Design Management Group

Case study - Exertris exercise bike

How might exercise be made more interesting? That was the question posed by fitness enthusiast Gareth Davies and two friends, who came up with the idea of combining exercise with playing computer games. The link was that in order to progress through the game, it would be necessary to pedal hard!

The three were so taken with the idea that they set up a company, Exertris, to develop and exploit the idea. After creating a basic prototype, the three approached product design company PDD in early 2001 to explore how to turn the prototype into a real product.

PDD quickly determined that this would not be a trivial task, as significant development was required. Exertris had limited funding, but PDD was enthusiastic and took a minority equity position in Exertris. PDD assumed responsibility for product engineering, choice of manufacturer, and supply chain management, while Exertris concentrated on the software. Some specialist tasks were outsourced.

The team set a tight target to have 6 prototypes ready for the UK 'Leisure Industry Week' exhibition later that year. This was accomplished, and the bike won the 'best new product' award at the show. Production started soon after in association with a number of contract manufacturers. The bike has been well received by gyms and fitness enthusiasts, for whom the addictive nature of the games makes exercise time fly by. The bikes can also be networked to support multi-player gaming.

For PDD, this project represented an extension of the usual design service relationship, common with design consultancy work, to include risk/reward sharing. This allowed Exertris to bring a product to market with only a modest amount of initial funding. (Other investors include Singer and Friedlander Group plc).

Further reading

• Brown, J. and Hendry, C. (2003) The changing face of product design: making real returns from intangible assets (PDF), Cass Business School, London
• Exertris website www.exertris.com
• PDD website www.pdd.co.uk

Recent news articles

• Exercise bike uses aliens, Taipei Times, 20 August 2002
• Exertris builds world's first interactive gaming workout cycle with Windows XP Embedded, Microsoft case study, 19 August 2002

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