For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy interviewed Anna Pione, partner at McKinsey and co-author of a new wellness report out this week, about what’s driving the $2.7 trillion wellness industry today. Additionally, Ulta Beauty partners with Whoop, Kimberly-Clark acquires Kenvue for $48 billion, and the wellness activations that won the NYC marathon.
New report shows a splintering wellness consumer archetype who craves identity signals
The global wellness consumer is rapidly evolving, according to a new report released Tuesday by global management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company.
Based on a survey of 10,000 consumers across the United States, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the report chronicles a splintering wellness customer base, a dynamic shift in how consumers view and prioritize wellness, and unexpected new interest in the category among baby boomers.
“One of the attitudes that struck us the most in the survey was that 38% of U.S. consumers said health and wellness is a core part of their identity [now],” Anna Pione, partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the report, told Glossy.
“We also asked [respondents] about the prioritization and the ranking [of health and wellness in their life], and that’s where, across every single generation, wellness came in No. 2 behind friends and family,” she said. “When you put those two things together, it starts to tell a story of consumers placing a high priority on this and choosing the brands that allow them to publicly project that.”
Pione compared this increased interest in wellness signals to that of luxury fashion, but she noted that one is not cannibalizing the other. “It’s ‘and’ not ‘or,’” she said. “A lot of the wellness offerings [used for lifestyle signaling] are kind of intersecting, or becoming more like luxury offerings.”
For example, products that signal a healthy lifestyle include wearable devices, athleisure clothing, and public affiliation with run clubs or boutique fitness studios, Pione said. “Most people want to identify with something, and wellness is becoming that thing,” she said.
The wellness industry is now valued at $2.7 trillion, according to the firm, primarily driven by five wellness consumer archetypes.
“Historically, we had this one wellness-forward consumer,” Pione said. However, over the past year, this top-spending consumer has become bifurcated, she said. McKinsey now sees two distinct groups driving half of the wellness market’s spend. At the top is a group named the “maximalist optimizer” by McKinsey. This group makes up 25% of wellness consumers and 40% of the market spend. Then there is the “confident enthusiast,” which makes up 10% of wellness consumers and 15% of market spend.
“The ‘maximalist optimizer’ is the person who is just trying all the things,” Pione said. “They are spending the most on wellness. They prioritize it really highly, but they’re not as confident in their routine, and they don’t have a set routine. They’re actually trying to just experiment and see what works.” Meanwhile, the “confident enthusiast” is less experimental and, therefore, more loyal to a routine that serves them well.
“The evolution of these two groups has been really interesting to see,” she said. “The ‘maximalist optimizer’ is the easiest group to [reach for a] brand with more cutting-edge wellness offerings, but the key question is, ‘Can you make it into the routines and the habits of the loyal ‘confident enthusiast?’”
However, the fastest-growing segment, named the “health struggler” by the firm, makes up 30% of consumers and 25% of spend, which has nearly doubled year over year. “This is the group that really struggled with weight,” Pione said. “We think the combination of GLP-1s and generative AI [search] has just really changed the game in terms of them feeling empowered and able to navigate their health and their wellness.”
For brands, this is perhaps the biggest sales opportunity. “Historically, [this group was] quite disengaged,” Pione said. “You don’t usually see shifts like that from a consumer segmentation from year to year.”
While Gen Z and millennials still make up the majority of wellness spending, McKinsey noted that baby boomers, who are between 62 and 80 years old today and often occupy the “health struggler” archetype, are becoming more dynamic players.
The final two archetypes, which make up 15% and 20% of wellness consumers, respectively, also offer an opportunity for brands. Dubbed “health traditionalists” and “wellness shirkers,” each makes up 10% of the global wellness spend. The former prefers proven, simple wellness basics, while the latter group has largely deprioritized their health and only buys budget-priced essentials. Both are skeptical, minimal and price-conscious.
According to Pione, the future of wellness isn’t clear-cut categories, but rather a blending of wellness values and offerings into traditional health and lifestyle categories.
“Broadly, we see winning brands finding ways to build or highlight the way they intersect with health and wellness,” she said. “Consumers [are] increasingly raising the bar in terms of what they expect from brands, from an efficacy perspective, from a clean perspective [and] from scientific backing of what’s being offered. [The] brands that can bring that to consumers, and explain the story in a way that brings that credibility, will be huge [in the future].”
Executive moves:
- Stephanie Knepp is the new COO of RockSalt Pilates, a chain of pilates studios with locations in California, Arizona and the United Arab Emirates. Her CV includes consultancy group Simply Dynamic and fitness service provider American Leisure.
- Dr. Christine Vaccaro is the new chief medical officer of Solv Wellness, maker of perimenopause and menopause products including offerings for pelvic, urinary, vaginal and menopause health. This is the 16-year-old company’s first chief medical officer.
News to know:
- Ulta Beauty continues to lead the wellness retail boom in beauty. The retailer announced Tuesday that it is partnering with wearable darling Whoop to sell its wearable devices online and in select brick-and-mortar locations starting in March. Ulta Beauty will now compete with Whoop retailers like Best Buy, Target and Dick’s.
- A rush of CPG and apparel brands descended upon the NYC marathon on Sunday. As previously reported by Glossy and sister publication Modern Retail, this included pre-marathon “shake out” runs hosted by brands like New Balance, Nike, Hoka and On Running, as well as diverse activations by brands like Celsius, Salt & Stone, and Maybelline. The latter three showed up through a Brooklyn pop-up featuring race-day gear customization stations, an exclusive merch pop-up and a collab with running sunglasses brand Rendezvous Sports, respectively. According to survey data from coaching app Runna, a third of consumers and 52% of Gen Z respondents aspire to run a marathon.
- Wellness conglomerate Kimberly-Clark, parent company to brands like Kleenex, Kotex, and Thinx, has completed its acquisition of Kenvue, parent company to Tylenol and Listerine, for approximately $48 billion. The highly-anticipated purchase became final on November 2.
Stat of the week:
Pilates is continuing its domination of the boutique fitness marketplace. According to fitness booking platform Mariana Tek, 75% of new boutique fitness studios opened in the past year offer some form of pilates. However, the company also noticed a broad diversification of class types and offerings, with 22% of all studios surveyed adding at least one new modality over the last 24 months.
In the headlines:
Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed with MS. Here’s how that happens [WSJ]. The pilates bros have arrived [NYT]. More than half of online supplement shoppers say they’re worried about counterfeit products [Modern Retail]. Meet ‘wheat meat,’ the best plant-based protein [Vogue]. Your supplement routine is about to get a K-beauty glow-up [Beauty News Daily].
Listen in:
As the wellness category swells in size, many insiders are wondering the same question: What should be called “wellness” in 2026? In this special crossover episode with Glossy’s sister publication Modern Retail, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack joins the conversation to discuss the products and categories that should, and shouldn’t, be considered wellness in 2026.
Need a Glossy recap?
The Estée Lauder Companies reports continued growth, with fragrance still driving the charge. Ouai launches cinematic web series as long-form content trends: ‘People are craving a new version of authenticity.’ How Oribe uses annual holiday collaborations for brand-building and sales-driving. Front Row bets on the continued K-beauty craze with the opening of a new office in Seoul. ‘Holiday timing is a moving target’: Nordstrom aims to cut through the noise with an unexpected campaign. Can fashion be funny? How comedians became the faces of fall. Luxury Briefing: What’s the true value of the vintage remake?
