Page 102 - Entrepreneur - USA (January - February 2020)

THE FRANCHISE

t’s late summer in Austin, Texas, and it’s infernally hot inside the With their heavy and expensive equipment, cryo seemed like a perfor-
city’s newest cryotherapy center. The 3,500-square-foot facility is mance edge available only to the kind of athletes that train under coaches
I still weeks from opening, so sawdust is flying and workers are drip- like Salazar. This led the average athlete—and then the average wellness
ping sweat as they put the finishing touches on the drywall. consumer—to want what the pros had. So when the therapy was made
Walking the site, owner Jeff Mobley describes a vision that’s still tak- available to the masses, people jumped. Across the U.S. today, you’ll find
ing shape. That empty patch of floor there? That’s where two cryother- more than 700 cryo facilities battling to freeze the most customers and
apy chambers will sit. grab the biggest share of the $4.5 trillion wellness market.
This is the latest outpost for iCryo, a Texas-based franchise with 42 units Cryo is, of course, competing with other franchised wellness move-
open or under construction. If you don’t know what cryotherapy is, then ments, like float tanks and salt rooms. But with more than a dozen cryo
you’re probably just not paying close enough attention to wellness trends. brands now offering franchising, the trend is uniquely poised to represent
There are roughly 20 cryo centers in Austin alone, and one of those is just the uncertain arc of a wellness boomlet. Which is to say: The business is
half a mile from Mobley’s. For $9.95, first-time customers can be blasted moving a lot faster than the science is.
with nitrogen-cooled air to -166°F for three minutes. This chill, cryo advo- While fitness franchises like Planet Fitness and Gold’s Gym can cite
cates say, will trigger the body’s flight-or-fight response and flood the body long-standing physiological science on the benefits of exercise, newer well-
with feel-good hormones. It can (allegedly) cure any number of ailments. ness movements like cryo aren’t so fortunate. In 2016, the FDA released a
What sets iCryo apart from its competitors is the ease of access. In consumer update calling cryotherapy a “ ‘cool’ trend that lacks evidence.”
some cryo facilities, people lie down in a clamshell chamber. “With these, While some cryo research has shown modest benefits, a 2018 study from
though, you’ll be able to walk right into them,” says Mobley’s son, Ty, who the London Sports Institute found that it was no more effective than a pla-
will manage the shop. “It’s gonna be pretty cool.” cebo for improving functional recovery among 31 marathon runners. (And
Cryotherapy took a long time to become this cool, though. In the 1970s, its famous advocate just fell from grace: Nike coach Salazar was recently
the technology was developed in Japan as a treatment for rheumatoid suspended by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for multiple violations, though
arthritis and fibromyalgia. By the late 1990s, physical therapists in Poland none were related to cryo.)
and the U.K. began using it for rehab, and by 2010, Nike coach Alberto “Whole-body cryo can probably help some athletes recover faster,” says
Salazar adopted whole-body cryo as a recovery aid for his pro athletes. Dhaval Bhanusali, M.D., a Manhattan dermatologist who has treated