Nearly 500 Gyms End Affiliation With CrossFit, Amidst Greg Glassman Fallout

There has been a ton of unrest in the CrossFit community after some insensitive comments from CEO and founder Greg Glassman. In light of this incident, several hundred gyms have decided to end their affiliation with the organization.

It was immediately met with backlash when it was discovered that Glassman tweeted an insensitive reply regarding today’s social climate. This only got worse when an email was released between he and longtime affiliate owners. The correspondence depicted an ugly side to the man behind the brand and left the community furious over his words.

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A post shared by Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir (@katrintanja) on Jun 7, 2020 at 10:29am PDT

The immediate aftermath of this incident saw many Crossfit athletes vocalize their disdain. Moreover, Reebok, among other brands, revealed that they would not be sponsoring the company any longer. In addition to that, a few gym locations had announced that they would be ending their affiliation with the organization.

Now it seems that this number is only increasing, as a list has been gathered of facilities that announced their intent to separate from CrossFit. As a result, many of them have changed the names of their locations, to verify the distancing. It is not just small locations either, as some of the most popular locations have ended their affiliations.

• CrossFit New England is now Community Fitness New England
• CrossFit Invictus is now Invictus Fitness
• CrossFit Linchpin is now Linchpin Athletics
•  NorCal CrossFit is now NCFIT
• and many more

The list of self-proclaimed gyms ending their affiliation is approaching 500. Moreover, some of the social media pages of these former affiliates have had messages explaining their decision. Even former CrossFit Games winner, and founder of NCFIT, Jason Khalipa spoke out on his decision for change.

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NCFIT has always been about love and acceptance. Our mission at NCFIT is to LIVE BETTER. And living better means nothing while standing by in the face of racism, injustice, and hate. This week, our team will be releasing our full efforts on how we plan to both immediately support the Black community and all people of color as well as take steps to evolve our company’s policies to ensure that our core values are never compromised. • In light of recent events and on-going concerns about the direction of CrossFit, NCFIT will no longer maintain our affiliation with the brand. We have been an affiliate for more than 10-years, but we can no longer continue along this path. We owe it to our team, members, and the greater community to stand for something better than what we are witnessing. • NCFIT is here to stay. We will continue to promote our core values while still delivering amazing workouts every single day. We will continue to explore new ways to improve the lives of our members and team members while taking action to ensure that we are always standing up for what we believe is right. We will continue to grow and foster an amazing community inclusive of people from all walks of life, and we will do so as NCFIT. • WE ARE NCFIT. AND WE ARE HERE TO LIVE BETTER. • @__ncfit__ @ncfit_plus @ncfit_collective

A post shared by Jason Khalipa (@jasonkhalipa) on Jun 7, 2020 at 12:49pm PDT

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Limitless Performance does not support the recent comments made by the CEO of CrossFit, Greg Glassman. His comments are disgusting, disrespectful and embarrassing. We have been affiliated for 5 years but in-light of recent events we no longer believe in the direction that CFHQ’s leadership is headed. Limitless Performance will no longer be a CrossFit affiliate. We believe in bringing people together through love & fitness and we will continue to serve our community as we always have. We are Limitless Performance …..affectionately known as L.P. This is L.P. nation and we are L.P. strong….L.P. forever! #BreakOutOfYouLimits #tribe #lpstrong #lpnation #lpforever

A post shared by Limitless Performance (@limitlessperformanceltd) on Jun 8, 2020 at 3:10am PDT

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For nearly 7 years now, we have been a CrossFit Affiliate. We’ve come a long way since the early days of Kallang and we are where we are today, solely because of our community and our people. . . The recent actions of CrossFit’s CEO is inexcusable and represents nothing that we at Mobilus stand for and believe in. We condemn these actions and in light of these recent events, we have made the decision to de-affiliate with CrossFit HQ. . . All of us here at Mobilus will continue to strive to bring quality fitness to our members and the community. #wearemobilus

A post shared by MOBILUS SINGAPORE (@mobilus.sg) on Jun 7, 2020 at 9:26pm PDT

Alongside these affilates, several brands have been vocal about their disagreement with Greg’s sentiments. Reebok already revealed that they would no longer be pursuing a renewal of their endorsement that ends this year. Now more and more companies have spoken out, making it clear that they do not stand with the CEO, with Rogue removing the CrossFit logo from it’s 2020 event, and ROMWOD also suspending their negotiations for sponsorship with the brand.

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Rogue does not support the latest statements made by the CrossFit CEO, Greg Glassman. His comments are unacceptable under all conditions. The community is bigger than one person. The movement is stronger than one person. Noone should be expected to tolerate anything that keeps us from moving forward as one. Effective Immediately: 1.0  Rogue Invitational will remove the CrossFit Logo from the 2020 event. We will only allow discussion of sanctioning with real discussion on the future 2.0  Rogue will work with the CrossFit Games leadership to determine the best path forward. We will fulfill the 2020 season for the athletes and the community. The future is dependent on the direction and leadership within CrossFit HQ.  Rogue has been the equipment provider since 2010 and we believe it is part of our DNA.  We hope there is a path forward. We stand behind the community.

A post shared by Rogue Fitness (@roguefitness) on Jun 7, 2020 at 3:22pm PDT

Action matters. pic.twitter.com/BnV7xn490L

— ROMWOD (@romwod) June 8, 2020

It should be noted that Greg Glassman did apologize to the CrossFit community for his words. However, that does not seem to have made much of a difference among the athletes or gym owners. It is clear that nobody is pleased with these things he has said.