Technogym founder Nerio Alessandri has changed the world’s mind on Italian exports
How the founder of Technogym changed the world’s mind on Italian exports, and became a billionaire in the process.
Fast cars. High fashion. Complex carbs. Italy has bestowed us with many riches, most of them in the spirit of La dolce vita. But it may be surprising to learn that one of the world’s most successful fitness companies, Technogym, hails from Cesena, a small city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. Elliptical trainers and exercise bikes aren’t exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of Italy’s long list of famously indulgent exports, but Technogym represents everything synonymous with Made in Italy: superior craftsmanship, luxury and innovation. So it appears that sports equipment can, in fact, be very Italian.
When young entrepreneur Nerio Alessandri invented the Hack Squat – a piece of equipment that allowed people to do squats more safely – in his parents’ garage at the age of 22, the culture of fitness was anathema to the Italians. It was the 1980s, the era of bodybuilding and aerobics. And while Italians were busy living the good life, Americans were sweating it out in the gym via their tough “no pain, no gain” mentality.
“It was very difficult for us in the first years because as an Italian company we were not credible in a sector such as fitness that was typically American,” says the company’s founder and chief executive.
Alessandri was proposing fitness as a lifestyle rather than just time spent in the gym – and it was a hard sell.
“It required a lot of effort for two main reasons: firstly, it’s easier to explain equipment versus a completely new lifestyle and secondly, fitness was seen as a leisure activity, not an opportunity for health,” Alessandri says.
Technogym is now a global leader in high-end sports equipment and digital technology but Alessandri’s original concept was about as far away as you could possibly get from pumping iron and bulging muscles. He aimed to appeal to a more European way of living, conceiving
a different vision rooted in the notion of balance: that the health of the body should go “hand-in-hand with the pursuit of wellbeing on a mental level”.
Alessandri called this new ideal “wellness”, a holistic approach that encompassed a healthy diet, physical activity and a positive outlook. It was in the early 1990s that he really started to promote ideas around modern wellness which – little did he know back then – would become a global phenomenon. Today, his innovative outlook seems more prescient than ever, with the global consumer wellness market estimated at $US1.8 trillion per year and growing.
Technogym’s development stemmed in part from Alessandri’s personal interest in sport but also from what he identified as a gap in the market for workout equipment that actually looked good.
“My goal was to create equipment that was both functional for working out but also beautiful, so that fitness and wellness could enter people’s daily lives and home spaces … my vision of introducing design and innovation into the industry could work and could help the industry attract not just a niche of enthusiasts, but a large segment of the population,” he says.
Alessandri is a trained industrial designer who originally wanted to be a fashion designer, so in addition to his mechanical skills he brought to the task a deep appreciation for aesthetics. Combined, these ideals boosted Technogym from becoming just another fitness equipment business, to a global design company on par with high-end furniture makers.
“We transformed the functional concept of fitness into an emotional experience, making products true objects of art, leveraging science and digital innovation,” says Alessandri.
Technogym’s sleek and modern machines have won countless design awards in furniture categories. Last year, they presented at Milan’s Salone del Mobile with an exhibition featuring 40 original Technogym Home Benches, each one a collaboration with a different international designer or artist, including First Nations creative Kate Constantine.
The brand’s popularity lies in the fact that it places as much value on style and looks as performance as seen in this month’s new Assouline coffee-table book release, Technogym: The Art of Wellness. Their long-term Personal Line collaboration – a mix of cross trainers, bikes and treadmills designed with prominent Milanese architect Antonio Citterio – has resulted in a range of high-end products that are more like sculptures. Take the Kinesis, a cable machine retailing from $34,800, which is available in American oak and full-grain leather applied by hand. The brand also collaborated on a range with Christian Dior, which sold out instantly.
