How Entrepreneurs Are Ensuring Their Brands Go Beyond The Trends

How these home-grown entrepreneurs are ensuring their brands go beyond the trends by growing a community

- Hashirin Nurin Hashimi

JEONG FOK

Co-founder of Ground Zero Singapore

Whether you are a gym rat or new to exercise, surely you can relate to Jeong Fok when he describes his first spin class as “brutal”. This was way back in 2013, even before indoor cycling became a thing. “Every part of my body was in pain after the first 45-minute class, even muscles I didn’t know existed were aching. It was definitely not like riding a bike in the park,” shares the co-founder of boutique fitness studio Ground Zero Singapore.

When spinning, along with boxing and HIIT (high-intensity interval training), became one of the top fitness trends in recent years, Fok decided to become a spin instructor. He had been running his own business in the toys manufacturing industry and was travelling a lot between the US and China. On the side, when he was in Singapore, he would lead group fitness classes during his free time. “My friend reached out to me and asked me to audition to become a spin instructor. He said it was the same as [the classes] I was doing, but on abike instead.”

So passionate is Fok about the sport that he eventually decided to open his own fitness studio with partners in 2017, at a time they felt was right to elevate the industry. Nearly five years on, Ground Zero has built a tight-knit community of like-minded individuals, from university students to working professionals, from its location at the Cross Street Exchange mall in Telok Ayer.