A North County fitness center has been selected to be Missouri’s only distributor of a new exercise shoe called Kangoo Jumps, which has been a worldwide phenomenon that the Florissant entrepreneurs hope will catch on here.
The shoes resemble a cross between inline skates and ski boots with a spring on the bottom. The outer boot is hard, and the inner boot is soft. The inner boot can be removed for washing. The boots protect the user’s ankles, knees, hips, lower back and spine, said Isadore Davis, marketing director of Studio Z Fitness. He is the son of owner Marguerite Grove.
The fitness center became the distributor of Kangoo Jumps, which cost about $229, after Davis’ brother Randy Hunt read about the trend in Ebony Magazine earlier this year.
Studio Z offers Kangoo aerobics classes for $15 and also sells the shoes for customers who want to work out by themselves. “It’s an all-around workout,” Davis said. “It’s like working out on a trampoline.”
The shoes were created in Europe initially as a recreation device for people with leg injuries. But an engineer reworked the design and performance and introduced his model in 1994 as an exercise shoe.
Vanessa Savoy, the Kangoo class instructor at Studio Z, said medical professionals realized the shoes also aligned the body and caused weight loss.
“I’m the biggest fan of Kangoo,” Savoy said.
She bought her own set of Kangoo shoes and walks or runs two miles in the shoes around the perimeter of Florissant Valley Community College.
“At first, I said it was for kids,” she said. “But once I did it and dropped five pounds in a week, I knew there was something to this.”
LaToya Jeffries, a certified instructor who also is Grove’s daughter, said they wanted to do something that wasn’t typical. “Everybody is doing Zumba and we needed a different type of workout,” she said.
Kangoo is just one of many classes that Studio Z offers. Classes include Chicago stepping, boot camp aerobics, praise dancing, belly dancing, kickboxing, pole dancing and yoga. In July, the fitness center began offering the “Michael Jackson Tribute Dance” class, where attendees learned all the steps to the “Thriller” video.
In addition to classes, Studio Z allows professional and aspiring dancers to use the space to practice their craft. Unlike most centers, Studio Z has no bulky exercise equipment. Grove said that is by design.
“You don’t have to be on a machine,” she said. “You can lose as much weight without being on a machine.”
Grove started Studio Z Fitness in July 2008. But soon after, a flood damage forced the business to close. It reopened in December. “By then, the economy was bad and we lost a lot of momentum,” Grove said.
But she and her family never gave up.
Davis said his mother has wanted to open a fitness center since she was in her 20s. “This was my mother’s brainchild,” Davis said. “So she has fulfilled her dream.”
For more information about Studio Z Fitness, call 314-831-4348 or visit www.studiozfitess.com.
