At Pure Sweat + Float Studios, Relaxation for Stressed Washingtonians
By • June 17, 2024 0 983
By Hailey Wharram
When we experience episodes of stress, those around us sometimes utter the lackadaisical phrase: “Don’t sweat it.” However, Pure Sweat + Float Studios proposes a real solution — sauna therapy and a little bit of sweat that can have wondrous calming effects on the mind and body.
Pure Sweat + Float Studios opened on 3345 Prospect St. NW, next to Down Dog Yoga on May 13. The studio provides clients with Epsom salt float therapy and Sunlighten infrared sauna treatments in addition to selling a variety of wellness retail products.
“It’s an honor to be able to facilitate a space for the general population to come in and heal,” store owner Elizabeth “Liz” Baker said. “I say this often, but I’m not a politician. I’m not a teacher. I’m not a first responder. I’m not a government official, but this is my way of giving back to all of those people in the community, so that they can show up better for everyone who needs them and themselves.”
The Georgetown location — at the corner of Prospect and 34th Streets — is the 13th Pure Sweat location in the U.S., part of a franchise founded by Candice Bruder in Nashville in 2017.
After working for W Hotels in New York City for many years, Baker began studying yoga and realized she felt ready to leave the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple behind in favor of prioritizing wellness full-time.
“This is the perfect amalgamation of all of the things I have done throughout my life,” Baker said. “I went to school for sales management and retail management, and I worked in New York in hospitality— I worked in hospitality for most of my life — plus I grew up on a farm, so taking care of people is just kind of what we do and who we are.”
Before moving to Washington, D.C., Baker and her husband loved visiting Georgetown to stand-up paddleboard on the Potomac River. Whenever they would pass by this street corner on Prospect, she felt intrinsically called to this particular location which, having formerly housed a dry cleaner, had been vacant for several years. Because the space was leased at the time, she had to continue searching elsewhere for Pure Sweat’s perfect landing spot.
“I started to look at other locations, but still my heart was kind of holding on to this little corner here,” Baker said. “And then, about two weeks before I was about to move to D.C. officially, my real estate brokers reached out and said that they had added a new location to our search list. It was this location, so it was pretty serendipitous that this place became available again right before I moved here.”
For Baker, the most rewarding part of her job is seeing the difference between how clients enter and how they leave.
“I can get a little emotional about it, because I’ve had so many people come out of sauna or come out of float feeling so much better than how they went in,” Baker said. “I once had a male client come out of the float and say, ‘I can’t remember the last time I heard my own heartbeat.’ That was an incredible moment for me. I want to keep providing these services to help people heal.”
Float therapy at Pure Sweat + Float Studios on Prospect Street. Photo by Birch Thomas.
Infared sauna at Pure Sweat + Float Studios on Prospect Street. Photo by Birch Thomas.
Pure Sweat + Float Studios at Prospect and 34th Street. Photo by Birch Thomas.
