High-end indoor cycling chain SoulCycle files to go public

US cycling fitness chain SoulCycle, which is popular among A-list celebrities, has announced plans to float on the stock market. Cutler and Rice will serve as co-chief creative officers in SoulCycle Inc. until at least December 2018, and each will make $618,000 in 2015. In a filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, the company noted that it was rated the sixth most influential brand on Twitter at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show.

These days, when we think of IPOs, we tend to think of tech companies and startups, such as Etsy, which went public earlier this year.

SoulCycle said it earned $25.3 million last year, up 42 per cent from 2013. SoulCycle instructors guide riders through an inspirational, meditative fitness experience designed to benefit the body, mind and soul.

SoulCycle, based in New York, had 300,000 unique riders in 38 studios across the United States at the end of March, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. “Set in a dark, candlelit room to high-energy music, our riders move in unison as a pack to the beat, and follow the cues and choreography of the instructor”.

“For many of our riders, SoulCycle is not about how much weight they can lose”, the company said. The experience is tribal. Meantime, all of the company’s spin bikes are made by a single manufacturer, which it didn’t name in the filing, and it now has no replacement supplier. “It is primal. And it is fun”, SoulCycle says. The company also sells $54 T-shirts, $78 sweat pants and $58 tote bags with the SoulCycle logo stamped on them.

SoulCycle is considering seeking a valuation on par with sports retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc., people familiar with its thinking said. That will involve moving both overseas and domestically, beyond its current core cities of Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

By 2012, SoulCycle had 12 studios; and by 2014, the brash start-up boasted 36 locations. The company plans to explore at-home workouts: “We believe there is also an opportunity to expand SoulCycle class content to an “at-home” audience”, it wrote in its filing. But in general, a company goes public primarily to raise capital (which in this case will be used to expand SoulCycle’s presence), to fund research and development, and to pay off existing debt.

There is a possibility the SoulCycle IPO garners high levels of investor attention, largely because of its business model and, yes, even profitability.