Former CEO of Gold’s Gym Brandon Bean has launched an AI-infused fitness studio in Irving, Lumin Fitness. Bean says the brand, which operates under parent Mixed Partners, also co-founded by Bean, “[lies] at the nexus of gamification and personalization.”
The Lumin experience revolves around LED screens placed throughout its fitness studios. These screens project dynamic backgrounds during each workout and engage consumers with mini-games to get them moving. As users complete repetitions, the games level up. Bean says the gamification results in a “reduction in perceived exertion.”
The screen’s AI system also analyzes gym goers’ movements, tracks their progress, and offers real-time suggestions on form and effort based on collected data—meaning there is no wearable component for Lumin consumers. “There’s no need for additional devices or electronic gear,” Bean says. “You simply walk in wearing your regular workout attire, and the system recognizes your presence.”
At the end of each session, users receive a performance score via the Lumin app. “We’ve condensed all aspects of fitness into four key areas: muscular endurance, muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, and mobility,” Bean explains. Each area is scored and adjusted dynamically to account for changes in effort during workouts.
Though the LED screens reduce human interaction at the gym—there are no group instructors and no need for reception—Bean says users can still foster a sense of community through AI-run group classes and opportunities for users to form online communities within the app. “Much of the community-building happens before and after class,” he adds.
Bean credits his tenure leading Gold’s Gym in part with shaping his vision for Lumin. “Technology was changing how the consumer was behaving and how retailers in general were interacting with consumers.” He created Lumin to be an experience that “can evolve as the consumer changes.”
Bean served as Gold’s Gym CEO from December 2015 to February 2019, exiting a year before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company reported $872 million in full franchise revenue in 2018, just prior to Bean’s departure. By the end of 2019, Gold’s was forced to close roughly 30 locations as part of its bankruptcy filing. The company announced plans to sell during the pandemic and was acquired by Germany-based fitness and wellness company the RSG Group.
By then, Bean had already co-founded Lumin with former founder of Coppell-based gaming app Kwest, Omeed Shams, leveraging the lessons he had learned at Gold’s. “[At Gold’s] we didn’t evolve quick enough in an industry that was really, really changing quickly. So, part of what we’re building here is something that has the ability to change and evolve very, very quickly as the consumer does,” Bean concludes.
Lumin’s executive team includes Craig Sherwood as chief development officer, who previously served as Gold’s senior vice president of franchising and licensing. Under Bean, he will now lead Lumin’s expansion plan.
Bean hopes to rake Lumin global via a franchise model. “Franchisees know their local market and community better than I ever will, and those two aspects are what we’re asking of them. We will do everything else for them,” he says. He’s seen interest from locations in the Middle East, including UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Domestically, Bean is eyeing Houston and Tennessee.
His long-term vision also includes integrating Augmented Reality into the Lumin experience, creating a flexible fitness journey where users can switch between home and studio workouts. Bean created Mixed Partners to build a tech-enabled fitness ecosystem consisting of several brands down the line.
“There’ll be other concepts that will leverage this smart movement ecosystem we’ve built and deployed,” Bean says. “I can envision a day where we’ve got a Lumin Fitness down the street from a Lumin cycling studio, down the street from a Lumin boxing, down the street from Lumin yoga, and our members can pick and choose based on where they are in their fitness journey that particular day, week, month or a year.”
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