We were lucky to catch up with Sebastien Lagree recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sebastien, appreciate you joining us today. Has Covid resulted in any major changes to your business model?

Before Covid, I was going to release a new machine called the Microformer (Micro) to compliment the bigger machines we make called the Megaformers (Megas). Covid changed the marketing of route of the Micro because the Micro was only supposed to be a machine used for core moves. Then of course, Covid happens, and people couldn’t go to the studios and everyone wanted to do the workouts at home so they tried to turn the Micro into a Mega. This was never part of the plan, but I had no choice, but to go with what the clientele wanted. Now that Covid is fading away, we have the Micro and I realized by making the Micro into more than what it was meant to be, it is actually working out to our advantage. The clients/consumers are loving this machine and it has allowed me the opportunity to add new additions to it, making it the ultimate at home fitness machine. It gave me the imagination to do create the rocker attachment, a rowing attachment, and more. The Micro became it’s own branch of Lagree Fitness that helped launch our e-commerce side all in thanks to the impact Covid had on the fitness industry. Covid forced me to adapt to a changing fitness industry and while it is still early, I feel it’s for the better.

Sebastien, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into the fitness industry over 25 years ago and I realized there was something missing. There was a need for a workout that would be intense on the muscles, but easy on the joints. I began my fitness career with my personal background in body building and began doing personal training on Pilates equipment while learning the Pilates method, which is a completely different method than Lagree. In developing my method, I also had to develop the equipment to go with it. Over the years, the equipment had to evolve and so has the method and as it grew I realized there were more pockets we could fill in the fitness industry. The Megaformers are large machines, but I realized smaller machines would be a great addition to the evolution of the machines since Covid taught us that it is beneficial to have home fitness equipment options available to us. All of our equipment is set designed to ensure a high intensity, low impact workout – something that is easy on the joints and not going to hurt you, but will build muscular strength and muscular endurance.
Lagree Fitness has been around for 20+ years, but we continue to evolve and people are still just learning about us. The Lagree workout changes you opinion of fitness. There is no opportunity to get bored or plateau which is why people keep coming back to the method and why we have new studios being licensed and opening up around the world month after month.
I am most proud of the evolution of Lagree Fitness. When I made the first machine in 2003 I had no idea how many machines I would go on to create. I have lots of ideas for the future and that’s the best part, I never stop creating, inventing and evolving. We can keep growing this brand and evolve the method. You don’t really see this in any other type of fitness brand, fitness seems very stagnant, and I love being able to keep our method fresh and evolving so that it is always considered a new fitness trend because we never stop evolving.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first got started in the business I offered exclusivity to my licensees. It became counterproductive. Initially I looked at the exclusivity fee as passive income, but then the problem with this is there should have been a time limit. I started selling so many territories that all the good territories were taken and this gave rise to the copycats (people who have imitated our method and machines). When we had to tell people they couldn’t open in a certain zip code due to exclusivity, we would come to find our they would open with knock off machines instead. I had to pivot by not selling exclusivity to prevent this from happening in the future and in return we are selling so many more licenses for new studios around the world. We have also noticed that the competition between licensees is well balanced, it’s very healthy and going well. I should have done this very differently in the beginning by offering an initial 6 month exclusivity for studios to ramp up and that’s it. That would have been a much better business decision in retrospect.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I got started by falling into by accident. I was training people one on one, while trying to be an actor. I noticed I was teaching this method, Pilates, that people were raving about and I began to notice there were a lot of things missing in that method. I took the feedback from the clients after the workouts and began to develop my own method and teach my method on the reformer, I created a shit storm in the Pilates community. I like the reformer concept, but the design had flaws for the method I was creating. This led me to develop and manufacture my first machine, The Proformer in 2003. As I further evolved the Lagree Method, I had to evolve the machines and that is when we began to manufacture the first Megaformer. We have continued to build all of the Megaformers here in the US. When we expanded to the our e-commerce line of equipment, we started to look for a manufacture overseas. We had the first productions in China and we are now switching to Vietnam. Working with manufactures overseas has its challenges, but it helps us keep the cost down for the consumers. There has been a lot of trial and error and we are constantly learning as we go!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lagreefitness.com
• Instagram: @lagreefitness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seblagree/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lagree-fitness/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LagreeFitness