Jonno
Design & business
Brand, technology and the member app. Also money and funding, planning, councils and landowners. Founder of NORA Technology.
About us
We’re building the local gym network.
Smithy started with a simple observation: big gyms are great, but most people live a drive away from one.
Our story
Gyms where people live, not where the footfall is.
A full gym needs tens of thousands of people nearby. That leaves villages, small towns and whole communities with a drive, or nothing.
We asked what a gym would look like if it were built for four thousand people instead of forty thousand. The answer was small, private and booked by the hour. It needed great coaching built in, and it had to be cheap enough to put on a patch of spare ground. We added the thing people travel furthest for: a sauna and cold plunge.
Why Smithy? Every village once had a smithy: the forge where heat met iron and people gathered. Ours does the same job with weights and a sauna, five minutes from home.
What we stand for
Close to home
Five minutes away, not a trip into town.
Private by design
One booking, one space. No crowds and no waiting.
Coached, not crowded
Expert programmes on the screen and progress in your pocket.
Light on the land
No foundations, timber-clad and removable.
The team
Three founders, three roles, equal shares.
James
Design, build & distribution
Designs and builds every unit, sources the kit, and delivers and sets up each site. That keeps our build costs low.
Anna
Fitness & management
BSc Sports Fitness & Rehabilitation and a Level 3 personal trainer. Writes the programmes, records the coaching and runs the sites.
Part of NORA Technology
Built on our own software.
Smithy is a NORA Technology project. NORA builds the booking, coaching and site systems that let each Smithy run without staff on site.