More on CrossFit HQ and the silence from those over the years.

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More on CrossFit HQ and the silence from those over the years.

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June 3, 2020

Brian -


I can’t remember if it was you or Jeff who once said to me that if CrossFit loses Rocket, you’ll know you’re in trouble. I keep hearing that in my heart, which is why I am writing to you. I want to tell you that every word I write here is written with love. If I didn’t think you and CrossFit were worth it, I wouldn’t bother.


I don’t know if you’re in trouble, but you are probably (reluctantly) losing Rocket. I want you to know why, because as a friend I think there is a lot to learn from our decision. I don’t expect you to change. I’m not asking you to change. I just think that you have a right to know, because the issues are big and potentially highlight larger risks for the health of CrossFit. If you want to talk about it, I’m here to do that, at least until it crosses the line from friendship to consulting.


Rocket CrossFit will be changing our name to Rocket Community Fitness, and likely disaffiliating from CrossFit when it’s time to renew. The thought of that hurts my soul, I love CrossFit. The reasons boil down to an incoherent brand identity that is losing value, absent leadership at a time when leadership is most important, and a moral ambiguity that doesn’t jibe with the zeitgeist or our own values.


BRAND

As you know, we’ve struggled with the brand identity of CrossFit for a long time. That struggle centers around the fact that if you ask strangers on the street what CrossFit is, you’ll get infinitely (dare I say “constantly”) varied answers. I know that some of that is by design; as a company you set a low barrier to entry from which any affiliate owner can make it their own. I grok that. The problem is that there is still a wide perception of what CrossFit is, and that’s still fed by either The Games, or by social media. Social media from HQ is often problematic, like the racist Fluffy Duck post at the outset of COVID-19, or recently using “Flatten The Curve” to tell people to lose weight. From affiliates it’s all over the board: some inspirational, some dangerous and embarrassing.


Regardless, “CrossFit” doesn’t mean anything as a brand. Indeed, the primary job of a brand is to tell you what to expect. Whether you like McDonalds or not, you know what to expect when you see one. The reason that matters as an affiliate is that I am paying $3,000 a year for that brand to mean something, and attract customers. But if potential customers don’t know what “CrossFit” means, or if they think it means something they don’t want to be part of, it has little value.


It’s like “soda.” Soda only has a very general meaning. Something liquid, fizzy and hopefully cold. But offering someone a soda doesn’t tell them if they’re getting cola, orange, root beer, ginger ale…… Though obviously a particularly inflammatory example, that’s the problem we keep running into.


A brand should tell someone what to expect. CrossFit, as a business has taken a stand opposite that.


I know all the things you and Greg say about freedom and not having a core leadership in terms of brand ID. And that CrossFit is a methodology, not a brand. (Which makes even less sense for affiliation, since the methodology is not proprietary in any way.) That was okay for a long time. Not great, but not a large obstacle for our business. The braggadocio of the brand perception was a benign buffoon off of which we could springboard our own identity, and we have built a thriving community in the last decade as a result of our own work, our own brand.


But when I have to repeatedly defend the CrossFit brand or say “we’re not like that,” the brand begins to take on negative value.


So, on we chugged, doing our thing. Being Rocket. Just, Rocket. We did things “the Rocket way.” We designed and codified what it means to be Rocket. Indeed, that had me on the road to gyms all over the country, twice a month, teaching other gyms how we do things, in contrast to the brand perception of CrossFit.


Until COVID hit.


COVID hit hard. We’ve been closed for 3 months now. Even so, we are amongst the lucky ones. We took a huge hit, but we’re fine. Our community is strong, we pivoted our classes online, we’re fine.


But we also realized that we are doing so alone. We do not have the help of the brand that we pay to be affiliated with, and we are not part of any sort of united group with shared values. That has become frighteningly clear in watching the behavior of other affiliates. We have seen things that we do not want to be associated with, but are associated with, because we share a name.

That is a very important realization. It is important because it gave us space to evaluate why we use the name CrossFit if it doesn’t have a clear meaning, a group affiliation that we relate to and are proud of, or any sort of real leadership.


LEADERSHIP


The irony, of course, is that I know the leadership very well. I would go so far as to say that I love the leadership of CrossFit on a personal level. When people would complain about what HQ did and didn’t provide to affiliates, I have often come to the defense of HQ, providing a list of things you do behind the scenes. I am aware not only of what you do, but the depth of care that you have.


The absence of real leadership didn’t matter much when the world wasn’t in crisis. But it matters now, a lot.


It probably matters more to your future as a company than it does to mine. What we have learned – and what I know lots of other affiliates have learned – is that we don’t depend on HQ for anything. Which also means we don’t need it for anything.


All that work that you do behind the scenes will actually benefit all of us whether we are affiliates or not. Fighting licensure laws? Awesome, but Joe’s Fitness benefits just as much as we do. Training and certification courses? Love them, but I don’t need to be an affiliate in order to hire coaches who have done your courses. (Which are excellent and what I would focus on if I were advising you for the health of your business.)


I would urge you to really think about the fact that many of us have realized that we don’t need to be affiliates. But, you do need people to stay affiliated. That is a huge chunk of your operating revenue.


This is where leadership really matters. Specifically, communication from leadership.

Without that, it doesn’t much matter what you do behind the scenes. Think of it like a relationship – because that’s what it is. If you are an absent partner, who doesn’t communicate with your spouse, listen to what they need and feel, the relationship won’t last. Sure, you can buy time with grand gestures, you can explain yourself endlessly when things erupt in fighting, you can even make up, but usually, those relationships don’t last. Especially if there is no clear and communal vision about what you want for your future, together.


That’s probably where we are with Rocket and CrossFit. From conversations I’ve had, that’s probably where you are with a lot of affiliates. Especially those of us who are truly mission driven to save lives.


Especially now, because many affiliates are in crisis thanks to COVID. And certainly all of us in the US are living through unprecedented social unrest rooted very specifically in racist injustice. In both cases, CrossFit has either been absent or wrong.

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I still look at you and CrossFit with all the love I have in my soul. I still see all the potential that I ever saw.


We are at a crossroads and will have to actively choose the future we want. You are too.

I don’t know what it means for you, I know I don’t have a right to an opinion there. (Though I will always wish that I could help.)


I don’t even know, for sure, what it means for Rocket. I suspect we won’t renew our affiliation in the fall (assuming you don’t do it for us after this letter.) But, like any breakup with someone you truly love, I don’t want that. I just think we have to in order to honor our mission statement.

Regardless, I will always hope for the best for you. And CrossFit.


We have been through so much together that it would simply be wrong to ghost you, even if it’s just business. We all have decisions to make, and I trust that even if we do wind up doing it from different paths, we will still be making the world a better place.

I will always wish we could do it together.

Love,

Alyssa

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