A New York City Equinox customer is going viral after calling out the gym’s lack of pool cleanliness, considering how expensive their membership is.
In the video, Aziz (@notazizangari) is standing on the outskirts of the gym’s pool as he zooms in to get a close-up shot of the shiny layer of film, grime, and random bits of garbage floating on top of the pool water.
“$400 a month to swim in this,” the text overlay on the video reads.
As he closes out the video clip, Aziz makes a face of disgust.
“I literally was telling my friend the same thing,” commented a person who was “right behind” Aziz when he recorded the clip.
Despite the pool’s condition, there are at least two people nearly fully submerged in the water, six people standing waist-deep, and several sitting around the edge with their feet dipped in.
“Public pools,” Aziz captioned the video along with an emoji with a grossed-out facial expression.
The TikTok has garnered more than half a million views and over a thousand comments since it was posted Saturday.
@notazizangari Public pools 😵💫 @equinox #nyc #hudsonyards #equinoxpool #equinox ♬ Cupid – Twin Ver. (FIFTY FIFTY) – Sped Up Version – sped up 8282
“Wait. An Equinox membership in NYC is $400??? Whew. I won’t tell you how much we pay in MI,” one person said.
For those unfamiliar with the brand, Equinox is a high-end gym that consistently makes it onto various sites’ lists of the most expensive gyms. While the gym’s prices were not listed on their website, a 2019 Business Insider article reported that in New York City, prices start at $185 a month and top off at around $500 for the “premier experience.”
This is a premium compared to the average NYC monthly gym price of $106.06, according to Time Out. However, NYC does have the most expensive city to get a gym membership in the United States. The aforementioned average monthly fee is $61.68, more than the country’s average of $44.98.
Commenters seemed to be equally as disgusted as Aziz regarding the pool’s unclean conditions and the gym’s pricing.
“I see this pool from my office every week and this just made me feel so much better,” a commenter wrote.
“Free oil!” another said, specualting about what could be polluting the pool.
“The words public and pool shouldn’t ever go together! Hard Pass!” another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Aziz for comment via Instagram DM and to Equinox via email.
Update 9:15am CT May 15: In an email to the Daily Dot, Aziz shared that a staff member went by to clean the pool about five minutes after he posted the video.
