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FIBO Exhibition | Fit Tech promotion
FIBO Exhibition | Fit Tech promotion
FIBO Exhibition | Fit Tech promotion
features

The way I see it: Paul Bowman, Wexer

The future of fitness is hybrid, says the CEO of Wexer. He shares his thoughts on why and how the industry should embrace this change

Published in Fit Tech 2020 issue 2

• "If you don’t have a hybrid digital / physical model, you won’t survive."

• "Think about how disruptive low-cost was for those who didn’t respond quickly enough. Digital will be equally disruptive"

• "It’s no longer a question of ‘do we go digital?’ Now the only question is: do you merge digital into physical, or physical into digital? Which approach is most likely to succeed? I genuinely believe it will be the latter."

• "Instagram and YouTube offered quick, easy solutions, but in using them, clubs have effectively given away their contacts, their opportunity to gather insights and their ownership of the customer relationship. They now have to wrest it back."

• "On-demand retention figures beat most traditional operators: about half of online fitness customers are retained for nine months or more."

• "Digital fitness was already growing fast. Then COVID-19 happened and things accelerated exponentially: we had clients whose online user base grew 10-fold almost overnight."

• "Home fitness must be delivered on your own platform, not a third-party channel – like Instagram or YouTube – which you can’t monetise or use to generate brand loyalty."

• "The shift towards online is not a temporary measure: 43% of Mindbody survey respondents want to continue with at-home classes as well as going back to the gym; 60% of these expect to add 2-3 live streamed workouts a week."

• "Digital opens up bigger audiences. There may be less revenue per head, but there are many more heads to go after."

• "Clubs should start with the home fitness journey and work out how to gain a competitive advantage here, before working out how to dovetail physical visits into this."

• "Online requires strength in depth to be sustainable, because people only do the same online class twice before they look for something new. In-club it’s about the social. Online it’s all about variety."

• "Clubs want to create their own content, so on 1 June, Wexer launched Web Player Connect – a new solution that gives operators their own TV channel."

• "During lockdown, 40% of all spend on live streamed and pre-recorded workouts went to businesses those individuals had never physically visited."

• "In clubs that have re-opened, we’re seeing higher demand for virtual classes. This is the only way to take part in group exercise in many clubs, and with social distancing, classes are regularly full."

• "We’ve talked about personalisation for years. Digital fitness is the way to speed it up – it’s both the tool to gather the data, and the channel through which to deliver it. That’s hugely exciting."

• "Training at home is so convenient, it’s where the bread and butter of fitness will now happen."

• "People will still be willing to pay for programming, expertise and support in-club, but the baseline will be delivered online via convenient, high-quality, personalised fitness content."

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
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Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
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New reality

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Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

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We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
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In 2021, Pulse Fitness added to its ever-growing portfolio of leisure industry services with the launch of TRAKK, its connected fitness app.
Myzone has worked with next-generation tech to unveil the MZ-Smart Station, a truly effective circuit training solution.
Perfect Gym currently provides fitness software solutions to customers in 55+ countries, servicing more than ...
It’s time to give more people more ways to move. Myzone is an innovative heart ...
Pyramids Centre enhanced thanks to Technogym, BH Live & Portsmouth City Council
Technogym
H Live has grown rapidly since 2010, operating leisure sites, sports and entertainment venues across Dorset, Hampshire and London. Read more
Get Fit Tech
Sign up for the free digital edition of Fit Tech magazine and the free weekly Fit Tech ezine
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Cryotherapy
trade associations
Salt therapy products
Independent service & maintenance
Digital

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features

The way I see it: Paul Bowman, Wexer

The future of fitness is hybrid, says the CEO of Wexer. He shares his thoughts on why and how the industry should embrace this change

Published in Fit Tech 2020 issue 2

• "If you don’t have a hybrid digital / physical model, you won’t survive."

• "Think about how disruptive low-cost was for those who didn’t respond quickly enough. Digital will be equally disruptive"

• "It’s no longer a question of ‘do we go digital?’ Now the only question is: do you merge digital into physical, or physical into digital? Which approach is most likely to succeed? I genuinely believe it will be the latter."

• "Instagram and YouTube offered quick, easy solutions, but in using them, clubs have effectively given away their contacts, their opportunity to gather insights and their ownership of the customer relationship. They now have to wrest it back."

• "On-demand retention figures beat most traditional operators: about half of online fitness customers are retained for nine months or more."

• "Digital fitness was already growing fast. Then COVID-19 happened and things accelerated exponentially: we had clients whose online user base grew 10-fold almost overnight."

• "Home fitness must be delivered on your own platform, not a third-party channel – like Instagram or YouTube – which you can’t monetise or use to generate brand loyalty."

• "The shift towards online is not a temporary measure: 43% of Mindbody survey respondents want to continue with at-home classes as well as going back to the gym; 60% of these expect to add 2-3 live streamed workouts a week."

• "Digital opens up bigger audiences. There may be less revenue per head, but there are many more heads to go after."

• "Clubs should start with the home fitness journey and work out how to gain a competitive advantage here, before working out how to dovetail physical visits into this."

• "Online requires strength in depth to be sustainable, because people only do the same online class twice before they look for something new. In-club it’s about the social. Online it’s all about variety."

• "Clubs want to create their own content, so on 1 June, Wexer launched Web Player Connect – a new solution that gives operators their own TV channel."

• "During lockdown, 40% of all spend on live streamed and pre-recorded workouts went to businesses those individuals had never physically visited."

• "In clubs that have re-opened, we’re seeing higher demand for virtual classes. This is the only way to take part in group exercise in many clubs, and with social distancing, classes are regularly full."

• "We’ve talked about personalisation for years. Digital fitness is the way to speed it up – it’s both the tool to gather the data, and the channel through which to deliver it. That’s hugely exciting."

• "Training at home is so convenient, it’s where the bread and butter of fitness will now happen."

• "People will still be willing to pay for programming, expertise and support in-club, but the baseline will be delivered online via convenient, high-quality, personalised fitness content."

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

Let’s live in the future to improve today
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

Our results showed a greater than 60 per cent reduction in falls for individuals who actively participated in Bold’s programme
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features