Our paper addresses the business of labor from the vantage point of women in fitness companies that operate as multi-level marketing (MLM) firms. MLM companies have existed since the early twentieth century and have expanded under the gig economy, yet there is very little historical scholarship on such businesses. Our paper addresses this gap by focusing on dance fitness MLMs, which are made up of 75% women and provide a window into how the fitness and wellness industries have adapted to economic downturns, a pandemic, and the rise of gig workers and social media influencers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The modern fitness industry emerged in the post-war era, with the rise of the first fitness celebrities in the 1950s. The dance fitness sector dates to 1969, when Judi Sheppard Missett founded Jazzercise. Jazzercise began franchising in 1982, and by 1984 it was the second fastest growing franchise in America. It dominated the dance industry until 2001, when Zumba became the first dance fitness company to diverge from franchising and adopt a network marketing business model, which had become popular in other sectors during the 1990s. This model exploded following the 2008-2009 recession, when women entrepreneurs launched numerous dance fitness MLMs targeting women drawn to the “gig economy” and other flexible forms of work and entrepreneurship, along with promises of greater confidence and economic and social empowerment. Using marketing material and data on membership costs and employment, we illustrate how these dance fitness entrepreneurs have used such promises to scale their brands even as the MLM business model systematically prevents most participants from experiencing any substantive economic gains from their involvement.