Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – June 26, 2019”
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Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Wednesday, June 26th, 2019. The year is half over almost. It’s hard to believe it’s come and gone so fast, and we are in the dead dog days of summer right now in the massage chair industry, not a lot of things going on.
[SCREEN TEXT: Human Touch SuperNovo ETA – August 1, 2019]
Alan: There are, we are expecting the Human Touch SuperNovo to be coming out soon. I’ve had people start to inquire about it, because we were, we had mentioned originally that it would probably be the second quarter. It looks like they’re probably going to have it ready the first of August. So, the SuperNovo from Human Touch, which is an upgrade from the Novo XT2. The massage itself is pretty close, from what I remember them telling me when I went to test the chair and visit Human Touch about it. The massage mechanism is the same, the programming’s very similar, but this chair does have the Alexa response to get in the chair to operate it. So, this is the first massage chair company that’s actually integrated Amazon Alexa in the function of the chair, which is kind of cool. But anyway, I have a video about the differences – or not the differences – but the upgrades. You can go to my YouTube channel, and type in ‘SuperNovo,’ and you’ll see a video that was a demo video by the staff at Human Touch explaining the differences between the chairs.
[SCREEN TEXT: DreamWave M.8 Back-Ordered for ‘Bordeaux’ & ‘Walnut’ Colors Until Early August]
Alan: Also, OK, so, the DreamWave M.8 has become a very popular chair. There’s been a lot of chatter about the DreamWave M.8, chatter about it as a new chair, and how exciting it is to have that chair here, and a lot of people are quite excited about it, but also some chatter about what that, you know, understanding the difference between the old Inada DreamWave, and the new DreamWave M.8, and the DreamWave Classic, and all that sort of thing, and you can read about those things on my blog, or also on my previous massage chair industry updates, I’ve talked about it in depth. But what I want to say is that the ‘Bordeaux’ and the ‘Walnut’ are on back-order until August. The ‘Pearl’ is low in stock, and the ‘Midnight,’ or the black, and the ‘Saddle,’ or light brown, are in stock. So, there are chairs in stock, but if you want the ‘Walnut’ or the ‘Bordeaux’ colors, the ‘Bordeaux’ is the red one, the ‘Walnut’ is the dark, dark brown. Very handsome-looking chairs, beautiful designed chairs, but anyway, those are on back-order until hopefully the first of August.
[SCREEN TEXT: Brown Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus Back-Ordered Until End of July]
Alan: The brown Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus is on back-order until late July. So, there seems to be back-order on these very popular chairs, the DreamWave is a popular chair, the Luraco iRobotics 7 is a popular chair. There are other chairs that are popular, but they seem to have better inventory, better inventory management right now, so no knock against the other companies, but there are some wonderful chairs out there that have plenty of stock.
[SCREEN TEXT: New Articles on the Article Library/Blog]
Alan: Alright, I’ve put up a couple of articles lately, one that talks about the differences between the DreamWave Classic and the DreamWave M.8. This is a question we get a lot of. They’re both considered made in Japan, but we all know what my feelings are about being made in Japan anymore. Most of those chairs that are made in Japan, if not all of them, have a large percentage of Chinese components, so ‘Made in Japan’ nowadays is more or less addressing what the assembly, the quality-control testing, the programming, and maybe some components that are Japanese, but the components, the primary components, the majority of the components are made in China, everything’s just exported to Japan, where it’s assembled, tested, and programmed. Anyway, so, but I talk about the M.8 being made in Japan, but it’s a different factory from where the original DreamWave Classic is assembled, but also, a lot of attention to detail and engineering, like the old DreamWave Classic, but a lot of new features, like the L-track, like the calf rollers, like the kneading calf airbags, like the you know, aromatherapy, and Bluetooth, and zero gravity, etcetera, etcetera. But if you want to see a comprehensive list, go to my blog, or what I call article library, and you can read about that. Now, I talked about Luraco there for a moment, about them being out of stock. I’d like to also mention that I wrote, I did write an article about, you know, what it means to be made in Japan, or made in America, or made in Korea, or made in China, and for the most part, except for the Luraco chairs, pretty much every chair has components from China, a lot of components from China, the majority of the components are from China. Again, the programming, the assembly, the quality-control testing is probably done in Japan, or most likely done in Japan, I can’t speak for every single chair that claims to be made in Japan, but one thing I can tell you is that the Luraco chairs do not have any Chinese components at all. They have non-critical components that are Taiwanese, and many of their other components, including their motherboards, and the remote, and the programming, and assembly, and testing, and everything is done in America. But after I wrote that article, about you know, made in Japan, and what it really means, versus made in China, Dr. Kevin Lee, who’s the chief technology officers, and one of the principals of Luraco, wrote a very good response about what it means to be made in America, which is what the Luraco chairs are. And here’s the thing, these chairs, OK, so a chair claims to be made in Japan, what does that mean, in Japan? Are there guidelines? Is there legislation, or regulations that determine what constitutes being made in Japan, or made in Korea? Of course, all the rest of the chairs in the world, probably 99% of them are made in China anyway. So, that goes without saying, but America, in America, there are particular guidelines that have to be met, before a company can say ‘Made in America,’ and I know there’ve been a lot of doubters about Luraco’s claim to be made in America, but Dr. Lee goes in to the process and protocols that they went through to be actually approved by the US to say, and legitimately and legally state ‘Made in America.’ It’s a great article, it’s really just an op-ed opinion from Dr. Lee, or input from Dr. Lee, secondary to this article I wrote, but it is very insightful about what it means to be made in America, with some links, and references, and resources to, if you want to do a little bit more studying on it, but great article.
