Sex Appeal Enters The Equipment Market
Everything from weighted vests to kettlebells are getting a makeover.
Be like me. Diversify your content.
Thirteen weeks ago, I started the WTF Weekly newsletter with the help of my insanely talented copywriter, Creativ_Matters, to diversify how I deliver information to my audience - you guys.
After YouTube deleted over 700 WTF Gym Talk videos earlier in 2021, and then a few weeks later, Instagram hit me with two strikes in a single day, threatening to delete my account - creating a newsletter that now reaches thousands of you every week seemed like a smart way to diversify.
And I suggest you do the same - Diversify your content.
Not on LinkedIn? I recommend it if you want business-savvy clients or potential corporate wellness.
Not on YouTube? Then you're cutting your Google search rankings out from the knees since Google owns YouTube.
No newsletter? Get with Substack or Mail Chimp.
Just some food for thought.
And speaking of food, just a heads up. WTF weekly is taking next week off to consume turkey, whiskey, and be with fam.
Thank you as always for your attention, and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Google, gobble, fuckers.
- Stu
Today’s Rundown
✔️ New weighted garments that look like braille are coming in hot.
✔️ PENT is making your current dumbbells look like trash.
✔️ Need something to binge on Thanksgiving, here ya go.
A Weighted Vest That Doesn't Make You Look Like Rainbow 6
But it does make you look like a futuristic ribbed condom…
Apparel company OMORPHO and their cast of former Nike execs debut new weighted performance gear, Gravity Sportswear.
OMORPHO launched with $5M in seed funding, with the help of KB Partners, Bullish, Viking Maccabee, and others, introducing Gravity Sportswear.
The launch introduces an innovative line of weighted garments to an increasingly technical activewear market expecting $157M growth through 2024.
Founded in 2017 in Portland, OR, OMORPHO, Greek, meaning "beautiful," aims to simplify the pursuit of a fit life.
Aligning with the fitness ideology that small changes over a longer period of time deliver the greatest results, the OMORPHO weighted vests have small weights, as little as seven ounces and as much as 10 pounds depending on the garment, but promise big results.
The Gravity Sportswear collection uses polyurethane microbeads dotting the garment's exterior to load the body with small amounts of naturally-distributed weight, so when worn when training, it can help you get stronger, fitter, and faster by simply changing what you wear.
Currently, the line includes a collection of tops, vests, compression shorts, and tights.
MY TAKE
During my first semester in college, I did my first ever workout with a weighted vest in the college fitness center. At the time, they weren't yet super popular to see out in the wild.
It also just happened to be Halloween weekend. Halfway through my workout, a girl stopped me and asked, "isn't it a little aggressive to be working out in your SWAT officer costume?"
So, yeah, weighted vests are certainly unappealing from an aesthetic standpoint.
And while brands like 5.11 Tactical have made weighted vests look slightly more appealing, the current weighted vest market still boasts a military, flak jacket aesthetic that wouldn't bode well for the majority of workout modalities.
Personally, I've always been a fan of weighted vests. But as more people entered the functional fitness space and became indoctrinated with Hero workouts like Murph, the appeal of looking like Rainbow 6 with twenty other individuals doing kipping pull-ups, it just wasn't for me anymore.
However, the opportunity for another player to come into the market and provide an aesthetics-forward product that would actually play well functionally in almost every other fitness arena gets me excited.
We really haven't seen a great application for weighted vests in fitness programs outside of CrossFit. Typically, they don't work well for the majority of modalities - for example, a weighted vest wouldn't work well in a spin class, yoga, BJJ, etc.
Now, OMORPHO is providing an aesthetically superior product that would actually play well in almost all other areas of fitness...football, basketball, golf, yoga... So I think that the opportunities are endless.
Haters will say they are not heavy enough.
Sure, the OMORPHO gear might not provide 20lb. of added resistance like someone's Badass Badge requires, but think about this as a great starting point. Having a weighted garment that you could use in everyday workouts that wouldn't get in the way and can add an extra ten pounds of weight to you for the duration of your workouts can be very beneficial not only for conditioning but for strength training as well.
And for those of you that need more resistance for your workouts, someone will get there, I'm sure.
However, the innovation of the weighted vest to now appeal to a more universal application is the real game-changer here.
As a microgym owner, what you can learn from this is realizing that everything we have now in our facility is probably too big, bulky, and could afford a more modern, streamlined design.
And I mean everything - rubber mats are too heavy, barbells are too long, plyoboxes are too large...the list goes on.
