Fitness chain Curves got hot start in Rio Grande Valley

HARLINGEN — Diane Heavin’s picture is already on a box of cereal, a magazine and a line of fitness equipment.

In April, she’s set to walk the Great Wall of China with ’70s icon Olivia Newton-John.

She is the face of one of the world’s biggest fitness empire, Curves — a franchise that endorses more than 10,000 locations in 44 countries and counts 4 million as its members.

Just 15 years ago, Heavin and her husband, Gary, were doing what hundreds of ambitious Rio Grande Valley couples do each year — start their own small business.

From their humble beginnings in Harlingen, to their multi-millionaire celebrity status, the Heavins still point to two Valley cities, Harlingen and McAllen, as the birthplace of their success.

Their first store launched in Harlingen in 1992, and their second in McAllen in 1994.

“I can still remember the address of the first one. It was 1514 South 77, Sunshine Strip, in the little shopping plaza,” Diane said.

Women only

Curves is a female-only chain of fitness clubs and one of the fastest growing chains in the country.

The clubs focus on 30-minute, high-impact workouts, designed for women on the go, Heavin said.

Each location is small and the amount of equipment limited, a way to help owners keep costs low, she said. Using hydraulic machines, the Curves program uses a circuit system to focus on both strength training and a cardio workout in a short period of time.

Curves is now headquartered in Waco.

Diane, a native of upstate New York, worked in advertising sales at the Valley Morning Star, The Monitor’s sister newspaper in Harlingen, before Curves’ launch.

Gary, originally from Houston, had previously run a number of other fitness clubs throughout Texas, but those failed and he was looking for a new opportunity.

Diane was a workout enthusiast, so opening a small health club seemed like a natural fit.

“In the early days we did everything. We actually built the entire company on $10,000 that we saved,” she said. “So we learned every aspect of the business.”

The first club was wildly popular, she said.

“We actually opened the first Curves not knowing we were going to franchise, we were just going to open a gym,” she said. “That gym was very successful and we thought we could affect a few more lives, so we opened another one.”

They sold hundreds of memberships in the first few days. Many were instantaneously sold on the gym’s women-only policy, which appealed to many fed up with traditional gyms.

Fame and fortune

Elmacq Gomez of Harlingen signed up with the gym shortly after it opened in 1992.

“I think women, when they walk into a Curves, they are welcomed with open arms,” she said. “They love the atmosphere.”

Gomez, who still maintains a friendship with the Heavin family, now owns the Harlingen franchise with her husband, Richard. It remained at its original location until last year, when it relocated to a larger location a few blocks away.

The Harlingen club serves about 400 members, Gomez said.

“We get a lot of winter visitors and they are ecstatic when they find out it was the first original Curves location,” Gomez said.

The Heavins began to think of turning their business into a franchise soon after their two Valley locations took off.

They moved to Waco, where they would be more centrally located and near population centers like Dallas, Austin and Houston. And by 1995 the first Curves franchise location was up and running in Paris, Texas, northeast of Dallas.

“We thought we would find people with a similar passion as ours,” Diane said. “Investor operators don’t make the same commitment as owner and operators.”

Today, the company is working with General Mills on a health-oriented cereal, which features Diane on the box. There is also a fitness magazine dubbed dianecq lowercased and a clothing line called “Curvaceous.”

Despite the couple’s rise to fame and fortune, the Heavins still frequent the Valley.

They own a home on South Padre Island and occasionally stop by the location in Harlingen to talk with members.

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Kyle Arnold covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4410.