I thought, We’re going to win on the content and on the experience, but since there are a few elements of the hardware that are important to nail, why don’t I write those down, go straight to the manufacturers, and work on a product that can be built at the price I want? And that was the napkin sketch. I’d heard a lot of horror stories about people who hired industrial design studios to build a beautiful piece of hardware, but then they’d go to manufacture and find that their core assumptions about the hardware were wrong.
![mirror fitness mirror fitness](https://www.fitnessequipmentireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/gym-mirror-3-2.jpg)
It wasn’t interactive, but the number one thing people said was some version of, “this is the future.”Īfter we raised our first round of financing, it was time to build a real prototype. We filmed an animated three-minute workout video, and built a “Mirror” with some off-the-shelf-type components. To show investors what I meant, we built a fake prototype. I knew from the beginning that we weren’t going to succeed because of hardware-we’d succeed if we built a brand and an experience that people love. They’ll worry about the aesthetics later, after the technology works. A lot of hardware companies will build functional hardware, but that’s ugly and unbranded.
![mirror fitness mirror fitness](https://chiliguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Acrylic-gym-mirrors-with-frame.jpg)
The next step was the fake-it-until-you-make-it step. Once I validated that, I knew I could figure out the technology.Ī prototype of a prototype: Brynn’s early proof-of-concept for Mirror, on her kitchen table.
![mirror fitness mirror fitness](http://parsglass.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Gym-Mirror-2002-1024x662.png)
Mirror fitness android#
It was a piece of glass the size of a legal pad, and an Android tablet, but it answered my question. And it worked: I saw the idea come to life on our kitchen table. It had to feel like being transported to a different universe, not like watching a television through glass. He said, “if you want an ugly hack, that’s not that hard.” I didn’t care if it was ugly I just wanted to know if this reflection-transmission experience could feel as immersive as it did in my mind. I asked my husband, who does have engineering skills, how hard it would be to build a prototype. I had been stuck on the delivery mechanism for the technology I wanted to provide, and it was a fortuitous coincidence that the survey dialed me into the form factor of a mirror, because looking in the mirror while you work out is a fundamental part of the fitness experience. We put up more studio mirrors-just regular, dumb mirrors-and when we did a member survey, it was by far the most important change we’d made. “Looking in the mirror while you work out is a fundamental part of the fitness experience.” Looking at an app wasn’t immersive enough, and a television should be for entertainment and sitting on your couch. I started to think about working out at home, but when I researched existing technology, I wasn’t finding anything. My clients were also having children, and schedules started to get tight. When I was early in my pregnancy, I had severe morning sickness and couldn’t travel to a studio to work out anymore.
Mirror fitness how to#
The instructors should just be thinking about how to inspire. I thought, there has to be technology that can keep time, provide modifications, and provide exercise demonstrations. Nine out of ten things they’re doing, they don’t need to. These instructors are also stars-they’re the personality. One day, while watching a class, I realized the teacher was checking a stopwatch, reading an exercise planner, adjusting exercises for people with injuries, and then demonstrating the exercises themselves.
![mirror fitness mirror fitness](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/3a/d3/ee3ad33f9c85e73b8f7f020b6ee50ef7.jpg)
In 2010, I launched a boot-strapped fitness studio with $15,000 of personal savings.
Mirror fitness software#
I’m not a technologist by trade I have no hardware or software engineering skills. “I just think, ‘that looks broken, and I have a good idea how to fix it.’” In the course of solving a problem (How can you get a studio-quality workout from home?) Brynn is not only revamping the at-home fitness experience, she’s building a bigger case for why any and everyone needs a Mirror at home. “I never thought of myself as a founder,” she says. Putnam got the idea for Mirror-the interactive, immersive, reflective display that streams everything from HIIT classes to meditation into your living room-while running Refine, an early player among New York’s boutique fitness studios. Brynn Putnam lays claim to a rare hyphenate: that of ballet dancer-turned-tech company founder.