Gym chain Blink Fitness filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest chain to succumb to stiff competition and higher costs.

The company, a low-cost offshoot owned by luxury gym chain Equinox, filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware. Blink listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million each in its bankruptcy petition.

Blink plans to keep operating while it tries to sell itself out of bankruptcy, according to a company statement. It has received $21 million of new financing from its lenders, it said.

Blink positions itself as a gym for everyone. More than 65 percent of its members are younger than 35, chief restructuring officer Steven Shenker said in court papers. Memberships range from $15 to $45 per month, he said.

The company operates separately from Equinox, which itself struggled to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of gyms including 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym, and Town Sports International went bankrupt in the wake of the virus.

Equinox received $1.8 billion to refinance its debt maturities earlier this year. Blink, for its part, has more than $280 million of debt across loans, notes and trade debts, according to court papers.

Blink operates more than 100 fitness centres in the US, 60 of which are in New York. The company employs about 2,000 people.

The case is Blink Holdings Inc., 24-11686, US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

By Maria Clara Cobo

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In just four years, digitally-native vitamin seller Care/of went from a $225 million valuation to closing its doors entirely.

The brand, which recommended a personalised mix of vitamins and supplements to customers after taking a quiz, announced in June that it would shutter operations in early July, stating on Instagram that it “no longer [has] funding to operate in the way we have been.” It was quite a turn of fate for a brand that, after its founding in 2016, went on to raise $46 million in outside funding before pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired a 70 percent stake in 2020.

It’s a sign of the times in the supplement business. After several years of rabid customer interest in wellness, which fuelled major growth for oral supplements, the party is winding down. Demand for multivitamins in the US spiked in March of that year, with sales rising by 51 percent, according to the Financial Times, as more health-conscious consumers stocked up in hopes of warding off a case of Covid-19. The supplement category reached a peak in 2021, according to Anna Pione, partner at McKinsey & Co., but since then, growth has been flat.

Some of this is a natural maturation of the category, but that process has brought changes. Growth is now primarily found in products for specific concerns, like women’s and gut health. The funding environment has also contracted, with already-conservative investors reluctant to pour money into a seemingly-stagnant category. In 2021, venture capitalists poured $980 million in funding into 222 global wellness deals, according to Pitchbook, but by last year, that number had dropped $580 million into 119 deals. As of early July, there have only been 35 deals worth a total of $80 million this year. Pharmaceutical companies like Bayer, too, are getting rid of their consumer brands.

To combat these changes in an environment where survival isn’t guaranteed and investors are less interested, supplement brands are adjusting their product offerings, building product franchises that include non-supplement items, offering new services like health consultations, and experimenting with new supplement formats like patches. Nimble indie brands are best positioned for this change.

“Older brands in the category are seeing less than average growth ... brands that are [serving] unmet consumer needs can use that positioning to reach breakout growth,” said Pione.

What’s Happening in Supplements

Declining consumer interest is a major factor behind supplement’s decline. But the category faces other headwinds, including increased competition and a decrease in strategic acquirers.

Part of the reason that the supplements sector was able to attract a high level of investor interest was because of the clear path to exit in acquisition by a major pharmaceutical company. Today, however, that path is much less clear: Much like Care/of-owner Bayer, since 2021, several major pharmaceutical companies are divesting from their consumer health divisions, which includes supplements, by closing them, spinning them off or selling them.

This divestment strategy is a product of the recognition that different capabilities are needed to run consumer units. Supplement product development timelines are faster than those for drugs, drug sales teams are widely different from retail field teams, and consumer product marketing must speak to a larger base than specific drugs.

“The skills and capabilities required to be successful in consumer health care, which includes over-the-counter products and supplements, are fundamentally different from pharmaceuticals; the skills needed are much closer to a traditional CPG company,” said Pione.

With less funding to go around, additional supplement brands could be subject to closure if their growth or business does not align with the new crop of standalone consumer health businesses. For digitally-centric brands like Care/of, customer acquisition is the biggest hurdle. That’s due in part to more expensive social media ad costs, but also the fact that after years of an expanding their customer base, supplement brands may have naturally hit a ceiling. When consumer brands face a consumer acquisition issue they can usually turn to trying to increase individual daily consumption to juice sales. But for oral supplements, increased consumption can exacerbate consumer fatigue or even be dangerous.

Plus, younger customers who are entering the market are less likely to engage with the category. According to a 2021 survey by the US National Center for Health Statistics, 57.5 percent of people between 20 and 39-years-old used zero supplements; people use more supplements as they age, with nearly 25 percent of people 60 and above using four or more.

