Meet Esther and Chad Pinther of CrossFit Colfax

Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther and Chad Pinther.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Esther and Chad. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Before my husband and I met, we were both huge sport competitors. I was in the junior Olympics & Olympic trials for swimming and he was a wrestler & runner. We both began training in CrossFit, my husband for almost seven years and myself for almost three years now.

When we met CrossFit was very passionate between us as well as the desire to help people! We decided to open a CrossFit gym in order to help people the best way we can, help them live longer, healthier, and happier. After a month of going over it in our heads to see if this would be viable, we decided that we would take the plunge. After six months of research and talking to multiple people who own CrossFit gyms around the world, we decided to start small.

We opened up a CrossFit gym called Reckoning Fitness, in our garage. We built our garage out on our own and fully equipped it, to make it great as we could. Our next step was getting people in the doors. We did countless hours of walking around our neighborhood, knocking on doors, talking to people, and flyering. Countless hours of promoting, marketing, being vendors at event after event. After six months of all of this, we finally started seeing people come into the point where we decided we needed a bigger space.

Our garage gym would only allow us to have three people max at a time working out. So the next additional six months, while we were running our gym, we were also looking for a bigger space. However, we started hearing about several CrossFit gyms closing down, and we were a little fearful about what that meant for us and whether or not we should open a gym or not. Our friend connected us to someone who was selling their gym so we could gather information and see if buying a space is something we should even consider doing. We met with the, now previous owners, of CrossFit Colfax, and after talking to them, they made us an offer to buy their CrossFit gym.

After several months of talking and putting pieces together, we purchased CrossFit Colfax and became the new owners in February 2019. It has been an amazing experience but we’ve had our share of so many sleepless nights, fixing up the whole gym, buying new equipment. The gym hadn’t seen any type of care for six years so it was a huge struggle for us to bring it back to its current state! We are still learning so much every day, but we’ve built our community by having positive, happy people who encourage and push each other every day and then go grab drinks after.

It’s incredible to sit back and watch that happen and see how far we’ve come. From 13 members in our garage gym to now almost 200 members in a 9,000 sq ft. space.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
So many struggles. Getting to where we are now has been such an uphill climb. Knocking on doors and flyering for hours and hours every day for six months, rain or shine was definitely and eye-opening experience. Trying to get people in our doors was not easy. We had to work so hard to get just one person in. Because if you think about, we live in Denver, the fitness capital, and we are asking people to come workout in our garage. That was hard to figure out. But once we got people in our doors, no one left, everyone stayed.

Another struggle has been the time we have lost as a couple and as a family. We have a ten-year-old daughter and our family time has greatly diminished, as well as our time as a couple. It’s hard because you want to hang out and take that time but you can’t because there’s always something that has to be done. And right now the business has to be the priority because we are still in the 1-year mark. And right now we are still doing all of the work so it puts so much More on our plate.

Please tell us about your work. What should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What sets us apart from other CrossFit gyms is how much we care. How much we help. And most importantly our community. We have worked so hard to bring the right type of people into our doors. Everyone here is accepting, positive, and happy. We don’t allow any bad energy, any negativity, and any gossip. Everyone is friends here. We all go out, we all bbq, we celebrate people’s job promotions, birthdays, we go on camping trips together. It’s a family.

Another thing that sets us apart is our coaches and programming. All our coaches are specialized in something. We have a coach that specializes Olympic weightlifting, one that specializes in gymnastics movements, we have a nutrition coach, we have a coach that works with people who have had surgeries and injuries. And they all care.

We sit down with people 30 min before their first class to talk to them and get to know them and have them get to know us. We learn about their goals and who they are. And this is what makes our community strong.

Our programming is also what sets us apart from others. A lot of CrossFit gyms around us use the same programming. We use a special programming that allows our athletes to train seven days a week if they wanted to, without injury. We work on lifting but also high-intensity training. And we mix both of these elements, along with gymnastics & cardio, and makes for such an effective program.

We row, bike, run, do sled pushes, pull-ups, rope climbs, barbell work, ring work, and so much more. Whether you are looking to lose weight, build muscle, get stronger, get toned, or just make friends. Everyone is different in our gym. We have people who have been doing CrossFit for seven years and people who are just starting out. Everyone is in a different stage in CrossFit. We also have a FIT program for those who are wanting to try it out and haven’t done CrossFit yet! This is a great starting point!

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Sense of humor. We are always laughing in here. What we wanted to create was a gym that has a strong positive happy community of people that work hard every day, and have FUN doing it. We make this the best hour of your day. And how we do that is by making you laugh and smile every single time you walk into our doors. No one leaves our gym upset, angry, or frustrated! No matter what you are going through, you come in, workout, and laugh. You have fun. And that to us is so important.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1516 Emerson St.
  Denver, CO
• Website: http://www.cfcolfax.com/
• Phone: 7203413738
• Email: info@cfcolfax.com
• Instagram: Crossfitcolfaxdenver
• Facebook: CrossFit Colfax

Image Credit:
Tony Ciccone Photography

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.