Forza Is the Studio. Sydney Dumler Is the Brand.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of Sydney Dumler’s most popular TikToks is a 19-second clip of her lip-syncing a mock Lindsay Lohan dating ad from a 2009 Funny or Die video in her Nashville Pilates studio before it opened. In the video, Dumler’s studio is barren, save for exposed ceiling beams and giant gold-trimmed mirrors that give the space a vintage luxury feel. Dumler sports her signature bob, an all-black fitness onesie, cardigan, sunglasses, and ballet flats with white socks.

Throughout Lohan’s monologue, Dumler maintains a semi-straight face while using a reformer machine, letting the video’s captions serve as her introduction: Lohan jokes: “Hi, my name is Lindsay, and I’m searching for love,” as Dumler’s caption reads: “Hi my name is Sydney and I’m the owner of Forza Pilates.“ The top comment under the video reads, “Girl, you are the absolute IT GIRL.”

And honestly, she kind of is. 

Dumler has evoked this type of passionate response from women all over the country since December 2024 when she opened Forza Pilates in Nashville’s artsy, brewery-centric Wedgewood-Houston (WeHo) neighborhood and became a mainstay in the city.

The 26-year-old created the Pilates studio of many people’s dreams. Women walk around in Forza sweatshirts and biker shorts, a la Princess Diana. SunLife Organics offers a Matcha, coconut sorbet, and raspberry smoothie called “Expensive,” sharing  a name with Forza’s signature candle scent.

During the first week in March, Forza launched its second merch drop featuring varsity and Ivy League style crewnecks, fitted caps, and Pilates socks. And, of course, the vlogs of people excited for their first Forza class aren’t slowing down on socials anytime soon.

In the past year alone, Forza went viral in online fitness spaces both locally and nationally. The New York Times spotlighted the studio and accompanying athleisure brand in an article titled, “Don’t Call It a Gym, It’s a Sporting Club,” where Dumler explains that a lot of boutique Pilates studios are ditching old-school aesthetics—minimalist stark, white rooms and orderly reformer machines—in favor of what she describes as “country clubs, tennis clubs, and racket clubs.”

But what makes Forza so different from other boutique studios if many are already leaving the old-school industrial look behind?

Speaking over Zoom recently, Dumler wears an electric blue sweater and a cheerful smile. She just got back from New York for work and has a jam-packed schedule that revolves around preparing for the launch of new merchandise for Forza’s athleisure line. What distinguishes Forza in a crowded Pilates landscape is the diversity in both direct and indirect branding—i.e. plus-size classes in conjunction with a local plus-size boutique shop—in a fitness space dominated by a very specific demographic—white, wealthy, and thin.

Dumler knows that, but as a minority herself (she’s half-Japanese and Italian), she recognizes how important it is to be inclusive to all types of people, regardless of everyone’s fitness level or background. She featured her friends of multiple body types and skin tones in her first Forza campaign, and she emphasizes that men are welcome at her studio—she not only has a male instructor and male patrons of all ages but also trains male athletes. 

Dumler now wants to expand the range of fitness she provides, which includes tailoring classes for new moms. “One of our instructors just had a baby, so we’re going to start back up our ‘bring your own baby’ classes, and one of our other instructors specializes in pre and postnatal,” she says.

As for location, she knows there’s magic (and exclusivity) in staying in Nashville. She’s been approached by developers in different cities about new locations, but for now she’s focusing on what she already has.

“I don’t want it to get too big where the quality or the feel gets lost,” says Dumler.  

Dumler grew up in suburban Denver in an All-American, cookie-cutter neighborhood—cul-de-sac included. She was never that into sports—that was her parents and brother’s forte. He played hockey. Her parents enjoyed hiking and skiing.

“I hated any sport I ever tried. I didn’t like the outfits,” she says, shaking her head with a grin. “Pilates and yoga were the only workouts that ever stuck with me. Like, you could not catch me running.” As a teen, she was far more into fashion and music, mentioning Anna Wintour and the pop star formerly known as Hannah Montana as references to her career influences. 

Like Wintour, Dumler wants to be taken seriously as a CEO who just happens to be a young woman. She first moved to Nashville in 2016 to attend Belmont University for music business with a plan to enter law school afterward. At the same time, she was doing what many young people who moved to Nashville do—write music. It was a carefree time in her life when she worked as a fitness instructor at a local yoga studio while playing gigs sometimes hours away.

