More Than A Name

JT Scott | 06/09/2020 | 11

As I wrote yesterday, the staff here is watching, marching and working with you to “demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many others. […] Black Lives Matter. Of course, we stand with the movement and our hearts are with every person in the street demanding change. We are all doing our part, and we fear for the people we love who are most at risk.”

Our strange little box gym here in Somerville’s Union Square is more than CrossFit, and it always has been. The name CrossFit has helped many people over the years find their way to a new home with us here, to make new connections in a new neighborhood, to build friendships that have lasted for over a decade. That’s what the name CrossFit did for us: it helped us find each other. The community we built isn’t CrossFit, it’s us – remarkable people and our shared suffering and laughter and love.

But the name and brand of CrossFit is also indelibly tied to the actions of its founder, and I expect it will remain so. I don’t think Greg Glassman is going anywhere. When we use the CrossFit name, we announce to some extent our affiliation and association with him. And I’ve been very clear from Day 1 all the way back in 2009 that we not only welcome everyone here, but we have a responsibility to work to make the world a better place. Being tied to the bigotry and anger displayed by CrossFit’s founder over the weekend hinders that mission.

What Greg Glassman tweeted this past weekend, and proceeded to double down on in a few ways, mocked and disregarded the lived experience of our Black neighbors, our Black friends, and our Black family members – and it’s nothing we want to be a part of. We all work too hard to make the world a better place to be have that association get in our way, or have any of your money or ours support a platform for that kind of ignorance.

We won’t be doing that anymore.

When COVID-19 recedes, when local and state governments get their hands around regulatory guidelines and public health precautions enough for us to reopen our doors, our name will be different. It’s going to take us a bit of time to make the change – after all, it’s in the website, the billing systems, the business paperwork, the insurance… hell, it’s even painted in 6-foot tall letters on both the inside and the outside of our little masonry-block gym. But we’ll be making that change, because what we have here is more important than the brand, and it deserves better than to be associated with that brand’s founder any longer.

As I’ve written about in this blog before, the space itself will also probably look different thanks to COVID-19. The ways we move in the world will have to change before this is over to keep us all safe. We’ll still be striving for solid movement mechanics, consistently strong execution of those movements, and as much intensity as we can muster; it just might be while wearing masks and standing 14 feet apart, and it will be called functional fitness instead of using a brand trademark. The methods of training that we use here – that we have come to describe by shorthand as CrossFit – will continue to be our basic method that we continue to explore and evolve as we grow and learn as coaches and adapt to the circumstances of the world we live in… but we won’t be a CrossFit Affiliate anymore.

What won’t be different is the love we have for you, the love you have for each other, and the incredible positive difference we all make together in each others lives and in our neighborhoods.

You’ll all be getting an email in the next few days restating this and including a survey for your feedback about some of the proposed reopening protocols that are floating around industry groups and governments to get a sense of what feels appropriate for your personal risk thresholds. We’ll also be including a few new ideas for a name to wear in the future, as we leave the name CrossFit Somerville behind. Thanks for being with us. We’re happy to share this journey with you.