Personal Touches Are Key to Hopkins Curves' Success

“These two are the greatest people ever. There is another club closer to my house, but I come here instead just because of them.”

That’s how Curves member Fern Amit feels about Bobbi Ettinger Wilf and her daughter, Tammi Brengman—the owner and general manager, respectively, of the on Excelsior Boulevard in Hopkins.

Curves is a fitness franchise designed and marketed exclusively for women. It has nearly 10,000 locations in more than 85 countries. But the Hopkins location is about much more than exercise. Club members get together for fun events that have little to do with fitness—such as a regular garage sale inside the club where members sell items to other members.

“We try and do fun things here all the time which are not centered around just exercise and working out,” Ettinger Wilf said. “This is more than just a fitness club. It’s a community for our members.”

Curves International made news last year when reports showed a three-year period of rapid franchise closures had decreased the number of U.S. locations by about a third. But the 10-year-old Hopkins franchise continues strong—adding the territory of St. Louis Park when it recently renewed its contract with Curves.

Ettinger Wilf’s involvement in the fitness business came after she spent decades in the trucking industry with her first husband. From the early 1960s to the early 1990s, she was the vice president of marketing and sales in a trucking company they owned.  

But she was always interested in fitness and health. So in October 2001, the Minnetonka resident opened the Hopkins facility in conjunction with her husband Morrie.

“It was Morrie and Tammi who really encouraged me to buy the franchise,” she said.

The Hopkins facility uses the same equipment and approach to exercise as all the other Curves clubs. Members follow a circuit from one machine to another during a set time frame that is programmed into an audiotape instructing them when to start and stop an exercise.

“We don’t have free weights (barbells and dumbbells) but rather offer hydraulic exercise equipment which is designed and manufactured exclusively for Curves,” Ettinger Wilf said.

Members can program their own pace and amount of resistance on each machine. They can also enter personal information into the machines so as to keep a record of fitness progress. And there are also stations that aren’t a piece of equipment and use just cardio.

The result is a mix of exercise and fun that’s attracted a diverse membership—coming from all sorts of backgrounds and ranging in age from their twenties to their eighties, Brengman said.

Said Ettinger Wilf: “We make certain everyone feels welcome and enjoys each and every experience when they come in here.”

For her, that means doing more than just opening the door and turning on the lights.

“Both Tammi and I are here a lot and make sure we know each member and interact with them as much as possible,” she said. “That very personal touch is a big part of our success.”