We recently connected with Mark Harris and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

The Disabled Community is often overlooked in the fitness space. Many years ago, we ran a company that made a popular fitness device, and were attending the CrossFit Games in Carson, California. We ran into a young man who had been recently injured and was in a wheelchair. In a brief conversation, he mentioned that he was once a very competitive athlete and still likes to work out, but he has to adapt everything he does, and no one is making adaptive fitness equipment. We casually said, “maybe we can help you with that,” and went our separate ways.

A year later, we had worked out the details for a product that protected that young man’s legs while using barbells, dumbells, kettlebells, and a whole host of other fitness devices. When we demonstrated the product in person and made a random post on social media, we were overwhelmed with requests from the adaptive community for more and more products. We found ourselves at a crossroads, serve the able-bodied fitness community like everybody else, or pivot and start making adaptive fitness equipment. We chose the latter.

Today we have over fifty SKUs on our website and roughly one-hundred items in our list of R&D items. We have served thousands of adaptive athletes and attend adaptive fitness events worldwide to support our products. Every day we hear from someone new who did not know adaptive fitness products were available to them. We are committed to letting the world know that adaptive fitness is here. We work to make fitness accessible so that the adaptive fitness community can live independently, get fit like anybody else, and thrive in life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Mark & Dana Harris founded and run Equip Products to make fitness accessible for everybody regardless of their impairment. They believe in independence for the adaptive community and seek out ways to allow athletes of all shapes and sizes to achieve great physical, mental, and spiritual health through their fitness products.

Mark began his career in 1984 in the aerospace and defense market and learned to love the engineering and manufacturing world. After that, he spent many more years working in sales for the Anti-Terrorism/Disaster Preparedness market both domestically and abroad. With that experience and having both parents disabled he was well suited to find adaptations for the fitness world.

Dana Askew-Harris was a supportive wife and partner with her late husband, David Askew, who ran a touch-up and portable paint business for used cars in the St. Louis area. When David past-away suddenly from a mysterious illness, Dana was left trying to run sixteen affiliate touch-up services and learning to do paint and touch-up on the house accounts. With two young children to feed and bills to keep up with, she jumped in with both feet into a world she knew very little of.

Dana successfully managed to run the business for several years before she spun it off and sold it to the affiliates. Thus Dana began her entrepreneurial lifestyle that still exists today.

Mark and Dana rarely promote themselves or their stories, as their customers can tell the story so much better. There are Visually Impaired Athletes who were told they could not work out, Wheelchair users who never thought they could participate in a workout, Amputees who can do deadlifts that they previously thought impossible with one arm, or do double under jump rope workouts that previously would have been difficult if not downright impossible before the Mono Rope, Multi Rope™, LapMat™, and so many other products.

Equip Products is the Adaptive Fitness Provider for everybody regardless of their impairment.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Equip Products has always focused on the athletes they serve. From the very beginning, we sought out the adaptive community to tell us what they needed, what it needed to look like, how it would function, and what purpose it should serve. We even ask the community to name our products. The only decision we make about a product outside of the adaptive community is whether it will be scalable to sustain itself in the adaptive fitness space. We do make several one-offs for specific athletes, but we make those items knowing they will never make the website.

Our story and our brand are exclusively about the athletes. Look at our Instagram @EquipProducts, and you will see content from the adaptive fitness world and the athletes they serve. It’s not about Mark and Dana, although you might see a few pics of their grandchildren or dogs interspersed.

Equip Products is an organic brand that focuses on the Adaptive Community, and that is how they built and remain a reputable business in the Adaptive Fitness Space.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Equip Products attends roughly twenty events annually that support their efforts in the Adaptive Fitness Space. While they were born out of the CrossFit® space and attend several CrossFit® events every year, they participate in educational events like the SHAPE Conference, an event for Physical Education (PE) Teachers, or Move United’s Education conference which helps support their efforts at making Sports accessible. They have also attended several Abilities Expo throughout the US and seek out ways to extend their reach throughout the fitness sector.

Equip Products can be seen on many weekends at events like WODAPALOOZA in Miami, The WheelWOD Games in Raleigh, NC, OCEANA Throwdown in Australia, WODCELONA in Spain, Seadogs Summer Showdown in Juipter Beach, FL, and many, many more.

Equip Products is predominantly a B2C but is building a strong B2B relationship with Rehab Facilities, Rehab Hospitals, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Doctor Offices, and many Veteran Affairs facilities throughout the US.

Equip Products has a very organic Social Media presence, and while it does not have hundreds of thousands of followers, they have a very hand-picked community of loyal customers. You can also subscribe and like the Youtube Channel Equip Products.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.equipproducts.com
• Instagram: @equipproducts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EquipProducts?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/equip-products-inc/
• Youtube: @equipproducts7212

Image Credits
B.A.W. Media