We Fixed It, You're Welcome - Bowflex's Bankruptcy and Recall Saga

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

In this episode of "We Fixed It. You're Welcome," the hosts tackle the challenges facing Bowflex, a once-prominent home fitness brand now grappling with bankruptcy and a massive recall. Joined by guest Lukas Sundahl, a former personal trainer turned financial expert, the team explores the complexities of corporate accountability, consumer rights, and brand rehabilitation. They discuss the implications of Bowflex's acquisition by a Korean firm, the impact of the recall on consumer trust, and potential strategies for reviving the brand. The conversation touches on data-driven decision-making, the importance of consumer education, and the possibility of rebranding. The hosts offer creative solutions, including a potential name change to "Flex" and leveraging technology for safety training and community building. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukasnsundahl/ https://www.accountingcouture.com/ https://wefixeditpod.com/ A quick disclaimer. We are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice or anything that would get us in trouble. These are our views and opinions. We're here to ask the kinds of questions everyone's thinking. Have an engaging conversation and maybe come to some conclusions that we feel are worth exploring. By the end, if we fixed it, you're welcome. All trademarks, IP and brand elements discussed are property of their respective owners. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to We Fixed It. You're welcome. The show where we take over companies, you come along for the ride, and we try to put them back better than we found them. All right, we are pumped for this episode, Bowflex. Long before Peloton, this home fitness company found its way into living rooms and garages. Some people use them. Sometimes they sat in a corner, but they sold a lot. Now Bowflex is in the news for all the wrong reasons, including a bankruptcy, a second life, but now safety concerns and a massive. recall. We're going to get into all that and we're going to get some help. We needed someone who could make sense out of the financial crisis that both X is facing and someone that knows their way around a gym. So out of that van diagram came Lucas Sundahl. We are thrilled to have him here. Lucas, why don't you tell everyone a bit about yourself? Yeah, excited to be here. So I originally was a personal trainer. I went to college, got a kinesiology degree, did that for a few years, realized I loved it, but it's not what I wanted to do long term. So I went back to school and then I

MBA and finance. And since then, I've worked in various industries, various roles, moving up to leadership positions, like controller, CFO, that type of thing. And now I just work to help companies with not only what's happened in the past, reviewing the financials, but also doing analysis, forecasting, planning for the future, and making sure we're good stewards with the capital of each company. All right. Thanks, Lucas. We're glad to have you here and glad you fit both the overlap of that bend diagram. We've got a big challenge to fix, and I don't know if we could do it without you, so thanks for being here. Melissa, tell us more about Bowflex and what we're here to fix. Great. Well, a little background on Bowflex. They were founded in 1986 and kind of revolutionized

a home fitness with these compact resistance machines, whether they're in the garage or whether they're being used all the time in your home gym. They really struggled post-pandemic, like Peloton did with the competition of Peloton, they had a lot of debt and mismanagement. Therefore, in 2024, declared bankruptcy. We're sold to a Korean firm who now owns the entire mess of Bowflex. And right now there's a recall on some faulty parts, injury risk. But really, the question is, and the question we're going to talk about is who's responsible because now this defunct U.S. entity of Bowflex has new owners.

So who is it? Is it the old Bowflex? Is it the new Bowflex under this umbrella? And what happens when a company folds after selling a product? So we have some questions to ask and questions and fixes to hopefully offer. Like when does an asset become a liability and what are consumer rights? Lucas, that's my specialty, is focusing on the customer. And so and brands that we trust, Aaron. And then corporate accountability gaps, Gino. So lots of things. things to discuss today and love to throw that out to all of you. I don't know if any of you actually own any Bowflex types of gym materials, dumbbells and things of the sort, but let's get into it. Well, let's be clear, Melissa, you said a recall. It's a pretty sizable recall, right? Yes. Yeah. It certainly is. I actually had that pulled up and I don't have it right now. But yes, it is a very sizable recall. And so it's a banner across the Boflex website right now. it's the top, if your eye is drawn right to that. And I don't know that it's the best experience because it gives you a 100 number to call.

I'm certain you're going to be sitting on hold talking to somebody who may not have even been born when Bowflex first started. Well, and there are different reports about it, but there's talks of something like 4 million or so units of recall due to 111 or so reported in. from faulty equipment and something like 33 reports of faulty equipment. And again, 111 injuries, like pretty serious injuries that happened. So, yeah, from a company that's been a year in acquisition, that's not where you want to start. I want to take it back, though, too, with, like, people's experiences with Bowflex, because for me, I remember as a kid, you know, watching those infomercials late at night when you shouldn't be up. And it was always the Bowflex machine.

