BowFlex files for bankruptcy amid declining interest in cardio equipment

https://www.axios.com/2024/03/05/bowflex-bankruptcy-nautilus-schwinn-chapter-11

by austinallegro • 2 years ago

27 15 2 years ago

DANmode• 2 years ago

Scrap the rest of the products, start selling the lock'n'load dumbbells with a trainer app that critiques your form or some shit.

AvocadoPanic• 2 years ago

ai trainer app

geodel• 2 years ago

Yeah, I mean there must be thousands of live routine of dumb bells from highly experienced trainers at NYC exercise studios. So 50-100 dollar a month service for a gamified dumb bell routine wouldn't be outrageous at all.

xnx• 2 years ago

I don't know of anyone who has figured it out yet, but some dumb sensors (accelerometer, camera) plus some smart AI (pose detection, rep counting, LLM-based motivational phrases) could go a long way to creating a trainer that's 80% as good as the best human trainers.

woah• 2 years ago

Got a great idea, gotta find some kinda brainiacs to code the app

olliej2• 2 years ago

"Americans are losing interest in cardio equipment"

Alternatively: Americans started buying exercise equipment when working from home freed up hours and hours of time every week, allowing them to have free time outside of work. Now that executives have decided they need to show workers how powerless they are by forcing unnecessary, and in many cases objectively harmful (to employee health, morale, and most damningly actual productivity) mandatory return to office policies, workers have lost that time and therefore exercise and mental and physical well being take a back seat to executive egos.

pfdietz• 2 years ago

Also, many Americans suffering from long COVID can't do cardio.

EDIT: not sure why this was downvoted. Long COVID is no joke.

chrismcb• 2 years ago

Define "many". I'm sure it isn't enough to make a dent in the number of people who do cardio.

olliej2• 2 years ago

Sometimes I do wonder why downvotes happen. I almost feel like downvoting should have a mandatory text field that needs some kind of (original commenter visible) text in it so the downvoting isn't just a trivial instant I-don't-like-this button. I'd be interested in seeing how it would impact downvoting across HN, but also whether it impacted my own downvoting? (@dang feature request? :D)

chiefalchemist2• 2 years ago

As I understand it, this also reflects recent decisions by The Fed. In that past, when money was cheap and easy to come by a company like BowFlex could tred water (at least a bit longer than usual). That luxury, that life line is no longer available so bankruptcy sooner rather than later becomes the only choice.

Same / similar can be said of tech companies and recent layoffs. The financial salad days are over. Now it's pay your own way (i.e., make money) or sink.

duskwuff• 2 years ago

I don't think that's all that's going on here, though. Bowflex has been in business since the 1980s, and IPOed in 1999 -- it's hardly as though they were a recent startup burning through VC money.

chiefalchemist2• 2 years ago

Fed decisions are reflected in the ability to get loans, the terms of those loans, the confidence of investors, etc.

The money supply and Fed decisions have broad and far reaching impact on the financial system. And yeah, sure VCs as well.

bhouston• 2 years ago

Was this because of a Covid related over expansion? I know home gyms exploded in popularity for a bit and then ran into a post Covid collapse of demand.

BowFlex files for bankruptcy amid declining interest in cardio equipment

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