Welcome to Fix Your Gym, a podcast dedicated to bringing you expert knowledge from fitness industry leaders, salespeople, gym owners, tech experts, and other fitness enthusiasts, where you'll learn about the latest industry trends, innovative technologies, new and current products on the market, and health and fitness news from experts across the nation. And now, here's your host, Adam Kniffin. 

All right, welcome to another episode of the Fix Your Gym podcast. This one's gonna be definitely an interesting one. Having my friend Sidwell Kaiser on from GHS North America. It's a different, I haven't had anybody on that does exactly what you do. And truthfully, I didn't know that there was a specific company that does exactly what you do, other than the flooring, but as far as Uh, and I'll let, I'll let you tell a little bit more about it, but, um, with the cardio raceways and things like that. So I'm super excited to, uh, interview. I know it's been kind of back and forth. We've been playing scheduling tag and everything like that. And so it's, it's good to finally to meet you. Um, you know, we've talked on LinkedIn and everything like that, but I appreciate you, um, giving your time and, and everything like that to come on and tell us a little bit about what you do. Um, so yeah, tell us a little bit about it. 

Yeah, man, I'm, like I said, I'm stoked to be here. Um, so with our cardio raceways, um, how I got into this was my father created this company back in 2005. Um, he started with just like the flooring gig. So he started installing rubber flooring, got into the planet fitness market. He was out there on the road every week. He saw the need for cardio raceways with being on these construction sites. and he started working with an engineer back in 2011 and developed these cardio raceways. Um, so what differentiates our cardio raceways from every other cardio raceway on the market is that ours is entirely plug and play. So this, this little box up here, that's a little bit bigger than the rest of the raceway. Yeah. That's our function box. So the electricians, we work real closely with the electricians and we would, they would place electrical conduit stub ups and those junction boxes before we to ensure that our junction box is perfectly over those. And, um, After they come in, those wires wouldn't be hot. We bring in our raceway. They come in either 29 or 41 inch increments. Um, we lay those out, screw them all together. And then, like I was saying with the plug and play wiring, none of that's hot. So that brings your power, your data and your cable directly to your cardio machines, mitigating the need for an electrician to install the entire raceway. They're primarily just doing those conduit stub ups in that junction box. 

Yeah. And so for those of you, those are the people that don't really know. Um, so, I mean, the whole purpose of this is to kind of keep, um, all of your, your electrical wiring, your power cords, your, your data cables and everything like that organized and so forth. Right. 

Correct. But it also is bringing your power. Like normally, when you get a cardio raceway from the next guy, you're getting the metal, like a trough, basically, right? And you're, you're electricians coming through and hardwiring individually inside of that trough per se. So the electrician or five is in there for a week or two installing all that hard wiring where with ours, it's all plug and play. So install times about four to eight hours. And like I said, anybody can install because those wires are not hot. And then after we come through or myself, or if they decide they want someone else to install, um, the electrician just taps in through, um, the conduit stub ups to our wiring, bringing power. to all of your machines.

Got you. Very cool. Very important as a, you know, an installer. So we're coming in behind you guys, you know, bringing in equipment and stuff like that, or doing service, you know, or maintenance and things like that. And, and these types of, you know, products or solutions for gym owners are are really, really important, you know what I mean? That can alleviate a lot of different problems with breakdowns and power issues and stuff like that. And then just having organization, you know what I mean? And things like that. And it sounds like you have a you know, a unique product as well. If you're in planet fitnesses and it looks like you're in a, I think I saw like crunch fitness and stuff like that. So, um, what are, what are some of your other, are those your main, you know, customers or are you doing small gyms? Are you doing residential or, you know, what, what kind of things are you doing?

Yeah. So we've been, um, like I was telling you a little bit, my dad created this business in 2011. We started marketing our raceways to just the planet fitness market. We're a preferred vendor, their corporate clubs, multiple of their franchisees. Um, so just within the last eight months, I've been in the office marketing our products to other. Other markets bigger than planet fitness. I mean, obviously everyone knows who planet fitness is, but yeah. Yeah, just getting our name out there. Like I said, I went to IHRSA last week.

Um, yeah, we should have, we should have met up. I didn't know.

It would have been perfect. I mean, perfect.

Did you have a booth or did you just go and yeah, yeah, we did have a booth over there. Yeah, man. I missed you. I missed a lot though, to be honest with you. I kept getting caught up doing, um, doing certain things, but, um, Yeah, for sure. So very cool, man. So so you guys are kind of expanding and and doing some I'm curious, what is the so what is the difference between the raceway and the railway?

