Equinox’s $40,000-a-year Optimize membership has a waiting list

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for the high-net-worth investor and consumer. subscription To receive future issues, directly to your inbox.

Equinox’s $40,000-a-year membership has a waiting list of more than 1,000 people, with high demand for its luxury health and wellness programs, according to the company’s president.

The upscale fitness chain’s Optimize by Equinox, which launched in 2024, is one of the world’s most expensive gym memberships and includes everything from personal training and nutrition to sleep coaching, massage therapy and a “health concierge.”

Harvey Spivak, CEO of Equinox, told Inside Wealth that the program has seen notable demand and highlights the “insatiable” demand by the wealthy for longevity and health products.

“Health is the new luxury,” Spivak said. “The number one thing in the experience economy, besides travel, that the consumer wants, is ‘How do I live a high-performance lifestyle?’

The Optimize program is part of Equinox’s strategy to become the leading luxury brand in the fast-growing health and wellness space.

The global wellness market is expected to reach nearly $10 trillion by 2030, up from $6.8 trillion in 2024, according to estimates from the Global Wellness Institute. With an aging population of millionaires and billionaires, and an explosion in companies and products promising miracle cures, it is the wealthy who are driving the bulk of spending.

Equinox has evolved beyond fitness clubs to include hotels, hospitality, personal performance programs, IV centers, blood testing collaborations, and more.

The company opened its first hotel in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood in 2019, and is about to open a second hotel in Saudi Arabia. Spivak said Equinox is likely to have approximately a dozen hotels around the world — including the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States — over the next seven to eight years.

Equinox currently has 115 fitness clubs and has plans for 40 more — including locations in Nashville; toronto; Charlotte, North Carolina; And South Florida. Spivak said that although it is the largest retailer in New York by space, it continues to add more in its home city.

Optimize Membership leverages Function Health, a laboratory testing company, to provide clients with tests for 100 biomarkers twice a year, which can then serve as guides to a fitness, nutrition and lifestyle program tailored to each client.

Spivak said the program has begun in Los Angeles and Dallas and will eventually begin in New York.

The company also recently created a program specifically for women called EQX ARC. Using diagnostic tools, wearable devices and specialized training, the program is designed around the different stages of a woman’s life and health journey, and already has its own waiting list.

The company’s IV drip lounge at the Equinox Hotel at Hudson Yards — its only drip lounge to date — has already become a “seven-figure business,” Spivak said.

While Equinox is a private company and does not disclose financials, Spivak said 2025 was a “record year” for the company and he expects 2026 to be “even bigger.” He said other high-end consumer companies are reaching out to Equinox to partner in the health and wellness space.

“When you think about the economy moving from a product economy to an experience economy, a lot of big consumer companies are saying, ‘Okay, how do I continue to serve the consumer and health and wellness, and who do I talk to?’”

“There’s really only one brand that has authority and brand value,” he said.