Key Takeaways
- The dating app happn is hosting an IRL running club event, Single Run, in an effort to foster wellness and spark in-person connections.
- An industry-wide shift toward wellness-based dating events is based on people’s often-linked passions for romance, fitness, and mental health.
- Other dating apps, like Hinge and Grindr, have also adapted to modern daters’ needs by expanding their reach and diversifying their offerings.
In the dating industry, wellness has become as essential to successful romance as passion itself.
People want to know how much their potential partner values emotional, mental, and physical wellness. It’s not uncommon for people to ask “Do you work out?” and “Do you go to therapy?” on dating apps, speed dates, and matchmaker profiles.
Dating platforms are investing in engagement strategies that combine wellness with romance. Running clubs, adventure hikes, and amateur sports leagues have popped up on dating apps like Datefit, Coffee Meets Bagel, and even Tinder.
Each event uses people’s passion for wellness to combat dating app fatigue and facilitate in-person connections.
One of these wellness-themed dating events is happn’s August 12 run group event in Amsterdam. Single Run, part of happn’s Disconnect to Reconnect campaign, invites daters to make meaningful connections while reaching wellness goals.
The 5K run, which will be held at Vondelpark, touches on an important part of modern dating culture: the convergence of romance and wellness in an offline environment.
“At happn, we believe dating should be grounded in real life, in shared experiences, spontaneous encounters, and the physical world we all move through,” Karima Ben Abdelmalek, CEO of happn, told DatingNews.
Many of today’s daters would prefer a sweaty, imperfect-but-memorable meet-cute at an event like Single Run to the hollow “ding” of a match notification.
In a world reeling from a pandemic and financial uncertainty, personal wellness and our love lives are just about the only things we can all control. In fact, our love lives have enough of an effect on our overall wellness that the two are inextricably linked.
Daters Want More Than Chemistry — They Want Alignment
In a conversation about Match’s 2025 Singles in America study, Dr. Amanda Gesselman, Director of Sex and Relationship Science at Match, told DatingNews what today’s singles really care about. “Singles want to know how someone communicates their feelings, what they really care about, and whether their values truly align,” she said.
In other words, some singles don’t want to beat around the bush. Do we share the same values or not? Meeting face to face inevitably brings these topics out into the open.
Offline dating events like Single Run are popular with young daters because they see it as a more organic, authentic way to find romance, as compared to the increasingly stale method of meeting people online.
Unlike traditional running clubs, Single Run will use a DJ on wheels to recreate the high-energy thrill and socialization of a nightclub. But instead of a frenzied crush of tipsy dancers, Single Run hopes to attract goal-oriented singles with a passion for wellness and connection.
These daters most likely share some of the same values, including mental health awareness and physical fitness. It’s a real-life version of classic dating app tags that bring like-minded people together. Except this time, daters can skip over the “swipe and chat” part of the process.
It’s not so much that today’s singles are joining running clubs in droves — though running clubs are having a moment — but that singles are seeking ways to simultaneously achieve romantic and wellness goals.
After all, the passion daters feel for their own wellness is increasingly intertwined with the passion they feel for romance itself. Dating platforms and professionals must acknowledge both passions if they want to make an impact with modern daters.
“In a world where digital connection often replaces real interaction, the Single Run is our way of reclaiming public space for something as simple and meaningful as human connection,” Abdelmalek said.
“Events like this aren’t just fun. They reflect a growing desire among singles to disconnect from their screens and reconnect with each other, face-to-face.”
Dating Apps Have To Adapt To The Times
As dating apps come to terms with this generation’s desire for in-person connections, they must adapt to stay competitive. Single Run is just one example of how the apps are making wellness and romance accessible to today’s daters.
And physical fitness is only one part of the wellness equation. Mental health is another, equally crucial need that Bumble, Hinge, and OkCupid, along with scores of niche dating apps like No Longer Lonely and Dateability, have innovated to meet.
In 2023, OkCupid started allowing users to indicate their comfort levels discussing mental health topics with matches, and Hinge offers “wellness journey” prompts that help users explain their wellness goals and passions.
Grindr has also gotten in on people’s wellness journeys, and is planning to offer a telehealth service called Woodwork to people with ED. And the romantic subscription box company Arya’s wellness-first motivation is partly what compelled the venture capitalist firm, Patron, to invest in the company.
When these platforms diversify their offerings, they maximize their impact. Just look at Single Run, which offers free registration and plus ones in addition to goodie bags and t-shirts.
By making this wellness event accessible to its users, happn is sending a clear message: If today’s daters want to connect offline, we not only can make that happen, but we can make the event as rewarding as possible.
The more dating apps that adopt this strategy, the less power dating app fatigue has on today’s daters.
