Blueprint Boxing continues expansion with Porterville location to open by end of the year
TULARE COUNTY – Blueprint Boxing prides themselves on creating a one-of-a-kind workout experience. Their high tempo workouts which take place in dark rooms lit by blue neon lighting with blaring loud music, implores patrons to keep returning for more. With studios already established in Visalia, Tulare and Hanford, Blueprint Boxing will open another in Porterville by the end of the year, and are working on a Clovis location for the beginning of 2022.
Blueprint Boxing is a gym based around a concept of 12 rounds of high intensity interval training (HIIT) cardio via boxing and 12 rounds of HIIT via weight training. It was founded by a former Exeter Monarch, Joey Avila, and Redwood Ranger, Gilbert Vasquez, who primarily serve as coaches at the Visalia and Tulare locations.
The goal was to create a different kind of gym, something that is light and fun. They landed on boxing since it has a lot less impact on a person’s joints compared to the various forms of cardio that other local gyms use.
“We didn’t really know how receptive people were going to be because it is a completely different genre of fitness than people are used to in Visalia,” Avila said. “We wanted people to understand that we are not boxers, we are fitness coaches who decided to use boxing as a platform for cardio.”
The first location opened in Visalia in 2018 and was a hit in the community. Within the first three months they accrued nearly 150 members, attracting people from neighboring communities such as Exeter and Lindsay. As a result, they expanded with two more locations in Tulare and Hanford in 2019. Currently they have over 700 members and were up 1000 members before the ongoing pandemic.
The expansion into Porterville will serve as a homecoming for both founders as Vasquez is originally from the city while Avila is from nearby Strathmore. They are excited for the economic growth that Blueprint Boxing can bring to the community. Whenever they open a new location in a different city, they make an intentional effort to collaborate with other businesses through promotions and cross-branding, fundraisers for scholarships and sponsoring local youth sport teams.
“We really try to create a community wherever we go. We ask each coach and manager at the studio to become a part of that community,” Avila said. “We look for things to sponsor, community events that we can help out at and we actually hold community events at the facilities as well.”
The new location will also bring more jobs to Porterville as they work to fully staff the studio. They usually have a staff of 4-5 coaches at each facility and they’ll be adding 4-5 personal trainers at the new location, in addition to maintenance workers.
As Blueprint continues to expand throughout the Central Valley, the eventual goal is a nationwide expansion. There have been internal discussions around the long-term goal of having 10 locations which are solely owned by the corporation. The reason being that they want to help facilitate career growth with the current staff of workers who have been there since the beginning.
“We feel like if we have 10 locations that are all thriving then the people who are sticking it out with us now, we can give them the opportunity to live comfortably in the fitness industry later,” Avila said. “That is almost unheard of… to make ends meet as a trainer is hard enough and to live comfortably as someone in the fitness industry is even harder.”
