From humble beginnings as a personal gym trainer in Hanoi to setting up a manufacturing plant of bespoke gym equipment in Bangkok, it has been a long and interesting journey so far in terms of business endeavours for Mr Henrik Olofsson. Yet, this is still only the beginning for the Swedish founder. And his case is testament to that there are always possibilities out there (also in Southeast Asia) – for those just daring to do it, and take the leap into the unknown – the world of entrepreneurship. In the case of ‘Fysik’ it has really found its own unique niche – as a designer and manufacturer within the upmarket fitness segment, but with focus mainly on mechanical tools – low-tech versus hi-tech.
How one thing has led to the next all makes sense when listening to Henrik and his story so far. He had tried out a career as ice hockey player at young age in the U.S, and was done with that at the age of twenty. He had also attended a course in Norway to become a personal fitness instructor, learning the basics.
Personal trainer Hanoi income finances travel
“I wanted to travel a bit, and with my parents having just moved to Hanoi, I could live with them while giving it a go at starting a personal coach business there, I had thought. I was into gym training and it felt like it could be an interesting occupation to stake on. So I took the leap and went to Vietnam. I just wanted to test the waters there if a bit of freelancing would be possible, and if one could make a bit of money on that in order to be able to also discover the region,” he begins.
“I stayed for one year and worked as personal trainer for expats. That turned out quite good, because I was practically the only one doing it in Hanoi, so I quickly became busy there.
And already then Henrik was into CrossFit training (fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity), where a lot of equipment not common in traditional gyms is used.
“So, one of my first tasks in Hanoi was to walk into a motorbike repair shop, trying to explain what I was seeking and asking if they could produce such rings for me – which they did. And I went to a tailor-shop – Hanoi is very old and you have this handicraft culture, with craftsmen working along the streets. And as long as you have a good approach and behave respectfully, they are accommodating,” continues the Swede.
Designing one’s own qym equipment is nothing unusual to Henrik, who grew up in very design-oriented surroundings: “Coming from Sweden, where there are many prominent such companies, one has design in the DNA – being subconsciously fed with it all the time. And I come from Älmhult, the birthplace of Ikea, so all my friends and I have worked there. And also the entrepreneurial spirit; that you can start your own business, I think has been a contributing factor. So to be able to produce one’s own equipment was a given thing for me, and wanting to do design something that also looks good,” Henrik explains.
His conclusion is that when producing gym equipment there are only two considerations: do it as cheap as possible, but face large competition from China that is really hard to beat on price; or do something unique and appealing that can be valued in a different way.
Job offer in Bangkok a pivotal moment
After one year in Hanoi, Henrik had also travelled to Bangkok a few times and felt that it had growth on a higher level, in comparison: “At least back then it felt like Bangkok was a bit more at the forefront and with a little bit more of opportunities.”
His analysis proved to be right, as after having decided to opt for Bangkok he was offered a job with work permit facilitation almost on the spot!
“I went there, without anything arranged, and mother got work in Bangkok and moved there, so that was good timing. I just knocked on the door of one of the downtown gyms and after just one week its Australian owner offered me employment.”
This was clearly a pivotal moment that turned things in a certain direction for Henrik – who had initially not intended to stay in Asia for a long time.
“When I was offered that opportunity with employment, I felt privileged. And after only about six months we became business partners. I worked with him for five years at the gym in Bangkok.”
After two years he met his Thai partner Amm Tarasansombut and they got married. Then the thought grew to open an own business.
“The life cycle of a personal trainer career is typically that you do it for 3-5 years. If going further you’ll to move on to the next step, which is usually to become an instructor of the instructors – or to open you own place and realise your own ideas.”
They chose the latter, with a showroom gym opening in Phra Khanong in 2016. By now Henrik had built up a network of instructors and clients that could support this new venture of theirs.