If Technogym suddenly seems like it’s everywhere, that’s because it is. At last count it was in 100,000 facilities and more than half a million homes worldwide, including Kim Kardashian’s. The products are intended to be incorporated into domestic spaces rather than hidden out of sight, with individual local markets now offering interior design services. At the company’s Italian headquarters, in-house interior designers work on wellness spaces for some of the world’s most luxurious hotel groups, from Four Seasons and Raffles to Rosewood and Aman.
While Technogym is Alessandri’s biggest individual asset, his private, single-family office and investment company, Wellness Holding, has a diverse portfolio. He works alongside his son, Edoardo, to focus on wellness and growth industries. They have invested
in companies such as Oura, the celebrity-adored smart ring used to track sleep and fitness, and Biograph, a high-end longevity clinic in the United States. In 2023, Bloomberg reported that the self-made fitness billionaire has sold about 52 million shares in Technogym since 2017 to diversify his fortune.
When it comes to the health and technology sector, Technogym boasts a series of firsts: the first treadmill with a built-in television, the first gym machine designed for domestic use and the first treadmill that can monitor heart rate. Currently, the focus is on the Technogym Ecosystem, an interconnected platform of smart equipment, digital services, on-demand training sessions and apps. This “wellness on the go” strategy means customers can have a personalised training experience from anywhere. It’s a smart, hybrid approach that ensures the user is always engaging with the brand. They are also leveraging AI and recently introduced the first AI-powered Connected Dumbbells.
Alessandri’s ambitions are far reaching. He is committed to spreading ideas about a healthier world via Technogym’s Wellness Valley project. The initiative centres on the Romagna region and aims to promote wellness through countless outdoor activities, partnering with schools, universities, hotels and restaurants to spearhead about 80 projects a year that help inspire movement.
If it all sounds a bit too new-agey, it’s worth taking stock of Alessandri’s origin story: he started Technogym from nothing, launched his first product in the early ’80s and began inventing software more than 30 years ago. He’s not just an ideas man; the proof is in the proverbial pudding. Alessandri’s daughter, Erica, is also involved in the initiative (she was appointed a member of the Technogym board after it went public in 2016), and shares her father’s passion for wellness.
Yet nowhere is this passion for health and design more evident than at the company’s headquarters, Technogym Village in Cesena, just a stone’s throw from where he grew up. The multi-million-dollar building’s slick façade rises out of the earth with an undulating roof evocative of the nearby sea and hills. The “campus” houses office buildings, a production site and research and development facility. There is (of course) a wellness centre accessible to all company stakeholders including fitness operators, trainers, doctors, institutions and the media.
The 150,000 square-metre facility, surrounded by manicured gardens, is another collaboration with Citterio, its futuristic timber, steel and glass-heavy interiors embodying Alessandri’s mind-body philosophy. Employees are, of course, constantly encouraged to move: a sign by the lift suggests taking the stairs, medicine balls take the place of chairs, cardio classes are a regular occurrence and the cafeteria is dominated by healthy choices.
“We conceptualised a place where lifestyle, quality design and productivity are all combined … it’s a prototype of a healthy workplace,” says Alessandri, who himself trains three to four times per week, alternating at-home workouts with sessions at the headquarters and cycling with his family on weekends.
The future of Technogym is bright. Group revenue for 2023 was $1.3 billion, with strong growth predicted. They support some of Europe’s biggest teams and sportspeople – from the Formula One to the Italian national football team, and for the past nine years have been the official supplier of the Olympic Games, a partnership that will continue into Los Angeles and then Brisbane 2032.
Combining cutting-edge science and engineering into an elegant, high-performing product is key to the success of the brand. Training stations are intended to optimise space, with multi-functional machines that fit into the smallest possible footprint. For Alessandri, this combination of design, movement and technology is everything.
“Movement must be as effective and safe as possible, the technology must guarantee engaging content and interaction and of course the design, a distinguishing feature of Technogym, must offer a unique experience that is not only functional, but also emotional.” By all accounts, it seems to be a winning formula.
This story is from the March issue of WISH.
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