In 2015, Olia Sardarova was a new mum with a dream of creating the first high end boxing gym. Seven years later, Sardarova has successfully taken the fitness industry by storm with her entirely self-made business BXR. Regardless of how quickly and far her business grows, Sardarova’s primary concern is maintaining the authenticity and quality of her niche brand for the benefit of the BXR community.
We caught up with Olia Sardarova to discuss everything from the business’ origins to her passion for interior design to the brand’s five-year plan.
How did it all start?
Olia Sardarova: This all happened in 2015 after I had both of my daughters. After having children, it was a lot harder to get back into work and I wanted to start something new from scratch, myself. As a Step 1, I had enrolled in a Masters in Business degree in Imperial College – during my studies I came up with this idea of starting the first high end boxing gym brand in the world.
In the US, boxing was becoming the number one trend. Every respectable actor, actress and model was starting to do boxing. They started popularising it on Instagram, and suddenly from a scary, blood-sweat-and-tears kind of sport it became a fun way to train that can get you great results.
I chose to submit a business plan as my dissertation. It had to be an academic piece of work, so I researched the history of boxing and found that boxing actually originates from the UK. The Queensbury rules of boxing that are used to this day were written here, in London. I decided that instead of looking into a potential franchise opportunity from an existing brand in the States, the UK deserves to have its own born-and-bred UK brand.
This simultaneously was the year that Anthony Joshua was becoming more and more recognised. He was impressed with our vision and everything we were building and became a shareholder in the business. All of these elements came together and that’s how BXR was born.
What role does Anthony Joshua play in BXR?
Olia Sardarova: One of the first partnerships I signed was with a clinic called The Centre for Health and Human Performance. The clinic looked after Anthony Joshua, who was an Olympian himself. As a shareholder of the business, AJ has always been there supporting us from the onset. It was important to us that the gym was of such a standard that he would want to come and train here.
How has BXR changed over the years?
Olia Sardarova: When we first launched, all the trainers I initially hired were professional fighters. We also had a team of strength and conditioning coaches.
We have three group training studios downstairs. Our Versa Climbing studio is the most intense cardio workout in the world (burning up to 800 calories in one 45 minute session). Our strength and mobility classes programme has expanded dramatically: we teach yoga, pilates and TRX based classes. Most of the classes are included in the membership, so I would say that’s the main change: we’ve become a brand that caters to all your fitness and recovery needs, with the physiotherapy, massage therapy, IV drips and soon a plunge pool – all available on site.
Could you expand more on the non-boxing services you provide?
Olia Sardarova: BXR consists of an open plan members-only gym floor, which includes a professional size boxing ring, but a lot more area is allocated to fixed weight and functional equipment. Many of our members don’t even do combat sports but come in to become stronger and leaner through strength training.
We also have three group training studios, of which only one is called Boxing Skills. The second studio is our Strength and Mobility Studio, where you will find an extensive schedule of conditioning, TRX, yoga and pilates classes. The third studio is without a doubt the most popular concept, called Versa Climbing, featuring our famous proprietary class ‘Climb to the Beat’, developed by my business partner and co-founder, Alex Nicholl. Across our group training brand SWEAT by BXR (which is available on a pay to train basis to non-members), we deliver a full spectrum cardio, strength and skills programme.
Of course, last but not least, our physio and massage therapy is delivered by the best professionals in their field from the CHHP clinic.
Earlier you mentioned Sweat by BXR. How did that come to be?
Olia Sardarova: What I identified early on during my dissertation research is that people often fall into either-or category; you either like to train by yourself or with a personal trainer on the gym floor. But a lot of people find it a lot more motivating to train in a group environment.
I’m one of those people who like the group dynamic. It’s a lot of fun to go into a group and dedicate 45 minutes of a hard workout with other people around you, supporting and motivating you. That’s why I wanted to tap into that demographic: to make sure we don’t exclude anybody. That’s how Sweat by BXR came about: we wanted to make sure that we offer all training options to our members.
What was your biggest priority for BXR when launching it?
Olia Sardarova: At launch, the biggest priority was to build a product that was authentic and is built on solid foundations.
We had a 500 person launch party. Anybody who’s anybody in London attended, including celebrity names, and I was seriously worried that the next day I’d wake up and the headline would be ‘It’s a fancy, high-end gym. It’s not a real-deal boxing gym.’ In order to mitigate that, I hired only professional boxers to teach combat, and only strength and conditioning coaches with five-year Masters degrees in Sports Science. For me, the quality of training and quality of equipment that you get at BXR has always been the priority.