“But how to – like in most business sectors – cut through the noise and stand out is a difficult dilemma. You have a lot of competition,” recognises Henrik. “All gyms in a city have the same marketing message and we thought that we could compete with a different look, something that stands out in a good way; by only showing a picture of your gym, with dumbbells made with wooden grip and with leather! You don’t need much copy since the look speaks for itself. If you can stand out from the crowd in that way, you’ll compete on an entirely different level.”
Gym equipment design as business focus
“And I think we had a great, good-looking gym and were satisfied – except that we could not manage to attract enough business versus costs. And in connection to opening this gym we had already started manufacturing our own equipment.”
“I had always liked craftsmanship and I’m fund of materials and design, so we thought: ‘Why don’t we design it on our own when we live in a country where it’s easy to produce such things, and enabling to combine the design and fitness hobbies in order to achieve something’.”
They were also helped by the fact that Henrik’s wife’s family background is within the steel industry. So they could access a lot of know-how about where it could be started, where things could be sourced.
“We have slowly been able to build this during the past ten years – ever since set up our gym as a test case.”
Researching the market (in 2015) for potential competition had also been encouraging, when they had only found one single company in Germany making dumbbells for luxury yachts.
“That was it! Only one player! Now this has changed, but they are still very few.”
So by having created a showroom style gym the Swedish-Thai couple had already thought of an alternative path forward.
“Our thought had been to use it as a showroom. If the gym equipment would sell better, we’d focus more on that. But after having been open for close to four years Covid arrived, and was the end of the gym business.”
“We had also received great feedback; with some of our equipment really being a magnet. It was really like a unique part of the gym, and normally nobody walks into a gym and start examining the equipment like that – which had been a wake-up call. Also, during Covid we started getting lots of emails from people in the U.S, who saw our images that had been published earlier on Pinterest. And from then on individual people started placing orders! And we were honestly surprised that they trusted us like that. So that gave us a lot of motivation: This seemed like a much better business than the fitness training part,” continues Henrik.
“So we went all in on the gym equipment part, and it has grown since.”
“Our focus is not on performance: such as making dumbbells with the absolutely optimal grip, so you can beat your personal best record. Almost all gym equipment producers are focusing on that; 100 percent functionality, performance and utility. Design comes secondary and they all follow the same path and use the same materials. Our niche is to be able to fit into the interior of a living room in a way that one does not have to feel the need to hide the gym tools in the wardrobe when welcoming visitors at home.”
“If one looks at behavioural science, and to build habits, it’s important to see things in order be reminded of them. With Fysik we wanted to level up that design look.”
Old school business model and factory development
“Compared to a tech business, our business is more old-school and it takes a long time to build up the supply chain, so it does not have the same fast return. But if one can get it going and reach a certain level it’ll become quite difficult to replicate. It requires a lot of resources to set up,” he elaborates on the efforts, since getting their first overseas orders.
Soneva resorts also became an early customer. Twinpalms Phuket has also bought. For marketing it also helps that their design is used in several blockbuster movies, including the upcoming Red One movie (November 2024 release).
“It’s interesting that today you can build a brand at much higher value than the physical assets, where being seen in large movies, and in the gyms of the top 50 hotels of the world raise the brand value a lot,” notices Henrik.
A Fysik catalogue has evolved step by step, based on the requests they got from customers. Now they also offer both consumer- and commercial models.
“Most providers have that: a professional model and then a use-at-home edition. So we have something similar as we have seen demand for that.”
Quarter by quarter they have purchased additional equipment, striving to eventually bring the entire production not only in-house but also under one roof: “Simultaneously to the manufacturing you also need to expand your equipment in order to be able to expand. So that’s tricky, as you cannot just pause production in order to build a big factory, which takes six months, and earn no income meanwhile. So it must be done step by step.”
“We have three departments; wood, leather and steel, and if we can get all those three onto the same manufacturing floor, it’ll become much more effective; if an order today takes two months to deliver it could happen much faster with everyone working in the same place.”
“So that’s where we are in 2024; setting up the factory in order to get the manufacturing under better control – in order to be able to scale up.”
