How 718 Pilates Studio and Its Founders Are Reshaping Wellness

Wellness has long been packaged as a monolithic, minimalist aesthetic that rarely reflects the vibrant communities driving real cultural impact. But in boroughs like Brooklyn, a powerful shift is underway. Across the country, Black women are pioneering a commercial renaissance: according to the Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report, Black women-owned businesses have surged as the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, expanding by 13 percent while increasing revenue despite systemic economic barriers. Furthermore, data compiled in the State of Black Women-Owned Businesses Report indicates a continuous expansion across major metropolitan regions, while broader tracking from the U.S. Census Bureau points to millions of active enterprises nationally generating hundreds of billions in combined economic impact.

This entrepreneurial boom is reshaping physical culture, health spaces, and community care. Nowhere is this more evident than at 718 Pilates Studio, where the founders are redefining what it means to own the room in fitness, wellness, and community building.

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You three built 718 Pilates to make wellness genuinely accessible and culturally resonant in Brooklyn. Looking back at your "Glow & Flow" event, hosted by BeautyStat and Powered by Women for the Culture (W4TC), your two-level studio was filled by Black founders, creators, and editors for Black Business Month. What did it feel like to see the vision manifested like that?

It felt surreal, but also deeply affirming. When we started 718 Pilates, we knew we wanted to create a space where people could see themselves, feel comfortable, find community, and experience wellness without feeling like they had to assimilate into a space that wasn’t created with them in mind. To now own a room filled with Black founders, creatives, and storytellers who are also building, creating, and shifting culture feels really special. It reminds us that what we’re building is bigger than Pilates. We’re creating representation, community, and access, and we’re proving that wellness can look and feel like Brooklyn.

Science-backed excellence with BeautyStat, storytelling power with W4TC, and movement mastery at 718... Tell us why these three brands coming together for an intentional collaboration during Wellness Month was so vital for us right now?

BeautyStat brings the science and innovation, W4TC brings the storytelling and cultural lens, and 718 brings movement and wellness. Together, we’re creating an experience that touches more than one part of who we are. These collaborations also allow us to introduce our communities to brands and experiences they may not have discovered otherwise. There’s so much talent within our community, and we don’t always have to compete for the same space. We can build the ecosystem together.

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There’s a massive difference between renting space in the wellness industry and actually owning the room. What does ownership look like for 718 Pilates as you continue to scale?

Ownership, for us, means having the power to define what wellness looks like in our community, not just participate in an industry that was never really designed with us in mind. It means owning our space, our brand, our story, and the experience we create for our clients. As we scale, we want to be intentional about not losing the intimacy, community, and authenticity that made 718 special in the first place. We’re not interested in scaling just for the sake of having more locations. We want to build something sustainable that creates opportunities for other Black and Brown instructors, entrepreneurs, and wellness professionals while continuing to make wellness accessible.

Building a brick-and-mortar business with your best friends is elite, but it’s no joke. What is one boundary you’ve had to set with each other to protect your friendship while building an empire?

When you’re building with your friends, the lines can get blurry. We’ve had to create space for each other to have different opinions, make mistakes, and sometimes simply take a minute for themselves. We also try to remind ourselves that we’re three different people with three different strengths. We don’t have to agree on everything to trust each other. The friendship has to remain bigger than the business, because ultimately, that’s what existed first.

When the doors close and the class is over, what is your personal, unglamorous go-to ritual to decompress and get back in your own body?

Honestly? Getting home, taking off the Pilates clothes, showering, putting on something comfortable, and doing absolutely nothing for a little while. As business owners, caretakers, wives, moms, and just women who are constantly “on,” sometimes the most restorative thing isn’t another wellness activity—it’s rest and quiet time. For us, it’s eating something good, getting in bed, scrolling a little, watching something good, and letting our brains shut off. Sometimes getting back into your body simply means giving yourself permission to stop performing and just be.

As spaces like 718 Pilates continue to scale alongside collaborative platforms like BeautyStat and Women for the Culture, they prove an essential truth: when Black women take ownership of wellness, they don't just build successful enterprises; they cultivate sustainable sanctuaries for us all.