A new way to experience fitness classes will soon be available for residents in the Des Moines area.
Two Des Moines women—Natalie Dayton and Kati Colby—are co-founders of The Drop, a new app that will let members test out and go to different types of fitness classes in the Des Moines area.
“I was in Philadelphia last November and noticed a SoulCycle and selfishly wished we had one of those in Des Moines but also wanted something with more variety,” said Dayton. “So when I got back into town, I reached out to Kati about the possibility of doing something like that.”
Upon meeting, the two immediately agreed that it was a good concept and the idea took off from there.
“Natalie and I just got to thinking about how cool it would be if we were able to offer this experience to our community and what that would look like,” said Colby. “And what could come to be if we broke down the barriers to being able to experience these gyms, studios and classes that are happening in our community.”
Now, less than one year later, The Drop app is scheduled to launch Oct. 1.
Upon downloading the app, users will be prompted to commit to a monthly $4.95 fee. From there, they will be able to book various classes from around Des Moines, a la carte-style. Users will book and pay for all the classes through the app’s master calendar and will get a 25% discount off the established drop-in rate of the studio they’re attending.
The Drop works with a range of studios, giving members options like yoga, cycling, Pilates, barre, running, strength training, dance, sports and more. The Drop currently has partnerships with 25 different gyms and studios listed on their site including Elevated Fitness, Crossfit Max Oxygen and Good Vibes Yoga.
“We really just want this to be a platform that helps supplement,” said Colby. “If you have a home gym already, you probably won’t drop your membership. You’ll use The Drop to go experience other places at the same time.”
“And if you’re some like me who doesn’t have a gym, you’ll likely use The Drop more heavily because you’re not ever going to commit to one stationary gym,” added Dayton.
In addition to the master calendar, the app will also have what Dayton and Colby are calling ‘dropportunities.’ These are events happening throughout the community they want to highlight and bring to the forefront.
“There are a couple of things we took into consideration that were really important to us when building the platform and one of those was not undercutting the studios,” said Colby. “We want to support the studios and fuel what their community and add new energy to their gyms and studios. So we didn’t want to create a pricing structure that was not going to benefit them or compete with them.”
Dayton and Colby will be holding a launch party Sept. 29 at 5 p.m. to celebrate the launch of the app.
Those interested in learning more about The Drop can find more about them on their Instagram.