In celebration of Fitness Republic’s 5th birthday, the incredible founder Aron joined us to tell us about his story and the Fitness Republic journey! 

From the age of 20 Aron knew he wanted to own a gym, but he didn’t know where to start. All he knew was that he loved fitness, and wanted to make a positive impact on other people’s lives. Aron was born with an extremely fast heart and had problems throughout his childhood that made it difficult for him to participate in sports. As time progressed he learnt to overcome this challenge and dedicated himself to fitness to become successful. 

At the age of 23 Aron was working as a personal trainer and decided to take a big leap and open a gym. He went through the process of trying to get the gym open but it failed. This was a hard time for Aron so he took a year to sort out what he needed to do to properly start a gym. During this time he decided to compete in bodybuilding. From this he met Nathan Page who was his coach at the time.

One day Nathan called Aron and said, “If I could offer you a gym for $60 000 what would your response be?” Naturally Aron thought this was a joke, but later realised it could be a reality. They visited the now Fitness Republic Miranda and at the time it was a mess. Everything was wrong with the place, but at the age of 25, Aron wanted to prove he could own a gym!

Nathan and his wife Andy partnered with him and helped to get the place developed and give it momentum. The first couple of months rebuilding the gym was hard, Aron was working 5am-10pm then renovating from 10pm-1am and sleeping on the couch only to wake up at 5am. He was doing that day in and day out hoping he would get enough members to break even. The biggest challenge he had was not going bust again and he was determined to make this gym successful.

The original concept of Fitness Republic was to be a place where people who take training seriously can come and train and they don’t have to put on the facade of being an elite fitness model or some instagram influencer. It is a place where humble trainers can come in and get things done.

Fast forward a year and a half, Fitness Republic was doing really well. Nathan and his partner Andy decided to move to Queensland so Aron became the sole owner of Fitness Republic. 3 months in, Aron was finishing his next wave of renovations when he found out that Andy had sadly passed away. It was at that moment he realised he had to do something big with Fitness Republic to support her legacy. She was a champion of an athlete and a champion of a friend.

Aron then approached his friends who were watching his journey and thought that Fitness Republic could grow all across Australia, and he has successfully launched 4 locations throughout Sydney with the potential for more! 

Fitness Republic is the place where humble people train and Aron is always looking to add value for his members. If members request something the Fitness Republic team work hard to make it a possibility.

Aron wants to thank everyone that has been involved in the journey and all of the members who have trained hard and made the community so great. When he goes to the venues and sees people walking around in Fitness Republic shirts it feels so rewarding. He proudly proclaims, “I would do it all over again with a smile on my face.” 

A big thank you to Aron for founding Fitness Republic and making it an amazing environment for people to train and enjoy themselves. We could not be happier with how amazing the Fitness Republic community is. Keep up the incredible work Aron!