And while most of you don't manufacture fitness products, a parallel lesson here is to find opportunities to streamline, beyond the physical equipment you have in your facility, and think about it in terms of your business's actual day-in and day-out operations- including payroll, operating workflow, systems, etc.
Can you slim down the way you get things done?
Can you remove the extra bulk and run super lean, not needing to carry so much load regarding payroll or overhead expenses?
Can you make the workflow from a lead to a customer faster and more efficient?
If you can identify areas of your business where you can remove the extra bulk, just as OMOPHIO did with the weighted vest, your business will get stronger, fitter, and faster too.
So, while you probably won't catch me rocking this first iteration of the evolved modern weighted vest and apparel, I feel confident that this product category will see some awesome innovation in terms of attractive designs and the ability to increase resistance to evolve your everyday workout...so I'll be keeping an eye out.
Your Fitness Equipment Is Fugly
And this company wants to give it a complete makeover
PENT. fitness produces fitness equipment that looks like it could be in an art gallery but is intended for luxury hotel wellness spaces and home gyms in high-end residences.
From dumbbells to kettlebells to a multi-functional unit, PENT. fitness added an element of elegance to a range of 50 pieces of fitness equipment and products using innovative materials, including stainless steel, bronze, wood, and natural leather.
MY TAKE
Are you catching on to the theme this week?
We're spending a good amount of time talking about design, aesthetics, and streamlining.
And for this rundown, we'll be looking at a company trying to do all of the above with fitness equipment.
Now, nobody is snubbing your iron and rubber fitness products. Still, you probably couldn't give me a single consumer product that you've purchased consistently over the past 20+ years that hasn't evolved in design, simplicity, and curb appeal.
Barbells and dumbbells themselves evolved very quickly in their first 50 years of existence. Still, since then, we haven't seen any modern barbell or dumbbell innovations or modifications that would add to a more appealing design and better aesthetic.
And while I certainly don't see any commercial microgym outfitting their space with equipment valued at $47/lb (Yes, that's right - a pair of 4# PENT. dumbbells cost $380), we all know that elite products are the very tip of the spear, they start high and then become commoditized over time.
Hell, even now, more traditional but premium brands like ELEIKO can demand over $1000 for a single barbell.
So this shouldn't be shrugged entirely off as some bougie, elite product that will never hit the mainstream - because they frequently do.
Now, what microgym owners can take away from this is in unison with the previous article today, but something I can't echo enough, aesthetics matter.
When I was designing Urban MVMNT, I knew my coaching, community, and programming would be phenomenal and would retain my customers and keep them here for a long time.
But I also realized that my first impression, whether it was visually driving by my building or digitally looking at my website and photos, was of the utmost importance.
So, I designed Urban MVMNT to be an aesthetics-forward facility whereupon walking in, you had a complete appreciation for the interior design effort made to make this space not look like a standard, fugly warehouse gym.
And honestly, my guess is you're doing it too.
Most of us are just doing it digitally - but may rarely think about it in our facility and on our equipment.
Right now, how many microgym owners have remodeled their website in the past ten years? Almost every single one of you.
How many of you are thinking more and being concerned more about the photos you post on Instagram and hiring photographers so that your images are more aesthetically attractive? Almost every single one of you.
Listen, our first handshake with a potential customer is digital, meaning the first way a prospect is ever going to encounter you is superficial. So it is with eyeballs and focused on your aesthetics because what you look like, your layout, your lobby, your logo, your website, etc. is the visual first impression that can be seen by anyone, anytime, unlike your tangibles of coaching, community, and programming that is never fully realized until someone has been a customer of yours for some time.
So in closing, if you have other issues with your business, listen, obviously focus on those, you need to address fundamental business model problems before you address the aesthetics, but to simply ignore aesthetics and to say, it doesn't matter, no, absolutely not.
I encourage you to spend extra time, energy, and resources to put your best-looking business forward.
Steal Marketing Ideas From These Guys
Grab a beverage and get ready to take notes…
Back in 2018, I was asked to speak at a virtual business summit for microgym owners.
In traditional fashion, I looked at the 45-minute Q&A presentations that most of my colleagues were giving and decided, fuck that, I'm going to make a movie.
So with your downtime over the holiday, I invite you to tune out your creepy Uncle Sal and learn how I recommend you steal marketing tactics from top brands like Heineken, Orangetheory Fitness, Kelly Starrett, and more.
