ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

The Ivey Business School graduate never really felt at home in investment banking, where he was employed following graduation in 2006. After the 2008 financial crisis put his employer out of business, Bent co-founded Roamly, a virtual SIM Card marketplace that ultimately went bust in 2013.

“When Roamly failed, I was down to $100 in my bank account; I had to sell my car, move out of my apartment in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and back into my parents’ basement in Guelph,â€� he says. “I really felt at a low, and at the same time I was drinking a lot and struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.â€�

Unable to find work in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, Bent sought a fresh start in Israel, where he moved with a friend in 2016, despite not being Jewish nor speaking Hebrew. Months later, unable to afford a flight home for the Christmas holidays, he signed up for an intensive 10-day meditation retreat.

“It was the first time I started to notice why I was drinking, why I felt insecure, why I wanted to make money,� he says. “That set the stage for my entire arc of building Othership.�

Othership, which Bent describes as a cross between Cirque du Soleil and group therapy, began as a gathering of friends jumping into ice baths in his backyard and inviting others to join. In 2019 Bent converted his garage into a sauna and ice bath, and hosted members of a growing local cold-plunge community.

In 2022, the founders — including his wife Emily, and three friends — opened the first Othership location on Adelaide Street, using ice baths, saunas and steam rooms to create a new kind of community space. Beyond the hot and cold facilities, Othership offers busy professionals an escape from the stresses of city life, a place to share their authentic emotions by day, and a venue for dance parties, comedy shows, and singles events for the sober-curious at night.

In the three years since, Othership has grown to include three additional locations, including one in Yorkville, one in Lower Manhattan, and another opening in Brooklyn in 2025 — each roughly double the size of the original facility. Along the way he says they’ve welcomed more than 100,000 individuals, which they call “journeyers,� including celebrities like Sean Mendes, Dana White and Diplo.

The Star recently caught up with Bent from his home in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ to discuss Othership’s unique approach to health and wellness, the science and tradition behind “contrast therapy,â€� how the brand is filling the void in a world of dwindling community engagement, and why he welcomes Othership being labelled a “cult.â€�

Did you intend for this backyard venture to turn into a business?

When I moved back to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ with my wife in 2019, I had stopped drinking and using hard drugs and was worried about the friend group I had back home. So, my wife, another couple, and my friend from university built an ice bath in my backyard one summer, and everyone would just work one night bringing out towels, starting a fire, serving refreshments, and guiding people through ice baths. But the goal was just to build a healthy community, not a company.

That eventually grew to a WhatsApp group of people coming every day to use the ice bath and hang out at the house, but as winter came, we converted my garage on Geary Avenue and built a sauna and ice bath in that space, and that was the genesis for Othership.

Why ice baths?

I had been going to bath houses with my wife for five years as a sober-friendly activity. We actually had our first date at the South-Western Bathhouse in Mississauga in 2017, we went to a Wim Hof Therapy seminar and did the cold plunge together, and we thought it was awesome. We went to bathhouses every week, so it was just part of our lives at that point, and we decided, why not do a little pop-up in our backyard?

There was no commercial ice bath anywhere in the world at that point. It was used by athletes, but not socially. Same with the idea to host classes in a sauna and ice bath; that didn’t exist before, and it just came from us kind of messing around in our garage.

During Valentine’s Day two of us would go in with our partners, do an eye-gaze, come out and give each other a hug and share, and it was powerful. We discovered you can use this ice bath as a space for sharing, and that’s also unique to Othership.

How would you describe the Othership experience?

It depends on who you are and what you’re looking for, but it’s almost like a Cirque du Soleil performance that you are a part of, meets group therapy. You’re in a 20-minute sauna watching a performance around a theme — it could be stretching, breath work, meditation, vocalization, group singing — followed by an ice bath as a group, followed by a sauna with an optional group share. That’s one offering.

Then at night there’s a social offering, and we’re pulling things that traditionally happen around alcohol — standup comedy, dance parties, singles nights, live music — into a healthier environment. We also have large-scale parties with live music and DJs for things like New Years and equinox, so it’s like a sober nightclub mixed with emotional wellness.

What if you can’t handle the cold?

Ninety-nine per cent of people who come have never done a cold plunge, and there’s been over 100,000 of them so far. It’s a new experience, it’s a challenge, and just about everybody is afraid. It’s also completely optional. If you just want to take a cold shower, that’s totally fine. If you just want to put a hand in, or just come for the sauna and look at the ice bath, that’s totally fine, too. We encourage you to listen to your body.

Where does therapy come in?

The difference between Othership and traditional yoga and meditation is that a lot of people who come don’t have prior spiritual interests. These are people with corporate jobs, working parents, people who live in urban centres like ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and New York, and we provide an hour away from the challenges of life.

It’s one hour without your phone, where the hot and cold improve your mood and allow you to stop thinking about whatever you’re worried about. The number one reason people come is to reduce stress.

Some of our classes focus on emotions — things like loving kindness, gratitude, acceptance, anger release — and in these classes you’re guided through experiences. At the end of it we offer a space for you to share your emotions. Often, you’ll have a group of 64 people in a class, and only three people share. It’s totally optional, but it’s kind of the anti-Instagram, because here people are sharing real emotions about their real life, not just what they want others to see.

The science behind the benefits of cold plunges is mixed. Does that matter?

There is concrete evidence that the ice bath increases norepinephrine and dopamine, the feel-good hormones in the brain, and so they help you deal with stress. There’s some debate over whether it helps increase metabolism or longevity, but we’re not making any health claims. We’re providing a community experience that allows people to share, and ultimately leave feeling less stressed.

Is Othership’s popularity related to the decline of other community institutions?

I think there’s several things happening. One is, there’s less people — especially in younger generations — interested in religion, so that meeting spot is gone. Lots of people now work from home, so connecting with community at the office is going away. Restaurant attendance is declining because people are busy. So, I think there’s a hunger for community, especially in big cities where people feel overworked and burnt out.

The other thing that’s happening is that it’s become clear how impactful alcohol is on our health. People 20 to 40 are drinking less than ever, and there seems to be a demand for spaces to socialize without alcohol.

Othership has been labelled a “cult.� Does that bother you?

Not at all. In fact, I think it’s the best possible thing you can hear as a consumer brand. It means people are passionate about your offering, and all the best consumer brands have a cultlike following.

Do you fear cold plunging may be just a fad?

To me, hot and cold contrast therapy is a cousin of exercise, and you wouldn’t call exercise a fad.

If you look back across almost all cultures — Japanese, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Native American, Mexican — there are examples of saunas, sweat lodges, banyas, hammams. It’s been part of human culture since the beginning of time. I think we’re just in the first inning, and one day almost everybody in North America will be using some form of hot and cold therapy.

Where does Othership go from here?

From an operation standpoint, it’s easier to go deep in fewer markets, so for now we’re focused on ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and New York, but places like Chicago, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, and New Jersey feel ripe for future expansion, and we eventually want to be in every major city in North America. We created this thing in a backyard from scratch, we’re the world leaders now, and we want to be the team that builds this category.