Clubs and manufacturers are working to establish industry standards for technology, in part to help with the industry’s push toward medical referrals. Photo courtesy of Intel.

Imagine, if you will, club operators Life Time Fitness and Town Sports International on the same team. So, too, are equipment manufacturers Life Fitness and Precor. Now throw in software providers ABC Financial and Twin Oaks.

Put all of those companies together, along with other familiar names in the fitness industry, and you have the Fitness Industry Technology Council, or FITC.

The idea of the FITC was hatched last year at the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) show in San Diego. Council members held their first conference call last summer, met for the first time in person at the Club Industry show last October and have been meeting by teleconference about once a month. The council is expected to reconvene at this month’s IHRSA show in San Francisco.

The goal of the FITC is to standardize technological advances as the industry makes a push toward medical referrals and health care integration. The council’s objective is to establish industry standards and to design equipment to use universal components to help reduce manufacturing costs, says Kevin Steele, co-creator and co-chair of the FITC.

“We will also identify the common denominators of all manufacturers’ parts so that we can begin to understand how we can shift current individual company purchasing prices to where we can gain economies of scale and leverage industry purchasing power and benefits for participating organizations,” Steele says.

The FITC member organizations, in alphabetical order, are ABC Financial, Athletes’ Performance, BCM (an associate member of Intel), ClubCom, Dedham (MA) Health and Athletic Complex, Eurotech, Gainesville (FL) Health and Fitness Centers, IHRSA, Intel, Life Fitness, Life Time Fitness, Matrix Fitness, Netpulse, Octane Fitness, Planet Fitness, Plus One, Precor, Star Trac, Twin Oaks Software Development, Town Sports International (TSI) and Woodway.

“To this point in time, these guys have all been willing to step up and put the greater good and overall performance and future improvements to the industry over their individual agendas, which has been very, very nice to see,” Steele says. “That’s what, at the end of the day, this council’s all about, the progression and continued innovation and standardization of technology as it applies.”

The council has three main committees: a data standards team chaired by Precor’s Dave Flynt, a cost-optimization team chaired by Eurotech’s Arlen Nipper and the Communications Specification for Fitness Equipment team chaired by Jon Zerden of Athletes’ Performance.

One of the problems in the industry, Steele says, pertains to measurements.

“You can get on four different treadmills made by four different manufacturers, and with no incline at 4 miles an hour, you’re most likely going to come up with four different readings [for] your caloric expenditure,” Steele says. “That’s just crazy. That’s unacceptable.”

Steele, who has a PhD in exercise physiology, was asked by Intel’s Don Moore, co-creator and co-chair of the FITC, to lead the council. There might not have been a better choice to lead a group represented by so many sectors of the industry.

A veteran of more than 25 years, Steele is a principal with Communication Consultants Inc. and is the chairman of the Power Plate International medical/scientific advisory board. He also is chairman of the medical/scientific advisory board for Performance Health Systems, is a member of the Medical Athletic Association and the American College of Sports Medicine and was past chairman of the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s medical/scientific advisory board.

In the club company sector, Steele has worked for Health and Tennis Corp. of America (now Bally Total Fitness), 24 Hour Fitness and Life Time Fitness.

“There’s not too many people out there in the industry I don’t know,” Steele says.

NEXT PAGE: INTEL HELPS COUNCIL GET OFF THE GROUND

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