‘Hardest decision’: Sydney gym run by ex-prisoners shuts down

A gym that opened less than a year ago and which was run entirely by ex-prisoners to give them a second chance at life has collapsed.

A gym that opened less than a year ago, which was run entirely by ex-prisoners to give them a second chance at life, has collapsed.

Sydney-based Confit Gym – standing for Convict Fitness – will close down this week, with its last day of training happening on Saturday.

The gym’s CEO and founder Joe Kwon, himself a reformed convict, said “it’s very unfortunate” but that the social enterprise couldn’t carry on against the grim backdrop of the cost of living crisis and “macro economic factors”.

“There was so much money that went into this. We built the gym with our own hands. We cut the concrete, laid the pipes, broke down the walls,” he lamented to news.com.au.

But ultimately, Mr Kwon, 36, said it was “too expensive” to operate Confit and made the decision to pull the plug.

An affiliated charity, Confit Pathways, was funding the gym but he said “it was getting to the point where we might not have a charity” because of the costs incurred. ‘This has been the hardest decision that I have ever had to make.”

The fitness centre’s closure will impact eight staff but he said they would be given some work as contractors through the charity, but unfortunately those roles wouldn’t be full-time.

Joe Kwon launched the gym earlier this year.

Confit Gym launched in January.

“All of our trainers have hit rock bottom in their lives and they have found redemption through fitness,” Mr Kwon told media at the time.

Confit Gym started off as a bootcamp style of training inspired by his days in prison.

He recalled how he stole empty water bottles from the back alley of a restaurant and filled these with water so his customers could use them as weights – a common way prisoners lift weights without easy access to dumbbells.

When Mr Kwon was just 21, police arrested him at Sydney’s Shangri-La hotel on drug charges.

He ended up being sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of Directing a Criminal Enterprise and Large Commercial Supply of MDMA.

Mr Kwon was released on parole after nine years in jail.

He spent the bulk of his 20s behind bars and said he didn’t know what an app was and the only phone he had ever used was a Nokia by the time he finally re-entered society.

But fitness has always been a constant for him and he has continued it outside of jail.

“Even though our bodies were incarcerated, our minds were free,” he explained.

“I fell in love with fitness when I went inside. It became a sense of purpose for me.”

The gym had more than 7000 followers on Instagram.

Confit’s charity program is still running.

The gym operated from a venue in Parramatta in Sydney’s west.

“It is a beautiful space,” Mr Kwon said. “We don’t have that space anymore. We’d love it if someone could us a space or give us a cheap space.”

News of the closure of Mr Kwon’s gym has led to an outpouring of support from the local community.

And it’s a phenomenon being felt across the entire fitness industry.

“There was a PCYC right next to us who shut down right at the same time,” Mr Kwon said.

And other gyms, some of them part of major franchises, have also not been able to withstand the pressures of the cost of living crisis.

Perhaps the most shocking was the collapse of UFC Gym, which left 62 creditors owing a staggering $15.6 million.

A number of F45 franchises have also quietly gone under — and bear in mind, this was the A-lister gym chain that was once on top of the world.

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Originally published as ‘Hardest decision’: Sydney gym run by ex-prisoners shuts down