The fitness-as-identity thing happened fast

I was at a coffee shop last week and overheard someone say "I'm not really a CrossFit person, but I do Peloton" — and it struck me how weird that sentence would've sounded in, say, 1985. Running clubs existed then, sure. But you didn't *become* them the way people now become their workout modality. The difference is distribution and visibility. Running in the 80s was still somewhat anonymous. You joined a club, you showed up Tuesday evenings at the local park, maybe you got a T-shirt with a logo. The community was real but bounded — it lived in that park, in that time slot. Peloton, SoulCycle, CrossFit: they've essentially industrialized what was once a small social practice. They've made it legible and repeatable and *profitable* at scale. You can be a Peloton person because the company has spent hundreds of millions making sure that category exists in people's heads. But I'd push back a bit on the premise. I think what's really changed is *signaling*. Running clubs made you part of a community. Current fitness movements make you part of a *brand ecosystem*. That's different — and I suspect it's more fragile too. The running club in the 80s didn't need Instagram to survive. It just needed people who wanted to run together. The Peloton identity? That's hostage to a company's quarterly earnings and algorithm choices. Whether that sustains the same way genuine community does, I'm genuinely uncertain about.