Massage Chair Industry Update – June 1, 2015 (Video)

June 3, 2015
 By Allison Bricker
June 3, 2015
 By Allison Bricker

Massage Chair Industry Update – June 1, 2015 (Video)

Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – June 1, 2015”

microphoneAlan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Monday, June 1st, 2015. Thanks so much for visiting today. We’ve got some fun stuff to go over today, and hopefully I won’t take too much of your time again, as I have in the past. Sometimes I get going a little bit too much, and it uses up a lot of your time, but I appreciate you being here today.

[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]

Alan: First of all, as far as stock goes, the Panasonic MA73 is back-ordered until the second week – or the middle of June – the end of the second week of June. We have a few back-orders for that chair. It’s becoming a more and more popular chair, but just so that you know, if you order – but order now, don’t wait until the middle of June to order, because they’ll be back-ordered again – that’s how this chair has been for us, it’s been back-ordered nonstop. Also, Inada has been sending out some warning shots, over the last week, saying that their stock is going to be diminishing before they get a new shipment, and so they’re saying that middle of June – or sorry, the middle of July to August – they’re going to be running back-orders on a lot of the DreamWaves. So, if you want to get a DreamWave, order now while the stock is still here. If you wait until July, August, you may have to wait anywhere from one to three weeks for the chair to, for your chair to come. So, they say their sales on these DreamWaves have been pretty stiff, pretty good, but and we’ve had – our sales have been pretty good on the DreamWave as well – so it’s a popular chair, it’s been popular forever. I don’t know if there’s like a lifetime curve on this thing, when you’re going to start to see it diminish in its popularity, but it’s still a pretty iconic chair, and widely considered the best chair in the world. So, anyway, DreamWave, look out for stock shortages in July and August.

[SCREEN TEXT: Inada Flex 3s – $4999 June 1 – July 5]

Alan: And I received a notification this morning from Inada, they’re dropping their – the price of their Flex 3s – for this month, from June 1st to July 5th, from $5999 down to $4999. Now, for an Inada, Japanese-made, quality massage chair, a Japanese-quality, Japanese-made massage chair, that’s a very, very good price. Now, the Flex 3s, it looks like a mini DreamWave, but it’s not like the DreamWave, it’s very different. It has a softer roller system, the neck massage is not as strong, the hands and feet are pretty cool, and it’s also got heating elements in the hands and feet, it’s got a great stretch program, and that’s what really sets that chair apart from other ones, is the stretch program. So, anyway, just so that you know, the Flex 3s is going to be on sale for $1000 off.

[SCREEN TEXT: iRobotics 7? Who Knows!?]

Alan: Let’s see, what else can I tell you? I heard that the iRobotics 7 was supposed to be out at the end of – end of last, well, the end of May – and I’ve not heard anything about it being out, or anything. That chair continues to be delayed, I don’t what the deal is, I don’t know if there’s software issues, because that was obviously the thing that they were working on, because they have all the hardware imported from Taiwan, they’ve been working on the software. So, I don’t know what’s going on, I hope to have more information this week about the whereabouts of this chair, and when it’s going to be out. I have a list of people that are interested to know about this chair once it’s out, but other than that, other than the time I sat on it – and you can see that on our YouTube video – other than the time that I did sit on it, I really don’t have much more to say about it. I can’t hardly remember the experience, because it’s been over – I think over two months since I was there – I do remember it has a good massage, it had foot rollers, I remember it had zero gravity, it had the coolest remote control, and it’s with the American ingenuity, and American quality in the electronics. So, it’s going to be a great chair, but I don’t know yet what it’s really all about, I’ve not just had a chance to sit down by myself and experience it, and write a review for you, which is what I will do.

[SCREEN TEXT: Apex Ultra $2995 Now In Brown!]