And I remember being like, wow, this is so amazing. I didn't know anything about fitness. I was a kid. But I always thought this was really cool. And I remember my uncle got one. And I was like, whoa. And I remember sitting in the machine. And, you know, as I got older and got more into wellness and health and going to

gyms, you know, I remember going into one gym. And I actually asked, I'm like, do they have a Bowflex machine? Right. And no gyms ever carried one, which I thought was really interesting. And so Lucas, as someone who was a personal trainer before, and I do remember as I got older, like, you know, there was whispers of Bowflex not being the most safe. And so I guess what has everyone's experience been with Bowflex? Because it was always just an infomercial, never saw it in the gym.

There was always these whispers. And now with this huge recall where essentially, essentially all of their pieces need to go back and it's been a safety concern. I just, you know, how come it was never in gyms? Like, did they always know this? And so Lucas, I'm curious to get your thoughts having been a personal trainer. Yeah, so I had the same experience. I didn't have any Bowflexes and gyms that I've worked at.

But with machines themselves, I had some clients a part of my career in addition to working in like in the big box gyms. I had some time of my career where I did in home training. So I'd show up at the client's house. They have a home fitness gym. and then had some of the clients that did have the bowflex equipment. And from when not working with it and the clients, it was a good machine. They had the pole rod system so you could add more rods to get more resistance.

So from my perspective, it gave a good workout. It was a good tool in addition to other dumbbells, that type of thing. And yet, that I had the same experience where none of the gyms I worked at, like big box or even some smaller ones, ever had a bowflex. It was just the in-home clients that I had that had a couple of bowflex machines. But from my experience with the equipment, it worked well. It seemed to be built pretty sturdy. And so it's kind of interesting to see what Bowflex has become in the last few years. Yeah.

And the recall is specifically for those adjustable dumbbells, right? So that's 3.8 million units is what Aaron was alluding to, which is a huge, huge amount. And, you know, that those, okay, I don't work out like that. But obviously it's the convenience of having those adjustable. And so for the fact that they're not safe, geez, that's like the opposite of what you want your brand to be. Because, you know, the whole point is that you're going to be able to do this safely in your home. And you're not going to have to necessarily go and get a gym membership or what, whatnot. Yeah.

We're talking about a locking mechanism with the plates and the adjustable dumbbells, not that classic Bowflex infomercial. Yeah. Yeah. So because of that, that's a, that's a huge thing. And like we said, it's the, the waters have really gotten pretty muddy because Bowflex was formerly Nautilus and then filed for bankruptcy protection and then got purchased by Johnson Health Tech, which is a trading company in China, I think, which issued this voluntary recall. But this is a huge, huge deal and a huge problem. Mike. Right. They've had over, sorry. They've had, you know, over 335 reports of the plates dislodging during use. And 111 of those resulted in injuries or concussions. Yeah. It's a Korean firm.

And maybe they thought they were picking up a company out of a fire sale and just putting it on the books and having an asset and, you know, regrowing the market. But, you know, what did they actually have? Yeah. And my question, too, and sorry for one was cutting you off there, Melissa, was did they not know. No, because I remember hearing these whispers of like, it's not the safest machine with no other context. And so I can understand from a Korean brand, you know, who's looking to acquire, you know, a household name because Beauflex at one point was a household name. So I can totally understand that. And I wonder, again, you know, this is all speculation, allegedly, how much did Bowflex know about this before that? you know, rushing to, you know, make this sale happen in lieu of knowing that, you know,

in about a few couple months' time, less than a year, you know, it's all going to blow up in front of your face. And so I'm curious to understand what was going on in the background. And I'm going to throw it back to you, Lucas, again, as our financial expert today, you know, what is the corporate responsibility to share that information? Because if it was withheld, it's a little sneaky. if you ask me. So I just wonder kind of what is the corporate responsibility for Bowflex when it was American to disclose this information to the Korean company that purchased it. Yeah, that's a good point.

