The title might be a little confusing, but it makes sense when you understand the weight limits of all the VR exercise devices out there. The machines that are built are often intended for those of average height and weight, which means that anyone who is actually obese usually doesn’t have access to the exercise machines. Let’s talk about why they’re doing this.
Most of these companies are new
Most of the companies making this type of equipment are new ventures venturing their first venture, and training in the VR environment is a frontier with nowhere near as much competition as simple exercise equipment. That means there is a good chance your company won’t fail as long as the VR industry doesn’t flop. Additionally, the sales team understands that reaching the widest possible audience is often the best way to get the most sales, and since a new business needs all of the sales it can make, selling to the largest potential audience is the way to go Path. The largest potential audience is often people with an average build between 150 and 250 pounds and between 5’3 “and 6’2” tall. Their predictive analysis tells them this is the best market to sell, so they develop a product for that audience.
Where it goes wrong
The problem is they are building a product for that audience and nothing else. What you will often see with exercise equipment manufacturers is that they try to build their model to be handled by the tallest person who can adequately fit on it. Just check out these models that have a weight limit of 400 lbs for the same price or even less than the ZoomVR:
* Fitness Reality U2500 foldable
* Exerpeutic 500 XLS foldable
Both are extremely cheap at around $ 200, which is cheap when compared to other products. This easily fits my height and weight as I only weigh 316 pounds, but the bonus is that these cheap bikes can handle anything under that weight with no problem. It’s tougher and lasts much longer because it’s built for this weight. When you limit the weight limit of an exercise machine, you are limiting how many people can actually buy it. While the sales team made the right choices to create a machine that would appeal to the largest potential audience, it also missed out on attracting the greatest potential investors. The average person will not focus on the product but on the price. An obese person like me will devote themselves to the product because I know it can handle my weight and it probably won’t break on me.
What that means for your fitness
Your exercise equipment could be cheaper than what these products offer. Let’s look at the weight limits for some of these products and see how many I cut off from use:
* Omni – 285lbs
* Vue VR Treadmill – 286,601lbs (130kg)
* VirZoom – 260lbs
* Icaros – 242,508 lbs (110 kg)
All of them are not available to me and these are just the products that I could easily learn details about without sending an invoice to see if I could buy one.
It is absolutely amazing to see so many companies willingly lose a good part of a third of America. That’s right, a third of Americans are considered obese. Not wanting to twist the facts, anything over 200 pounds is usually in the obesity range. After a quick BMI calculation, my normal range is 148-199 lbs. My brother weighs around 140 pounds and I was really concerned about his health for the way he looked. But guess who can’t use this device either:
- Denis Cyplenkov, super fit, built Ukrainian arm wrestler
- Robert Oberst, massive professional strongman who regularly competes in the World’s Strongest Man Contests
- Markus Ruhl, IFBB pro bodybuilder
- Duane “the Rock” Johnson, actor and former WWE pro wrestler
- Michael Strahan, former NFL player and current television personality
These are three people who are legends in bodybuilding and none of these three people could use the equipment according to their weight. These people are also considered obese. Yes, obese doesn’t always mean fat. If the people who built the VR devices as a company tend to build regular exercise machines, not only could they carry more weight, but they would also be cheaper for those who want a lighter model. Once you tackle the much larger size and make it affordable, all the smaller ones get a lot cheaper on the same principle. After all, the top price of equipment isn’t the material, but the amount of money the company needs to make before it can get out of its investment debt. The frames would not only be strong, but could also be made much more mobile. Right now the Omni is that huge machine that has to be assembled into several parts. Depending on how they redesign it, the devices could be more collapsible than in parts.
While this has been a long talk, the main question is why these companies need to get everyone involved. These machines shouldn’t be built for the average person, but for the heavy person. Cheap building for the big ones makes building cheap for the little ones. VR is insanely expensive right now and the only way to fix this is to have our design patterns change and we build for the hard parts, not the parts that sell fast.
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