California Fitness Information & California Fitness Links at HealthHaven.com

California Fitness (aka Cal Fit) is a wholly owned subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide which has a little less than 400 clubs serving more than 3 million members. The first California Fitness club was established in 1996 in the business district of Hong Kong. Currently, there are 22 clubs, after closures in three Asian countries, some abruptly breaking member contracts without reimbursements.

The mission of the company is to help members live better through California Fitness. The company offers members the opportunity to experience the most innovative and largest number of Group exercise classes in the region as well as providing highly professional Personal Training from the largest group of Personal Trainers in the region^{[citation needed]} . In addition to the cardio & resistance equipment, members can enjoy sauna & steam facilities, plus free internet via the in-club kiosks. California also has clubs with a swimming pool in Hong Kong and Taiwan providing all club members access.

Beginning in 2005, California Fitness further differentiated its business by partnering with two fitness superstars, Jackie Chan and Yao Ming, to create signature clubs in the region. There are a total of 6 California Fitness-Jackie Chan Sport in Asia and 2 California Fitness-Yao Ming Sport in mainland China.

Varieties of membership are available, including one-club membership to Zenith membership that allows cardholders to gain access of all 24 Hour Fitness and California Fitness clubs.

California Fitness launched Hong Kong’s first human powered exercise machines used to power a gym building, Powered by YOU experiment in 2007.^[1]

[edit] California Fitness

Locations:

Beijing(1), Shanghai(1), Hong Kong (10) in China.
Singapore(4)
Taipei (5), Taichung(1), Taiwan

3 former Malaysian clubs were acquired by Celebrity Fitness.
Former Korean clubs closed in 2004, the Thai chain spun off into California WOW.

[edit] California Fitness Membership Scams

Even though the club is popular largely from its publicity stunts and marketing campaigns, there have been several reports regarding the members being charged fees beyond their membership periods or after request of cancellations. A largely affected group of Members are from Singapore where the law is quite strict and binding. The business model of this fitness club chain is hugely criticized by the public mainly because they end up paying more than what is ever told by the sales executives. [1]

Similar incidents has been alleged against their parent (24 Hour Fitness) and there are two existing cases against them in the courts of California, United States. One of the cases has been recently settled ruled in favour of the public who had fought for re-imbursement of the additional fees taken by the club by means of unfair business practices. In the settled case the plaintiff had alleged that 'The third cause of action alleges that 24 Hour Fitness’ practices and contract are unfair and unlawful in violation of California Business and Professions Code section 17200, as 24 Hour Fitness allegedly collects dues beyond the term of the membership contract in violation of the Health Studio Services Act (“HSSA”), fails to comply with statutory formatting and disclosure requirements of the HSSA, and sells monthly membership agreements using false and misleading representations and advertisements prohibited by Civil Code section 1812.92 and Business and Professions Code section 17500 et seq. Based on prior rulings by the Court, the “unlawful” portion of this claim only applies to Class Members who entered into their contracts after January 1, 2002.' The was upheld by the court in the verdict. [2].

The other case is in San Francisco Superior Court (Case No. CGC-05-446492).[www.kitchinlegal.com/pickering.php]

[edit] California WOW Xperience

Despite company changes, California WOW Xperience is still frequently confused with California Fitness.

California Wow Xperience (California Wow X) are related but totally separate companies which were spun off of California Fitness in early 2000s, with the California Fitness founder Eric Lavine as the CEO. Korean branches were spun off as local franchises, whereas the Thai branches are run as joint ventures with Major Cineplex as a major institutional shareholder. The company is actively traded on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, ticker CAWO, in contrast to the privately held branches of 24 hour fitness and its fully owned subsidiary California Fitness. Today, with Korean branches out of business, California Wow is headquartered and run entirely from Thailand, not the US. Its Vietnam unit is run as franchises similar to Korea, and Thai membership does not extend to Vietnam or vice versa. After taking on much debt to finance its growth from 2 gyms to 10 in 2 years, the gym has entered into an extended period of no growth.

[edit] Expansion to Vietnam

There was a grand opening for the Vietnam branch in January 2008 in Saigon [3]. Vietnam gyms are run as franchises and members are not given free access to Thai gyms or vice versa.

[edit] Branches

Calif Wow X Thailand, PCL operates 10 branches: 8 in Bangkok, Thailand, 1 in Pattaya, 1 in Chiang Mai. It closed a gym on Sukhumvit 31 that was female only.

2 franchised branches in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, District 5 and as of October 25 2008, in District 1, operated by locals.

Formerly: Seoul(3), Daegu(1), Korea.

[edit] Termination of cross-memberships

In August 2008, cross membership agreements between California WOW Xperience and affiliate companies (Cal Fit and 24 Hour) were terminated. This completes the split into completely separate gym companies. California Fitness and 24 Hour still maintain their cross agreements.

[edit] Korean bankruptcy

Locally franchised branch of California Wow went bankrupt in Korea in April 2008.

According to the Korean news media, the Korean employees had not been paid for the previous three months salary. Members of the gym are banding together to sue the company for membership fees. Approximately 40,000 people were members of the club.

Member have not received any compensation for their memberships, nor does it seem as though they will. The club sold memberships right up until the day they closed.