Gravity Fitness started because the equipment we wanted simply didn’t exist.

Back in 2012, our founder, Rich Hawkins, was dealing with recurring shoulder niggles. He’d always seen calisthenics as the foundation of good movement and real world strength, so bodyweight training had remained a fundamental part of how he trained.

By 2015, Rich wanted to take his calisthenics training further and went looking for a decent set of parallettes.

What arrived was, frankly, rubbish, cheaply made from what felt like plastic plumbing pipe.

He sent them back and searched for something better. The problem was, there wasn’t much better.

That was the lightbulb moment.

Rich believed calisthenics deserved better equipment. Equipment that was properly designed, built to last and accessible to people who were serious about getting stronger — whether they were complete beginners or experienced athletes.

So, rather than keep looking for it, he decided to build it.

Our first production run of just 200 sets of parallettes launched in January 2016. They sold out.

Since then, we’ve sold more than 100,000 sets of parallettes, expanded into a complete range of purpose built calisthenics equipment, and helped hundreds of thousands of people discover what their bodies are capable of.

The mission hasn't really changed since that first run:

Make genuinely great calisthenics equipment and get more people building strength through movement.