Hybrid Fitness Media has reported that FitLab-owned Ragnar Relay faced vendor allegations of unpaid invoices, and that FitLab employees experienced delayed payroll deposits
Hughes-Nelson Painting Inc., doing business as Apex Imaging Services, sued FitLab Inc. in Los Angeles County Superior Court on April 8, 2026, alleging the company failed to pay $903,993.16 for construction work performed at multiple Nike Studios locations, including Culver City and Santa Monica, California, and Bee Cave and Austin, Texas.
The Culver City property named in the lawsuit is now listed as an open Racked studio on FitLab’s website. The Nike Studios location on East 6th Street in Austin also transitioned to Racked, according to the brand’s current location listings.
According to the complaint, FitLab and Apex entered into a Master Contract Agreement in June 2024, signed by FitLab Co-CEO Mike Melby, covering work across FitLab’s portfolio of brands. In December 2025, the companies signed a separate short-form agreement under which FitLab agreed to pay Apex just over $1 million in installments. FitLab made an initial $100,000 payment, the complaint alleges, but failed to make subsequent payments.
The December agreement includes a provision in which FitLab Co-CEO Brian Kirkbride personally guaranteed that certain tenant improvement funds, expected to be paid to FitLab by the properties’ landlords, would be forwarded to Apex, and agreed to be personally liable for those funds if FitLab received them but failed to pass them on.
Apex also recorded a mechanic’s lien against the Culver City property for $902,577.36. The lawsuit’s foreclosure claim on that lien, filed against property owner CP V Cumulus, LLC, was later dismissed without prejudice; the claims against FitLab remain active.
FitLab has denied the allegations. In a June 30, 2026 filing, the company’s attorneys stated that Apex “left the project without completing its work under the contracts” and alleged Apex “performed the work defectively and inadequately or did not perform the work according to the terms of the contract.”
No trial date has been set. A case management conference is scheduled for October 27, 2026.
Hybrid Fitness Media is continuing to investigate FitLab’s financial and legal position and will provide updates as reporting develops.