Spirit adds elliptical to its treadmill line
Looking to capture some of the still-growing elliptical market, Spirit Fitness has taken its first step away from its treadmill line and added an elliptical trainer.
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Looking to capture some of the still-growing elliptical market, Spirit Fitness has taken its first step away from its treadmill line and added an elliptical trainer.
The MX Series trainer is, like its treadmill counterparts, made in the company’s Arkansas facility, and the first line of its description on the website is “Made in U.S.A.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity in the elliptical market,” Woody Fisher, Spirit Fitness vice president, told SNEWS. “And this is an American-made product.”
The MX trainer is a front drive unit, and therefore has a smaller footprint than some rear-drive machines. Fisher pointed out the 21-inch-long stride and its lower 6-inch rise on the foot platforms as two key features. Plus, he said, the upper-body arm bars are removable so if someone doesn’t want to use them, they don’t just swing back and forth beside the user. In addition, its LED console has seven programs, telemetric heart-rate monitoring, and eight effort levels.
“We’re going for quality, not so much for price,” Fisher added.
Designed as a high-end home elliptical trainer with a list of $2,195, it however has the specifications of a light-commercial machine. Warranty for home use is lifetime on frame and drive, five years electronics and parts. For light commercial use (up to three hours a day), warranty drops to three years all the way around.
SNEWS View: OK, we normally don’t write up every company’s new products, but Spirit has made a big step into a new product category — one it’s been thinking about and moving toward for some two years now, it seems. Without another “new” equipment category at retail, the elliptical continues to be one of the more popular types of pieces; Spirit isn’t blowing smoke in trying to grab a portion of that market. This is also one of a newer breed of recent ellipticals with a front drive, adding itself to the company list that now includes Schwinn and Octane. With a smaller footprint, we think these ellipticals could help push sales for the home.
