitness coaches, brands, KOLs… these individuals who need to monetize traffic, and forms a bond for them. Brands need exposure, gyms need business, coaches need names, bloggers need sponsorship and monetization, and all these needs ultimately converge into the same action: buy a HYROX ticket and buy a license from HYROX.
But making money is too easy and can easily be counterattacked. At present, HYROX has exposed its rather weak control over the event. Afterwards, HYROX China admitted in a rectification statement that the current competition manual “does not set clear penalty regulations for such situations.” One event participant told “Leopard Change” that it was hard for him to believe that an event that is held every month and every venue is full has such a huge loophole in the penalty rules.
