YouTuber given rare tour of Apple Fitness+ studios

Apple has given popular YouTuber iJustine a tour of its Apple Fitness+ studio in Santa Monica, as well as interviews with the company's fitness executive and coaches.

The iPhone maker produces all of its weekly Apple Fitness+ content at a large studio in Santa Monica. As shown in iJustine's video, the studio is highly mechanized — and trainers are essentially able to film their classes without a large technical team.

Additionally, iJustine also interviewed Apple's Vice President of Fitness, Jay Blahnik, who said the company is continuing to evolve and update the service to bring more value to its customers.

"We've had a really great time innovating, and we're just going to keep pushing," said Blahnik. "We're really committed to this notion of trying to welcome as many people as possible regardless of where they're at in their fitness journey."

The YouTube also spoke with a few Apple Fitness+ trainers, including yoga instructor Jessica Skye. Skye gave some additional details about how Fitness+ classes are produced.

"My favorite part of the process is probably the rehearsal. That's where the real collaboration happens," she said. "So we get assigned our workouts, we create them, and then the final step between that and coming on set is being able to rehearse with your teammates where you start to bounce ideas and really dial into the detail."

iJustine's full video is available over at her YouTube channel and is worth a watch for anyone interested in Apple Fitness+.

12 Comments

sbdude 290 comments · 5 Years

About 2 years ago

I can't imagine anything I'd refuse to watch more than her.

9secondkox2 3124 comments · 8 Years

Interesting. She. seems to get everything from Apple. (prerelease software, etc.). Almost wonder if she has relatives on Apple leadership or is secretly. an Apple PR employee.
Seriousluy. It's different than Reneee. Ritchie getting an interview, etc. It's a bit much.

mpantone 2243 comments · 18 Years

9secondkox2 said:

Interesting. She. seems to get everything from Apple. (prerelease software, etc.). Almost wonder if she has relatives on Apple leadership or is secretly. an Apple PR employee.
Seriousluy. It's different than Reneee. Ritchie getting an interview, etc. It's a bit much.

Apple Fitness VP Jay Blahnik's comment "We're really committed to this notion of trying to welcome as many people as possible regardless of where they're at in their fitness journey" provides some insight into Apple's motivations.

For reference, here are some selected YouTube subscriber numbers:
Rene Ritchie: 324 thousand
E! News: 988 thousand
David Pogue: 1.13 million
Cosmopolitan: 1.6 million
CBS Mornings: 2.3 million
PBS NewsHour: 3 million
Good Morning America: 4 million
iJustine: 7 million
ESPN: 8.4 million
SnoopDoggTV: 8.4 million
Vogue: 11.6 million
Beyoncé: 24.4 million
Billie Eilish: 45.5 million
Taylor Swift: 46.3 million
She reaches a larger audience than Rene, 21x more people. Justine is not quite rockstar status but she's a hell of a lot closer than Rene.

Justine isn't some flash-in-the-pan influencer who hatched last year. She's been doing this for almost 15 years, lifecasting long before YouTube started streaming live video.

Ritchie didn't even start blogging until 2008, a year after Justine had started lifecasting in 2007.

So she's the veteran in this matchup.

Apple is deliberately sensible in rolling out the red carpet for her and giving her special access to their facilities and executives. They want people to sign up for Apple Fitness and more people are going to learn about it from her rather than Rene.

Rene Ritchie is a tech writer who focuses on Apple. iJustine is a lifestyle vlogger who doesn't focus on one corporation.

My guess is that Apple executives are aware that many of iJustine's followers are Android users and I'm sure there's some hope that some of them might switch to iPhone/Apple Watch if they can see the benefits and advantages of something like Apple Fitness.

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

mpantone said:

9secondkox2 said:

Interesting. She. seems to get everything from Apple. (prerelease software, etc.). Almost wonder if she has relatives on Apple leadership or is secretly. an Apple PR employee.
Seriousluy. It's different than Reneee. Ritchie getting an interview, etc. It's a bit much.

Apple Fitness VP Jay Blahnik's comment "We're really committed to this notion of trying to welcome as many people as possible regardless of where they're at in their fitness journey" provides some insight into Apple's motivations.

For reference, here are some selected YouTube subscriber numbers:
Rene Ritchie: 324 thousand
E! News: 988 thousand
David Pogue: 1.13 million
Cosmopolitan: 1.6 million
CBS Mornings: 2.3 million
PBS NewsHour: 3 million
Good Morning America: 4 million
iJustine: 7 million
ESPN: 8.4 million
SnoopDoggTV: 8.4 million
Vogue: 11.6 million
Beyoncé: 24.4 million
Billie Eilish: 45.5 million
Taylor Swift: 46.3 million
She reaches a larger audience than Rene, 21x more people. Justine is not quite rockstar status but she's a hell of a lot closer than Rene.

Justine isn't some flash-in-the-pan influencer who hatched last year. She's been doing this for almost 15 years, lifecasting long before YouTube started streaming live video.

Ritchie didn't even start blogging until 2008, a year after Justine had started lifecasting in 2007.

So she's the veteran in this matchup.

Apple is deliberately sensible in rolling out the red carpet for her and giving her special access to their facilities and executives. They want people to sign up for Apple Fitness and more people are going to learn about it from her rather than Rene.

Rene Ritchie is a tech writer who focuses on Apple. iJustine is a lifestyle vlogger who doesn't focus on one corporation.

My guess is that Apple executives are aware that many of iJustine's followers are Android users and I'm sure there's some hope that some of them might switch to iPhone/Apple Watch if they can see the benefits and advantages of something like Apple Fitness.

She’s been following Apple the whole time. Plus she’s female. If she were an older fat male, they wouldn’t care for her as much let’s not BS to be “politically correct”.

Beats said:

She’s been following Apple the whole time. Plus she’s female.

No one here is refuting the fact that sex sells.

However you've missed the most pertinent points, the most important one being that she has a MUCH larger audience and a much wider one.

Yes, she has been following Apple for a long time but if you look at her YouTube playlists, she doesn't restrict her broadcasting to Apple news. She's a big fan of Nintendo videogames (particularly Animal Crossing) and LEGO. She has also reviews drones, cars, e-bikes, non-Apple smartphones, digital cameras, PCs that aren't Macs, food, kitchen appliances and more.

And notably she does not vlog about two very popular subjects with female vloggers and their audiences: cosmetics and fashion.

Some of her broadcasts focus on an event or holiday so not just product reviews. She is also a participant in activities. She isn't just parked in front of a camera in her home studio. She rode a mule in the Grand Canyon.

Rene Ritchie by contrast is basically parked in front of a camera in his home studio and mostly just holds up an Apple product to the camera.

If someone is talking up Apple Fitness, it'll be a more compelling review from someone who actually gets out of their chair. Justine has previously vlogged about fitness tech like weights and rowing machines.

Beats said:

If she were an older fat male, they wouldn’t care for her as much let’s not BS to be “politically correct”.

Walt Mossberg retired in 2017. Sorry about that.