Spiked Spin
Briana Thompson didn’t initially plan to turn her side hustle into her main hustle. Her concept just turned out to be that undeniable.
The owner of Spiked Spin cycling studio worked in digital advertising at ViacomCBS when she fell in love with spin classes and started teaching part-time at a private Manhattan gym. “But while I was there, I started to realize, ‘This is still what I hate about cycling,’” she says. “It’s always a very specific type of person — usually a Caucasian woman with the discretionary income and time to take $50 boutique classes all day.”
In her quest to make spin more inclusive and accessible, specifically to Black folk and other people of color, in 2016 Briana launched the Spiked Spin brand as a pop-up series of hip-hop-driven spin classes that “lean into all those things that are genuine to us and to our culture.”
The energizing pop-ups were a runaway hit. “I did not create Spiked with the idea that this would be my life’s work or that it would change my career trajectory,” the Queens native says. “But as I had more conversations with clients and did more research on the Black community in the wellness space, I realized, ‘Okay, this is something.’”
The demand for her classes became so high that last November, Briana, 30, opened her own studio in Bed-Stuy. And two weeks ago? She left that advertising job to focus full-time on building up the Spiked Spin empire.
“ My number one goal is to expand into other underserved neighborhoods that don’t have access, and to make it known that we are deserving of these kinds of spaces.”
Spiked Spin’s slogan, blazed from a neon sign and screened on the studio’s line of workout gear: Insult the Standard. “My definition is to create your own agenda for your life,” Briana says. “Despite whatever people have said you should do or could do, choose your own path and go against the status quo.”
This ethos drives every aspect of Spiked Spin, from its non-judgmental atmosphere, to the hip-hop tracks booming from the speakers (M.O.P., Busta Rhymes and Megan Thee Stallion were in rotation at a recent class), to the instructors’ words of affirmation at the end of the session. Even their standing as the first and only indoor cycling studio in Bed-Stuy disrupts the spin standard.
“My number one goal is to expand into other underserved neighborhoods that don’t have access,” says Briana. “And to make it known that we are deserving of these kinds of spaces.” ⠀
Another standard that Briana aims to “insult” is the exclusivity that defines much of boutique fitness. “You don’t have to go as hard as the instructor. We’re not going to kick you out of the front row if you don’t keep up,” she says.. “The more people realize that we allow you to really go on your own journey, I think the more comfortable they’ll be with coming in and seeing it’s not as intimidating as they think. Everyone is welcome here.”
As Briana built her Spiked Spin brand over the past few years, more spin studios have cropped up with their own takes on hip-hop classes. “There are a ton of companies that heavily lean on our culture and kind of whitewash it,” she says of the sometimes grating experience. “I’ll go into a boutique studio and I’m like, ‘Oh, the N-word is being thrown around so free.’ But I’m a Black woman who created this company, and I grew up in this culture. Authenticity is number one here.” ⠀
To that end, Briana commissioned a giant collage of Brooklyn rappers (Lil’ Kim, Jay-Z, Biggie and Fabolous) for the front of her studio, in addition to a bathroom wallpapered with more portraits of Lil’ Kim.
“People would ask, ‘Are you sure?’ because they thought it might scare certain people away,” she says, adding that Spiked Spin actually draws a diverse clientele of all races. “But I wanted to insult the standard with every part of our design. The people who belong here will come, and those who don’t belong here won’t. As soon as I got comfortable with that, it allowed me to start making much bolder decisions about the business.”
1171 Fulton St, Brooklyn, 347-405-9000, www.spikedspin.com
