Dear reader,
How do you know if someone has run a marathon? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. It’s an old chestnut but a good one. And today, it applies to far more than running: humble-bragging seems like a by-product of the entire wellness movement. Just try to navigate social media without encountering some guy boasting about his 4 a.m. wake-up or complex ice-bath regimen. While it’s tempting to dismiss the trend as self-indulgent twaddle, doing so ignores something much bigger going on.
Toronto’s new masters of wellness are two siblings named Kate Taylor Martin and Harrison Taylor. She’s the founder of Nutbar, the insanely popular “superfood” café that serves up organic mushroom toast, sea moss gel smoothies and house-made nut milk. He’s a co-founder of Othership, the sauna and ice-bath emporium that has hosted 150,000 clients and counting. Both siblings are selling the same thing: Nutbar’s tag line is “Feel good here”; Othership’s is “Feel good now.”
Zero points for originality, but you can’t knock their combined success. Othership opened in February of 2022 on Adelaide West and soon launched a flagship in Yorkville. A single class costs $55, which adds up pretty fast. Buoyed by millions from investors, including Shawn Mendes, Othership just opened an $11-million location in New York’s Flatiron District.
Nutbar is consistently packed to the rafters with devotees happy to hand over $15.75 plus tax and tip for the “ultimate recovery” smoothie (blueberries, collagen, cashews, matcha, etc.), among other vegan, organic, sustainably sourced fare. In addition to a nut milk factory in the east end, the company now has four locations and plans for a fifth (at Yonge and Eglinton), sixth (Yorkville), and possibly seventh (New York) in the next year or so.
Kate and Harry, like most wellness practitioners, are eager to tell you all about their enterprises. They found a receptive audience in Olivia Stren, a fabulously smart and stylish writer who interviewed them at home, at Othership, at Nutbar and in New York. Stren’s cover story zeroes in on the pair’s magnetism. They emit a self-assured, blissed-out, pseudo-messianic intensity that makes people think, I’ll have what they’re having.
While it’s true that they’re hawking smoothies and saunas, it’s hard not to see them as New Age spiritual leaders. As you’ll read, Othership and Nutbar clients bear all the hallmarks of a religious sect. They use cultish lingo, follow a strict set of social rules, hand over significant amounts of money and proselytize effectively, urging friends and acquaintances to tag along.
Charisma in a leader, however, can only explain so much. I think there’s a second major motivator: the deep need for connection. It sounds contradictory in a city as dense as ours, but despite being surrounded by other people all the time, many Torontonians feel desperately alone. Last year, the Toronto Foundation’s Vital Signs report found that 37 per cent of us feel lonely at least three days a week.
It’s amid this epidemic of isolation that Othership and Nutbar have found such traction. Kate, Harry and their colleagues have created places that do what the church used to do: bring like-minded people together to connect, engage in shared experiences and come away feeling, well, good. If it seems cultish, that’s because it is. I remain skeptical about the scientific benefits of cold plunging, but I can’t argue against an antidote to the stresses and ills of urban life.
