Max Adler teaches people how to fight for a living — and it's one of the happiest careers he could imagine for himself.
Growing up in New York City, Adler always knew he wanted to work with his hands: Make art, do something creative. In his 20s, Adler thought he found his calling in photography. He moved to Santa Rosa, California in 2012 shortly after graduating college, shooting snowboard contests and families on vacation at ski resorts in Lake Tahoe.
That's where he discovered boxing.
Sports had been a welcome reprieve from the inner turmoil Adler felt as a kid, when he first realized he might be transgender.
"As young as three years old, I was telling people that I was a boy," says Adler, 35. "I was dressing and behaving as a boy, and we had no language for it — so I lived my whole life really closeted and hid behind sports."
As Adler recalls, he didn't have to think too hard about his gender while playing sports, as he wore the same gender-neutral uniforms as his classmates. "Plus, I was always athletic, so that's where I got a lot of my confidence and affirmation from … just being good at sports," he adds.
He Googled gyms offering recreational sports in Santa Rosa and found a boxing gym half a mile from his apartment.
"I walked into the gym, and it immediately felt like home," says Adler. "I've loved boxing since the moment I put the gloves on: I love the game of chess that fighting is, I like outsmarting my opponent, and that you don't have to be super strong to be a good boxer — you just have to be smarter and move better than the person you're fighting."
Plus, he adds: "It's a lot less boring than running."
Adler quickly realized he wanted to open his own gym, a place where people like him could experience the joys of boxing and feel confident in their bodies.
Fast-forward 10 years later, and Adler is now the proud owner of OutBox Gym in Brooklyn, an inclusive boxing and fitness club that centers on queer and trans clients.
Adler opened OutBox in late 2021. In 2022, OutBox Gym brought in over $100,000, according to tax documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. This year, it's on track to surpass $150,000 in revenue.
Opening a gym at the height of the pandemic
In 2014, Adler moved back to New York to be closer to his family and got a job as a full-time trainer and boxing coach at Church Street Boxing Gym. At the same time, Adler, who had not yet transitioned, was also competing as an amateur boxer in the female division.
By his early 20s Adler knew for sure that he was trans, but was hesitant to medically transition, as the recovery process would keep him out of the ring for months.
Then, Adler befriended other queer and trans people, offering them free boxing lessons at the gym. He had a small epiphany: He, too, wanted to live his life as his authentic self.
"In 2019, I competed in my last fight, and then I got top surgery," says Adler. "I started medically transitioning and taking testosterone in 2020."
Like many people at the start of the pandemic, Adler found himself suddenly unemployed and very bored. In March 2020, during the early weeks of lockdown, Adler lost his job at the gym, which had to shut its doors for a few months due to the pandemic.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, Adler says, as it gave him the time to pursue a goal that had been percolating in the back of his mind for years: Opening an LGBTQ+-friendly boxing gym.
Adler even had a name picked out for the business: "OutBox Gym." The moniker pulls inspiration from the concept of being "out" or "coming out" in the LGBTQ+ community, and Adler liked that "outbox" also means to best one's opponent in the ring.
He started working with clients over Zoom, then began offering outdoor classes in June 2021, teaching small groups in a Brooklyn park and offering one-on-one training, both in person and virtually, to anyone who messaged him on Instagram.
"I posted a flier for LGBTQ+ boxing in the park on Instagram not expecting much, and every single class was selling out," Adler says. Classes cost $20 per person, and anywhere from 20 to 30 people joined each session.
In September 2021, after teaching classes all summer, a friend sent him a listing for a large, airy commercial space in Williamsburg that had been previously used as a martial arts gym, available to rent for $6,000 per month.
Adler convinced his friend and neighbor, Colline Laninga, to join OutBox as a co-founder. She helped Adler source equipment, hire trainers and format classes, among other responsibilities. Laninga still works at OutBox as the gym's head coach and operations manager.
Adler, meanwhile, covered the startup costs, including rent, equipment, utilities, business license and insurance, with his personal savings. Adler estimates that he spent about $12,000 to set up OutBox.
He and Laninga shared the space up until August 2022 with a small weightlifting gym, so splitting rent and utilities 50/50 helped bring down their operating costs.
The two of them were able to get 30 pairs of boxing gloves for free, thanks to a deal Adler struck during his time as an amateur boxer, and they bought discounted equipment from other gyms that shut down during the pandemic.
OutBox Gym hosted its first class in October 2021. "Everything happened very fast," says Adler. "Within weeks I went from never having a business to running a gym in Williamsburg."
Turning $12,000 into a six-figure business and a tight-knit community
Running a boxing gym can be a grind, but Adler's learned to roll with the punches.
The biggest challenge of opening a fitness club, he's discovered, is figuring out how to attract and retain members who might feel uncomfortable or judged in a traditional gym.
"The gym can be a daunting place for people in the trans community," he says. "Boxing has always been a very binary sport, with two men or two women fighting, so it was really important to me to break down that barrier and have my facility be inclusive and completely non-gendered."
That means hiring trans and queer trainers to lead classes and having gender-neutral locker rooms at the club. When someone teaches a class at OutBox, Adler encourages them to avoid gendered language.
"I've been to a lot of gyms where they tell the women to pick up 5-pound weights and men to pick up 20-pound weights, but I have friends who are powerlifters and not men and I'm friends with men who can't pick up 20-pound weights," he explains. "Those assumptions can be really damaging to people."
OutBox offers two to four classes per day, including a free strength training class every Wednesday that books out weeks in advance.
Members can choose from a wide range of options, including a single class or a day pass to the gym for $30, or an unlimited monthly membership for $175. Instructors also offer sliding-scale pricing for personal training as much as is financially feasible, says Adler.
OutBox also hosts live events, including artist fairs, themed parties and drag performances, to attract new members.
Right now, about 95% of OutBox's revenue goes toward rent, payroll and insurance, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
"Any money we make from the gym goes right back into it, I'm still not paying myself a salary," says Adler, who's been living comfortably off of his savings for the past two years — though he's planning to start paying himself a salary soon.
In October 2023, OutBox brought in nearly $20,000 in revenue, its best month to date.
Running a new business might mean long hours and little rest — Adler can't remember the last time he took a full day off — but he says watching OutBox become a watering hole for people to explore a new hobby, or be the first place they feel wholly comfortable with themselves, has been priceless.
"Some people have come into OutBox and they've been like, 'This place has changed my life.' I've seen couples meet here, friendships and business relationships form," Adler says. "The most rewarding part has been seeing people connect, feel normal and not have to explain themselves. When you're trans or queer, I don't think people realize that you're doing that all the time."
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