WILLIAMSBURG — For a U.S. soldier who’s part of the pair behind a global fitness app, the chance to help people sweat came about by accident.
FitFight, an app for Apple and Android, has been on the market since March 2016. Brandon Kennedy, an active infantry officer in the U.S. Army and the chief operations officer of Fit Fight LLC, is a 2017 graduate of William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business. He has helped develop FitFight into a worldwide virtual platform for athletes to compete against.
“It’s almost like eBay, but you’re auctioning your sweat,” Kennedy said.
The idea for the app came from Steve Forti, FitFight’s founder and chief executive officer. Forti, a retired Green Beret who was an officer with U.S. Army Special Forces, was stationed in Romania and found he enjoyed physical competitions with his military friends who were stationed in places such as Afghanistan and Germany.
When the credibility of his own event scores was questioned, Forti decided to record a video of himself performing the challenge, and email it to prove the authenticity of his results.
“The moment I videotaped myself and hit enter to send the video was when I knew I would be building a business,” Forti said.
Kennedy came into the company in 2016, and even then it was by accident. When Forti was looking to start developing the app, another person with the last name Kennedy was recommended to him. After finding Brandon Kennedy, instead of the other Kennedy who’d been suggested, Forti found that Brandon was the man he needed.
“Bringing Brandon in turned it into a business,” said Forti. “It took it from a one-man show to a company and collaborative process where two people were working together for a common goal.”
The app started out small, with only a few users in beta testing; it has grown to see more than 5,000 downloads and it’s used in more than 40 countries.
In FitFight, users can find live competitions in a variety of interests, from weightlifting to cardio. Once a person records themselves doing a challenge, such as dumbbell snatches, the results can be uploaded and compared to those of other users, with the best score winning a prize.
Bianca Casciari, a FitFight user who lives in Bakersfield, California, has won prizes from Lululemon Athletica, a Canadian manufacturer of athletic clothing, and Yeti Coolers LLC, which makes outdoor gear such as ice chests. For her, the competitive feature is what makes the app stand out from other fitness apps.
“It’s interesting to see if I finish the workout and see if someone beat me,” Casciari said in an interview. “I’m more likely to give it another try if they did, because I want to win.”
The app allows people to submit as many attempts to a challenge as they want, which gives users feelings of accomplishment and competition, Kennedy said.
Since FitFight became available on Android in February, Kennedy hopes to see the number of users double; he also hopes to see more sponsors become interested in giving out prizes to competitors.
Spokespersons for Lululemon and Yeti could not be reached immediately for comment before publication.
For Kennedy, though, the app is about more than just winning prizes. The competitive nature creates a community and helps users grow in their fitness goals.
“I get to inspire through fitness,” Kennedy said. “It was such a natural thing to add FitFight to my life because it gives me the opportunity to help people get better at something they love.”
This story was originally published in our sister publication, WY Daily.
