Profile: TUF Club
Meet the powerhouse behind Kansas City’s most elite training program: Jabari Washington, owner of The TUF Club
Photos courtesy of TUF Club
Hey peeps! I know I have been MIA for a hot minute but I assure it’s because I have been a busy bee finishing up some interior design projects and on the side started a tequila brand! You can read more about that endeavor in my interview with Made in KC Explore Food Editor Tyler Shane.
One of my past articles was about Egreis Gjergjani and her booming businesses ByEgreis, IvyGreis and her business that started it all, Itty Bitty Toes. Egreis was responsible for introducing me to the subject of this article, Jabari Washington, owner of The TUF Club.
The TUF Club is a premier workout facility that gained its ground in the Crossroads area. Jabari’s gym certainly did not happen overnight. His journey started in the summer of 2015 with the brand name “Fitness Vibez”. He was training clients at Liberty Memorial that summer and partially through the fall. His business soon transitioned into a full time apprenticeship with Andre Husky (owner of F3 Fitness) after parting ways as a CRM at UMB Bank. Fast forward a year, and Jabari quickly decided it was time to branch out on his own.
A big move, indeed– it proved to be a very uncomfortable and frightening time in his life since he had to provide as husband and father of four. But in March of 2016 Washington launched “Trainers Club KC. With only one client who was one of his closest friends, Fransisco Pacheco, he started small to pursue his dream– and quickly grew. Soon after he gained two more clients, Chad Clement who was a good friend from his UMB Bank days and Randy Jones. Clement gave Jabari a key to his home and asked him to turn his basement into something that would soon turn into “TUF Club North”.
Randy Jones asked Washington to train him at Mill Farms Clubhouse in South Overland Park which became “TUF Club South”. Now, these location titles were imaginary for Jabari, so he could manifest a bigger vision for himself to obtain. After a year of working for GrubHub on the side for extra income and training Chad and Fransisco seven days a week, his hard work paid off and his clientele morphed into about 30 new clients who would consistently show up to work out in his friend’s basement. Jabari also experienced growth with Jones over at “TUF Club South,” with around 35 people showing up to train at Mills Farm Clubhouse. At this point, Washington was training close to 65 people every week by himself. What started as a dream grew into an underground movement through word of mouth about Jabari’s impeccable training methods.
During these workout sessions, he was using jump ropes and four cones to train his clients. Jabari started to purchase equipment from places like Play It Again Sports, Craigslist and Offer Up from the income he was making at GrubHub. Over time, those purchases turned into a full scaled functional gym with treadmills, bikes, rowers, ellipticals, dumbbells and much more. Soon after, the who’s who of fitness and sports in KC all the way from South Overland Park to North Kansas City were coming together to train with Jabari Washington and his sidekick– his one year old son– at 5 am.
“I will forever be indebted to Randy and Joan Jones for welcoming me into this community and introducing me to their close friends. The Jones’, Chad and Fransisco are the foundation of The TUF Club”.
The name was changed from Trainers Club KC in May of 2018 to what it is today, The TUF Club. T U F is an acronym for Total U Fitness. One of Jabari’s more notable clients, Egreis, met with him to post her transformation on Instagram and realized he didn’t have an account for her to tag the soon to be The TUF Club. With Egreis’ savvy marketing skills, they both brainstormed and came up with TUF. With some input from Washington’s nephew, Aaron, The TUF Club officially came into existence and the rest as they say, is history.
In late 2018, Washington started to create programs to allow some of his more notable client’s Instagram followers to have workouts for their followers to purchase (you following? lol!) This is where he would learn the concept of e-commerce as it relates to fitness. In November of 2019 The Tuf Club collaborated with client Brittany Matthews (fiancé at the time now wife to Patrick Mahomes) who was referred by Kayla Brown, and that became the validation in many people’s eyes that Jabari had arrived.
They released the program in the heart of The Chief’s Super Bowl run, and the program (Get Fit Wit Brit) did very well and gave the entire country an opportunity to see the brand. Brittany already had a fitness brand, and with all eyes on all things Kansas City Chiefs, together they were viewed and valued as a brand much bigger than what they were– marketing ingenuity.
Things were looking very bright then the horrible C-word hit: COVID-19. The whole world had to pivot and so did The TUF Club. Washington shut down both South and North locations. He moved some things to his home garage but also was actively rolling online and converted most clients into Zoom boot camps. His Zoom boot camps lit up like wild fire! Jabari caught the attention of Bumble and ended up doing boot camps for their platform, which garnered more validation for his growing brand. At the height of COVID The TUF Club grew their online platform to about two hundred clients, all from the comfort of Jabari’s own bedroom.
Meanwhile, Washington knew that people would be heading back to the gyms someday, even though some gyms were shutting their doors. So in August of 2020, he went and acquired a basketball gym in Overland Park, knowing teams needed a private place to practice. He has since leased that gym to his nephew so he can kick start his own basketball and sports performance training center (House Elite Basketball and Sports Performance)…the family that trains together grows together!
From there, the TUF Club has only grown. From being featured on all the major local news outlets, to a remarkable experience going live on Good Morning America thanks to Wesley Hamilton (founder of the Disabled But Not Really Foundation), Jabari is raking in the recognition. The ranks of his trainers have grown, including connections like Joey Miller, Christina Perry, Ronnie Hill, and Chelsey Borders and my own personal trainer, Durias Henry– a truly elite group.
From their humble beginnings, The TUF Club has definitely become a premier fitness brand and experience right here in our amazing city– and believe me, it will continue to soar! They provide a top notch fitness experience for everyone– and especially for people of color– and produce real results with sound understanding and education. I know this first hand since I have been a client for a year.
The TUF Club recently announced that they are spreading their wings moving to a new location and let me tell y’all, it's going to be amazing. Jabari was kind enough to show me renderings and Kansas City isn’t ready for this…scratch that, Kansas City IS ready for this– soon to be a multi-location, multi-city, international fitness and wellness club (we need to put that positive energy out into the universe). With a monopoly of the best trainers our city has to offer, The TUF Club will also be offering for the first time MEMBERSHIPS! Stay tuned for more information about their new River Market location coming June 2023, and be sure to follow their Instagram @thetufclub for updates and fitness tips.
Through it all, Jabari says it best: “I thrive best when my back is against the wall.” This city is ready for his success.