Okay. So our raceway is in this picture here, um, that's on the ground, but our railway brings your individual television units to each piece of cardio equipment. Oh, okay. Yeah. A little stand in front and you have the rails, which give it the name of the railway. Um, because I'm sure as an equipment guy, you know, most of the time, the first thing to ship the bed and your cardio equipment's probably your screen. So, um, rather than paying for a whole new piece of cardio equipment, they pop off their TV screen and they got a five-year warranty on their TV screen. And yeah, they placed that right away.

You sell the TVs and stuff too, or just, just, yeah. Yep. Yeah. We were close to this. I got it. We got to get, we got to get together on something.

Yeah, man. Absolutely. Yeah. And, um, another point I wanted to mention with the raceways and the difference with ours being the plugin play is because it's not hardwired, like a lot of big corporate gyms like to say, all right, we want to throw everybody to throw in two extra. Step masters this year. And with our cardio raceway, they can easily take away and add without having an electrician come through and redig a trench or having. Yeah.

Yeah. Nice. What's a, were you, have you been in the fitness industry while your dad started this company? So you kind of grew up, grew up with it. How old is the company?

Um, so he had started it in 2005. So we're just coming up on next year. I'll be 20 years. Okay. Gotcha. How old are you? I am 22. So yeah, you've been in it basically your whole life. Yeah, yeah, man, right out of right out of high school, I actually started going on the road, I started installing our rubber flooring, I started installing our raceways, our railway. So I was out there every week doing this. And my dad and I created a pretty awesome professional relationship. And I was able to move into the office gig and get our products out there because people love them, man, it's just a matter of getting our name out there to people.

Sales is much better than installing flooring.

Yeah, that's for sure. My back thinks so too. Yeah.

Flooring sucks. I still get out there and we don't do a ton of flooring, but we do. We install, you know, and that, that sucks. Troweling out glue and oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's good times. Good times. Sure. So, yeah, so is the, the raceway is the bigger part of, are you doing flooring for like planet fitness and stuff too? Uh, are you doing all this?

Yeah, so since my dad has created two companies, so there's Grateful Home Services, which is our flooring installation distribution company. And then I run our GHS of North America, which is servicing our electronics to all of North America, while the Grateful Home Services is servicing nationwide for, he does turf, LVT, VCT, rubber, the whole shebang. Nice. Where are you guys out of? Uh, we're out of upstate New York. Um, I say closer to Syracuse because we live pretty far out in the woods. You wouldn't recognize the name if I told you.

Cool. So, but you guys are our nation. You guys do a lot of stuff nationwide. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. We even have, um, we have raceways as far down as Panama and as far North as Canada. Nice.

Very cool, very cool. So I wanted to kind of get into like, Planet Fitness has been around for a while, right? But it seems like there's some changes coming to the fitness world. Are you noticing like any sort of like new trends or as you go out and meet new customers and go to these new gyms and see these new kind of global gyms pop up like crunch, you know, they're fair and they're not real new, but you know, um, there's, there's a lot of new ones popping up where we're seeing, like, where do you, are there any specific trends you're seeing out there that, that are notable, you think?

I think. You know, one big thing that has to directly do with my company is we're seeing a lot of people stray away from TVs in front of their machines. And you're seeing more high end, 21, 22 inch displays right on your machines. And I think that's one of the biggest things with the electronics that I'm seeing. Um, that. I'm intrigued and I'm interested to see how it's going to play out with the longevity of those screens and their lifetime. Yeah. And how that's going to affect people having to replace their cardio equipment in its entirety while they're highly relying on those TV screens to be there and all be all with audio visual for their clients.

Yeah, no, I think that's a really important, important, um, thing to touch on is like this, this whole connected fitness movement, you know, and interactive fitness planet fitness, um, has kept things real simple. You know what I mean? Everything they have is like led consoles or LCD or whatever. And, uh, and then they have TVs on the, on the wall most of the time, or, or, or, uh, that you, you know, um, You know, you have transmitters or you can make, you know, or whatever the case is, you know, tuning a certain TV that's up on the wall or something like that. Um, but I wonder if they're going to have to kind of change their model. If it, you know, if it changes too much into this connected, you know, fitness type, of course, I think there'll still be a demand for, for the simple, you know, uh, $10 a month or whatever it is, a plan of fitness, basic workout place, comfortable workout place. You know, for people who are maybe more new and stuff like that. But it is interesting seeing that that that change towards the end as a technician. Absolutely. The technology is not. There's a lot of breakdown, there is. We replace displays, these embedded touchscreens all the time. The solution to that, I don't know, but it is interesting seeing. seeing that. So do you have any kind of maybe ways that you'll keep up with those changes in the industry? So what kind of solutions would you provide other than the race? You're still going to need the raceways, but what else? Is there anything you're doing there?

