Spotting Investment Opportunities Behind Gen Z Wellness Trends
- 16 hours ago
- 5 min read
Without quite realizing it, young people’s weekends now more often end on a padel court, in a Hyrox class, or on a morning run—not only at a café or nightclub. Behind this lifestyle shift lies a large-scale flow of money, from monthly membership fees and court rentals to lifestyle and recreation issuers that have officially listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).
Mapping Gen Z’s Wellness Trend in Indonesia
Gen Z’s shift toward sport as both a social activity and a form of content is reflected in three major trends that grew fast over 2024-2026.
Padel, the Fastest Boom of 2025
This Mexican-born sport has exploded in popularity across Indonesia, especially among Gen Z. According to the Indonesia Padel Report 2025, the number of domestic padel clubs surged by as much as 295% in a single year, with more than 1,500 new courts built across various cities—equivalent to nearly four new courts every day.
Garmin Connect data even recorded a more than 1,600% jump in padel activity among Indonesian users compared with the previous year, making it the fastest-growing sport this year, ahead of both running and tennis.
For the first time, Google’s Year in Search 2025 also gave “running” and “padel” their own dedicated search categories—a signal that both are no longer seen as seasonal fads, but as a new way of life.
Hyrox and the Functional Fitness Craze
Beyond padel, the functional fitness craze has also taken hold through Hyrox, a competition that combines running with a series of functional workouts. Its community is already active across several premium Jakarta gyms and has even held its own official event, AirAsia HYROX Jakarta 2026.
Gym and fitness studio class schedules in major cities are now often booked out well in advance, from HIIT classes to reformer Pilates.
Golf, From the Executive Generation to Gen Z
Golf, once synonymous with the middle-aged executive generation, is now catching the eye of young people who see it as a new social space and a symbol of achievement. This behavioral shift isn’t just about lifestyle—it’s also about money changing hands on a large scale. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the value of the global wellness market has already topped US$ 5 trillion and keeps growing every year.
What Makes It Attractive to Investors
Such rapid community growth raises a question: where exactly can this flow of money actually be accessed through the capital market? There are three things investors need to understand before answering that.
Official Classification on the IDX
The IDX has no dedicated sector called “Sports”. Under the official IDX Industrial Classification (IDX-IC), companies engaged in fitness, sports clubs, and recreational facilities fall under the broader Non-Primary Consumer Goods (Consumer Cyclicals) sector—a sector whose demand tends to rise and fall with the economic cycle.
More specifically, there is a sub-sector called Sports Equipment & Hobby Goods and an industry called Recreational & Sports Facilities, which officially covers companies that sell sporting goods, operate fitness centers, and sports clubs.
Community and Recurring Income Business Model
The absence of a dedicated sector is no obstacle to spotting the opportunity. The key lies in two things: community and infrastructure. Companies that succeed in building a loyal community base while also providing physical infrastructure have the potential to generate recurring income from several layers at once:
Monthly or annual membership fees.
Court or facility rentals, billed hourly or per session.
On-site sales of healthy F&B and merchandise.
Paid private classes or training programs.
The Digital Ecosystem: Asset-Light Business Opportunities
Beyond physical infrastructure, this trend has given rise to a massive digital ecosystem that acts as an intermediary between consumers and facility operators. This asset-light business model is highly efficient as it does not require heavy capital expenditure (capex) to build facilities; instead, it relies on transaction margins and subscription fees:
Aggregators & Subscriptions App: Catering to a dynamic audience that prefers not to be tied to a single gym, these applications offer a single access point to various fitness studios and different workout classes.
Booking Marketplaces: These applications transform traditional facility booking methods into real-time systems. The presence of these platforms is crucial for securing weekly court reservations at local sports centers, facilitating the search for sparring partners, and professionally managing club waitlists.
Already Listed: A Real-World Track Record
This trend isn’t just talk on paper. One example is PT Intra Golflink Resorts Tbk. (GOLF), a company that manages a number of golf courses and facilities and officially listed its shares in mid-2024.
In addition, there are also PT Sepeda Bersama Indonesia Tbk. (BIKE) and PT MAP Aktif Adiperkasa Tbk. (MAPA), although MAPA does not specifically operate in the sports subsector or industry, but rather in specialty retail.
Fad Risk, Capital Intensity, and Stock Liquidity Risk
Young people’s tastes can change as fast as a social media algorithm. A sport that’s packed today could be empty next year the moment a newer, more hyped trend comes along.
A real-world example is Sweden, one of Europe’s padel pioneer countries, which is now experiencing a correction phase in the sports industry following a rapid surge, driven by an oversupply of courts and financial strain on operators.
The implication is that what’s booming in Indonesia today is no guarantee it will still be booming five years from now.
Beyond trend risk, there are two structural challenges inherent to this sector’s business model.
Capital Intensive: Building premium gym facilities, padel courts, or a full country club with a golf course requires very large capital expenditure (capex), from land and construction through to routine maintenance. If the trend cools off, the burden of maintaining these physical assets can directly erode profit margins.
Liquidity Risk: Companies in this niche generally have relatively small-to-mid market capitalizations compared with giants in the banking or energy sectors, making their share prices more prone to sharp swings on relatively small trading volumes.
A Real Trend, but One That Still Needs a Cool Head
Gen Z’s wellness trend is a real phenomenon bringing fresh momentum to Indonesia’s physical lifestyle industry, from increasingly packed padel courts and busier Hyrox classes to golf now catching the eye of a new generation. But like other consumer trends that have boomed before and then faded, investors still need to stay rational in assessing the sustainability of the businesses behind it, rather than simply following the crowd because something has gone viral.
Given the extraordinary enthusiasm across various sports facilities, fitness centers, and current wellness trends, an interesting question arises: will the performance of conventional industries such as tobacco and alcohol begin to lose ground? Furthermore, will we soon witness a new wave of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) or private market revaluations for mega-gyms, sport court operators, local sports equipment brands, and digital fitness ecosystem developers?
Understanding this lifestyle shift is indeed a crucial starting point. However, fundamental analysis and a data-driven approach must always remain the primary guiding principles, as they are far more reliable than investment decisions driven merely by sentiment or fleeting trends.
Disclaimer: This content is created for educational purposes or service promotion, and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific Securities. Any risks arising from investment decisions made based on the information in this publication are the sole responsibility of the respective audience. PT KAF Sekuritas Indonesia is licensed and supervised by the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan / OJK).
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