Former Notre Dame Athlete and Multi-Unit Orangetheory Franchisee Brings Arizona’s First SweatHouz to Scottsdale

Jake Golic, a former Notre Dame athlete and longtime Orangetheory franchisee, has taken the next step in his career by bringing SweatHouz to Arizona. On September 19, he opened the first Scottsdale location, offering private, science-backed contrast therapy. For Golic, the brand connected with his own background in fitness as well as the shift he saw in people’s wellness priorities after COVID.

The Scottsdale studio is just the start. Golic and his family, who are actively involved in the business, already have additional locations in the works, including Gilbert and North Scottsdale. After nearly a decade of running Orangetheory studios in Boston, Golic wanted a brand where he could combine his experience in franchising with his passion for wellness while also building something alongside his parents, sister, and brother-in-law.

For Golic, SWTHZ is about more than opening doors. It’s about creating a family-run business that gives employees room to grow and brings a new kind of recovery experience to the community. Scottsdale is the first step in Arizona, and as SWTHZ continues to expand nationwide, Golic is excited to be part of the brand’s next chapter.

1851 Franchise sat down with Golic to discuss his franchising journey with SWTHZ and his ambitious expansion plans. Here’s what he had to say:

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Jake Golic: My wife and I both had corporate jobs after college in Chicago. I worked in graphic design for a company called The Protein Bar, and my wife worked at Deloitte. The work was fine, but it wasn’t particularly meaningful. We took an Orangetheory class together for the first time in Scottsdale in 2012. Every time we visited, we went back. We loved the brand.

Long story short, we left our jobs and bought two licenses for Orangetheory in Boston. My wife is from Boston, born and raised in Winthrop, where we live now. We wanted more connection with people. We like being hands-on, managing, and giving people opportunities to grow within our brand. Orangetheory was still a new brand then, just a few years old. We loved the concept.

We were both athletes at Notre Dame, so fitness was always a priority in our lives. We liked that it was science-backed and tracked fitness — it wasn’t snake oil.

That’s what led us to SWTHZ. There’s a lot of literature about the power of contrast therapy, and it made sense, especially in a post-COVID world. After people were locked away for years, there was a mental health shift. People still wanted privacy while being reintroduced to society, and it’s nice to have time to yourself while doing something good for your body.

That really drove me to the brand. With our gyms closed for eight months, we were paying rent on both locations and still paying our employees. Our world turned upside down. I started going to SWTHZ when it first opened in Massachusetts. The Burlington location was the first 2.0 studio, and I jumped right in. Shortly after, I was on a call with founder Jamie Weeks about finding a territory that worked for us.

Scottsdale was the logical choice. My family lives there — my parents, my sister, and my brother-in-law, who are members of our team. It made sense as the next step in science-backed franchising, and that leads us to where we are now.

1851: What was your perception of franchising before becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Golic: I’ve always had kind of an entrepreneurial mindset. My wife and I started Orangetheory franchising when we were 24 and 25, so we were really young.

The appeal was having a consistent brand, an open box where you get the same experience nationwide. At first, I thought it would be a first step toward maybe doing something on my own. Come to find out, I really love the franchising model. I love the consistency across locations, and, quite frankly, it makes for a safer entry point. You’ve got people who’ve already done the research and the brand development, and it’s a product we believe in. For us, it just made sense to keep going with franchising.

1851: You mentioned that your family is involved in the business in Scottsdale. Was that important to you?

Golic: Very much so. For me, it’s all about keeping a bridge. Not that there were any bad bridges between us, but being out here on the East Coast, planting roots with my wife and kids, it’s good to have that connection. It’s something we can all do together, something we all believe in. As former athletes in our family, it’s a concept we’ve used our entire lives.

It’s great to work and talk candidly with family, not just as business partners but as people; you can sit down with and logically think through things without worrying about ruffling feathers. You can have those open conversations, and it makes it easy and enjoyable.

1851: What excites you most about SWTHZ?

Golic: For me, it’s multifaceted. From the client side, it’s about sharing the experience I had the first time I went to the 2.0 studio in Burlington — that separation and quiet you get for an hour while doing something good for your body. The space itself is so nice. It feels more like an extension of your home than a business. You can just walk down the hallway, block everything out, and reset for an hour.

From the management side, I love the opportunity to scale. With Orangetheory, we opened two locations and were done. With SWTHZ, we can keep growing, and that gives our employees the chance to grow within our brand in Arizona. Empowering them to learn and advance alongside us is really important. Staff retention is something I take seriously, and we’ve had great retention with our Orangetheory teams from the very beginning.

We have a couple of team members who’ve been with us almost the full 10 years. Giving them the chance to be in a place where they can enjoy the benefits of contrast therapy while also growing alongside us as we see this through is really meaningful.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth? 

Golic: It’s a brand that’s growing at a rapid rate, and we’d like to see it through as far as we can. Our goal is to keep opening at least two locations a year moving forward. I should mention that at the beginning of 2026, we’ll be opening a new location in Gilbert, Arizona. The plaza is still under construction now, but that’s on the radar as well.

We also have a location in North Scottsdale, and we’re dipping a toe into Phoenix proper. Our goal is expansion. We’ve seen the traction and the response. We’ve only been open for less than 3 weeks at our first location, and the feedback from clients has been tremendous.

It’s really about cautiously going pedal to the metal. We don’t want to overload ourselves to the point where other locations suffer, but this is something that needs to get out there for as many people as possible to enjoy.

1851: Was science a big factor for you? How does that play into SWTHZ, and how are you communicating it to customers, especially new ones?

Golic: Our staff has been very well trained. Corporate comes out and helps us launch the studios, and the first day is spent talking about the science behind it. Going back to Orangetheory, the ability to point to high-intensity interval training and explain the science — how it works for everybody regardless of age or build — was important to me.

It’s the same thing with SWTHZ. There’s science backing what we’re doing, so if clients have questions, you can explain what it’s doing for their bodies. It makes them more comfortable investing their time in the brand.

1851: The technology is a big component of SWTHZ — not just for the customer but for you as an owner, too. With that distance between you and the studio, how heavily do you rely on it?

Golic: I’m able to keep track of the performance of all our equipment. Right before we got on this call, I was checking to see how everything was functioning.

With Orangetheory, it was very community-based — you had to be in there full-time and 100% involved for it to succeed and grow. With SWTHZ, it’s more about getting people in their rooms and giving them that free time. There’s still community behind it, but in these early stages, it feels manageable from a distance. Ask me in a couple of years how I’m feeling, but for now, being able to check in and keep tabs on everything from 2,500 miles away is certainly nice while having my family manage the day-to-day operations in Scottsdale.

ABOUT SWEATHOUZ:

SweatHouz is a first-of-its-kind wellness concept offering private contrast therapy experiences with infrared sauna, cold plunge and Vitamin C showers in luxury, technology-forward suites. Designed for recovery, longevity and convenience, SWTHZ uses smart engineering and a membership-based model to make high-performance wellness accessible and effortless. With franchise opportunities available in select markets, SWTHZ is redefining the recovery space — one studio at a time. For more information, visit https://sweathouz.com/.