Um, so then that would just bring me to really our railways with the individualized TV units in front of your treadmills, um, which allows you to be able to swap out your TV rather than changing out your entire piece of equipment and just going back and forth with you about this. I'm even just thinking about like, I can't say for sure, but even just like the electrical circuits, like how much power that's going to be putting into. the hardwiring there because you're seeing that these smaller gyms are trying to pack as many pieces of equipment as they can in there. And to be honest with you, I, I hadn't heard about this within planet fitness, but just talking to some people at IHRSA, there's been a lot of people that have had problems with like just electrical blowouts with their cardio equipment where half their machines are down, half their machines are up, sometimes all their machines are down, sometimes all their machines are up. So I think that just being aware of that problem and seeing that huge shift into bigger displays on your cardio equipment specifically I think that I can't say for sure but I think that there might also be problems with, you know, that as well. And I think that our play system would also mitigate that. potential electrical blowout.

Yeah. So are your plug and play systems, uh, the, the TVs and such, do they just do, can you like, you know, a lot of these people are like one to like do workouts and stuff like that on the, you know, can like watch a workout class or something like that. So is there stuff like that on those TV, you know, those TVs that you are, they just, you know, plug in the cable or, or whatever the case, like smart TVs or something like that, you know,

Right. I mean, all of ours right now are, um, rail TVs or what they're called. They're compatible with the matrix pre-core, um, life fitness and Cybex. So our thing is you can plug in your, um, you can plug, sorry about that. You can plug in your, um, headphone jack right into your TV or right into your cardio equipment. And it brings that visual right to your TV.

So you're saying that it like cast your phone, like whatever your phone onto the TV, is that what you're saying?

Yes, pretty much. I believe with the, sorry, I am super discombobulated here. This completely minimized my screen, man.

Did I hear a meow in there? What is it? Did I hear a meow?

Yeah, my cats. Okay, that's what happened around here. As soon as I opened this window to get some air, she hopped up into the window, which I don't have a screen in, so I was rad sick.

There's a cat running through Planet Fitness back there. You're right. I love it. I love it. Yeah, man. I mean, it's just interesting to just think back and forth of where things are going and what we might start seeing and stuff like that. What about the flooring area? Are there any changes happening? I mean, it used to just be a lot of standard, you know, just like speckled rubber flooring, stuff like that. These days, you're starting to see maybe some, you know, Ecore's got a lot of new products, you know, kind of coming out, different types of flooring for different areas and stuff like that.

What are you seeing there? I think within the Planet Fitness market, we're still seeing a lot of the rubber, but I think that through eCore. I mean, we've been distributing for eCore and using eCore for the last 20 years. And they have great products. They've just started switching over to a LVT that has a rubber backing. Ecore just released this, not any gyms yet, but it's really, I actually installed it in my bedroom and my kitchen because it picks up spills great. It's super comfy on my feet. It keeps it really warm. So they're marketing this to, I think more now it's like the more bougie gyms cause it looks really sleek. It looks like hardwood, but I think, you know, It'd be great to see this in mainstream gyms because it's so clean. It'd be a lot easier for employees to be cleaning up spills. It definitely wouldn't sweat as much because dude do it. I don't know if you've done remodels with flooring as well. I don't think I've ever smelled anything worse than that.

Yeah, it's terrible. Types of stuff that go. Oh yeah. So is this stuff easy to install?

Yeah, absolutely. So it's a really, it's a really thin glue that you spread super thin with your trowel, maybe like not even an eighth of an inch thick. And then you allow that to get tacky after about probably about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how cool or warm it is in your environment. And then you're staggering your pieces. It's, it's nothing I mean, rubber, nothing. Are they tiles or roll? They look like pieces of vinyl. Okay, gotcha. After we hop off here, I'll send you some pictures of it. It's some cool stuff, man.

Interesting. What else? Okay, so there was another thing that we were talking about that you offer before we started recording, which was this body analyzer technology. And so tell tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah, so the the body analyzer technology is offered by BodyScript, who they're bigger companies, M.Y.E., who provides the audio visual stuff for cardio equipment. And they've created this system that allows you to, it's like a little wand and you set it on your bicep for about five to 10 seconds. And rather than just giving you your weight or your BMI, your body mass index, this really breaks down everything in your body for you to your excess fat, your reserve fat, your essential fat, your total body water percentage. Um, cause it can be very discouraging for a person to be going into the gym, especially someone who's new into the gym. They're changing their diet a lot. They're eating more differently. So they're about, they're drinking a lot more water. So the body's retaining a lot more water. They go to weigh themselves, go to the doctor and they hear that they gained five pounds or that their BMI is over 26%, which is considered morbidly obese. So this, um, technology allows them to really separate those things and see what's actually going on inside of their body and will allow them to be more apt to go back to the gym because they're seeing their real time results rather than just the number.

