After the end of this year, Northwest Washington residents will have to log a lot more steps to get to a dedicated exercise equipment store.
Fitness Gear and Training, described as Bellingham’s only specialty fitness retail store, has announced plans to close by Dec. 31, apparently requiring area shoppers to travel at least to Lynnwood — or into Canada — to find an equivalent retailer.
Owner Bob Palmer said the reason for shutting the doors of the colorful red, blue and black building at 1605 N. State St. was straightforward.
“I’m 78 years old. I’m way past retirement,” he said. “We tried to sell the business for a couple of years and had no takers. So the lease’s up December 31st and we’re just going to liquidate and move on.”
The closure of the store on the edge of the Sunnyland neighborhood marks the end of a 35-year-old family-run business owned by Palmer and his wife Patricia. Fitness Gear sold not only high-end exercise equipment, but also offered on-site personal training in the 6,000 square foot space’s “boutique training studio,” in addition to equipment service and commercial installation of gym facilities in hotel, residential and office complexes.
A focus on durable equipment
Entering the double-glass doors near a large “Store Closing Everything Must Go!” banner on a mid-November Tuesday revealed a reception desk behind a floor painted red. Blue and black “FGT” T-shirts hung on the wall.
To the left, the personal training space with its row of windows facing State Street had already been cleared out. On the right, the windowless exercise equipment sales room was crammed with treadmills, spin bikes, elliptical machines, weights and accessories sporting bright yellow-and-red “SALE” price tags.
Palmer said the brands Fitness Gear sold — Matrix, Spirit, SportsArt, Hoist, Precor and more — were likely unfamiliar to buyers who only shopped at big box or sporting goods retailers for equipment. But the brands he carried, he said, differed in overall engineering and construction, and tended to have five-to-10-year warranties rather than the one-year warranty typical of mass-market models.
They also varied in price. Palmer estimated a consumer treadmill might retail for $600 to $2,000, while the models Fitness Gear carried ran from about $2,000 to $6,000.
And treadmills, he said, were the most popular type of machine over the years.
“They’re the most straightforward. I mean, if you can walk you can use a treadmill,” Palmer said. “So it’s what most people go to.”
Aside from two COVID years during which Fitness Gear’s revenue was about $1 million annually, Palmer said the business normally would have about $600–$700 thousand in revenue each year and employed an average of seven or eight staff.
Evolving to equipment plus training
The store hasn’t always been in its current location. Palmer said Fitness Gear began as Fairhaven Nutrition and Fitness in 1989.
“We had a mezzanine in the facility, so we put some exercise equipment in there, thinking it was kind of a good marriage,” he said. “And the exercise equipment sold rapidly. The health food did not. We simply quickly phased out of the health food industry and moved wholeheartedly into the fitness industry.”
That led to the business itself moving from the Fairhaven neighborhood to Sehome Village, and later Cornwall Avenue and Railroad Avenue, before finally settling on State Street where Palmer said it’s been located for the past dozen years.
Along the way, Fitness Gear’s business model evolved to add the training studio to help boost revenue.
“That really was when we turned the corner and actually started making money. Because it paid the overhead basically and now fitness equipment sales were profitable,” Palmer said. “We were one of the only stores in the country with that model.”
However, Palmer said that business model, including full service and commercial installations, was a necessity to survive “in this small of a market.” He doesn’t see anyone replacing Fitness Gear locally in the near future and said the nearest stores selling similar equipment are in Lynnwood, Bellevue and Seattle.
Existing customers will have a closer option for service. Palmer said that side of the business has been taken over by Fitness Machine Technicians in Mount Vernon.
Palmer, leaning back in the chair in the entry area, made a point of expressing thanks for the “35 years of business and the support that we have had” from the community. And he was just as straightforward in describing what’s next for the soon-to-be-retired owner.
“Go fishing,” Palmer said. “Literally go fishing and play golf. And do yard work.”
Frank Catalano writes about business and related topics for CDN; reach him at frankcatalano@cascadiadaily.com.
