Planet Fitness Has Been ‘Pretty Much Destroyed,’ Says Company Founder
This comes after weeks of calls for boycotts of the brand after the company canceled the membership of a Planet Fitness gym goer after speaking out about a biological male in the women’s locker room.
Planet Fitness’s policy allows gym members to use the locker room associated with their gender identity. But this policy has led to a few high-profile cases of women feeling uncomfortable in Planet Fitness women’s locker rooms, and some women and children have reported abuse and sexual harassment at the facilities. Many of these incidents resulted in the women losing their membership, but an arrest was made in at least one instance…
[Founder and CEO Mike Grondahl stated,] “Planet Fitness was like another child for me. And I put my heart and soul into building that company and it’s been pretty much destroyed in, ya know, it’s lost all respect within the country within the last couple weeks,” he said. “There’s no common sense standing behind this.”
Grondahl told Libs of TikTok he didn’t approve of the policies or the response to them in recent weeks. Grondahl sold the company to private equity in November 2012 and lost control. Following the sale, he remained CEO until he was ousted after he reported that the chief administrative officer (CAO) and general counsel hired by the private equity firm had been found guilty of multiple charges over several years and abused minors on several occasions. In two instances, he was a teacher and was found guilty of abusing his students. The CAO left Planet Fitness in 2017.
“When we went public, the majority of the board knew that this lead attorney was a pedophile. It’s in the culture.” Grondahl said during the TikTok interview.
BREAKING: I spoke with former Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl (@mggrond) about the recent trans bathroom controversy.
"It's in the culture. Corporate office is braindead. Find another safe place to work out"
From employing p*dos to inflating numbers, @planetfitness is a mess! pic.twitter.com/PoFDii2Qmq
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 29, 2024
(Read more from “Planet Fitness Has Been ‘Pretty Much Destroyed,’ Says Company Founder” HERE)
Photo credit: Flickr
