Fitness equipment is always a strange little ecosystem. You have the full "club level" equipment, you've got the Vertical Market, you've got high-end residential equipment, and then you've got internet and department store stuff. And these things do move around.
And then there of course fads and trends and phases within these, like when CrossFit was huge, before that when Curves was the big thing, or the whole Peloton craziness. Heck, I still see some companies pushing those functional cages, as if a client want to toss heavy balls at a target or whip a battle rope without a trainer there.
Peloton closed at $3.09 a share yesterday, from a peak of $162 a share at a peak, btw.
Things do change.
Peloton closed at $3.09 a share yesterday, from a peak of $162 a share at a peak, btw.
Things do change.
Right now, the ever-changing field has got to a point where some of the big names like Precor are now nearly gone because Peloton bought them, and is trying to sell them, our old favourite Lifefitness is also in a bad spot as their ownership is trying to sell them. Both of these former frontrunners still own a ton of patents, like the Arc trainer, so this is not to say they don't make some good equipment.
Currently, Technogym, Matrix, CORE, and True Fitness are leading the pack as prominent market providers. Intenza also catches my eye with its sleek design. Additionally, niche brands like Paragon, Pent and Nohrd have ventured into creating complete lines of ultra-premium very specialty equipment, marking a new trend in the industry.
As such, and since TechnoGym is so expensive with such a mediocre warranty, Matrix and True seem to be aiming their sleds in that direction.
High-end lines of equipment are more aimed towards resorts, the highest end gyms, and hotel chains. They are very sexy, and have unified appearance and excellent content and media consoles. But I think the other manufacturers take a look at Technogym selling $21,000 treadmills with questionable biomechanics and a less-than-stellar warranty and figure if people are willing to buy that, there's definitely a place to compete here. Especially if they can also tell a biomechanical story that's somewhat lacking from Technogym.
For Matrix, they've come out with their Onyx collection which is definitely very pretty, but at this point only a small cardio collection and not a big one. But again, the price points are aiming at that high teens for treadmills and ellipticals. Much bigger screens, and a much more connected experience. Matrix has also been chasing down technology and content companies as well as some AI companies in the background. Their stealthy chasing down of tech and content is interesting to watch.
True, which bought Octane a few years back, is shuffling their line and making some improvements to change it into four different lines with three different console options. And with the merging of their octane and true lines together, they're certainly offering what I would consider to be the currently strongest biomechanical and multimodality lineup. Especially when you throw in their Palladium strength (with Weight stacks and Plate-Load) line at the top end and the fact they actually have four different lines of strength equipment, to match up with there four different cardio levels.
True is setting up to have their Launch Series to be their light commercial lineup, their Gravity Series to be there their basic meat and potatoes, but rugged commercial line, the Apex Series is a luxury, high performance line with more adjustability, and then they have their Vapour series, which brings in high-end speciality pieces like their Alpine Runner and their Stryker treadmill.
I'd be remiss if I did not mention Core Health and Fitness getting stronger, as another big player getting traction. CEO Bryan K. O’Rourke has a lot of vision, and has engineered some great partnerships for Core, especially the ones with Egym. He understands tech, and don't be surprised if, instead of creating one big ecosystem, like Technogym, he builds a number of partnerships. They did get the Jacob's Ladder, as well as their shorter Vertical Market Stepmill
I'd be remiss if I did not mention Core Health and Fitness getting stronger, as another big player getting traction. CEO Bryan K. O’Rourke has a lot of vision, and has engineered some great partnerships for Core, especially the ones with Egym. He understands tech, and don't be surprised if, instead of creating one big ecosystem, like Technogym, he builds a number of partnerships. They did get the Jacob's Ladder, as well as their shorter Vertical Market Stepmill
It's not like everybody needs to keep track of all of this stuff, but obviously, as a former Chief Product Officer, and as somebody who's helped develop products for a dozen manufacturers, I do keep up with this. And for a lot of us, we tend to fall into this habit of thinking that the brand or product that we used successfully 10 or 20 years ago is still on top of the heap. But that is certainly not the truth in the fitness equipment world. My prediction in the next year or so is based around the slow removal of traditional weight stacks, or at least more adoption on systems that allow separate eccentric vs concentric loading, strength curve adjustment, and personally adjusted resistance.
Just remember, at the end of the day, check the biomechanics and warranty.
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