I find that, especially in the States, things sometimes get so commercial where you put too much emphasis on bringing models into your gym and giving out all these free memberships to people that you think are going to promote your gym. We don’t do any of that. We opted for making sure everything we’ve put inside the gym screams quality and is good enough for professional athletes. As a test for myself, when making a choice regarding equipment or a trainer to hire, I’ve always asked myself ‘Is this person or is this piece of equipment good enough to attract professional athletes?’ Now I can say with great pride that, for example when NFL players from the States travel to London, they would always come and choose to train at BXR, which is what we always aspired to have.
In addition to being a high quality gym, BXR’s interior design is of great quality as well. Does the interior design play a significant role in the BXR experience?
Olia Sardarova: It 100% without a doubt does. Interior design originally came into play because it is my personal passion. I love interior design to the extent that when we have our famous Frieze Art week, I always go to PAD, which is the interior design element of the Frieze Art week, and you have to see my eyes light up. To see functional objects, beautifully crafted–that’s what I collect at home: furniture as opposed to pieces of art.
We were one of the first gyms to hire an interior designer and make that spend. When I hired Marie Soliman from Bergman Design House. I asked for one thing: ‘I want this place to be absolutely timeless’. We sat down with her and spent months brainstorming the concept. There was this rough, industrial concept of a boxing gym, but then here are two females who added so much softness. For example, the leather strips we have in the lounge, the ropes we use as railing–it’s not all metal, it’s not all cement, it has a lot of warmth.
Through making this space so timeless, what I find is that it builds a community. Members actually want to stay and work here as well because it’s so inviting. Me, as well, I’ve been coming here to work. I’ve worked from the gym for six years now and I’m still not bored. I’ve met members in the lounge, who I asked ‘What are you doing here all day? I’ve seen you in the morning and in the evening,’ and they say ‘We just love it here. We work out in the morning, work from the lounge all day and then we train in the evening again.’ That’s exactly what I wanted to build.
What kind of community is facilitated by BXR?
Olia Sardarova: It’s a very dedicated community. The people that choose to train at BXR take their training seriously.
You have some high-end gyms where it’s more about a scene. You come in, you get fantastic spa facilities, you get beauty treatments, you can get a nice coffee, and people just come and socialise. At BXR, people come to train. We have members that train three times a day sometimes.
It’s the same spirit in our retreats. We run four retreats a year in Daiso Cove, a five star resort in Crete, and they are quite challenging. It’s five hours of training a day and sometimes you don’t want to wake up, but everyone around you supports and encourages you to get up and get all five hours done.
Products like Peloton and fitness mirrors have seemingly taken the fitness industry–and perhaps the world–by storm. Would you ever consider moving BXR into that direction by creating products one could use without ever leaving their house?
Olia Sardarova: In March 2020 when all the gyms in the UK closed overnight, we had a choice to either invest the cash that we had, building that online element and competing against the giants like Apple Fit and Amazon Fit, or concentrate on saving our business. I’ll be honest with you, we chose to concentrate on saving the business which we knew was going to come back. The reason for that was that a smaller, niche brand like us would find it difficult to compete against Apple and Amazon.
What we did, instead, during COVID was hold classes over Zoom just for our community. We wanted our members to have access to familiar faces because at that time it was important to get some normality in your life. We rented our equipment out–not even rented–we gave away our equipment to our members so that they could have it at home during that difficult time.
Our membership is now higher than it was pre-COVID. At the moment, we don’t invest much into any online content. We manufacture accessories that are available to sell for when you travel. You can take your ankle weights and wrist weights, that’s what we do for our members outside the gym.
What advice would you give someone who is considering starting their own business?
Olia Sardarova: Resilience. Build your resilience because however hard you think it’s going to be, it’s going to be ten times harder. I have the most incredible team around me. My business partner, Alex, is phenomenal with great operational experience and marketing knowledge. We hired talented general and operational managers over the years but it is still a never-ending challenge.
I can’t tell you enough: it never stops. The grind, the waking up and figuring things out, the things you don’t expect to happen to you. This is every day. One day you wake up and think that everything is moving smoothly: you’re making money, and that same day that you had this amazing feeling, somebody important would resign out of the blue. Make sure that you’re resilient from the onset and strategize ahead of the things happening.
Where do you think BXR will be in 5 years? What are your long-term goals?
Olia Sardarova: Our five-year plan is to grow internationally. BXR is a niche brand. It’s not necessarily possible to have multiple BXRs in any one capital like London. You can have three, four maybe, but after that it becomes a commercial venture and loses its charm. We already have a franchise in Qatar that we are happy with, we have our gym in Crete where we run our retreats and I’d love to expand into the Middle East. We’re looking at American cities as well.
To discover more, visit bxrlondon.com
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All images courtesy of BXR London.