Fitness Anywhere has taken action to shut
down sellers of counterfeit or knockoff versions of its proprietary TRX®
Suspension Training® family of products, including the TRX® Suspension
Trainer™ and TRX® Door Anchor™. Fitness Anywhere recently began hearing
from concerned consumers who had bought these fakes, only to have them fail and
cause injury. Fitness Anywhere is working with EBay, Amazon.com and
other online retailers to remove counterfeit products from the market and is
also suing the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of these products in
federal court (Fitness Anywhere, Inc. v. Stanley Yan, et al, case no.
09-4815). Furthermore, the company has taken steps to help customers
ensure they are buying genuine TRX products.
“Since day one the focus of Fitness Anywhere has been on creating
best-in-class products and programs that are safe and effective. We’ve
enjoyed great success and have grown very rapidly,” says Fitness Anywhere
founder and CEO Randy Hetrick. “The downside is that we have entered the realm
of desirable name brand products like Nike shoes and Calloway golf clubs that
have attracted imitators and counterfeiters. Unfortunately, there are serious
consequences of using cheaply made, bogus exercise equipment, especially something
that needs to support hundreds of pounds of force even after years of use.”
The company’s advice to consumers is
simple: If you find a TRX product on the
internet that is not being sold through an authorized Fitness Anywhere retailer
for a price that sounds like too good of a deal to be true, it is almost certainly
a counterfeit product. “It’s like buying medicine on the internet. It seems
like a great deal until it makes you sick. Likewise with bogus TRX products,
everything may seem fine until you use it and the cheap thread and stitching counterfeiters
use to save money breaks and you end up hurt,” says Charlie Robb, Vice
President of Operations, Administration, and Finance at Fitness Anywhere.
All
genuine Fitness Anywhere products have been designed to exceed the requirements
of the most demanding environments including busy health clubs, NFL training
rooms and remote forward operating military bases. Plus they carry a one-year
warranty to be free from defects in materials and workmanship. Fitness Anywhere uses a rigorous, four-step
control process to ensure the quality and durability of its products:
ONE: The company builds quality and durability
into its designs. Customers trust Fitness
Anywhere’s products to support their bodyweight no matter what. Like manufacturers of mountain climbing gear,
the company’s designs employ industrial strength materials, redundant stitching
and failsafe features wherever possible.
This costs more, of course, but it’s the only way to make safe
equipment.
TWO: Fitness
Anywhere extensively tests the materials and components in its products. Its suppliers must meet tough quality standards.
THREE: The company
tests every batch of components to ensure they meet its specifications.
FOUR: Fitness Anywhere subjects finished products to
one final test to make sure they meet the company’s specifications.
This
four-tiered approach to quality control ensures that Fitness Anywhere products
exceed stringent military specifications.
Fitness
Anywhere remains the only manufacturer of the genuine TRX Suspension Trainer
and Suspension Training products. It sells the TRX Suspension Training
products exclusively at www.fitnessanywhere.com, through the official Fitness
Anywhere stores on eBay and Amazon, through the authorized distributors listed
at its website, and through its network of online affiliates (which link buyers
directly back to the company’s web store).
If
you have any questions or concerns about a potential counterfeit product or a
distributor, please contact Fitness Anywhere directly by calling customer
service 415-655-4740 or emailing customerservice@fitnessanywhere.com.