Long gone are the days of clinicians making old-fashioned house calls to patients at their convenience and in the comfort of their own homes. But one masseur has been making house calls since 2011 – and all on two wheels through the busy streets of Brooklyn.
Kip Yates, 49, is a New York State licensed and insured massage therapist and certified prenatal massage therapist, having trained at the Swedish Institute. While he currently operates out of a SoHo studio, Yates also provides home services, such as Swedish wellness and recuperative deep tissue massage therapy in 30, 60 and 90-minute increments, to those living in South Brooklyn. He preps his Madsen cargo bike, secures his massage table onto the back and bikes to clients’ homes, usually within two or three miles of his own home in Red Hook.
“I wanted to provide that service because not many people do it anymore. It was also my way of lessening my carbon imprint and also throwing back those savings back to my customers, so they didn’t have to pay me extra for gas and [other] charges like that,” Yates said as he recalled starting this practice nearly a decade ago. “I also think I’m still the only massage therapist in the city who makes house calls on bike.”
He explained that Zeel, a then online company that connected customers with therapists for same-day massages, had inspired him to go a step – or rather a peddle – further with his services via bicycle. Since 2011 he’s built up a good base with his business “Massage Refresh,” now seeing weekly, bi-weekly, monthly clients and those who call when they need him at the last minute. His house calls do have an additional charge, depending on how far the residence is.
“If I have to peddle 30 or more minutes to see you, it’s going to be a little bit of an extra cost for the wear and tear of the bike,” he said. “If I have to peddle 5 to 10 minutes to you, there’s no extra cost.”
For those who already have their own massage tables in their homes, Yates still makes the trip on a smaller bike, rather than relying on a car or mass transit.
Bike schematics
Yates had his Madsen cargo bike even before he started using it for professional purposes.
“It was used as transport for my kids because the cargo bike came with two seats (one facing the front and one facing the back) and you can put up to four children in it.”
The bicycle has four sets of seatbelts, which are currently used as harnesses to secure the massage table, the massage cart and any other necessary equipment for the trips. The massage table juts out a little bit on each side of the bike, which hardly interferes with Yates’s biking or his surroundings. To date Yates has never had a table fall off his bike – though he noted, with a laugh, that he’s actually tipped the bike a few times, but with all the equipment staying safe, secure and in place inside the cargo space.
Though biking comes with its pros, like building up leg muscles and helping to maintain a healthy lifestyle, Yates also noted that he always has to stay cautious when riding through the borough – navigating cars driving in bike lanes, riding around double parked cars in bike lanes, and avoiding broken glass on the roads. He mainly relegates his paths to protected bike lanes, rarely riding on busy thoroughfares that aren’t designed for cycling.
Moving forward
Yates, who’s lived in Red Hook with his family for the past two years, says he’s starting to establish a presence within the neighborhood.
“As a man pushing 50, I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon,” he said. “I already have a really good online presence throughout the city. But I’m trying keep [the practice] regulated in Red Hook, which is why – later this year – I’m planning on having a complete change in dynamic.”
Yates’s goal is to restructure and launch an in-house service right here in Red Hook, with the hope to be more physically rooted within the community and to coin the business name “Red Hook Massage.” He already has an eye on a couple of spaces in the meantime. He also hopes to hire other therapists who would be comfortable riding around on bikes, and thus also to invest in a few more Madsens for that purpose down the road.
For more information about Yates and his practice, visit massagerefresh.com.
Top photo from Yates’ website