I've seen the actual changes happening inside of their body. Um, that's, that's interesting. Yeah. I think a lot of people will focus like on the scale or whatever the case is and not, and then maybe give up because they haven't, you know, you can't see inside of your body to really see all the results. Uh, at least we don't. know how to do that if we can. Other than new technology like this. That sounds cool. I want to see this thing. I'm not a big doctor guy. I don't get real technical in my counting macros and how all this different stuff. I pay attention to how things make me feel and things like that. But, uh, I need to, I need to start dialing in, you know, I come from, well, I come from a very unhealthy lifestyle. So like my mind state was like, I can just go to the gym and start doing this consistently. I'm good. I don't need to get complicated with it. You know what I mean? But now I would like to start, um, you know, that product sounds, it sounds interesting. So where will they be? Well, like if a gym has these, are they going to be like set up in stations or do you have to get with a personal trainer or how does that work?

So that is another awesome part about this product because a lot of these body analyzers, um, you have to have either a personal trainer or someone there. And it even has you like have diet restrictions. Like you can't have a glass of wine the night before you can't drink two cups of water before you can't eat 12 hours before where this there's restrictions. You could, if. they want it to buy, you can put it in right inside the front door. And people do that right before they go outside and they do it to themselves and they leave all their clothes on and no complications.

Sorry, I missed that. So you said that they, where is it on the gym? You can just do it like there's a station there or something?

Yeah, you could. I think ideally it would be an added amenity. This is a pretty new product that we're newly marketing. So I think, you know, say if Planet Fitness were to buy them, I think they'd put it with their black card. membership, you know, as an added amenity, but realistically, anybody can do this for themselves. It would just be set in stations that they can five seconds either before, after a workout bowl, there's no restrictions.

No, it'd be kind of cool to have it like at the cardio machine. Like I'm running on the treadmill and see you like, but anyway, see what kind of like different, if that like changes are happening while you're doing it.

Yeah. That'd be like next level real time. That'd be awesome.

Very cool, man. What's your plan? It sounds like you've over the last year, a little less than a year, started focusing on taking things to the next level, but where are you going from here with it?

Yeah. I mean, we want to go everywhere, man. After talking with so many different people at Ursa, there definitely is a need and a want for our products that can save a lot of people time and money and startup costs and getting their gym open so they can also make some money. So I think, you know, just Like I said, marketing, marketing, marketing to those people. And really just, I think I'm having a hard time with a line of, because we are a very unique product with being a raceway that also provides their power to them rather than just being a cord management system. So I, you know, just finding that fine line of being able to really explain to people the extent of what our products can do. And we aren't just the traditional way that. as a metal box that hides your cords for you. We're so much more than that. I hope that I'm able to share that with people. And it's a lot, it's a lot safer to be also honest with you. I'm sure with you being in like construction parts of the gym, that big box right there has a lot of people tripping and the construction side, cause nobody's paying attention in there, man. I know that. or lifts a million lifts. Sometimes they want the raceway in a few months before their gym opens and you have forklifts and everything, banging it, going all over. It's, it's a lot safer. It's a lot more effective. It's a lot more affordable. And I hope that it reaches the markets that it needs to and helps people out, man.

They look very durable from what I can, from what I can see.

They definitely are. They don't, they don't budge. They don't break. They don't move.

Nice. Very cool, man. Well, um, we're getting fairly close to time. Um, uh, like I said, man, I really appreciate you taking your time to, uh, to come on and X and talk about, you know, these things and, and kind of get to know each other a little bit, but, uh, it's always cool to make new connections and see people doing different things and you do some of the same things that I do too. So there's, you know, there's always. We can always get together and talk shop, I'm sure, and talk about all of our horror stories and stalling flooring.

Absolutely, man.

But a lot of people don't know what goes into these things. They don't ever think about who provides the freaking raceways and who stalls the flooring. Yeah.

These are all little corner niches that subconsciously, if you walk into a gym and they don't look right, you know something doesn't look right, but you can't quite put your finger on what doesn't look right unless you're in the business. Yeah, for sure. Cool, man.

Thank you so much. Very cool, man. Is your dad still part of the business or are you just running it?

Yeah, he does the rubber side of it and I do the electronic side of it. Cool.

Very cool. Well, I wish you guys both success in what you do, and I'm sure we'll talk more and get together. Well, we'll talk a little bit more after this, too, on a project I'm working on, too. But yeah, man, thanks again for coming on, and yeah, we'll talk to you next time. Sounds good.

Thank you so much, man.

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