Toole’s NKO app integrates instructor-led workouts, recipes and mindfulness tools into one platform. More than anything, though, she wants the app to help spark a community
During Kendall Toole’s tenure as a Peloton fitness instructor, she was an outspoken advocate for mental wellness, often bringing up the topic during her boxing, cycling and strength classes.
Toole amassed a huge following, no doubt from Peloton users with whom her style and messaging resonated. But in 2024, she left the fitness giant to pursue her own career ambitions.
“That time in my life was fantastic, but it definitely came with limitations, too,” Toole told Athletech News. “I felt like there was a gap in what I could give to the community.”
For the past 10 months, Toole has been hard at work, developing a new app to cultivate that sense of community she was longing for at Peloton.
As an instructor, Toole would often end her classes with the phrase, “They can knock you down, but they will never knock us out.”
Her mantra became the foundation of the new app, called “Never Knocked Out” (NKO), which Toole said embodies three core pillars of wellness: exercise, nutrition and mental health.
“The goal was to put all the apps that I love using into one space,” she said.
A Three-Pronged Approach to Wellness
The NKO app integrates instructor-led workouts, recipes and mindfulness/mental health tools into one space.
Carrying out Toole’s goal of creating a community, the app is centered on the foundations of fitness and wellness, while providing a reprieve from social media and the sea of online content.
“It just feels like we’re overwhelmed by so much content, so much feedback, telling us who we need to be and what we need to think,” Toole noted. “I wanted a space where you’re not scrolling, you’re not doomscrolling and you have your three clear pillars.”
Workouts span strength, cycling, boxing, Pilates and mobility, with 10 or more new classes added on a weekly basis. Toole also partnered with Feed.fm to provide music across all genres, with playlists that users can select for any workout rather than having set music. Users can also sync their own playlist to any workout.
Toole has also added a library of her favorite recipes, which she said people online often ask for, as well as a built-in grocery list. Notably, she chose not to include any kind of food tracking, hoping to help people cultivate healthy relationships with eating and “bring the joy back to food,” she said.
As an outspoken advocate, Toole is particularly proud of the mental health portion of the app, which features guided breathwork and an in-app journal, where users can keep a gratitude journaling streak for each day they use it.
“The whole point of the app is, how can we simplify from the chaos that we deal with?” she added.
Toole’s Vision for Community
Toole has noticed that fitness and wellness hubs are increasingly becoming those third spaces for people to gather in a context that doesn’t require going to a bar or drinking alcohol. As the NKO app builds its own sense of community, she’s hoping to shift it to in-person events.
“I don’t think everybody needs another social platform,” Toole explained. “I also don’t want it to become something where everyone has to brag about, ‘Hey, I did eight classes today.’ That’s not the point.”
That’s why Toole’s ultimate goal is to bring people together offline through the app’s growing community.
“With NKO club, what we hope to do within that first year is build events where we’re with the community,” she said. “We get people engaged, we engage with local gyms, local talent, and give people more ways to find connection.”
That could look like pop-up events or a tour, Toole said, or even establishing physical NKO spaces in the future. For now, Toole is the sole instructor, but she’s planning to bring in guest instructors and expand from there.
“What I’m excited about is other people in the space — other talent, friends of mine, people who represent different perspectives, different viewpoints, different ages than me — being guest instructors on the platform, letting them come on, letting them do classes, and reaching new audiences in that way,” she said.
Having once been part of a major fitness brand, Toole found community-building to be limited, especially across brands.
Building her own app means she’s in control of the NKO brand, which was a priority for Toole.
“I’m not beholden to an investor; I’m not beholden to anyone else,” she said. “That was a big decision.”
In the future, she’s open to bringing in investors if they move to a physical space, but, she added, “It’s really keeping the mission number one.”
The NKO app will cost $29.99 for a monthly subscription and $249.99 per year for an annual plan. Founding members receive 15% off all product clothing for the lifetime of their membership and first access to future events.
Toole wanted her app to feel refined while remaining welcoming and inclusive, meeting anyone wherever they may be in their fitness journey.
“I’m not trying to gatekeep,” she said. “I want to create a country club for the misfits.”
