TJ's Gym Weekly News 11/8/2020
End of an Era.
Our dear friends, Juliet and Kelly Starrett, announced the closure of San Francisco CrossFit.
MESSAGE from Allison and TJ
Earlier this week there was a crash into the continuum, a blast into the hull, a major disturbance to the matrix.
It was the loss of something very, very special. Last Sunday, the owners of San Francisco CrossFit, Juliet and Kelly Starrett, announced they would be closing their gym.
To the uninitiated, to the young or to the new, there will likely be no resonance with this announcement.
As part of my business origin story, I talk about discovering CrossFit some time around 2005 and adopting some principles at the gym Allison and I had opened in 2002. By 2007, we were bursting at the seams, tossing old methodologies aside and embracing the CrossFit mantra of constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensities.
We were blessed that CrossFit was invented at a small gym in Santa Cruz in the late nineties and then launched via a website in 2002, and that two of its earliest adopters, coaches, and arguably biggest stars—Kelly and Juliet—opened the first CrossFit gym in San Francisco in 2005. It was located behind the Sports Basement in the "Parking Lot of Dreams," which many of you probably saw on your commute home en route to the GG Bridge.
From afar, it looked like a small group of maniacs exercising with little to no organization or purpose. Starting in 2006, I would skulk around the parking lot whenever I had a chance, never participating and secretly appalled at my lack of ability to hang with at the level of fitness I saw before me. I soon got the story (second hand) that Kelly had taken his doctorate loan and used it to buy the equipment and tents he and Juliet set up to run this fitness circus. Kelly worked as a Dr. of Physical Therapy at the Stone Clinic, while Juliet, a corporate lawyer at the time, was running the show from behind the scenes. They slowly built one of the greatest communities in CrossFit.
Thousands of professionals, blue-collar folks, semi-retired people, and teens showed up in the sun, fog, rain, and darkness to witness and be a part of the movement that was happening. When CrossFit hit the national radar, SFCF was already well-versed in providing the best coaching in the world, mixed with an energy that was part carnival and part fitness megachurch.
Kelly was Barnum and Juliet was Bailey. Soon their coaches were stars in the CrossFit world. Adrian Bozman, Carl Paoli, and Diane Fu were teaching seminars worldwide and writing hot books.
Meanwhile, Kelly was developing MobilityWod, now The Ready State, and writing Becoming a Supple Leopard, a soon-to-be NY Times best Seller. In the parking lot on any given day, you would meet Navy seals, CrossFit Games champions, and tech giants.
Allison and I eventually started developing a relationship with the Starretts that has since become a lifelong friendship.
By 2012, they found an indoor space worthy of the Mecca they’d built, moving a few blocks from the parking lot into their current digs in the Presidio. The space looked like the set of a movie with Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Lalanne, Matt Fraser, and Lindsey Vonn working out together. It was beautiful and functional. They held seminars, parties, and photoshoots, always celebrating their members, their staff, and the beauty of CrossFit. By the mid 2010's, you’d find NFL Quarterbacks, Olympians, celebrities, and reporters from 60 Minutes.
About five years ago, the Starretts set up The Ready State HQ in an annex of TJ’s Gym in San Rafael. The ability to share your hopes, dreams, fears, and losses with people you respect and who know the life you live just as well as you do is a gift from Oden, and we had it 20 feet away.
Their business was exploding in all directions. They were raising their daughters, running the monster that is The Ready State, and managing their wildly successful labor of love, SFCF.
Then the pandemic it.
While we have all suffered, it's worthy to bear witness to things lost that we didn't even know we had.
SFCF has a landlord by the name of The United States of America, because it's located in the Presidio. The landlord offered no leniency. Once the extensive PPP loans ran out, after paying their entire staff their full salaries for months (in part with their own contributions), Juliet and Kelly were left with no choice as the restrictions continued to tighten in San Francisco.
Imagine if the Grand Canyon just went away. Or if the Statue of Liberty was dismantled and sold for parts overnight, or if the painting or book or person who inspired you to take that leap of faith just ceased to exist. What would you do?
I’m choosing to honor the place and the people and will do so as long as anyone wants to hear our story. If you have rolled on a foam roller, swung a kettlebell, or climbed onto a rower, you should know that the Starretts and San Francisco CrossFit had more than something to do with it. No matter what they have on their own plate, they never hesitate to listen, hug, cheer, and cry with us and for us.
The loss of SFCF has had an impact on me, and I ask that in the next week before they close, if you’re able, drive by and stick your head in. Maybe mention something on their social media or just take a minute at our gym to give a little thanks and appreciation to the best who have ever done it and who paved the way for so many.
Onward, and cheers to our lifelong friends,
Allison and TJ
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