Many of you may have heard rumblings about this, but as of yesterday, it's official: Coach Keith Wittenstein (aka "Tyler Durden") is departing the Black Box and starting his own CrossFit affiliate, CrossFit Virtuosity.
Keith has sold his shares in CrossFit NYC to Hari Singh, in a deal that has been approved by the other three owners (Court, Mike, and me). Most of you know Hari. He is an avid CrossFitter and will bring his years of business experience to nurturing and growing the Black Box.
While Court, Hari, Mike and I are sad to see Keith go, we wish him the absolute best. Those of you who have been members for any length of time know what a critical role Keith has played in creating the Black Box, and we have no doubt that CrossFit Virtuosity will be a great success.
Fortunately, this was a completely amicable departure, so you can still expect to see Keith around the Box, us around Virtuosity, and future events that include both organizations.
You can contact Keith at crossfitvirtuosity@gmail.com.
You can contact Hari at hari@crossfitnyc.com.
Also, as several people have asked whether the two organizations are going to differ in terms of programming:
CFNYC will remain a 'traditional' CrossFit gym, with a focus on the crossfit.com WOD. In both Manhattan (where we're hoping to reopen doors as soon as the end of this week - more info tomorrow) and Brooklyn, we'll also be doing our best to provide an even greater supply of the full array of equipment that entails.
Conversely, Virtuosity (so far as I understand from Keith) will focus more on bodyweight skills, and on WODs built around those and minimalist equipment, though I'm sure he can jump in and better explain.
As I don't own these boards anymore, I won't go on at length about CrossFit Virtuosity. Suffice it to say that it will still be every bit a CrossFit gym. But the programming will be different enough to distinguish myself from what the Black Box does. As many of you remember from my rest day WODs, I can still bring the pain (I'm not going CrossFit-Lite!).
As Josh said, this is an amicable split. I hope that a little friendly competition makes both gyms rise to unprecedented levels.
Although I am not financially invested in the Box, I am still very emotionally invested and want both gyms to succeed. I am just trying to grow this community.
PS- - I'm rocking my "Respect" t-shirt today.
Hey congrats Keith! So are you going to be opening up a space in the city?
Congratulations Hari and Keith!
AMRAP in 20 minutes
take inhaler and/or nebulizer for wheezing
hack up crap from chest
sneeze
wheeze
try to talk but sound like Mae West's loser cousin
try and stop a bloody nose from all the nose blowing
wheeze
turn the volume up so loud on the tv be my ears are so clogged
wonder how I am going to do Cindy feeling like this
do 15 deadhang pullups from door gym bar to make me feel like i have done some kind of exercise
get really mad bc i cannot taste any of the brownies I got from whole foods. but eat two of them anyway. bc they are spelt. and vegan. and somehow will not be fattening.bc they are spelt. and vegan.
score-17 rounds. PR!
Greg have a great time 2nite. drink for me. I owe u a drink-on the 30th if not before!
Michell, you sound like me! Except the are making me get a Echo cardio thing because I had some extra beats on my EKG. It sucks getting old. I can't get a break. First my teeth now my chest.
alex I hope u r ok. I get ekgs all the time bc i have Mitrol Valve Prolapse.
let me know if there is anything I can do to help-
and you are not old.
besides ur teeth look outstanding so i am sure the extra beats will turn out to be good news too.
My emphasis at Black Box is going to be on customer service. Of course this is a concern of all four of us, but right now, Josh is under tremendous pressure securing the new permanent space in Manhattan, a temporary space in Manhattan, as well as shoring up the current space in Brooklyn. Court and Mike with help from Allison are handling virtually all of the classes. I am going to take responsibility for explaining to all of you what we're trying to accomplish, why it's taking so long, etc.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to have a personal conversation with each and every member, in the mean time, please use this blog to ask whatever is on your mind. I'll do my best to respond as completely and honestly as possible.
The bottom line is this. We want to make the Black Box the best facility possible. Unfortunately, that's a little bit like saying you want to rent a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in full-service building in Manhattan for $1000 per month. The reality is that the CrossFit business model requires providing tremendous service for a relatively low price. Other Manhattan gyms succeed by signing up members who for the most part hardly ever attend, so for them the number of square feet per member can be extremely low. We, on the other hand, have members who actually want to show up and show up often. That is why we got overcrowded so quickly.
Finding more space at a reasonable price has been an incredible challenge. Josh seems to have met that challenge, but as you might imagine, it involved tradeoffs. One of the tradeoffs is that the space is a wreck, requires tremendous legal and physical work. The project has taken longer than we had hoped and the end seems to always be just around the corner.
We're going to get there, and it is going to be worth it. About 500 CrossFit facilities have been set up around the country, but to date only one has been created in Manhattan. This is probably the most difficult place in the country to set up a CrossFit facility. But we are doing it. And it will be worth it. We promise.
painting party?
:)
best of luck to everyone!!
I am a new grandma again--this time its a girl. she was born this afternoon at 320 at home. her name is deena!! everyone is doing well!!