Meet Tom Hatten of Mountainside Fitness in Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Hatten.

Tom, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started with an idea. An idea to be the friendliest gym in town. To know our members’ names. To offer free towel service, even if that meant I was doing laundry until two in the morning. This was the beginning of Mountainside Fitness.

In 1991, I began Mountainside Fitness (then named Mountainside Gym) while a junior at Arizona State University. Together with my family and friends, I brought my dream to life. From welding gym equipment to painting walls to selling memberships, the early years were true sweat equity in every sense of the word.

With 300 pre-sold memberships, we opened our doors. It was a small 4,800 sq. ft. fitness center in Mountainside Plaza located in Ahwatukee. Our signature was free towel service to everyone. However, this would have been a lot easier if I could have afforded a washer and dryer at the gym, but I made it work. It was worth it to be building a business and community I believed in. To show my appreciation to my members, I would throw monthly get-togethers at the club where we bonded over pizza, beer and soda. Thus, the Mountainside Fitness family was born.

The journey to 2018 was full of many twists and turns, but mostly determination to never give up on the idea of being the best we can be in how we deliver fitness. Our club sizes and look evolved over the years and I believe the brand has taken hold. For that I am most proud.

Today we have 16 locations with 1250 employees servicing just over 85,000 active members.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like most Entrepreneurial stories a smooth road is more of a dream than a reality. Mine was no different along the past 27 years, we’ve dealt with many issues some in our control some not. I.e. the market crash in 2008. However each adversity brought a renewed strength and sense of purpose to our mission. With each adversity we became more aware of who we were, what to learn from and how to manage that moving forward.

Please tell us about Mountainside Fitness.
Mountainside Fitness – main purpose is to create the most value for our members in what they desire in fitness. This starts with ourselves as people and how we great them at the door and say good bye when the leave. Our goal is to always be evolving. Listening to fitness trends and to the members so we can stay out in front in our industry. We want to lead, NEVER follow in how we create value and deliver our brand of fitness.

Credit is for all the great staff members that represent the MSF way proudly each day in the clubs. They make the experience happen, they create the smiles and satisfaction, they create the loyalty for our members.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mountainsidefitness.com
• Phone: 1.866.MTN.FITT
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtnsidefitness/
• Twitter: @MtnsideFitness

Image Credit:
Mountainside Fitness

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