Thinking Beyond Pills

To court consumers in the face of category-wide hurdles, brands are getting creative, introducing products beyond pills and investing in marketing that demonstrates their effectiveness.

In March, 8-year-old supplements label Love Wellness introduced two topical skin products and a lymphatic body massager bucketed under the brand’s hero Bye Bye Bloat category; its first extension since the original bloat supplement debuted in 2018. Founder Lo Bosworth said that the launch of the new Bye Bye Bloat products has had a halo effect, with Bye Bye Bloat supplement sales increasing 75 percent since March. Going forward, the brand is focussed on building franchises around hero products.

“We talk about supplement fatigue all the time,” said Lo Bosworth, founder of the supplement label Love Wellness. “For us, as many points of entry as we can develop for people, the better the brand will be long-term.”

It’s not alone in making these extensions: In May, oral probiotic brand Seed began to sell vaginal suppositories. Traditional Chinese medicine brand Elix also expanded its business model in June from oral supplements to focus on health coaching. Pione said that other brands could expand beyond oral capsules by offering other formats, like patches, powder supplements and ready-made food, which would allow customers to integrate them more easily into food or beverages.

“For a lot of consumers, pill fatigue is real. There is a different feel to the consumption experience [with other forms] than if you’re taking something that feels like medicine,” she said.

Innovation is not the only important element. Supplement competition has also spurred more companies to invest in clinical studies to demonstrate product efficacy — long considered a weak spot for the supplement industry. Nutrafol and Ritual began investing in clinical studies for final formulation products back in 2018, while Love Wellness plans to clinically study all its final formulations by the end of 2025. It’s an investment: generally, clinical studies can cost between $25,000 to $100,000 with third-party testers, according to beauty software company Good Face Project. But It’s an important one, said Lisa Wu, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, which invested in vitamind brand Ritual’s 2016 seed round.

“First the focus was on building credibility around clinically-backed ingredients, but that’s no longer sufficient because consumers are demanding,” said Wu. “Now the focus is on clinical studies on final [formulation] products.”

The summer Olympics in Paris are a pivotal moment for sportswear brands of every stripe, and this year proved to be the biggest. Average viewership for the first ten days of the Olympics reached 33 million, up 80 percent from the 2021 Tokyo games, according to data from NBC Sports.

It was a boon for sports sponsors, whose bets paid off as their leading ambassadors racked up medals. Nike ambassador Simone Biles took home three gold and one silver medal, becoming the most decorated gymnast in Olympics history. The US women’s gymnastics team all wore Nike’s Air Max DN sneakers on the winners’ podium while taking home the gold medal for their knockout performance.

Meanwhile, tennis-inspired Lacoste basked in the glory as its biggest celebrity ambassador, Novak Djokovic, snagged a coveted gold medal in tennis. Fila had its own moment when a photo of South Korean shooter, Kim Yeji, wearing a jacket with a visible Fila logo, became a meme.

With the Olympics taking place in the world capital of luxury fashion, a few non-sports brands managed to be omnipresent as well. Official timekeeper Omega was especially visible at speed challenges like swimming and track and field, having placed its logo on touchpads and clocks fashioned in a signature red hue.

LVMH, one of the Olympics’ biggest local sponsors, was perhaps the noisiest. In addition to supplying Louis Vuitton medal trays for every competition, the brand’s monogrammed trunks were featured in a dance number on the Seine at the opening ceremony, where it also dressed celebrity guests including Cynthia Erivo and French first lady Brigitte Macron. LVMH’s Berluti produced the French team’s ceremony look, while Dior costumed most of the musical guests: Celine Dion’s sequined silk georgette gown and Lady Gaga’s feathered showgirl gown helped Dior capture 34 percent share of brand mentions on social media in the first 10 days of the games, according to analytics firm Brandwatch.

A cadre of young French designers managed to nab a piece of the spotlight during the ceremony. Modern couturier Charles de Vilmorin dressed dancers hoisted on poles in his signature abstract prints. Jeanne Friot, who has a penchant for metallic elements, sent a cavalier down the Seine in Joan of Arc-inspired silver leather armour. Fellow Parisian upstarts Ouest Paris, Weinsanto, Maitrepierre and Germanier outfitted drag queens and dancers for a catwalk and dance battle fusion.

Offstage, Ariana Grande captured fashion lovers’ attention in an ethereal box pleat drop waist dress in baby pink from Thom Browne, a clever nod to her role as Glinda the Good Witch in “Wicked.” That look generated $3.1 million in media impact value — a measure of buzz — according to data firm Launchmetrics. Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo’s coordinating and equally eye-catching green look from Louis Vuitton generated $2.1 million in value.