Alan: Also, the Apex Ultra, I think I mentioned this last week, or a couple weeks ago, that the Apex Ultra came out, and it was priced at $4395. It was, shortly thereafter, dropped to $2999 on Titan’s website. So, I called them, and I said ‘What’s the deal with this price drop?’ And they weren’t sure if the chair was going to be discontinued, or what was going on, but apparently what has happened is the manufacturing company that makes the chair, also gave license to another importer here in the United States, who I would consider a no-name brand. I don’t know who it is, I just know that that chair has been private labeled elsewhere, without the Osaki/Titan/Apex name behind it, and the pricing they had – their pricing on it was quite a bit less – so Osaki/Titan/Apex dropped the price down to $2995, which is a fabulous price for that chair. It has everything that you need in a chair, it’s got the extended roller track, it’s got shoulder airbags, it’s got zero gravity, it’s got foot rollers, it’s got calf rollers, it’s got a little music system, where you can plug your phone in, a good little chair for the money. It’s not great if you’re a really tall person, or if you’re a really big person, because the shoulder airbags have a tendency to be a little restrictive, but if you’re a shorter body, and you want the L-track, it’s a good chair to get.

[SCREEN TEXT: No-Name Brand Chairs: Buyer Beware!!]

Alan: Anyway, that chair’s going to remain at $2995, I asked them if they were going to be ending that, or if they’re discontinuing the model because of the conflict with this other importer – and you know what, that speaks to another thing, there are, and I have been addressing this over the years, I’ve been doing this for 10 years, over 10 years – and a recurrent issue I have is that people will buy these no-name brand chairs from eBay, or from a website that sells them, and they don’t have any distributorship other than their own website, nobody really knows about the chairs, no one really knows the name. The track record, if you do some of the Google searches, are bad, as far as customer support and whatnot, and I would warn you about those kinds of chairs. Often, it’s just some guy, or gal, that imports a chair, a load of chairs, and wants to make a quick buck, sells them on eBay – and they’re no-name brands – or sells them through a website that they have, or whatever, and when you try to get customer support, you don’t get it, or they don’t answer the phone, or the phone’s disconnected, or whatever. And so, two companies can import – two people can import the same chair, or similar to the same chair, from a Chinese manufacturing company – if the one company does not have an exclusive on it. And I think that’s what has happened with this Titan, or this Apex chair, Osaki imported it, but they did not have an exclusive on it, someone else also imported it. But the someone else is a name brand that none – or a name that none of us are familiar with – I don’t know who it is, and it may be being sold on eBay for about the same price.

[SCREEN TEXT: Go for the Better Customer Support!!!]

Alan: But always, if you have the option of two chairs that are very, very similar, buy the one from the company that has customer support. Duh, I mean if your chair busts down in six months, or a year, or two years from now, it’d be nice to know you’re backed up by a company that has some longevity, and some staying power, and a little bit of infrastructure, to be able to handle parts, you know, consultation if there’s a break down, or whatever, years down the road. So, I would strongly encourage you, if you see the same chair out there for maybe a few hundred bucks less, oh my goodness, it’s so worth it to get it from a name-brand company, than it is from a no-name on eBay, or some little website that’s just popped up recently that’s selling these chairs. You don’t know anything about the company, you’ve got no history, yet a company like Osaki or Titan can back up any product they sell. So, anyway, that’s just, I’m just going off on my soapbox, I said I wouldn’t take up much time, and I look, and I’ve already taken up seven minutes. But anyway, I just wanted to talk about that Apex Ultra, and by the way – and I think I mentioned this two weeks ago, but in case I didn’t – it now comes in a dark ‘Brown.’ So, you got ‘Brown,’ ‘Grey,’ which kind of looks like a bluish color – and that’s the one that’s on our video that I made when I visited them – and a ‘Black.’

[SCREEN TEXT: New Osaki “Japan” Chair]

Alan: Osaki’s also come out now, with their Osaki Japan chair, and they’re going to have another one coming in later this year, but Osaki Japan chairs, these are Japanese-made chairs, imported by Osaki – and Osaki sounds like a Japanese word, but it’s a Chinese – most of their chairs are Chinese, it’s an American company that imports Chinese chairs, mostly Chinese chairs. Well, they’ve got a Taiwanese chair now, in the Apex Regent, and now they’ve imported a Japanese chair, and I talked about this a few months ago when I visited them, and when I talked to them about this. They’re chairs that are made by Fujiiryoki company, Fuji Medical in Japan, and Fuji – that company, by the way, is the oldest massage chair company in the world – they, when chairs first started being developed in the early ’60s, Fujiiryoki was the first company to create one. Inada was also one of the first ones, I think they were the first ones to come out with airbags, but there is a history to these chairs, and Fujiiryoki’s a good company, they’ve been around a long time, I don’t know how well represented they are in the States, but Osaki now is bringing in a model, and it’s going to be backed by their customer support, which is very important. So, anyway, that chair, I’ll know more about it – I sat on it when I was in Osaki, and it was a model similar to one of the other Fujiiryoki chairs that are here in the United States – but anyway, Osaki now is bringing in Japanese chairs, at good prices, with of course, Osaki’s infrastructure, and back up, and you know, support, so that’s kind of important.

