Raymond Kelly Raymond Kelly

Raymond Sport managing director Raymond Kelly looks back at IHRSA 2010 and predicts ‘mesmerising’ advancements for the health and fitness industry at Essen’s FIBO this month

The International Health Racquet and Sports Clubs Association’s (IHRSA) annual convention has long been thought of as the launchpad for the most innovative fitness equipment. Last year it was suspension training, the year before cranking a winch while ‘drum and bass’ played in the background, and a year earlier circuits, that old favorite, which appears to be innovative once again, with the circuits machine driven and in a circle. There is little a creative imagination cannot achieve when it comes to marketing but where is the next genuinely innovative fitness product going to come from, what is it going to look like and what is it going to cost? Where else to investigate but San Diego in Southern California for IHRSA 2010, which was held in March and attracted more than 10,000 professionals from the fitness industry?

There is no doubt that year’s show was buzzing, but what with? Reports from the floor of the San Diego Convention Centre indicated that despite the early morning workouts being jammed tight with the fit and the not so fit, the most innovative new piece of equipment in this hotbed of the world’s biggest market for fitness equipment was a variation on the indoor cycling bike introduced more than 10 years ago! The RealRyder is an indoor cycling bike that moves when you ride it and in addition to the cardio workout this, according to the marketing blurb, engages your core muscles. So it’s two tools in one, hardly innovative is it — think of the old screwdriver that puts screws in and takes them out?

So that was equipment, which I found disappointing, let’s take a look at what that other driver of the gym business — group exercise — had to offer. GroupX is a key gym revenue driver. It’s oxygen for a gym or health club and so GroupX trends are very closely watched by industry insiders. And this year’s innovation was PoleX — group exercise with a pole dancing theme. It is undoubtedly athletic, acrobatic even, however, I cannot see it being widely embraced in our markets.

There were some noticeable absentees from this year’s show: Espresso Fitness, a maker of interactive internet connected cardio products wasn’t present and neither was ProSpot, the grab-and-go strength training company that looked so promising just a few years ago. There was also a noticeable decrease in the size of the some of the major players’ booths and by the third day of the show I was told the “sizzle” had gone.

So in summary, IHRSA was flat. But don’t write off our American friends so soon; the US is still the biggest single market for fitness equipment in the world and America entrepreneurship is alive and well — it just was not on display at this year’s convention

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OVER TO EUROPE

German show FIBO, held at Essen Exhibition Centre in Dusseldorf from April 22-25, is more than the Euro version of IHRSA. It’s far bigger, with 30,000 industry professionals and 20,000 fitness mad consumers expected to attend, and bold and brash with it. The first two days are trade only, with trade and public attending in force on the last two days. You truly have to experience it — once!

There are people of all shapes and sizes, a lot of body builders — guys and girls — and the die-hard fitness fanatics get a look in too. In recent years I have seen indoor cycling classes of 1000 participants and more, choreographed step classes of hundreds and the wildest mixed martial arts demonstrations, a training craze that is now sweeping this region.

FIBO is many things but the one thing it is not is mundane. It’s mesmerising, the crowds are exhausting and it has the potential to be the most important trade and visitor show for the fitness industry worldwide. That is quite a shift of power, eastwards! Watch this space for a match report next month.

Raymond Kelly is the manager at Raymond Sport and a fitness, health and leisure industry veteran. He is contactable at raymond.kelly@raymondsport.com