Celebrity News

Soul unfair: SoulCycle bans top fitness instructors from studios

SoulCycle has its competitors’ heads spinning.

The hip spin studio founded by Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler is causing furor in the fitness world by banning fitness instructors from competing studios from riding in its classes.

On Friday, popular Barry’s Bootcamp instructor/chief operating officer Joey Gonzalez told his Facebook followers he was no longer welcome at the spin studio.

Gonzalez told us he took a SoulCycle class last week in Los Angeles and was notified via voicemail Friday morning from a SC employee he couldn’t come back. Disappointed, Gonzalez told us: “I’m always attracted to the brands that encourage cross training and allowing clients to figure out what works for them and what they enjoy.”

But he’s not alone: We’re told instructors from Flywheel and new spin studios Cyc and Peloton have also been banned. Peloton co-founders John Foley and Marion Berrian Roaman were banned from SoulCycle when they formed their company two years ago.

One former SoulCycle instructor, who is also a model for Under Armour, was forced out of the spin chain after she wouldn’t sign an exclusive agreement with SoulCycle when she became an instructor at Barry’s Bootcamp.

Flywheel spin instructor Darryl Gaines also told us he was booted from a SoulCycle class in January in the middle of his workout. “They did it to me in the dead of winter…” he posted on Facebook. “I was with a friend who had my wallet and house keys I will never forget being so humiliated … out in the freezing cold no money no metro card no house keys.”

Gaines told us on Friday: “Can you imagine Amy Pascal from Sony Pictures telling [former Paramount Pictures boss] Sherry Lansing she can’t come to a premiere?”

We’re told instructors from SoulCycle — or any other gym — are not banned from Flywheel, Cyc or Barry’s Bootcamp. “Everyone is welcome at Peloton,” said Foley.

SoulCycle co-founders Rice and Cutler have built more than 20 studios in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. “We do it together, as a community,” their website states.

Reps for SoulCycle and its owner, Equinox Gyms, didn’t respond to requests for comment.