Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 863: The Structure of the Fitness Drying Rack

After finalizing the rough research and development plan for the new cell phone, Chang You called the person-in-charge of Deposit Fitness, Guo Licheng, and the person-in-charge of Shang Yang Games, Wang Xiaobin, respectively. He asked them to come to Otto Technologies to discuss the smart fitness drying rack.

Initially, Ye Zhizhou had been in charge of Shang Yang Games when it was developing new games. However, Ye Zhizhou had gone to Los Angeles for a business trip and had just ended his break. What’s more, he had to make a trip to Los Angeles to take a break. Thus, Wang Xiaobin was temporarily in charge of the research and development of Shang Yang Games.

This smart fitness drying rack sounded a little ridiculous but Chang You did not dare to neglect it.

It was a key job that Boss Pei had personally instructed him after all. What’s more, it was a joint operation of three key departments. This might affect Boss Pei’s future industrial layout. He might be blamed if it was not done well.

The competition between the various departments was so intense now. Chang You did not want Otto Technologies to drag him down since he would lose face as the person-in-charge.

...

Guo Licheng and Wang Xiaobin arrived in the afternoon.

Chang You led the two of them to the guest room and briefly explained Boss Pei’s instructions about the smart fitness drying rack.

Guo Licheng and Wang Xiaobin looked at each other and saw confusion in each other’s eyes.

What kind of bewitching product was this?

A drying rack with fitness function?

They even had to customise a game?

It would still make sense if this was a lame and funny product. He could just produce a few of them for users who liked to play with them. It would be just looking for money if it made lame news.

However, Boss Pei seemed to be taking this very seriously!

In other words, this drying rack was to be a legitimate commercial product? He wanted it to be mass-produced?

He had to think about how to earn money since it was to be mass-produced. Otherwise, he would lose a lot of face if the three departments were to produce a product together but incur losses!

Chang You looked at Guo Licheng and said, “Coach Guo, you’re a professional at fitness. It is still a fitness product at the end of the day even though it requires Shang Yang Games and our participation. Why don’t you tell us your opinion first?”

Guo Licheng used his thick arm to support his chin. The way the big, muscular man pondered was a little comical, but his expression was serious.

“In fact, the ‘drying rack’ is a relatively common meme in the field of fitness. Whether it’s a treadmill, a spinning bicycle, an elliptical, or a bench press, any fitness equipment placed at home would often be unable to escape the fate of becoming a drying rack.”

“It was mainly because there is no fitness environment and atmosphere at home. Most people have no patience so it was very difficult for them to persevere. These things took up space, so many people used them to hang their clothes and dry their bed sheets. However, they did not want to exercise while drying their bedsheets. They would enter a vicious cycle as time passed.”

“If we use this meme as a name, we can actually arouse the feel good factor from fitness users. It would also be beneficial for our initial publicity.”

“Boss Pei’s reverse thinking is... admirable. I think that Boss Pei’s design is actually using users’ reverse psychology to achieve the goal of urging users to work out.”

Chang You asked, “What do you think this product should look like?”

Until now, Chang You still did not have a clear concept of this smart fitness drying rack. Should it be a stand, or should it be hung on the ceiling? Should it have folding and stretching functions? Should he make something like a small fan that could blow clothes and cool users down?

The concept was too vague and Boss Pei had not mentioned any details about the design. Thus, Chang You found it difficult to imagine the actual shape of the product.

Guo Licheng was a professional fitness trainer. He had used all sorts of fitness equipment and was very knowledgeable about fitness. He should be able to figure out the key ingredients from these messy functions and needs.

Guo Licheng continued to think seriously. “Boss Pei has already made it clear that the use of this smart fitness drying rack is mainly at home. In other words, it’s targeted at individual consumers, not commercial gyms...”

Wang Xiaobin said, “Eh, Coach Guo, that might not be the case.”

Shang Yang Games was the same as the other departments. They had all been given a mandatory fitness limit. Wang Xiaobin had to set an example as the person-in-charge. Thus, he had his own understanding of fitness.

Guo Licheng did not think that Wang Xiaobin was not as professional as him in terms of fitness. Instead, he asked seriously, “What do you mean?”

Wang Xiaobin thought for a moment and said, “I think Boss Pei’s thinking should be both. However, the priority is different.”

“As a fitness equipment, the commercial gym must be one of our target customers. However, the equipment changes in the commercial gym are very slow. What’s more, the market share of those large brands’ fitness equipment is very difficult to shake. If we wanted to sell our fitness equipment to the commercial gym from the beginning, we would definitely encounter huge difficulties and resistance.”

