Fitness by design
After years of experience selling products online, entrepreneur Eric Finkelman was ready to bring a completely new idea to the market. With his expertise in the fitness industry, he recognized that there was a market for weights made for women. White labeling existing products had given him experience, but he knew that flourishing in a crowded e-commerce marketplace required the competitive advantage of a unique product. His success hinged on creating something completely different than the other products in the market.
That’s when the idea hit him: wearable weights. But instead of your grandma’s velcro weights circa 1985, these weights would look like jewelry. Customers would actually want to wear these beautiful, functional, and fashionable bracelets. He called them Cali Weights.
Cali Weights weren’t just for the gym; they could move seamlessly from yoga class to the nightclub and look right at home anywhere. But first, they needed to be designed.
Fashion and function, together
Eric connected with Gembah, pitching his idea to a design team who took the product through several iterations. They developed an original, patentable design, adding features like adjustable heavy-duty elastic and super soft sweat-proof silicone. Designers included stackability as a key feature so users could decide how much weight to wear and adjust to their personal needs.
Recognizing that extra time spent on design before manufacturing saves both time and money, Gembah had the CAD designs 3D printed for review before moving on to factory production. The design went through a few more changes before being finalized and made ready for manufacturing.
And just as much as the design needed tweaking, the materials needed tweaking as well. Gembah found a high-density moldable iron for the inside to add weight without adding bulk, while the outside was wrapped in a soft-touch silicone that was gentle on skin even when sweaty or after being worn all day.
A successful product launch
Though Eric had the Cali Weights concept when he started working with Gembah, he didn’t know what the final product would look like. The end result has been explosively popular. Shortly after launching, small gyms and boutiques started contacting Eric for bulk orders to sell in their own stores. Cali Weights have been featured everywhere from PopSugar to Forbes and are available online and in fifty-five stores across the country.
Gembah’s designers worked tirelessly to bring Eric’s ideas to life, from designing the initial product with sketches and 3D renderings all the way to factory production. With Gembah handling the product development, Eric was free to handle the marketing and successfully launch Cali Weights into the world.
“We wanted to bring something truly special to the market,” said Eric. “This is the end result. It came from phenomenal work by 3D CAD engineers who were able to put together the right files for the manufacturers to start working on the molds, and piece by piece this process went.”
“It really was just an idea, and with the 3D renders from Gembah we got fully funded on Indiegogo in four hours. With Gembah we were able to stay in one place from design, to patenting, to managing the factories.”