A mother-daughter duo who opened a cycle bar just before the pandemic is now thriving thanks to the unwavering support they’ve received from their community and the use of social media.
Burn Cycling in Inglewood, CA was previously owned by three men and a woman, according to the business’ website. It became a solely Black-women-owned business when Julie “Slim Goodie” Adams and Iman “IE” Europe took it over in 2018. Their core mission is to create an inviting atmosphere that allows the local Black community to meet their health and self-care goals.
“I just think it’s a different outlet for the community,” Adams said in an interview with ABC 7. “Some people have never had the opportunity to do a spin class and so to be here in the community is awesome for us.”
Like all businesses at the top of 2020, the idea of a pandemic was not on their radar. And, due to the lockdown, their operations ended abruptly.
“The whole pandemic thing was just really a hard hit,” Adams said. “And not just for us, but for everybody.”
Despite having support from the community, they almost had to close their doors permanently.
“Another struggle that we had was just lack of funding, which is why we almost lost our business,” Europe said.
The pair was able to pull through thanks to $43,000 in donations raised via GoFundMe. To help spread the word about Burn Cycling, Europe tweeted the following, “Help me spread the word about @BurnCycling, a black owned/woman owned cycling studio located in Inglewood, CA! One like & retweet can go a long way!”
They were met with nearly 4,000 retweets and twice as many likes. The tweet even caught the attention of sports journalist Jemele Hill, who wrote, “Oh wow … this isn’t far from where I live. Will definitely check it out,”
“From the pandemic, I learned how powerful community is because community is what allowed us to still be here after the pandemic,” Europe said about how far her and Adams’ business has come in the years since the height of the pandemic.
“I know that a lot of people were hit hard, just as we were and a lot of people were not able to come back from it,” Adams added. “And so it was just really good to be able to open to be able to come back for the community.”
