While many people have turned to home fitness during the COVID-19 lockdown period, gyms and fitness centers are reopening across the country, bringing the convenience of classes and high-tech workouts back to the table.
Health and fitness represent a $34 billion industry, and nearly 20% of Americans carry a membership to some sort of fitness venue.
Despite this popularity, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association highlighted the devastation caused by coronavirus, as the industry lost $13.9 billion in revenue due to extended shutdowns. And, without assistance from the federal government, as many as a quarter of these health clubs could close permanently by December 31st.
For these facilities, the key to drawing business back, and keeping it, is to develop systematic strategies to help keep people safer as they return to their clubs.
How Wide Format Printing Can Help Fitness Centers Stay Safer
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has developed guidelines to help gyms and health clubs put protocols into place that will allow members to work out and take classes in a safer environment.
Of course, rules and regulations governing social distancing and other safety strategies are constantly fluctuating as new information becomes available, so the ability to change things up is an essential requirement.
Here are a few protocols that are easily implemented with the help of an in-house wide format printer, even if they need to be revised to fit evolving guidelines.
1. Social Distancing Protocols
Social distancing remains the most enduring protocol in use for continuing public health and safety. For gyms and fitness centers that deal with a regular influx of visitors, having clearly delineated spaces that enforce social distancing guidelines is critical.
A wide format printer can produce high-contrast signage in eye-catching colors on durable materials — signage that can be easily changed as owners rearrange facilities to account for fluctuating attendance or as government rules change.
2. Wearing of Facial Masks
Depending on where your gym is located, face masks may or may not be mandatory. Either way, many people feel safer in an environment that encourages the wearing of facial coverings — a trend that may be an important way to increase gym attendance.
To encourage facial mask wearing — and give your brand a boost — you can use an in-house wide format printer to print custom face masks with your company logo on fabric.
You can give them out to employees or even offer them for sale to customers who forget their own.
3. Dynamic Signage
As guidelines change, so must your signage. And, if your health club decides to switch up your facility’s design to keep customers safer, you might want to spell out what you are doing for your members using eye-catching signage.
A wide format printer can print banner-sized signage to delineate a new floorplan, create floor stickers to guide patrons through the facility in a unidirectional movement to avoid people congregating, or make decals to point out new safety features.
Blue Technologies Has the Best Wide Format Printers for In-House Tasks
Blue Technologies has partnered with industry leading printer manufacturers Konica Minolta and KIP to deliver a wide variety of options for your in-house wide format printing needs.
If you need flexible, on-demand printing in brilliant colors and a variety of media to keep your gym or fitness center safe, operable, and open to the public — we have the right equipment to spark your creativity and get the job done fast.
Our color print production equipment gives you direct control over your output to digitally match colors for brand cohesiveness and our black-and-white models give you the kind of fast, high-quantity performance you need when developing forms, flyers, and other information to share with staff and guests.
Worried about changing rules? With an in-house wide format printer, you can quickly and easily change signage at a moment’s notice.
After COVID is no longer a threat, your printer will continue to produce high-quality marketing collateral, banners, signage, and other materials you need to draw — and keep — the public’s attention right where it belongs — on your gym.
Jump ahead of the pack and display your commitment to public health and safety by bringing your wide format printing needs in-house. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant today and learn how easy and cost-effective owning a wide format printer can be.
