Fills the Gap
By Barb Law Shelley
Photography by Kimberlee Miller
To upcycle is to find a creative way to transform an item into something of better quality, beauty or value. It is not recycling and is certainly not downcycling. Upcycling works for humans too as members of UpCycle Studio are discovering.
“We chose the name UpCycle Studio as a play on words,” said Allen Traylor, owner, who founded this holistic bike studio in the BoDo section of downtown Boise in 2017. “We want people to rethink their exercise, upcycle their fitness and life, improve their wellbeing while experiencing a welcoming, high-energy space. This is not a typical gym. It is a boutique studio that offers a range of activities in a high-energy, non-intimidating and friendly atmosphere.”
To pay a visit is not to simply spin. That’s too easy. That’s not upcycling. This is not just a bunch of grunting, sweating, showering and getting exercise over with. UpCycle Studio is a place to honestly evaluate your own drive and determination to improve your fitness.
“It brings you joy to do this,” Allen, who is a competitive biker, promises. “When you are strapped into your bike, the lights go down, and your favorite song kicks in, something primal happens. You merge with your bike into a larger experience. Being high on endorphins, makes you feel better, more motivated.”
The studio is for all fitness levels. It offers trackable data, yoga, TRX (total resistance exercise), high intensity interval training, cycling and private showers. Members can also now buy the EMPWR Pass to visit other boutique studies for more options. This includes Hollywood Market Yoga, 28th St. Barre, and MUUV Yoga.
Allen, a native Idahoan, lived on the east coast for eight years completing two master’s degrees at John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. In Washington, D.C., Allen worked in health care rising to an executive position, but when his son was born, he was eager to make a career change and return to Boise so that his son could experience the “ease of life” that Boise provides.
Finding a new opportunity was no problem for Allen. He is an entrepreneur at heart and spirit. Opportunities find him, he says, calling it “filling the gap.” After moving, he realized that Boise did not yet have a holistic cycle studio such as the ones he depended on to survive east coast life. That was the first gap he filled with UpCycle Studio. The second gap was his creation of the EMPWR Pass, a partnership with other small exercise studios that allows members to choose from among them. A third gap he filled is through an athletic clothing supplier partnership to fill requests for sporty clothing that can be purchased at the studio.
Owning a bike studio is plenty challenging, but his entrepreneurial spirit craves more. Allen is also a full-time instructor at his alma mater, Caldwell’s College of Idaho, where he teaches students the art of business and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Upcycle Studio is located at 380 South 8th Street, Boise.
Upcycleboise.com
