How Ife Obi Is Challenging The Wellness Industry To Embrace Diversity

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 13, 2022 / Ife Obi's desire to reconstruct the wellness industry while concurrently embracing the needs of diverse neighbourhoods is inspiring to say the least. Founder of The Fit In, Obi's philosophy of serving the community as her ‘neighbours' ensures the health and wellness of people takes precedence over profit.

Ife Obi, founder of the powerful, black-owned business known as The Fit In, spends her time creating a safe space for those in underserved communities to fuel their bodies and maintain their health and wellness.

Located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, The Fit In is largely targeted towards people of colour who generally do not have access to a high-quality space to workout. "I wanted to make sure we had a space here that focused on healthy movement," Obi says. She strives to create a fitness boutique that is accessible for people in and around the community so they can comfortably train their bodies.

On par with the space she aspires to create, everyone is referred to as ‘neighbours' to keep everyone included and connected. As a self-taught gym goer, Obi took her passion for fitness and manifested it into a space of learning for those who were once in her position - without access to proper fitness institutions and possibly suffering from injuries because of it. "They come to us because they want to be surrounded by people that look like them. We have historically not been represented in wellness spaces, especially when it comes to boutique fitness spaces like ours are, so we focus on small group classes. And so, group fitness classes have always done well generally because there is this camaraderie. Everybody's in it together. There's this relationship that people build and create."

Through her website, a list of services can be found detailing the classes offered along with pricing. When signing up for a class, ‘Neighbours' can expect The Fit In's signature classes: Beats & Barres, Pilates Mat, Pilates Reformed, and Strong. These classes are designed for ‘Neighbours' to begin to develop a framework for strong bodies that can handle everyday tasks and start the preparation for high-intensity workouts or lifting heavy weights; and are available for all in-and-around the Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighbourhood.

Being the first of its kind in the area, Obi strives to reinforce the message that bettering health means putting people over profits. "It just all made sense for me to do when it came to creating a space that is going to be in the community, right?" She continues, "We don't have all this super fancy equipment that a lot of other studios and gyms have, but people are still able to get a really successful workout right then in our Pilates studio." Obi makes it clear that just because their studio is not as big as some of the others, it does not mean that their ‘Neighbours' workout will not be as successful. She makes it clear that the workouts received will be just as beneficial and victorious as one done at another institution.

Even through the development of her woman owned business, Obi remains true to her main path and what she envisioned for The Fit In. "The Fit In is bigger than just fitness. we're on a mission to change the health industry," she says.

In addition to making obtainable services available to the people in and around her community, she also has health and wellness products available to the public as well.

With health products available on a page on her website known as The Shop, Obi realized that fitness was more than just working out; different bodies - especially the difference between people of colour - need to be fueled and taken care of in several different ways. She stresses the importance of addressing the needs of people. "We're not all the same, right? As far as our hair is and as different as our skin is. Internally we're dealing with different things based off of where we come from, whether it's the country we're born in, or whether it's the lineage we come from, it just changes our genetic makeup a little bit."

"And so we have to really understand that our goal is to really tackle - not just the fitness space, but all the areas of wellness where we're underrepresented," she concludes.

Just launched, The Fit In's supplement line Back To You ™ is available under The Shop for people to purchase.

Ife Obi is the founder of The Fit In and is devoted to transforming the wellness industry through embracing diversity in its fullest.

For more information, visit https://www.thefitinbedstuy.com/ or visit her on Instagram.

Media Contact:

Asha Pannu
Content Writer, Mindful Media PR
asha@mindfulmediapr.com
www.mindfulmediapr.com

SOURCE: The Fit In