Ab machines make retail sit up and take notice - abdominal exercise machines

Discount Store News, June 17, 1996 by Richard Halverson

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- With one-third of Americans overweight, it's little wonder that manufacturers have developed a fitness phenomenon designed to whittle down all those pot bellies.

Just as last year was the year of the rider machine, '96 has shaped up to be the year of the ab, or abdominal, exercise machine.

Propelled by TV infomercials, sales will shoot to $400 million, one vendor projects, from $145 million last year. Consumers bought 2.5 million ab machines in '95 at prices ranging from $30 to $180, according to estimates from Nordic Track, which jumped into the ab business this year with its AbWorks, about $120.

AbWorks joins what has quickly become a crowded field: Ab Roller Plus, Ab Sculptor, Abs of Steel, Abflex, EZ-Krunch, Ab Isolator, Ab Shaper, Body by Jake Ab & Back Plus and Perfect Abs.

"There are so many, I've lost track," said Jay Hanover, vp, hard lines merchandising for The Sports Authority, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Two that Hanover keeps track of, however, are the best-selling ab machines at The Sports Authority, Ab Roller Plus, distributed by Direct to Retail at about $90, and Ab Sculptor, made by Kent & Spiegel, Culver City, Calif., about $80.

"As fast as they come in, they go out just as fast," Hanover said.

"Once one of these items has been on an infomercial," said Kelly Conway, vp of marketing for The Sports Authority, "it just flies out of here."

At The Sports Authority in West Long Branch, N.J., a shipment of 24 pieces of Ab Roller Plus sold out in six hours, assistant manager Bob Sherman said.

The store has even started a waiting list of about 30 customers for Ab Roller Plus, he said, something unheard of for exercise equipment. His store has a back order of 200 pieces, with no idea when it will be filled.

"Exercise is a trendy business," Sherman said. He wouldn't even guess what might be 1997's hot category.

The Ab Sculptor, the No. 2 seller at The Sports Authority, was in stock during a recent visit, with 25 pieces given a priority stackout in the power alley in front of the checkouts.

The Sports Authority also stocks the EZ-Krunch, $37.96, and the Abflex, $64.96, both distributed by Telebrands, Fairfield, N.J.; plus it has Tony Little's Ab Isolator, $27.96, and Abs of Steel, $57.96, both from Fitness Quest, Canton, Ohio.

For ab equipment, WalMart in Toms River, N.J., stocks only the Ab Sculptor at $76.96, compared to the TV price of $79.95, plus shipping and handling.

The Kmart in West Long Branch, N.J., carries four skus: Abs of Steel, at $59.99; Abflex, $54.99; EZ-Krunch, $39.99; and Body by Jake Ab & Back Plus, $179.97, distributed by Guthey-Renker, San Diego.

The SuperTarget in Omaha, Neb., carries five skus of ab machines: Crunch Board, $29.99; Abs of Steel, $59.99; Ab Isolator, $29.99, and Abflex; $49.99, down from $54.99. It now offers EZ Krunch as well. The SuperT also features an interactive demonstration video.

Ab machines are so popular because they really work, Hanover said. "They take the strain off the neck and back" compared to regular sit-ups.

Exercise items promoted on TV do very well, as long as they are good products and have plenty of marketing behind them, Hanover said.

"Customers all the time ask for stuff they've seen on TV," Hanover said.

At Gym Source, a New York-based chain of seven fitness specialty stores, the Ab Roller Plus also is the hottest ab item, said owner Richard Miller. The power of TV to create demand is "overwhelming," Miller said. It takes only a few months for TV to build demand and get a piece of equipment onto retail shelves, he said.

Retailers enjoy more margin--about 30%--on TV exercise goods than on conventional exercise equipment, Miller said, and charge full retail. In contrast, equipment such as $3,000 treadmills has to be heavily discounted, he added.

Larger retailers prefer TV-promoted goods because they bring pre-sold customers into their stores, said Tom Doyle, director of research for the N-ational Sporting Goods Association. Mt. Prospect, Ill. The fitness category normally is extremely price competitive, Doyle said, but the smaller pieces promoted on TV are less so.

For the first time, NSGA tracked TV sales of exercise equipment and found that a significant percentage is being sold over the airwaves. Its annual survey of the sporting goods market found that 12.6% of consumers who had bought a glider or rider had purchased it on TV. For home gyms, the percentage of TV buyers was 9.1%. Since the trendy ab machines have yet to become an established category, the NSGA survey didn't question their purchasers.

Fitness overall remains one of the strongest categories in sporting goods, with '95 sales of $2.86 billion, Doyle's research concluded, up from 82.78 billion in '94.

Despite the current popularity of ab machines, treadmills have emerged as the dominant home exercise gear of the '90s, said the Fitness Products Council, an affiliate of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, North Palm Beach, Fla.

Treadmills accounted for 8660 million (at wholesale) of manufacturers' '95 shipments of exercise equipment. Shipments last year rose 6% to $1.9 billion, the Fitness Council said.