Before dawn, the lights would switch on at RACKED, a boutique strength studio in Culver City. Trainer Amanda Rivas and her 5:30 a.m. class would sweat through lifting sessions.
“We always joked, like, you know, we watch the sun come up together,” Rivas said, recalling the great community they built. On Friday, August 21, that community was erased, and the digital paper trail for thousands of dollars in unpaid staff wages.
Without union representation to protect them, RACKED trainers were left absorbing the full impact of corporate failure.
“It’s very easy to take advantage of somebody who needs money to move on,” Rivas said, reflecting on the rising cost of living.
Adding insult to injury, the missing paychecks coincided with Labor Day, a holiday meant to champion worker rights.
“Management was hands-off. You know, I was hired and it was very autonomous,” Rivas recalled, describing an operational culture where trainers were given complete independence in the studio, but no administrative structure.
Lawsuits nationwide show how operators routinely rely on unpaid prep work, with legal pushback against the per-class pay model reaching a critical turning point in Oram v. SoulCycle LLC, in 2013. In that case, a former instructor sued the company in federal court, alleging that paying trainers exclusively for 45-minute sessions ignored dozens of required weekly hours spent crafting playlists and attending mandatory meetings. The lawsuit brought national scrutiny to the widespread practice of paying boutique instructors solely for time teaching.
On Thursday, August 20, 2026, members and staff received an abrupt email announcing the studio’s permanent closure the following day.
Rivas said clients reached out to her after recurring membership fees were drawn for a studio that no longer existed, forcing them to file disputes with their banks.
When Rivas logged into her payroll application that Friday morning, her hours and tracking had been wiped clean.
“That was my first indication that we weren’t gonna get payment,” said Rivas, a fitness professional, actor, and comedian who also teaches at a studio in Pasadena.
Rivas immediately filed a formal wage claim for 21 unpaid classes, roughly $2,000 in earned income. Management initially scheduled payouts for August 31, but an email sent August 30 by Vincent Miceli, owner of operating entity VM Fitness, abruptly canceled the disbursement: “You will not be paid tomorrow […] I will contact with the next steps to get you paid.”
No timeline has been provided since.
Rivas’ experience reflects a pattern across RACKED locations, including its sister studio in Newport Beach. Cory Booker, a trainer at the Culver City branch, reported receiving no compensation or communication regarding earnings dating back to early August.
RACKED’s sudden shutdown followed a rapid shift of management. By the time Rivas was hired in May 2026, the studio, originally a Nike Studios, had been rebranded by FitLab and handed off to VM Fitness.
Booker noted experiencing shady business practices under FitLab, but chose to stay because of the community they had built and hopes surrounding new management.
“Lo and behold,” Booker said, “VM Fitness would be the worst situation.”
With the company’s arrival in May, early meetings with VM Fitness Chief Operating Officer Trey Moser struck a hopeful tone, emphasizing productivity.
“It was very ‘how can we grow’ kind of thing, and yeah, I didn’t think anything of it,” Rivas said in retrospect.
In the wake of the closure, however, management cited failed lease renegotiations as the reason for the shutdown. But a confrontation during a news broadcast raised further questions about operational good faith.
When Fox 11 arrived to report on the wage disputes featuring Rivas, the property manager of the Culver City building informed news crews that filming was prohibited on site and expressed surprise at the shutdown, claiming RACKED did not hold a valid lease for the premises.
“It completely contradicts what we were being told,” Rivas said.
Meanwhile, heavy workout equipment was quietly cleared out without employee knowledge.
“We don’t know when they took it,” Rivas said. “It was as if they came and stripped the studio in the middle of the night.”
Neither VM Fitness owner Vincent Miceli nor COO Trey Moser responded to a request for comment regarding unpaid wages.
Clara Carvalho
