Founding Father and CEO of the RSG Group LLC – Reiner Schaller

Rainer Schaller is the founder and CEO of the RSG Group LLC, the world’s innovation leader in the fields of lifestyle and fitness with over 2 million customers. Over the last twenty years, Rainer Schaller has succeeded in turning the formerly known as “open-to-all gym” into a worldwide operating business with more than 5,000 employees at roughly 300 locations in 48 nations.

He began his career by training as a retail salesman and later took on a franchise from Edeka before launching his first gym in Würzburg, Germany, in 1997. Compared to the wellness trends that predominated at the time, he initiated the discount principle within the fitness industry, setting it with amazing success. Rainer Schaller has continuously developed his company and built up more than ten brands covering “360 degrees around the consumer.”

“Now also in Würzburg” – this marketing tactic with a banana as the mascot was how Schaller opened his very first McFIT gym in 1997. This was followed by the foundation of the company headquarters in Schlüsselfeld, Franconia, shortly afterward.

After just nine years, the McFIT gym chains boasted probably the most clients in Germany with 416,000 in 2006. In precisely the same year, McFIT took over its most important opponent, Fit24. In 2011, McFIT welcomed its one-millionth member and also became Europe’s number 1 gym chain.

Within his own training, Rainer Schaller always places great focus on athletic nutrition, and it was this that motivated Rainer to establish Qi² Sports Nutrition in 2013. One year before that, Schaller had launched the organization’s member magazine “Einfach gut aussehen” (“Simply looking good”), that reached more than a million members.

Nowadays, the magazine is available in digital format under the name LOOX, and also in the form of an app that gives more than 300 perfect plans to suit any training goals and any training levels. The magazine’s huge success inspired Rainer Schaller to further utilize the potential of the community, and in 2014, McFIT MODELS was established as the biggest sports model agency in Europe, under the motto “Jeder kann es schaffen” (“Anyone can do it”).

HIGH5, a new exercise concept in the American vintage and faculty style, with a focus on functional training, was launched in 2015.

CYBEROBICS, the new dimension virtual course training with the most effective coaches in the United States at breathtaking original locations, was established in 2016.

1Up FITNESS, the company that played a key role in the expansion to the North American market, was founded the same year. (Recently, the 1UP FITNESS changed its name into RSG North America).

In the same year, JOHN REED, the globe’s first Fitness Music Clubs that combine a unique combination of music, design, and fitness, were opened. The exceptional JOHN REED style, which combines elements from various cultures, periods in history, and the street art of urban metropolises, is based on the impressions Rainer Schaller gained during his travels. All these add up to that exceptional JOHN REED feeling.

In 2017, the international TIGERPOOL management agency was launched.

Vito Scavo took over the core operating firm from Rainer Schaller in precisely the same year and became an equal partner of McFIT in Italy. McFIT GLOBAL GROUP became RSG Group in 2019. Together with its strong brands and advanced concepts, the RSG Group is still a crucial part of the busy daily lives of its customers. Its ideas and their understanding constantly set new benchmarks.

At the Berlinale in 2019, Schaller presented his newest brand, Steven Baker, that offers cake inventions with an emphasis on “guilt-free pleasure.” With JOHN & JANE’s, he’s introducing Germany to a worldwide sport and lifestyle trend: boutique fitness.

In 2022, the world’s first center for fitness – THE MIRAI – will open in Oberhausen, covering 55,000 square meters, unrivaled in its capacity to attract the joy of movement to a countless number of men and women – with a revolutionary concept with no monthly membership fee.

By blending industry and people, THE MIRAI will make it feasible for anybody who’s enthusiastic to train and experience the future of the fitness industry in the in present. As a yearlong platform, THE MIRAI combines the fitness business, B2B partners, education, and training institutes, as well as research and development.

In addition, THE MIRAI will also supply a unique selection of training options: whether indoor or outdoor, for seniors or children, independently or within a class, strength or movement, on the ground or in the air, on the entire world’s biggest sky run – it’s the perfect offer for everyone.