“Of course, this is excluding Deposit Fitness. However, Deposit Fitness accounts for a very low market share.”

“Thus, Boss Pei focused his attention on the ‘home fitness’ scene. Ordinary people would not buy large-scale commercial fitness equipment because the houses are not that big. They would buy treadmills, ellipses, bench press, and dumbbells at the very best. At the moment, none of these brands are well-known or widely used.”

“We can naturally sell this equipment to professional gyms assuming that our smart fitness drying rack can gain the favor of ordinary people and become popular.”

Guo Licheng nodded. “Indeed. In other words, Boss Pei is only using the home fitness scene as a starting point. As an intelligent fitness equipment, it can still be sold to commercial gyms as long as it becomes popular.”

“However, this does not affect my initial judgment. After all, the family fitness scene is the foundation. The rest are empty if this cannot be satisfied.”

“If we’re considering the family fitness scene... I think the following points are very important.”

“First, safety, stability, reliability. There’s no need to talk about this. The fitness equipment is made of steel wire and iron. If you’re not careful, you might get injured. Not only must the material be solid and reliable, but you must also avoid all possible safety hazards when designing.”

“Second, the area it would take up.

“One of the important reasons why the home fitness equipment is not selling well is that it takes up too much space. Most of the people who choose to buy fitness equipment are young people who have higher demands on their bodies, but their economic conditions are often not very good.”

“In other words, most of the people in our target group do not have a large area of residence. It is very difficult to make a large area for fitness equipment. This is also a key reason why many people use fitness equipment to dry their clothes.”

“Therefore, we have to think of a way to make the smart fitness drying rack not take up too much space. It would be best if part of the structure could be folded and stretched. It would be best if we use the ‘balcony’ as the main setting for this equipment.”

“Third, sustainability and interest.”

“Fitness is a very difficult thing to persevere in the first place. There is a very important reason for the success of the Deposit Fitness. The user must reach a certain training time and have to eat fitness meals that are nutritious and balanced. It is precisely because the Deposit Fitness is so compulsory that the remaining users can persevere. That is why it has such a good fitness effect.”

“However, if you were to train at home, it would be easy to slack off without anyone supervising you. What’s more, the family environment makes people want to rest. Once you lie down on the sofa, you won’t think about training anymore. Compared to the gym, it’s much more difficult to persevere.”

“That’s why Boss Pei asked us to make smart devices and let Shang Yang Games develop a special game. It should be to improve the sustainability and interest of training in family scenes!”

Chang You and Wang Xiaobin listened intently and nodded.

He was indeed a professional fitness trainer. He easily analyzed the deep meaning and basic principles behind Boss Pei’s seemingly nonsensical “smart fitness drying rack”.

Chang You said, “Coach Guo, what do you think the product form of the smart fitness drying rack looks like if you were to design it?”

Guo Licheng continued to think seriously. “Since it’s a family gym, we can’t take up too much space. We have to integrate various equipment.”

“In terms of training goals and effects, strength training would definitely be better than aerobic training. Therefore, our smart fitness drying rack would definitely focus on strength training.”

Guo Licheng briefly explained the principle behind it. Chang You and Wang Xiaobin were working out as well, so he understood it immediately.

Anyone who had some common sense about fitness knew that most of the time, fitness would be done through strength training before aerobic training. Only then would the best exercise be achieved.

In layman’s terms, strength training was like lifting iron while aerobic training was like jogging or riding a spinning bicycle.

Of course, everyone’s physical conditions were different, and the training methods they used would also be different. However, overall, strength first and aerobic later was the best arrangement.

The main reason was that doing aerobics first would affect the effect of strength training, while doing strength first would help the effect of aerobics.

Doing strength training after a long period of aerobic exercises would mostly make them unable to perform well in strength training since they had already used up a portion of the glycogen. It would not be able to stimulate their muscles sufficiently. On the other hand, doing strength training first would also consume the glycogen. However, it would stimulate the body to use fat to provide energy for aerobic training. It would achieve better reduction in fat.

Many girls were worried that strength training would increase their muscles, so they only went to the treadmill each time. In fact, this type of training method was relatively inefficient. If they were slim to begin with, they could use this method to maintain their figures, but if they wanted to lose weight and shape, the effect would be far inferior to scientific strength training.

That was why Guo Licheng said that the smart fitness hangers would focus on strength training.