This profile of Fortides Pilates founds Aleks King-Sorrell and Stephanie Spagnolo is part of Street Meet, FLEETSTREET’s series where we meet up with trailblazers and thought leaders to deliver unique insight and inspiration into issues we all care about.
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Two Canadian women, a lawyer and a marketer, walk into a Pilates class in London… And what do you get? A swanky new Roncesvalles studio, and a partnership and friendship that are as strong as their scissor kicks.
Aleks King-Sorrell and Stephanie Spagnolo met in London when their careers brought them to England. A connection to Spagnolo’s husband (King-Sorrell went to Queen’s University with him) brought them together. But it was a love for feet-in-straps that bonded their friendship. And when they and their partners returned to Toronto, they longed for the Pilates classes they shared in the U.K. So they decided to build Fortides Pilates, a 15- or 20-minute walk from High Park, which sits in the former retail space of Early Bird & Worm.
As other Pilates and reformer studios in the city look to take the vibes of indoor cycling, boxing and HIIT (high-intensity interval training) with techno music, strobe lighting and workouts that leave you breathless, Fortides aims to be different. Instead, it’s about building healing strength, through movements so smooth they feel choreographed. The space is bright, calming and minimal in style. The brand-spanking new Merrithew reformers are a callback to classic Pilates, but the range classes suit the modern needs of its clients today, with classes teaching full body, slow movement, restorative exercise and pre- and post-natal workouts.
I sat down to chat with the two Fortides founders about what it takes to open a fitness space while working full time, haven’t been teaching for “a million years” and more.
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FLEETSTREET: Why did you create Fortides together?
Aleks King-Sorrell: We are the perfect match because, obviously, we both love Pilates. I had wanted to open a reformer studio, and Steph has always been super passionate about women’s health and wellness. So, it was just a natural fit. The idea was born on a hike in Devon in southwest England.
Stephanie Spagnolo: Pilates is growing now, and there’s so much innovation. But at the time, there was Lagree-style and maybe a few others. But overseas, we’d seen that it was really, really growing. For us, it’s been like a marriage in many different ways. We’re married as business partners.
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FS: How do you balance wanting your business to be the best it can be while also managing full-time jobs?
AKS: We opened in September of 2024. During the build and getting things off the ground, we were working full-time. Those were insanely busy days. And since we’ve opened, I’ve been able to focus my attention on the studio, which is nice. (She moved back to Canada in September 2023 when her father became sick and she stayed after he passed. Her remote legal job ended in September 2024.)
SS: First, obviously, I’m so grateful that Aleks is here full-time now, and that’s been huge. It had to be one of us, especially in the beginning to set up things.
But, to answer your question, you become good at prioritizing. The studio is important to me, and business is business at the end of the day, so things need to get delivered. You set boundaries, but you work odd hours to make it work.
AKS: Before opening in the fall of 2024, we were both working at our regular jobs, and every second outside of that nine-to-five, we were at the studio or at Steph’s house or my house.
SS: And, it takes a village, right? Everyone chipped in.
AKS: Our moms were helping us clean the studio. My sister and her kids cleaned the baseboards one day. It was a real family effort. And, we wear like 80 different hats: the marketing team, the legal team, the HR team, and the finance team.
SS: One of our values we told our instructors early on was, “Listen, we’re not going to get everything right, but we’re always going to have our heart in this. So give us feedback, and we’re going to learn, and we’re going to grow together.”
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FS: How do you differentiate your studio from others in the city or even in the U.K.?
SS: We were very intentional about this. We saw a lot of studios going dark (with the decor and lighting) and with Megaformers. We just wanted to be more classical, and go back to the roots of Pilates with a bright, airy space. A place where you can see yourself in every angle in the mirrors. Form is important.
AKS: It goes back to why Steph and I started doing Pilates. We’re not killing our bodies, we’re not over stimulating ourselves. The dark room with the super loud music was really fun in my 20s, right? But there’s a space for everything, and we’re not in our 20s anymore. We wanted to create a calming space with good energy. And we have that.
SS: And we are attracting everyone from 20s to 70s. We really have such a range of people, too. We created a safe space for effective workouts where people can feel comfortable.
Stephanie Spagnolo (left) and Aleks King-Sorrellat in their Roncesvalles Pilates studio.
FS: How did you find your personal backgrounds fit with owning a Pilates studio?
SS: I’ve always worked on launches at Google, launching hardware, payments and scaling brands. So, the understanding of what the commercialization process looks like, from start to finish; that helped a bit. Even though it was a foreign space for both of us, we had the steps and processes to get there. I’m an extroverted person, so relationships, community and people are such a big thing for me – and us. And we have very complementary skill sets.
AKS: When you open a fitness space, people think that you’ve been teaching for a million years. We don’t come from a traditional fitness/wellness backgrounds. Steph has a marketing background, and I come at things from being a lawyer. I get into the weeds of doing due diligence. My attention to detail is helpful. And, we balance each other out.
We actually had that conversation in the summer that we have to meet in the middle. We can’t make mistakes, because we’re rushing things, but we also can’t take years to do something.
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FS: You’re both obviously business savvy, and so what’s the future plan for your business? What will it look like?
SS: We feel really inspired by what’s happening in the wellness scene right now, both in Toronto and globally. And we’re excited to make our mark. We do see ourselves expanding our brand, our footprint, for sure. There’s so much opportunity within wellness. Through the studio, we keep meeting people that are doing incredible things. And you just want to see where those doors lead.