So I feel like I think at one time Beauflex was a traded company. And so they have, being a public company, have even more compliance issues and more things where they have to disclose the information. So they need to be more upfront with it as it was going on and fully disclose that information. to not only investors, but customers as well, picking sure that they're aware of the dangers and potential risks of the disks becoming dislodged. And then even now with being owned by a foreign owner, still have to have some sort of disclosure, especially when you deal with having companies in the U.S. sell the merchandise,

dealing with the Federal Trade Commission. So even though it's owned by a foreign company, you still have the U.S. regulations that are handled here and whatnot. So I feel like, yeah, it has to be very forthcoming with the information so people know, like, the risks that have happened and know, like, the potential injuries. And, yeah, so I think no matter if it's U.S. owned or foreign owned, consumers need to be made aware of the potential risks. Lucas, if we look at, you talk about data-driven storytelling. If we look at what story are we seeing play out with the data? Good point.

So I think what both folks could have benefited from is kind of like using some forecasting and, like, animal. They had a big spike in demand during the COVID pandemic, especially the first a few months to the year, like COVID, shutting down multiple gyms across the country. Demand spike. They couldn't meet the inventory requirements at that time. So they started to order more and more equipment. But the thing is, as we know, the demand came back down, kind of like what had been more like a baseline is people move back into the gyms and whatnot. So they should have been doing analytics and some modeling and four. forecasting going, okay, like we have the demand here, but we can see, especially in depending

like what part of the country you were in, some states opened up sooner than others, and they could have used that to be like, okay, these states are opening back up, people are going back into gyms. Maybe our demand forecast needs to be adjusted because people are going to be back in gyms and won't have as much need for that home equipment. I need some questions too, because I'm wondering around, you know, regulators forcing companies to set aside recall funds. So this is, you know, Lucas, I'm going to ask you to put on your CFO hat. And, you know, when the company was acquired, I'm sure there was a little bit of due diligence, even though it was a fire sale, right? It was a bankrupt company. So you're kind of

taking all the good and the bad. But knowing that there could potentially, based on this is a product, it's got a large consumer network here, do you think companies should have, have to set some money aside for or funds aside for recalls, like, because I understand that it's very complicated, but for example, in the auto industry, you know, they're like lemon laws and things like that. So, like, even if you were acquiring a company, you kind of know that that's a possible possibility. So what do you think about, you know, some of these things where these, you know, you might say this is a high risk industry, like fitness, baby products, certain things that, you know, certain things that, you know, there seems to be recalls on.

Would it be a requirement to maintain recall insurance or escrow funds or financial, you know, reserves for something like that? What are your thoughts there from a financial perspective? Yeah. So from the financial perspective, I think a lot of companies, especially like manufacturing companies, have funds set aside for warranty claims, recalls. And one of the things we do, not only so one component of like like CFOs look at is like even from sales, like, you you have your set revenue, some of that's going to be uncollectable. Well, you also can use that same kind of logic to analyze what have the returns and recalls been over the last few years returns on different products.

Then you can use that to extrapolate out what funds need to be set aside to handle, even just like regular warranty claim and returns. Then you also need to run some risk analysis and see like, okay, what is the potential for not only meeting those warranty claims, but also if there's a recall and having funds set aside. And then some firms will use insurance to help kind of outset if something catastrophic happens. But that's hopefully in the design process as well, your R&D, you're using funds there to kind of see what are some worst case scenarios with this equipment before it goes out the door. But yeah, again, we just want to analyze all through the analyzed past returns, forecast some potential

recalls and what the potential loss could be. Yeah. You bring up a really good point because, you know, the question around operationally, what happens to warranties and recalls when a company goes under, right? So when Bowflex is now something else, most warranties become void if the company no longer exists, right? That's a problem. If a company is acquired, that new owner may, but isn't legally required to honor claims, right? And then if you've used your credit card, you might be able to use an extended warranty protection on that. But again, those usually expire after a year, like, you know, if you use Amex or Chase or somebody like that. And then the other obviously bigger thing because we live in a world of litigation is that a

class action lawsuit can be forced asset holders to pay claims, right? So thoughts on that? I think it's interesting that, you know, it's right now Bullfax is in that middle ground and like perfectly you've described it most like, where's the culpability here? Is it, you know, they're bankrupt. Sorry, we can't do anything. There's nothing less. Are there consumer protections with that?

