Fitness: Movin’ & Shakin – John Talley, Jason Shaw, Matt Elsesser, Ken Kruebbe, Fitness Experts, Life Fitness and more….

Got any news or tips about somebody, some product or some company doing some moving or shaking? Let us know so we can slip it into our occasional Movin’ & Shakin’ updates. Just email snewsbox@snewsnet.com.

People

>> John Talley has joined LeMond Fitness (www.lemondfitness.com) as national sales director for specialty fitness. He will continue to reside in Colorado. Previously he worked with Life Fitness and retailer Advanced Exercise Equipment. Talley is as dedicated to cycling as he is to fitness so this “joins my passion for cycling along with my love of the fitness industry,” he said. He still races competitively, holding a Cat 1 license (i.e. he’s really, really good!), but also races with the Boulder Masters Cycling Team. He can be reached at jtalley@lemondfitness.com.

>>Jason Shaw is taking over the Western North America region for Life Fitness (www.lifefitness.com) as of Aug. 31. Formerly at Star Trac, Shaw will share the newly realigned area as follows: Eastern N.A., Fred Goosk; Midwest N.A., Al Treado. Matt Elsesser, who formerly oversaw Canada has been named as national trainer.

>> Ken Kruebbe is now the director of retail sales and product management at StairMaster (www.stairmaster.com) and Schwinn, a position he has phased into since he started at Star Trac after Keys Fitness, where he was director of product development, went bankrupt (click here to see a Nov. 17, 2008 SNEWS story on that). In the last few years, Kruebbe has managed the development of several products, worked with Mad Dogg Athletics and, once Michael Bruno acquired Star Trac just over a year ago, began incorporating duties at StairMaster.

>> Suspension training company TRX (www.trxtraining.com) added several new employees to its team. The San Francisco-based company hired Noah Rolland as director of programming, Lynda Greenberg as director of marketing operations, Jefferey Nebolini as art director, and Chris Cowart as vice president of product and design. Rolland joins TRX with over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, previously serving as the director of programming and membership at Carmel Valley Ranch Resort. Greenberg is a web producer and co-founder of interactive agency Native Instinct. Nebolini is a designer with roots in the motorsports and skateboard culture and cycling. He previously worked as program director and lead designer at Astro Studios, and he held senior design roles at Burton Snowboards and Ideo. Cowart also came from Ideo providing expertise in consumer health, wellness, adherence and behavior change. He most recently served as location director and associate partner for the company’s social impact and wellness group.

Retailers and manufacturers

 >> Retailer Fitness Experts (www.fitnessexperts.com), launched in March 2011 in the Chicago area by area retail long-timers Gerad Cassello, Dusty Schlotfeldt and Gary Singleton, have opened a third store in Naperville. Cassello told us it’s “a very cool old store in the downtown area.” Growth plans? “We are very happy with our three,” he said, “and we will evaluate opportunities as we go along. Our goal is to be the best not the biggest!” Click here to see a March 14, 2011, SNEWS® story about its grand opening. 

>> Life Fitness will open a retail store on Red Square in Moscowon Sept. 9. The city square has held a place in history for centuries, hosting political events, uprisings, military parades and, more recently, high-profile concerts and public events. Since 1990, it has been on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites, one of the first in the former Soviet Union added when the government toppled. Brent Hutton, vice president of retail, said, “The market there is growing nicely.”

Contracts

>> Cybex (www.cybex.com) is supplying its Arc Trainer and Bravo functional trainer products for U.S. Marine Corps’ new High Intensity Tactical Training Center, scheduled to open in North Carolina in September. The new military fitness facility is designed to meet the Marines’ pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment training cycles. It’s focused on developing specific strength and cardio gains for optimum combat mission performance and injury reduction, as well as enabling post-combat physical recovery and training geared toward readiness.

>> Nautilus (www.nautilus.com) has tapped WiseWindow (www.wisewindow.com) to help the company identify the next generation of exercise equipment. Nautilus will employ WiseWindow’s Mass Opinion Business Intelligence data services to assess consumer sentiment and what they expect to see in future equipment. The service utilizes cloud computing, proprietary deep website crawling, relevance recognition and statistical natural language analysis to measure consumer purchasing and behavioral intent around brands, products and companies in real time.

—Therese Iknoian with David Clucas