VIP Dressing’s Missed Opportunity

After the opening ceremony, however, many opportunities for fashion to nudge in on the huge cultural moment fell flat, or were left unattempted.

Coverage of VIP attendees and their looks was limited—a surprising turn for what many had expected to be fashion’s biggest Olympics.

In recent years, social media has created new opportunities for brands to latch onto the sports world and its moments filled with inspiring achievement. In addition to the longstanding practice of sponsoring athletes’ actual gear, non-sports brands can now provide ensembles for athletes to be photographed in before and after events. Social coverage of VIP dressing at recent events like Wimbledon felt like a preamble to a big push for attendees of the Olympics, but ultimately it didn’t take hold.

That might partly be blamed on LVMH’s sponsorship deal: While the agreement wouldn’t have blocked fashion brands from sending ambassadors to watch the games, luxury brands may have been wary of provoking the industry’s biggest player by trying to steal focus.

There’s also the question of Europe’s long August holidays, a tradition that is particularly immutable for luxury brands ahead of September’s fashion month crunch. Image makers including VIP and press offices, ateliers, stylists, agents, and photographers mostly took off for the summer in spite of the games.

That led fewer stars to attend, and most of those who did come appeared to have styled themselves in civilian clothes calibrated for enjoyment rather than making a splash. Even LVMH, which paid reportedly €150 million for its status as a “premium” partner to the games, didn’t activate many of its ambassadors to attend the games. A notable exception was swimmer Leon Marchand, who wore a damier-motif denim ensemble by Pharrell Williams to watch the men’s basketball quarter-finals.

Many of the world’s biggest stars had competing events: Taylor Swift is on the European leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour; Blake Lively — a polarising but engagement-driving red carpet fixture at the moment — is promoting her new film “It Ends With Us”. Another notable absence was Rihanna, who didn’t attend despite announcing last month that Fenty Beauty was an official partner of the games.

Ralph Lauren’s Team USA Success

Ralph Lauren was an outlier, having made and marketed Team USA’s opening ceremony outfits. Most US stars attending the games opted for items from the capsule: Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart, Spike Lee, Kendall Jenner, Nick Jonas and Jessica Chastain, all wore the collection as they cheered from the stands.

One standout moment for the brand was influencer Emma Chamberlain wearing an archival Ralph Lauren white jacket with black stripes on the sleeves, generating $2.5 million in media impact value for the brand, according to Launchmetrics.

But even Ralph Lauren took a light touch to marketing its fashion moments on social media. The brand mostly posted about events at its restaurant in Paris, where influencers like Vinnie Hacker, Tinx and Kelsey Merritt hobnobbed with athletes and major celebrities.

It’s unclear whether it was the brand or media outlets like NBC who supplied stars’ Team USA looks. None of the stars wearing Ralph Lauren’s garb at the Olympics were sponsored by the brand, according to a person familiar with the matter.

No brand managed to nudge in on Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart’s bombastic arrival at the equestrian events at Versailles wearing dashingly coordinated black tail coats, styled with crisp white dress shirts and slacks tucked into riding boots. Considering that equestrianism is a key reference for myriad designers, that one felt like a missed opportunity.

The closing ceremony at Stade de France, which featured acrobatic performances and Tom Cruise descending from the top of the stadium onto a motorcycle, was less of a fashion spectacle than the opening ceremony. One of the more exciting moments during the three-hour showcase came from Paris designer Kevin Germanier, who created a show-stopping, gold-encrusted, alien-esque bodysuit worn by a masked performer who emerged from the sky for the raising of the rings. French singer Yseult turned out a gorgeous rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” decked in a black silk faille Dior suit by Maria Grazia Chiuri and translucent hat by Stephen Jones. But Ralph Lauren won until the very end as Billie Eilish performed on a Santa Monica beach in Los Angeles wearing an oversized Ralph Lauren polo.

Lessons Learned

Even if the Olympics provided fewer buzzy fashion moments than hoped, the Paris games reaffirmed the event as culture’s biggest and brightest monocultural spotlight. Brands will be hungry to do better next time, when the Olympics take place in Los Angeles in 2028.

Savannah Engel, the founder of public relations firm Savi—which represents indie brands like womenswear label PatBo, CFDA award nominee Tanner Fletcher and eyewear maker Krewe —said her firm may set up a showroom in Los Angeles in 2028 to increase visibility of its brands among celebrities attending the Olympics, ultimately treating it like an awards season where star-studded red carpets abound.

“There’s going to be a lot more opportunities for celebrity-focused dressing,” Engel said.