If there is a, do they have anything to even give? Unless it's a class action lawsuit, I think it's the only real way. Because, you know, from the Korean company who purchased it, I would hope that their, you know, law, their lawyers were smart enough to make sure that they were covered in the event, especially getting the, research and the data and the analytics about, yeah, it hasn't been a safe product, right? So if you're going to buy something, I want to make sure I don't have like a, you know, 200 plus million dollar bill, you know, because I bought a, is it worth it, right? What's the P&L here? But at the same time, you go back to Bofix. So again, it's that kind of middle ground. Yes, there's extended warranties. If you use it on a certain credit card, maybe that's great. But I feel like in this case,

unfortunately, the consumer is short of a class action lawsuit, I kind of should have luck, to be honest, to be fair, because there's no, you know, they don't really have to. And it's a legal thing. So the only, I think, next step would be a class action lawsuit if you bought a Beaufax in the last, you know, within that warranty period. Well, I think part of that problem is that middle ground gray area that we're in right now where the ones that were sold, my understanding is the ones that were sold under the new owners are being, you know, being voluntarily recalled for full purchase price. That's my understanding.

The ones that were sold under Nautilus, there's gripes all over the web and Reddit forum saying, I got a $60 store credit or, you know, an eGM membership or whatever they're offering for my $500 plus purchase. That is hazardous and I can't use it. So what good is that to me? Yeah. I mean, again, it's the consumer is left with nothing, you know, of value there. And the company that acquired is on the hook.

So it is interesting because it is not a, it's a segmented experience for the consumer based on where you pre-sale, pre-acquisition or not, right? Pre-bankruptcy or not. And that's very unfortunate. And, you know, Chino, you mentioned like the timing of it. You know, a lot of those warranties expire. So, you know, you're not going to get what you want. And so being part of a class action lawsuit can take years. And then you get what Aaron like.

Or a penny and have penny in Aaron's case if anyone caught his LinkedIn post. Or like you get a penny or like you get a gift card that doesn't even relate to what the product is. You know. Right. So that's I think that's the unfortunate thing. But, you know, I think if we're talking to this new company about how. to fix it. I mean, there are certain things, you know, can you save the brand? Can you save the brand name? You know, I think there are companies that have overcome similar situations that have had, you know,

a tremendous recall that could have bankrupted them or did. A big one was Peloton had in 2022 faced lawsuits and damage, but honored full refunds and retrofits on their machines. So that was very important. but the part of it was the swiftness in which they were able to do that to preserve trust. Then the Takata Airbags, which was huge, huge, wildly huge, right? And Takata went bankrupt, basically, because of the recalls, right? Largest auto recall in history. But what happened was the competitors. So Honda, BMW, funded the replacements to avoid like a PR disaster.

And so the industry cooperated to help mitigate that fallout. So not sure that like, you know, the competition for like dumbbells is really going to want to help to preserve Bowflex because they've already gone through iterations of failure. So that, you know, that's just one of those things to take, you know, think about because I don't think, you know, recalls will ever disappear. and Bowflex, you know, needs to decide, you know, in this new world, we're in what they want to be known for. And maybe, you know, maybe they're going to be moving away from the adjustable dumbbells, right? And moving more towards Lucas, we were talking about like the Bowflex machines, right? You know, like if you go to their website, they have tons of things on there, tons of different fitness equipment types of advantages. And I think that when you look at the competition, people want to.

this all-encompassing experience. So, you know, maybe they can push the dumbbell recall to the side somehow, but with four million units out there, it doesn't seem like it. Well, my question to that, too, is like, what, where, who is Beauflex next? And I think that will actually determine what they can do, right? So if they're seeing, you know, if this Korean company says, we're done, this is it. This kind of was not a great purchase. We've all been there where we just kind of cut our life. losses. There's one. But if they're still saying, well, you know, not great on this, this is a problem. We need to recall all these. But we have this really great all in one system that you can use. Maybe you throw in a reformer Pilates as a reformer Pilates girl, really to do that. Or, you know,

you kind of lean on your other products that have been working, like the resistance. One that you Melissa and Lucas have been talking about, you know, it's, they need to figure out where they want to pivot and I would say as a fix, if they want to lean in and to kind of help overcome with these recalls is maybe, you know, they ship off, you know, you spent $500, here's $250 back for another program or here's a store credit to get the new thing that we're doing because people who are buying Bowflexes in a world where there's a thousand different pieces of equipment. That was very specific. Your brand was able to bring people in for that. And so if they want to revive their brand, they're going to need to put some money behind bringing people the equipment

