Crunch Fitness improves collaboration to make fitness more accessible

Background

Crunch Fitness is all about inclusivity—welcoming millions of members to 600+ locations with a “no judgments” philosophy. It offers unique group fitness classes and personal training at 600 locations, as well as online and virtual programs, all to make fitness fun and accessible. 

Challenge: disconnected teams and outdated tools

Crunch Fitness struggled with its on-site file storage as the company expanded. Corporate and franchise teams would exchange documents via email, often causing confusion over outdated documents. Remote employees couldn’t access files stored on physical servers, and transferring large media files was slow. IT maintenance was a constant effort, requiring manual backups and frequent security patches.

Solution: one secure source of truth

After a major power outage during Hurricane Sandy cut off access to critical files, Crunch made the switch to Dropbox. First the creative team adopted it—then, the entire company followed. With Dropbox meeting HIPAA requirements, it was a secure fit for the business.

Now, corporate teams and franchisees can access resources in one environment—ensuring files are organized and easy to find. Sharing is streamlined with simple links, while built-in security features like data loss prevention, access controls, and encryption keep files secure.

Crunch Fitness also adopted DocSend to securely share design updates with franchisees, eliminating outdated versions and unauthorized access. “We can set password protection and expiration dates,” says Nobel Kekele, Systems Administrator at Crunch Fitness. “We can also see when a document is opened, how long someone spends on it, and even which sections they focus on.” These insights help keep franchisees engaged—if someone hasn’t opened an important document, the team knows to follow up.

Crunch Fitness also introduced Dropbox Replay to speed up video editing for online workouts, enabling real-time feedback and smooth collaboration between editors, instructors, and managers.

Results: more seamless collaboration, less IT upkeep

With Dropbox, Crunch brought its 600 gyms into sync. Now teams across the company can access, share, and manage content without delays or confusion.

This has helped avoid expenses, including $50,000 saved per year in storage maintenance and $150,000 in system upgrades. Cost benefits are even more significant when factoring in time savings and improved productivity.

Now, employees can work from anywhere and access documents on their phones.

• File retrieval that used to take hours now takes seconds.
• Employees can access what they need—from any location or device.
• Transitions—like office moves and acquisitions—have become easier.

The IT team also spends less time on maintenance and employee support.

• There are 80% fewer IT support requests around lost files or access issues.
• Version control and backup are automatic—so IT can focus on bigger things.
• Admins can restore previous versions instantly (no more “oops” moments).

Crunch Fitness is now trialing Dropbox Dash, connecting it to SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365, Slack, GitHub, Smartsheet, and more. With AI-powered search, teams can find content faster. Schellhaas hopes that this’ll help cut down on friction and improve collaboration further.