‘Like a Family’: Pilates studio is Skokie’s Business of the Year award

Andrea Metcalf never thought she would get into fitness. Not again.

It was 2020, and her plans to construct a never-before-seen, 10,000-square-foot athletic center — set to accommodate Pilates, running, rowing and indoor surfing studios, and for which she had sold her house and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars — were just derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Devastated,” she walked away from the project empty-handed, figuring she would leave it and her preceding career as a fitness instructor, author, health consultant and media personality behind. 

But instead Metcalf staged a major return, and earlier this month, the Village of Skokie recognized FLX Move, her two local fitness studios, with the 2025 Skokie Business of the Year award. 

Attendees of FLX Move’s classes, who contributed to the approximately 100 nominations the business received for the annual prize, attributed the studios’ success to the intimate, community-focused ethos Metcalf has cultivated.

“I never dread getting up at 5 a.m. to teach a class because I know I’m going to see these people that are just so excited to be here and always happier after they’re done,” Metcalf said of her work. “Like there’s no other job that gives you the opportunity to feel good every day.”

Metcalf recalled she was first drawn to the world of professional fitness after she graduated high school and saw the going rate for a part-time jazzercise instructor was $8 an hour — much better than the state’s $2.75-an-hour minimum wage at the time.

Already a regular athlete (gymnastics, diving and track), it wasn’t too difficult to memorize the routines and teach, she said. Soon after, she helped start the aerobics program at DePaul University and opened her own boutique fitness studio in 1999.

Noticing other fitness instructors on television, a friend connected Metcalf with a producer at NBC and Metcalf leveraged the introduction into a monthly segment alongside news correspondent Robin Meade.

But Metcalf didn’t stop there. She cold-called NBC’s then-president Larry Wert to land a meeting and urge him to hire her full time. 

“I brought him a pizza from Lou Malnati’s and he turned around and I said, ‘Larry you have Flat Butt Syndrome. I bet you have a lot of neck or back pain,’” Metcalf said. “He looked at me and said, ‘How do you know that?’ ‘Just by the way you walk.’ I was really good at what I did.”

What ensued was a wide-ranging media career in which Metcalf went on to work with “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the “Today” show. She met celebrities, traveled the world, contributed to health magazines, wrote a best-selling book and more. 

So it was a big pivot when Metcalf decided to pursue Studio Fuse, the athletic multiplex she sold her house and ultimately sunk $250,000 to create. 

No bank would give her a loan as no similar project had been attempted before, Metcalf said, and when the pandemic struck, she was not eligible for federal assistance as most of her staff were on contractor status. Amid financial trouble, Studio Fuse’s lease was broken and the development was torn up.

Metcalf eventually moved to Skokie to be closer to family. While she thought she wouldn’t work in fitness again, she decided to move forward in 2024, opening FLX move Pilates Experience Studio.

For those uninitiated, Pilates is a workout system named after Joseph Pilates, the inventor of the “reformer,” a sliding apparatus utilized for a low-impact, full-body exercise.

Metcalf said she loves Pilates because it is relaxing and challenging, subtle but precise, and fosters both flexibility and strength. While the system can focus on a kind of fluid movement like yoga, there’s no spiritual element that allows it to be more accessible, Metcalf said.

Metcalf’s FLX brand has already expanded to three more locations, now offering 80 classes a week from 10 different instructors via “reformers,” exercise bikes, barre and mat exercises. 

Jessica Spencer, one of the Skokie studio managers, said she was working in property management when she met Metcalf. After taking some classes, she left her job and became certified via Metcalf’s original training program to become an instructor for FLX. 

“I’ve been to a lot of different studios, gyms. I’ve also been a class girl. But I really liked the community (here),” Spencer said. “I really wanted to be around somebody who’s a really smart business woman but who’s also really supportive and works a lot in the community.”

Catherine Lick, a 77-year-old FLX member, said after a recent mobility Pilates class that she loves Metcalf’s system because it helps with her strength and balance, something that’s really important once you start becoming older. 

“What I look for in an exercise place is that they watch what you’re doing and if you’re doing it wrong then they correct you — that’s very important and also the effort they make in helping the participants get to know each other, you know it really becomes like a family,” Lick said. 

Biju Krishnan, chair of Skokie’s Consumer Affairs Commission, said the village has been handing out its Business of the Year award for over 15 years to emphasize Skokie is business friendly.

Among the hundreds of nominations it receives every year, the commission weighs the finalists’ quality of its service, their business reputation, how much economic or community-service value they provide to Skokie, and their innovation or sustainability.

FLX stood out this year because of its so many reports of “outstanding” customer service, how it’s drawn in so much traffic from outside Skokie, and its event partnerships with other local groups, Krishnan said.

Runnerups this year included Orange Pediatric Therapy and Don Julio Cafe.

Metcalf said she felt honored to receive the commission’s award especially after seeing the names of others who have won it in the past, like Soul Good Coffee and Sketchbook Brewing. Moving forward, she hopes to keep expanding and is already looking at opening two more studios.

“When I was told we were finalists I was just really honored because you look at some of the names of the businesses on there and they’re just such staples in the community,” Metcalf said.

“Being relatively new to the community, I know those businesses, I know the goodness of those people and it’s just — they’re normal people who seem to have a dream to make it happen and they did it. So that’s really inspiring to me.”

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