that works and that is safe for them. That might not be exactly what, you know, might not be the weighted one, but it's the other one and, you know, providing maybe free virtual trainings on this new equipment so that you know exactly how to use it. It's safe and it's great. And so that would be a fix I would look into, but it really depends on what does Bullflex want to do. Do you want to cut your losses or do you want to keep moving forward? Well, Lucas, that's a good question for you. It's, maybe speculative, but does a newly acquired, does a parent company of a newly acquired acquisition that's turned out to be, you know, not so good, are they in a financial position to double down and flood the market and win trust back and win consumers back and say, look over here is,

you know, do you think that they should cut their losses or is it time to, you know, get ahead of this the best they can? Yeah, so with that, you talk to your investors or if it's a private equity, kind of talk to people within that group and just see what they want to do and kind of analyze what the costs will be with those two different paths. For me, I think they go ahead and because Buffalo still has a decent brand. I know there's a lot of competition, but I do feel like if they kind of like we just talked about offer some concessions, some discounts, hey, these are recallable. Look at these other product offerings we can have. I do think it will benefit them in the long term. And they could build their sales back up to maybe not to the pandemic level,

but to a level where they can kind of see some light at the end of the tunnel. And within a couple of years, start to recoup some of their initial investment into the firm itself. So I do feel like there is a path forward for both flex. And there's this initial hiccup, but like we've talked about, they have different machines outside of just these dumbbells that are being recalled. to offer their consumers. So maybe it could be a point of education as well. Yeah, look at these.

They didn't work as well. But we have other products. We're looking to be more safe with future implementations, that type of thing. Yeah, I think you made a really important point about not to get your hopes up about pandemic level saturation. I think Bowflex was one of the companies that built themselves off of pandemic momentum. Yes. Chewy, the pet company, some of the home delivery, the food delivery companies,

we just kept expecting more and more and more. And obviously, consumer habits changed pretty quickly. And so the parent holding company should set their expectations appropriately. That's true. I do think, I wonder, though, I continue to wonder about like if there is ownership of liability in other places too. So with partners of Boblex. So, again, I'm not trying to not have them be accountable. I think that they should be, and the acquiring company should be accountable as well.

But, you know, is there a possibility that you put some of the liability on the retailer? Because Voflex doesn't have stores, right? They were sold through Amazon, Walmart. I saw Costco was talking about that they were sold at Costco as well. Is there any sheer responsibility for recalls? if a manufacturer disappears like both bucks, right? So that's one of the things. Now, they're not disappeared because they actually have an owner.

So I could see where Costco would say, you need to pay for them. But again, I think that within the cycle and journey of due diligence of acquiring a company, even if it's a fire sale type of situation, the company needs to figure that thing as well, needs to figure out what their potential liability is. And I think, Lucas, you mentioned this, you know, looking at the analytics, looking at the numbers, looking at the competition, looking at what recall numbers look like for this business type, because not clear if the holding company, the parent company, really understood that whole marketplace, right?

It wasn't like Peloton bought them, right, or something like that. So if that's the case, I do think a lot of that comes back on. the financial executive, you know, the M&A team and legal team at... Yeah, I actually want to touch on kind of if the retailers could be responsible. And I think the answer really is, is, you know, if Costco or whomever is selling a Bowflex machine, they need to have that information, right? I don't know, again, from the consumer protections, from a safety and compliance. You know, you want to make sure the products you're selling are safe.

Otherwise, there's recalls and all of that. And so I think that works if Bowflex was being open and honest with what's going on. And I don't know if there's a clause, again, if I were Bowflex or if I was any product where I'm in the wellness space where, yeah, there's a chance that this equipment might not work. And, you know, it's not like it's, you know, a phone case where, okay, if the phone case breaks, whatever. this can actually cause potential long-term damage or even death to people. And so, you know, if I was a company, I would have it in my contracts with any of my vendors and partners is, yeah, I'm going to make sure, I'm going to give you all the information that we have. But, you know, maybe it's a 50-50 where if something goes wrong here and we have to recall, you know, I will do my due diligence to inform you of what's happening. but, you know, it's also your due diligence to make sure that your products are safe.