Whether she chose music or wellness ultimately came down to the lifestyle she envisioned for her future self. “I didn’t see myself on the road, and I still love to write music,” she says. “But I pivoted more into wellness because that’s where my jobs were taking me, and my lifestyle was more aligned with my friends in that community.”

She hasn’t written off music at all. She jokes that she’s available if a spot at the Bluebird Café calls or if she can do a holiday fusion for Forza.

Dumler never had big investors or a male CEO putting big money behind Forza. It’s always been her. The reason Forza exists at all is because Dumler wanted to create a studio she would want to visit. The studio’s design is based on what’s comfortable to her. “How do we appeal to the senses instead of dark rooms, lights, and loud music?” she wondered. “How do we create a serene space where you can just slow down?”

Home interiors and luxury hotel spas were her main inspiration for Forza. It makes sense that luxury was in mind when she opened a second location in SoHo House Nashville that carries a hefty membership fee for access to one house or access to all worldwide houses, ranging between $3,100 and $5,700.

Forza classes at the main location in WeHo range between $42 for two intro classes or a single class to $1,200 for 12 private classes. And if you think this deters people from Forza,  just look at the class schedule that’s booked up sometimes days or weeks in advance with only waitlist slots available.

It’s clear that Dumler is doing something right in the Nashville fitness community. Still, she feels weird taking credit for her own business.

“I really am just a girl with a big dream. I took so much time to think about it and build it. I think people forget that sometimes,” she says. ”Even when someone chooses to copy or steal from my brand, I don’t think they realize it’s a person behind it.”

In late 2024, Forza was the victim of a copycat studio in Tacoma, Washington, that replicated the brand’s ethos down to the fonts, branded clothes, color palette, and those GIANT MIRRORS! It resulted in Forza going even more viral outside of Nashville. All it took was a video of Dumler showing the similarities between the two studios and stating they were not affiliated with each other.

Reflecting on the paradox of being copied resulting in her studio’s virality, she says, “Forza is my baby, and it’s me. It’s hard not to take things like that personally. To look at it in a positive way, I really appreciate the influence that we have on the industry as a whole.”

Exercise and wellness equipment at a Forza Pilates studio in Nashville [Credit: Forza Pilates Instagram]

“It’s hard being a female business owner. I have such a small team, and we’re still so new. I just want people to realize that even though we look like a huge business that has all this financial backing, I’m scrappy,” she says. “Everything looks polished, but it takes so much work, time, and thought. It’s just such a small group of people making it all happen.”

In the mix of that small group is Kat Derespino, the head of brand marketing at Forza and the only employee on salary. She started off as a client and eventually joined Forza Academy, the training program for Forza instructors, and they connected creatively. Derespino is just as inspired by Dumler’s vision and wears a lot of hats to help bring the Forza vision to life.

“A typical day involves some aspect of photoshoot planning, campaign planning and creative marketing strategy–design projects, delegating content needs, providing briefs to our team, and working on all things visual and digital,” she says.

Other days, Derespino is brainstorming. A lot of the inspiration that she and Dumler gather together for campaigns and content comes from ’90s fashion marketing, physical media like Porter magazine, and older editions of Vogue. Derespino has a presence on TikTok as well, making aesthetically pleasing “Get Ready with Me” videos as she heads to Forza as either Dumler’s right hand or an instructor. 

It seems impossible to disconnect from the Forza orbit once you’re involved. The day after our interview, I watched one of Dumler’s TikTok videos, excited that I’m mentioned as part of “an interview with an NYU student.” I found myself welcoming being caught in the honey trap that is the cool-girl acknowledgement. I think it’s safe to call Sydney Dumler an It Girl, but also one who is advocating for inclusion with the foundation of a boutique fitness studio.

With her many plans for this year, I imagine the Forza brand will have already evolved into something bigger by this time next year; especially as she hopes that in a world of fast-moving trend cycles. Forza can be a brand that doesn’t follow trends but sets them.

“I always have a plan and a vision for the future of the brand,” she says. “It lights a fire under my butt to keep things fresh and unique and to keep elevating.”