Combat sports have always had a devoted following. What has been harder to crack is translating that raw, authentic energy into a boutique fitness concept that works for a broad audience — not just athletes and serious fighters. Boxhaus is one of the brands taking that challenge seriously.
Co-founders Andre Huseman and Vanessa Bourne join Matthew Januszek on Escape Your Limits to talk about what it takes to bring customisation for combat sports to the masses, and why boxing, muay thai, and kickboxing are having a moment that boutique fitness operators cannot afford to ignore.
About Andre Huseman & Vanessa Bourne
Boxhaus — also styled BoxHaus — is a boutique combat sports concept built around the disciplines that are driving some of the most passionate fitness communities in the world: boxing, muay thai, and kickboxing. What Andre Huseman and Vanessa Bourne have built is not simply a gym with punching bags; it is a brand with a specific point of view about what combat sports fitness can look and feel like for mainstream members.
The customisation angle is central to Boxhaus's identity. In a boutique market crowded with one-size-fits-all formats, tailoring the combat sports experience to individual members and their goals represents a meaningful differentiator — one that reflects the partners' genuine understanding of the disciplines they are working with.
Together, Huseman and Bourne bring a complementary combination of perspectives to building the brand. Their one-two punch approach to the fitness industry is a deliberate metaphor as well as a business strategy — two founders with different strengths, unified by a shared vision for what Boxhaus can become.
What Andre Huseman & Vanessa Bourne and Matthew Januszek Talked About
- Combat sports are no longer niche — boxing, muay thai, and kickboxing have crossed into mainstream fitness culture, and the boutique operators who position early will have a structural advantage over those who wait.
- Customisation in a combat sports context means meeting members where they are, whether they are total beginners drawn by the energy or experienced fighters looking for a community — and designing an experience that serves both.
- Building a boutique brand around a discipline requires founders who genuinely love that discipline; authenticity is immediately legible to members who are passionate about the sport themselves.
- A two-founder model with complementary strengths mirrors the dynamic of the sports Boxhaus is built around — collaboration, trust, and clear roles produce better outcomes than any solo effort.
- The boutique fitness model succeeds when every element of the member experience reinforces the brand's core identity; at Boxhaus, the combat sports ethos should be felt from the branding to the coaching to the atmosphere.
- Bringing something that was once reserved for serious athletes to a mass market is not about diluting the product — it is about removing the barriers to entry while preserving the essence of what makes the discipline powerful.
- Founders who can articulate a clear concept — as Huseman and Bourne do with Boxhaus — attract the right members, the right staff, and the right partners more quickly than those who try to be everything to everyone.
Why This Conversation Matters
Matthew Januszek has spent his career thinking about how great fitness concepts find their audience and scale without losing what made them special in the first place. The Boxhaus story is a front-row seat to that challenge being worked through in real time, in one of the most exciting categories in boutique fitness right now. Combat sports are not a trend — they are a through-line in human physical culture — and Andre and Vanessa are building something designed to last.
For the Escape Fitness USA community and listeners of the LIFTS Podcast, this episode offers concrete lessons in brand differentiation, concept clarity, and the kind of founder partnership that gives a young business its best chance of growing up right. If you are building in boutique fitness, or simply fascinated by how new concepts take root, this is required listening.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Matthew Januszek
Matthew Januszek is the co-founder of Escape Fitness, the functional-training equipment brand he built from a UK startup into a global name supplying many of the world’s leading gyms, studios, and hotel fitness spaces. Following the separation of the UK and US businesses, Matthew’s focus today is Escape Fitness USA and the next chapter of the brand in North America. He hosted more than 300 episodes of the Escape Your Limits podcast and now co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast with SweatWorks founder Mohammed Iqbal, covering the business, science, and technology shaping the fitness industry. Explore more interviews and episodes on MatthewJanuszek.com.
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