And maybe there's something, again, in the background when you're doing more B2B negotiations that you can look into. So I think that's an interesting point, Melissa, that you bring up. And again, it really depends on how forthcoming Belflex was about what's been going on. And if you're saying everything is fine and it's not, I'm going to say that's your issue. But if you're sharing with your retailers that, hey, we have a problem here and they can, continue to sell them, that's a problem. And that is where I see the retailer having the capability as well. Well, I think that the government and their regulations, and Lucas, you can go into this more, but it's very clearly stated that once a recall happens, like everything gets pulled. Now,

pulled of that version, right? And I know that in today's world, everything gets scanned. And so when you purchase something at Costco, they know who purchased it, where, when you purchase it, what store you purchased it. So, for example, I got an email yesterday from our grocery store saying, you purchased this nose spray many years. I don't even know when I purchased it. But they said, there's a recall for it. So if you still have it, bring it to the store and we'll give you a full refund, which I'm certain it's not the store. They're partnering with Johnson & Johnson or whoever it is that is in charge of that nose spray.

So I'm assuming that that is already in place for this, for this. But again, because the company is now to, you know, now it's changed hands, Lucas, it seems like it's just a real burden, financial burden, and regulatory and compliance and operational and communications and brand. It's just a huge mess for this new pair company. Yeah, that's a good point. I think the new company, even though it is a financial burden, should look at it as the kind of investing in the long term, investing in their customers. So the brand equity and helping them build back up the brand and being, like doing right by the consumer, I feel like is worth the initial financial burden in the short term to help with the long term. And so as they're

going through this process, they can let people know like, hey, we're looking out for you. We're sorry if this happened, but look what we're doing going forward. And not only with the equipment, but they could also use like to leverage technology because a lot of fitness companies have technology and like mobile applications or other videos people can access. And so they can kind of educate the consumer along the way in addition to the recall. And so especially with the technology assets, a lot of the costs for that is just kind of on the upfront. Yes, you have to build out and maintain the technology. But if you're doing videos, you only have to record those a couple times. You could add iterations as you go. So, yeah.

I think it's worth the short-term financial burden and then build out long-term leveraging some of the technology and video assets to help with like training videos and helping to educate the consumers with the product because same thing there. If people weren't actually like clicking the weights into the proper thing and getting hurt, well, they weren't using the equipment properly. So you want to make sure that you educate them. Hey, when you're using this, make sure you click and it locks in place because I've used those weights from other brands. where you think it's clicked in and it doesn't and then those plates fall off. So it's going to be very careful with those. So let me ask if we're going to do if we're them and we're going to do a bunch of consumer education and winbacks and trust building.

So Boflex, the name and the brand has been an asset since the 80s since it started. Is it if the name itself and the brand that's been built is now a liability, but the majority of the equipment is still solid and the offering is still solid? Is it a time to rename? time to do a new brand under this new company and maybe get somewhat of a fresh start out of it? Or do you hang on to the Beauflex name and just try to clear its good name? Well, you're the brand guy, Aaron. You should tell us. I could play it out both ways.

Yeah, I can see that I can see playing it out both ways. I think it's more about, I don't know, to me, it feels like it's a turning point for them, right? Like this could be a great story. It could be a great turning point into transforming for the future, whatever that might be. And so, you know, maybe they, yeah, they rebrand. Maybe they just change, you know, the colors on their website, whatever you want to call it. But I think that this is an opportunity for them to really do those things. And then Lucas, you know, like one of the things that you mentioned with the training videos and videos and like, you know, gamifying it and making it, you know, really also utilized.

it to kind of grow their marketplace, right? To say, this is what we're really all about. So we started here. We started with the adjustable dumbbells in your garage. Now look at what's in your garage, right? And it's this huge, it's this really, you know, beautiful machine that, you know, Gino, you can do Pilates on now and you can do all these things and say, hey, we've grown up. So, you know, we're not your, you know, your father's garage.

anymore and it's, you know, that little garage and now it's like, you know, this really amazing home gym garage or something like that. I don't know, Aaron. What do you think? I'm not going to stay on the fence about it. I think they should change their name. And I'll do my fix since we're getting the wrap up. But if we're, you know, we're trying to win back consumer trust, rebuild. You're probably not going to win back four million consumers or 3.8 million consumers. But you got to start somewhere. We've decided maybe a $60 credit, make good is not good enough. You've got to step that up. And if we're going to draw a clear delineation, say old Bowflex, new BoFlex, let's change the name too. Let's call it, I'm going to call it Flex. So we're going to allude to our heritage. We're

not going to throw the whole thing away. I don't know if it's trademarkable. Someone's going to have do that work. But new company called Flex, new ownership, new mentality. And, you know, we'll figure out that make good between the people that bought before a certain time. But carry it forward with, with, you know, a new ownership. And then you become a, you know, a flex affixionado. Yep. That's what, that's my fix. What do you say, Melissa?

