Early
on in life, many people display traits that are a clue
to their future life and career. In high school football,
Jerry Dettinger’s job on the kickoff unit was to
run down the field full speed and smash into the opponent’s
defensive shield so his teammates could get to the runner.
Later on in business, this morphed into cutting through
all the B.S. to get to the heart of the matter. Whenever
the product line is focus grouped, everyone plays back
“No nonsense,” and “Hard core.”
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The
Consumer Strength Years
In 1979 Jerry and a lifelong buddy, Steve Duncan,
started welding freeweight benches together in Jerry’s
Dad’s garage. Steve had won the Mr. Minnesota
body building title, but you have to find this out
from someone else. Serious weight lifters would
walk in, lift up one end of a bench and say, “I’ll
take it.” Twenty years later, as the dominant
consumer strength company in the U.S. and |
Jerry
Dettinger
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growing
internationally, ParaBody was acquired by Brunswick Corporation.
Life Fitness CEO, Augie Nieto remarked that ParaBody was
the only company in consumer strength that seemed to know
how to make money. Jerry and Steve attribute this success
to articulating a strategy so simple, everyone in the
company could understand it and get behind it. It was
called “Serious Steel,” and it meant serious
safety, serious science, and serious strength. By 1995,
every specialty fitness store in America wanted a piece
of Serious Steel. Many had to settle for something less.
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Steve
Duncan |
The
Commercial Strength Thrust
A few years before the Brunswick acquisition, Jerry
and Steve introduced ParaBody ST, a line of strength
systems for commercial settings. When a gathering
of industry players expressed skepticism about the
new line, the legendary Leo Rubestello told them,
“It’s just a matter of time before Jerry
and his boys will dominate Commercial Strength the
way they did |
Consumer
Strength." Around the halls of Torque Fitness
today, this is known as the “Rubestello
Prophesy.”
The
acquisition by Brunswick put that vision on hold
for 12 years. The M Commercial Strength line is
the resumption of that mission.
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| Under
Brunswick, the ParaBody people who had designed
and engineered the company’s line to dominance
began designing commercial strength systems for
Brunswick’s Life Fitness Division. Many
of the innovative advances on commercial floors
today were created by the team of Tom Baumler,
John Cassidy, and Mike Novak |
Tom
Baumler |
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| But
when they set out to create M, they started with a clean
sheet of paper. They wanted to beat everything they
had ever done in the past. And having walked in club
owners’ shoes for a combined 90 years, they understood
they were not just designing strength equipment. They
were answering a club's need to attract and retain members
with equipment that could be found nowhere else. By
giving clubs a strong competitive advantage in member
recruitment, the M Team sought to help the club not
just survive but prosper in a challenging economy.
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John
Cassidy |
This
member acquisition focus highlighted the importance
of what prospective club members will See
when they walk out onto the exercise floor, what
they will Feel when
they step into a machine and do a rep, and how
they will come to Trust
they are in the best place in town to pursue their
fitness goals.
So
every product in the M Commercial Strength line |
and
in the Torque Consumer Strength line
is hard wired into a simple, laser focused
strategy that everyone in the company
can understand and get behind.
See. Feel. Trust.
Rolling Forward
Jay Megna, President of Torque
Fitness has a long |
Mike
Novak |
| standing
reputation as a unique individual in
Commercial Fitness. |
Jay
Megna |
He
treats everyone with respect, strives
to always exceed their expectations,
and is focused on everyone’s
best long term interests. He saw M
as a perfect fit and signed on.
It
is true that at any point in time
no company or product line is #1 on
every measure. But with a 30 year
tradition of durability and service,
See. Feel. Trust. is the horse to
ride into the future. |
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