For over 75 years York Fitness has been manufacturing fitness equipment sold in over 50 countries worldwide. York Fitness approached CobaltNiche to design a new range of treadmills with mass appeal for growing home fitness market.
Designated the ‘Monza’ series, the styling for such a large product demands a fine balance between excellent design proportions, mature surface execution blended with technical sophistication that our gadget friendly society now demands.
To achieve its market leaderhip aim, York recognised it needed true product design innovation rather than new decals. As a result, the project also introduced new development process thinking allowing them to be in more control of their intellectual property and path to market.
FUNCTIONAL INNOVATION
Innovation was a key ingredient to this new product range. York have long advocated safety and initiated several ideas on how to improve safety around treadmill for small children in particular. CobaltNiche incorporated a ‘market-first’ safety feature; infrared sensors that automatically stops the treadmill if a small child crawls into the zone around the running belt. The Monza series are also the first treadmills to allow full iPod and iPhone docking which integrate with the inbuilt speaker system, much like luxury car brands.
THE JOURNEY
A well constructed project plan and design methodology was required to leverage the wealth of knowledge embedded within York’s management group and their key manufacturing supplier. Good design is as much about listening to your customer as having the courage to challenge their ideas on design. York showed trust in CobaltNiche’s ideas, encouraging more ambitious designs to be developed.
PROCESS
An extensive design concept sketch stage was initiated to explore creative ideas, styling, proportion and functionality. With some theme directions identified the CobaltNiche team began full size tape drawings and foam models to test the sensitivities of the new design in ‘real world’ proportions. High quality CAD surfaces were developed which were CNC machined and fitted to existing treadmill frames. A confidential working area was set up in a separate ground floor studio which allowed for multiple treadmills to be operational alongside the design assets filling all available walls.
With the desired theme and overall proportion fleshed out CobaltNiche brought forward a preliminary engineering stage to prepare the interface lines, internal package of electronics boards, speakers and HVAC ducting. This CAD package of internal components was used as an underlay for the surface modelling enabling the design intent to be maintained. The surface modelling was produced in Unigraphics NX6 software.
VALIDATION
A full size prototype was for a major fitness equipment trade show to launch the product and seek retail interest and orders. CobaltNiche was able to develop a range which extended to 4 treadmills through a clever part break up scheme, enabling maximum differentiation whilst sharing multiple components.
The project extended further to specification of colour and trim, preparation of graphics for decals and the console button membranes. Various design reviews between York and CobaltNiche to check for quality of fit and finish were also carried out.