New York City’s The AC Proves Social Fitness Is No Longer a Trend
Krissy Vann | Host, All Things Fitness and Wellness
Earlier this fall in New York City, it was not a nightclub or a brand activation that drew a crowd of more than 500 people. It was a gym community. Members of The AC filled Brass Monkey in Meatpacking and Café Balearica in Williamsburg, creating a scene that felt closer to a downtown cultural moment than anything traditionally associated with a fitness brand. Many of the people gathered were not casual workout partners. They were friends who now plan weekends, celebrations and even vacations around each other.
The AC has been building this environment for the past four years. While trend reports continue to highlight social fitness, wellness driven social circles and the rise of fourth spaces, The AC has already turned these ideas into everyday routines for more than 2,000 New Yorkers across six neighborhood locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Expansion is planned for 2026.
“We built the social life people are writing about.”
The model is deliberately structured. Members train in squads of 20 that meet on fixed days and times. The regular rhythm creates trust, accountability and a sense of shared identity. Coach led workouts make consistency feel natural and each neighborhood club develops its own character shaped by the members who train there. The West Village has its own feel. Williamsburg has another. Flatiron and the Lower East Side have their own cultures as well.
Outside the training floor, The AC maintains a full social calendar. Weekly runs, coffees, mixers, dinners, ski trips, AC Games and the annual Winter Gala build connection throughout the year. These touchpoints are not built around marketing moments. They are extensions of relationships that begin inside workout blocks and expand into daily life across the city.
“We were giving people a reason to show up for each other,” says Dane McCarthy, founder of The AC. “Now the industry calls it social fitness. Our members have been living it for years.”
The Halloween gathering earlier this fall offered a clear example. More than 500 members across six locations filled two venues in two boroughs. Squads that normally see each other at early morning strength training showed up in costume, talked with members from other clubs, shared drinks and stayed out well past their usual training windows. It felt less like an event produced by a fitness brand and more like a natural extension of a community that has grown beyond the workout.
“We see Halloween as proof, not performance,” says McCarthy. “When a gym community fills two venues on a major city weekend, that is culture.”
At a time when many fitness brands lean on competitions, large scale gatherings or digital platforms to drive engagement, The AC offers an alternative. It builds belonging through small groups, repeated interactions and neighborhood rooted identity. The fourth space concept often appears in industry theory. The AC has created it in practice. As wellness increasingly replaces nightlife for many young urban adults, The AC shows what that shift looks like when it becomes sustainable and deeply social.
The AC now enters its busiest season. Winter brings the black tie AC Winter Gala, a signature event for all locations. Run Club continues with a winter series and après run gatherings. Members participate in holiday charity initiatives, regional community nights, book clubs and workshops. European Ski Week in the Alps remains one of the most anticipated annual trips.
In a city where loneliness continues to rise, The AC believes the most meaningful thing a fitness brand can create is not a new class format or a digital feature. It is a community where members choose to show up for one another long after the session ends.
