BIG INTERVIEW
going up year-on-year, and the movement back into growth, which is great.” With Wattbike being born in elite sport, – the Pro/Trainer was launched in 2008, and was used by teams across cycling, football and other sports – its proposition spans more than just a cycling audience.
Products can also be seen up and down the country in many major gym providers. “This is a new sector for me,” adds Loftus, referring to gym providers and health clubs. “But anyone I’ve spoken to has shown that it’s in rude health with generations Y and Z being even more keen on working out in gyms and looking to that form of exercise, so that area where we have a presence has recovered quickly. “Elite sport sector [also] bounced back really quickly from the pandemic.”
New products for a wider audience The Atom has been a hero product for Wattbike since its introduction in 2017 before updates came in 2020 and 2022. As a revolutionary home trainer catered to the performance cyclist, with built in power meter and connectivity with training apps like Zwift, it is squarely targeted at the core market of typically male, 35-55-year-old road cyclists.
However, last month saw the brand introduce two new products. The Wattbike Proton smart bike (£1,795) and Wattbike Air (£1,895) bike sit alongside the Wattbike Atom (£2,395). The launch of the Proton is designed to enable Wattbike to offer its proven technology in a highly versatile format that helps those dedicated to their fitness to train for a variety of goals, on a bike that can be shared easily with different users at home (suitable for users from 4’6” to 6’6”). Whereas the Air brings the platform used in elite sports and gyms worldwide to the HIIT and team sports focused home user.
And the demand for each is certainly there. An in-house survey of 2,000 Atom owners found that nearly 50% weren’t keen road cyclists but were high fitness enthusiasts – a surprise to Loftus and his colleagues. “The existing product [Atom], which is very focused in its design and proposition for the road cyclist, is already pulling in more people,” he says. “We always thought there was an opportunity, and we
always wanted to broaden our range, but it highlighted that there’s likely to be quite a demand when we cater for more people.
“The thing we are trying to do with these new products is differentiate between the types of customers and where and
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October 2024 | 27
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