The Technogym Bench, an all-in-one home workout tool, was painted by artists from all over the world. Photography courtesy of Technogym. Italian entrepreneur Nerio Alessandri founded wellness and rehabilitation company Technogym (like all good entrepreneurs) from his parent’s garage, at age 22. Born from his two passions: innovation and sport, the former industrial designer saw potential in the gym and wellness sector.
“I started designing mechanical products. I soon introduced electronics, then software, the digital, and today on-demand video content,” he tells T Australia. “The lesson from the old day that still resonates today in my mind is condensed in the motto: “If it works, it’s obsolete”. That, I keep telling my team.”
Alessandri sat down with T Australia to talk about his passion for the brand and Technogym’s commissioned exhibition for Milan Design Week, focusing on Gadigal artist Kate Constantine who represented Australia.
T Australia: Congratulations on the recent exhibition for Milan Design Week using the Technogym Bench. How did this collaboration come about?
Nerio Alessandri: We wanted to celebrate Technogym’s 40 year anniversary with the special project “Design to Move”, featuring 40 Technogym Benches. The Technogym bench [an all-in-one home workout bench including weights and other workout tools] is one of our ionic home wellness products and we had it designed by 40 different international designers and artists from all over the world including Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Piero Lissoni, Nendo and, from Australia, Kate Constantine. The exhibition explored the special and deep relation between design and wellness, style and functionality, emotional and tangible, that has always represented a key element of Technogym since its inception.
T Australia: Did you get to meet Gadigal artist Kate Constantine who was commissioned to represent Australia? Did you go to Milan and see all the works?
Nerio Alessandri: Yes, I was in Milan where we had an amazing event to celebrate the opening of our exhibition during Salone del Mobile week. On the occasion all the artists involved in the project joined the event in Technogym Milano. It was an amazing evening and collaboration.
T Australia: What does wellness mean to you and how does wellness differ to exercise, would you say?
Nerio Alessandri: Wellness is a lifestyle, is more than just physical exercise. Wellness is the balance between the body, mind and spirit, and is achieved through regular physical exercise, a healthy diet and a positive mental attitude. Wellness allows us to improve our quality of life, feel good about ourselves and others, to have more energy and creativity at work and above all live better and longer. In addition to this, Wellness represents a great social opportunity – for governments to reduce health service costs, for companies to stimulate their members to be more creative and productive and for all citizens to improve their health and daily lifestyle.
T Australia: Do you have any plans to expand Technogym into a wellness company? What other plans do you have for the future?
Nerio Alessandri: The future is about personalisation. Consumers have evolved: they are more and more informed and demanding, they expect a personalised experience tailor made on their needs and they want to connect with communities sharing their interests and passions. Beside the launch of new products to cover people’s different training needs, within our Technogym Ecosystem strategy, AI will bring plenty of innovative way to personalize training experience and to make it more effective and result driven.
T Australia: Where did your passion for technology, design and exercise stem from?
Nerio Alessandri: I have always been passionate about design. I liked the idea of creating gym equipment that was not only functional but also beautiful to see, not to be placed in a basement – as often happened to gyms in the 80s, when I founded the company. In fact, Technogym’s design has two faces: its offer is extremely functional and efficient from the point of view of the technical performance, but it also aims to be the landmark for those looking for sports equipment solutions that are not aesthetically anonymous and impersonal, but beautiful to look at.
T Australia: Where are Technogym products stocked and who is your customer?
Technogym offers a complete ecosystem of connected smart equipment, digital services, on-demand training experiences and apps that enable each user to access a fully personalised workout experience anywhere and anytime: at home, at the gym and on-the-go. We have a wide variety of equipment to cover all needs, from large equipment for those with lots of space to more compact products for small spaces. In fact, 70 million people worldwide train with Technogym equipment in 100,000 wellness centres (clubs, medical centres, hotel, corporate settings, schools, sport associations) and we are in 500,000 private homes in the world.
Following an overwhelming response at Technogym Milan, a limited number of these artworks will be available on Technogym’s website through a series of releases over the coming weeks, with all proceeds benefiting UNICEF.
