The Carlton captain has joined BFT founder Cameron Falloon and a group of investors backing Stille, a $10 million Melbourne wellness club that promises elite-athlete recovery tools for everybody – at $200 a week.
Patty Cripps spends plenty of time thinking about how to squeeze a few more years out of his AFL career.
The 31-year-old Carlton captain has increasingly found himself using red-light therapy, hyperbaric chambers, saunas and ice baths in pursuit of better recovery, more energy and peak performance.
Now the Brownlow medallist is putting his money behind the trend, joining fitness entrepreneur Cameron Falloon and a group of investors backing Stille, a new high-end Melbourne wellness and longevity club that has raised $10 million ahead of opening on a yet to be determined date at the Spring St, CBD location.
For around $200 a week, members will gain access to a suite of recovery and diagnostic technologies, the sort we used to associate with elite sport, alongside personalised health programs built from clients’ biological data.
Stille is entering a market pioneered by luxury wellness clubs such as Tim Gurner’s Saint Haven, where memberships can range from the high hundreds to several thousand dollars a week depending on the level of access and personalisation.
But Falloon – who was Princess Diana’s personal trainer at the time of her death and who founded the BFT gym franchise in 2016 – says Stille will “stick to its knitting” with a simpler offering. “We feel that there’s a gap to just offer thermal wellness, recovery and longevity,” he tells Forbes Australia.
“So not a gym. We believe that most of the members that’ll come to Stille will have their own gym and so we’re there to add value to that … there’s a lot of science around social bathing and the longevity benefits of that; the psychological benefits to it.
“But then we’ll have a dedicated longevity zone where you can access wellness technologies, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cryotherapy, light therapy, compression therapy, cognitive therapies, to give people access to the same tools that people in the elite sporting realm use to help them perform better in their day-to-day life.”
Cripps had noticed the mainstream spread of the therapies which when he began his career as a teenager, were the preserve of elite athletes.
“The last four or five years this stuff’s really come on the map,” he says. “A lot of that’s around just the science and people exploring. One of the positives of social media is that we get exposed to the best research and the data behind it.”
The longer his career has gone, the more the Carlton skipper has come to use these erstwhile fringe treatments like red-light therapy, saunas, ice baths and, more recently, hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
“The red-light stuff especially is huge,” he says. “I probably do red light four or five times a week now. I personally feel it has a big benefit on my overall energy.”
For Cripps, it’s about compounding small advantages.
“I’ve always been open to trying new technology or new way of doing things,” he says. “It’s like: ‘Do you notice the difference?’ If you do, you keep stacking it into your weekly routine.”
That mindset is part of what drew him to Stille. The opportunity came through his manager, who thought the project aligned with Cripps’ long-standing interest in such things. [Cripps has another side hustle, ALIVIA Wellness which he co-founded and launched earlier this year, selling hydrogen supplements.]
“They said, ‘Look, this is an idea that’s been brought forward to us. We think it aligns perfectly with what you’re passionate about,’” he says.
Cripps says he was attracted not just by the technology but by the idea of creating a community.
“I like those wellness places where you can sort of decompress,” he says. “The world’s pretty full on and chaotic, and you’re stressing your body and your mind. A place where you can go and rejuvenate and recover – and fill your cup back up.”
Cripps sees longevity technology as one reason elite athletes are extending their careers further into their 30s.
“When I started, once players hit 30 it was like, ‘The time’s coming to an end,’” he says. “Now I think 30’s probably gone to 35. Whether it’s nutrition, wellness places, the longevity tools we have available, the new research that’s getting out there – players are definitely playing at a higher level for longer.”
Falloon has got another side hustle, Hodie Labs, a digital health platform, which will offer its array of testing to Stille members, including DNA tests, along with a face-to-face doctor to analyse the results.
“An example is, I have an APOE3 gene so that’s a risk factor for dementia,” says Falloon. “That feeds into how I think about interacting with certain foods and drinks because I have other metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.”
While it influences his need for exercise, it also gets him into the sauna and steam room each morning. “That promotes circulation through your body, which promotes oxygen to your brain. They’re the things we’re working on with a professional medical team at Stille.
“You can go and do these additional tests, have a face-to-face consultation and learn about the implications of what your biology was the day you were born, but also through extensive blood work, where you are right now.”
The founding team have put “around $10 million” into the project so far, says Falloon. They include Cripps, plus founder and managing director of The Hotel & Wellness Co, Ben Anderson, organisational psychologist Dr Travis Kemp, Hawthorn footballer Will Day, and the CEO of wellness consultancy DWell Concepts, Karen Golden, who specialises in bathhouses and wellness tourism.
Also on board is former group general manager of Tim Gurner’s Saint Haven Wellness Group, Emma McGrady.
“Everyone adds a unique different strength,” says Cripps. “Hopefully altogether it creates a pretty cool end product.”
While Falloon says the long-term plan is to expand the business, any thoughts of that are years away.
“You want to grow, but the most important thing over the next two years is to nail that member experience in Melbourne and show people that this is a real value add in terms of their wellness and longevity pathway. That’s the critical thing for us now.”
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