One of the interesting phenomena that was going on before the pandemic but that was really accelerated by it is the amount of companies pretending to be manufacturers.
In the fitness equipment world, there are a whole lot of people who do contract manufacturing in China and Taiwan and Korea. But while most of these legitimate companies at least design the equipment to their specs and determine the quality of the components and the biomechanics, there are certainly a proliferation of companies that pretend to be manufacturers in their online marketing, but are just importing off the shelf goods. They don't have any parts support or infrastructure or service, they're just there to sell a product online and to close up shop after a few years.
You can usually discern these companies quickly because they have no physical showrooms or dealer network.
One of the reasons I've enjoyed my conversations with
Hudson Steel is that their ownership is completely honest about where their products are made.. It's right there on their website. It's a completely different model than most. They work with seven different factories and create their products from those factories. But unlike these other companies,
they do stock all the parts and they don't allow them to be sold cheaply online. They ONLY sell them through dealerships where people can touch and feel the product, as well as getting support and service.
Because they work that way, it's a much higher quality product with better components and biomechanics than you'll ever find in the fake online products.
And because they work with seven different factories they have everything from medicine balls and bars and plates all the way to complicated functional trainers and cable machines. It's the kind of thing you need to come in and try to believe.
So come on into ConnectFit and try some of the new pieces. We are making sure we get a good selection of products from this brand onto our salesfloors.