[SCREEN TEXT: My Visit to Cozzia to Check Out New Ogawa Chairs]

Alan: Also, oh, I was in California last week, and I visited Cozzia, in the city of Industry, and I went there, not so much to see the Cozzia chairs, because I don’t know if you know this, but Cozzia has a deal with their chairs, where they’re only sold through brick-and-mortar stores, and they have three or four online models that online retailers like me can sell, and I have those on my website, but they’re not terribly popular. Their popular chairs, like the 618, and 650, those are sold through, like maybe Relax The Back, or here locally, a company called RC Willey, and even though I have a showroom, I’m not allowed to carry that in my showroom, because RC Willey has an exclusive for their models, or whatever the case may be. Well, Cozzia struggled with this reconciliation between online and offline, and of course, more and more chairs are being sold online, so what were they going to do about this? And so, they’ve come out with a new line called Ogawa – and I talked about this in the last update, last two updates – but the Ogawa line is from Cozzia, same manufacturer, same infrastructure, same support structure as Cozzia, but it’s own line, and we are now distributors for Ogawa, and those chairs are for online sales only. Well, I also have a massage chair store, a brick-and-mortar store, and I can have that chair in my showroom as well.

[SCREEN TEXT: Ogawa Active & Refresh]

Alan: Well, I flew down there last Tuesday night, spent some time on Wednesday over at Cozzia and Ogawa, to sit on that chair, and it’s a pretty cool chair. The Active is the one that has the extended roller track that goes down, and under the butt, but you can make that work when the chair is fully reclined, which you can’t on any other L-track chair. They’ve got some kind of a roller track that when it extends down, it kind of hooks up, click, like railroad – I said ‘Is it like railroad tracks,’ they said ‘Yeah, like railroad tracks,’ – and they hook up, and then the rollers can go up and down the back when it’s horizontal. That’s pretty cool, the chair was a very nice looking chair, a very handsome chair, they also have the new Ogawa Refresh, which has a new exterior upholstery. It’s different from anything I’ve ever seen before, it’s more of a, like a hard, nylon, like Kevlar, or something, I don’t know what it was – I don’t even really know what Kevlar is, but I know it’s a different kind of material – maybe I meant to say tiling, I have no idea, but anyway the material’s different. And I’ve got this on video, but I haven’t got the video edited, and spliced together yet, but I’ll post that later this week, so you can check that out on the video, so you can see those two chairs. But anyway, the Active, the Ogawa Active is a nice chair, it’s $4995, with a $500 instant savings, we have it on the website, you can go study it, I’ll have the video up later this week, and we should have it in our showroom in the next month or two, but the Ogawa Active, nice looking chair.

[SCREEN TEXT: 888-259-5380]

Alan: OK, also, you know what, also, nothing, I think that’s about it for this week, Flex 3s, the Inada Flex 3s on sale for $4999, the Ultra for $2995, and in ‘Brown,’ iRobotics 7 not out yet, Panasonic MA73 on back-order until the middle of June, and the Osaki Japan chair is out. And of course, I have mentioned this over the last two months that there’s a big announcement to be made, I’m so sorry for people that are still inquiring about it. I’ve been kind of, a little discreet about it, but hopefully I’ll have some news on it soon, but I will make that announcement to you soon enough. Anyway, I think that’s about it for this week. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 888-259-5380, I’m always available, and if I’m not, someone else will be, and then I can always get back to you. Also, if you found this video helpful, please thumbs up ‘Like’ us on YouTube, or share us on your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and Google Plus accounts, we appreciate you helping us spread the word about massage chairs. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ and I’m going to see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.

Click on the following link to watch this Massage Chair Industry Update on our YouTube channel.

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