I love that. I think that's a great idea, Aaron. I think that I believe that the parent company should do what they're already doing, which is, you know, honoring as much of the recall as they can. I agree that it should be maybe more. I mean, if the cost was $500 or whatever it was originally, I think it should be at least half of that. I understand that it may be a credit in the new flexed gym,

but make it relevant, make it impactful. So if it is a credit such as that, then make it the full 500. And then I think that they need to think about moving forward. And like leaning into tech, leaning into the analytics, leaning into the competition, not have some of the issues that pelotones of the world have had, you know, like thinking that they were going to be able to rest on the laurels with the pandemic. And now a bunch of people have pelotones that are coat hangers, right? You know, that kind of thing.

So, but, you know, I think that, you know, community is important. And I think that Flex could do that. They could start to lean into kind of those video classes and things like that. Well, I think the first thing that, The Korean company needs to figure out is what are they going to do? Are you letting it go or are you not? That's the very first thing they have to figure out. If they decide to let it go, everybody's tough out of luck.

We make purchases, not great. Maybe they can honor some things. And if that's kind of where Belfix kind of lives and dies, that's fine. But if they decide to lean in, I love your idea, Aaron, of rebranding under like a pseudonym that kind of reminds us of the old Bullflex, but doesn't remind us of the, you know, potential class action lawsuit and recalls. And I think, again, yeah, leaning into the tech,

you know, providing also training from a safety perspective where maybe it's like you have to watch this safety program on how to actually use the machines. And if you don't watch this, you actually lose your right to, you know, recall. I don't know, something, you know, to cover your back. And to make sure people know how to use the machines. At the end of the day, like, again, a broken phone case is one thing, something where it can cause like irreparable damage to your body or person as another.

And like, we don't want that to happen. So I do think there is the corporate responsibility to make sure that they're training their consumers how to use their machines properly, particularly because it is at home. And I think leaning into other aspects, right? So let's drop the dumbbells, focus on maybe reformer or, another, you know, the band's resistance and lean into what they are good at because there are some products that are still working. So maybe focusing on that while also adding kind of that tech component learning from the likes of Peloton. All right, Lucas, what do you say? Yeah, so I like

Aaron's idea of like changing the name and going like with a flex and a rebrand. I feel like also kind of what we touched on earlier, but continuing to develop like the assets looking at a subscription model using technology. A lot of companies have higher valuations to have like the annual recurring revenue or monthly recurring revenue. So finding a way for gamification, getting user groups together, competing with different maybe family members or friends in the fitness space. Oh, we worked out like 15 hours last week as a family and then this group worked out 14. And so just continuing to develop not only the equipment, but also looking at ways to leverage technology and then from a safety perspective, have it where in order to access the fitness videos

for that week, you have to watch a safety video. So you have to watch the third second safety video and then you can access the next stage of the workout. So that helps them from a legal perspective. And it also, I mean, helps the consumer or the customer stay safe as well. Yeah, I definitely believe in the use of technology and trying to leverage that. And I think that will help them from a financial perspective. So you're in favor of if they can swing it doubling down, think they've got a shot coming out of this. Yeah. I like it. I like everything that you all, all of you said. That's wrapping up our episode. Boflex is one company. I'm glad I don't own. Johnson Health. Johnson Health Tech retail clearly has their hands full with an uphill battle still

ahead of them. But I do think we did some good today. We couldn't have done it without our guest, Lucas Sundahl. Lucas, tell our listeners where they can find you. Yes. So for me, I'm active on LinkedIn. So you can look for me there. I also have a website, accountantcature.com, just showcasing the county profession and showing that it's fashionable to pursue that career path. Perfect. Thank you, Lucas. We'll look for you there. Thank you.

And thank you, as always, Chino and Melissa. Fitness fans, fixaholics, check your equipment, watch your form. Make sure you have a spotter. Never skip leg day. And we will see you next time. We hope you enjoyed this episode of We Fixed It. You're welcome. We go into every episode somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice,

financial advice, or anything that would get us in trouble. All trademarks, IP, and brand elements remain property of their respective owners.