David Barton Returns to the Luxury Fitness Business in NYC with Gym U

Known for pioneering gyms with the tagline "Look Better Naked," the fitness guru returns with a new club for Manhattanites.

Huge rotating fans create a sense of kinetic energy, like wind turbines.

Britt Smith

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Touring Gym U a month before its grand opening feels like entering a time machine. It's been 30 years since David Barton opened his first gym. And yet, after selling numerous David Barton gyms in 2013 and then TMPL in 2017, Barton is entering the battleground of NYC's fitness scene once more. His trademark style has remained steadfast: He wears a sleeveless, sun-bleached Grateful Dead T-shirt that reveals biceps the size of bowling balls; shredded jeans and combat boots; and hair fashioned in small braids that sprout out from a bandana like the crown of a pineapple. The Napolean of fitness, he employs a degree of stratagem that belies his Deadhead demeanor.

"I train every trainer," Barton says. "Fitness certifications are getting dumbed down these days," likening the degradation to getting a state-issued driver's license for Nascar. "I like to mold them from clay."