[SCREEN TEXT: We Welcome Comments that ADD to the Conversation!]
Alan: Take a look at it, and if you have any comments, please add to the fray on the article or on our YouTube videos, we just appreciate the additional comments, and adding to the conversation by saying – by the way, I get a lot of interesting comments on my YouTube channel, from people that are either jokesters, or people that are competitors, or people that are just – got people that want to just be, I don’t know, be odd ducks. I mean, I’ve had people, one guy called me Porky Pig, asking why I was the spokesperson for Massage Chair Relief, it is my company, but on a YouTube video, he called me Porky Pig, and asked me why the company uses me as their spokesperson. Another person thought that I am a cocaine user because I’m kind of hyper, and I do twitching, which is not, I don’t use drugs. I don’t even drink alcohol, or drink coffee, or take caffeinated beverages. I’m a pretty clean-living guy, but someone alluded to the fact of, or to the conjecture, that I was using cocaine, and that’s why I was, you know, maybe twitching, and stuff like that, I’m not a tweaker. But anyway, we appreciate comments that add to the conversation legitimately, and if it doesn’t, we usually, if it’s funny, I’ll leave it, if it’s not funny, and it’s meant to hurt me, or be critical of me, or you know, some demeaning thing, we typically delete those because it doesn’t add to the conversation. We want people to talk about massage chairs, and models, and what’s going on in the industry, etcetera, etcetera, and we welcome them.
[SCREEN TEXT: What’s Going On with Inada??]
Alan: OK, also, one thing, and I’ll probably write an article about this, but I’m really curious to know what’s going on with Inada. As you know, Inada is a Japanese company, they are one of the earliest companies in the massage chair industry from the early ’60s. They have been, they have a great reputation, they have put out great products in the past, like the Inada DreamWave, or Inada Sogno DreamWave, they have the Flex 3s, the, oh my goodness, the Flex 3s, and the, oh my goodness, how have I forgotten that chair? Anyway, oh, the Nest, and they have other chairs that they carry in Japan, like the Duet, which was not imported by Inada USA at the time, and now they have a new model called the Therapina, or I think it’s the Therapina, or the, well, I don’t know, I can’t say the other name because it’s embarrassing to say it, but I think they have, it’s a word that doesn’t really make sense in the English language. But anyway, it’s Therapina, but with a couple of additional letters at the end. But anyway, that but you know, now from what I understand, they’re discontinuing the Flex 3s here in America. They’re not going to be shipping that chair to America. The Inada Nest is also on the block, and who knows what will happen eventually with the DreamWave Classic? I don’t know, but and then they had this other Therapina chair, which Inada USA is not – it was in a booth at the Furniture Market – or sorry, at CES back in January, and you know, Furniture for Life, which has the distributorship for Inada USA, they were there, and Inada had their own booth there, and they were showcasing a model called this Therapinus, or Therapina. Anyway, and it’s an interesting chair, I took some video of it, if you want to go back to my CES video from 2019, January 2019, you’ll see the video of it at the show. It’s an interesting looking machine, but Inada USA will not be importing that chair, and I don’t know what, if there’s any other models coming out. From what I’ve heard, things are really in flux at Inada, so it’ll be interesting to see over the next few months, I’ve heard rumors that there may be other companies here in the US that may be starting to carry Inada chairs, I’m not sure, but as I find out more, I will let you know, but I’m kind of curious to know what’s going on with Inada. As a matter of fact, maybe I should reach out to Inada directly, Family Inada in Japan, and ask them what the plans are. As a matter of fact, you know what, I think that may be something that I might do, and then I can relay that to you in another industry update. But anyway, I just thought that was interesting, to see the flux that’s going on right now with the United States. I’ve heard rumors that they’re selling some of their proprietary technology to one of the Chinese factories. I’ve heard rumors that there’s production issues, and there’s personnel issues. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’d like to find out, maybe I can find some information out by contacting Inada Japan directly, and maybe it’s not fair for me to mention these, you know, some of these rumors, but there are some things that are in flux, like the stock, the discontinuing of models, and not importing of new models. It’ll be interesting to see what’s cooking. Anyway, enough of that. Well, I think that’s just about it for this week’s industry update, not terribly long, or not a lot of information. As the summer goes on, it’ll probably be pretty slow. We might see some new models.
[SCREEN TEXT: New Models from Osaki/Titan: Admiral & Yamato]
Alan: I’ve received some emails from Osaki announcing a new model called the Admiral, and another one called the Yamato. They’re both $4000 priced L-track chairs. One is strong, one is weaker. When I say weaker, I mean a softer massage, one has a stronger massage. The softer massage is ideal for maybe elderly folks, or people that are really, really hypersensitive to massage. The Admiral is a more intense massage. We hope to have these chairs up on the website in short order, but so there are some new models coming out from Osaki, Osaki/Titan, which is that company. Anyway, so I’ll let you know as those things come to pass.
[SCREEN TEXT: 888-259-5380]
Alan: Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to give us a ring at 888-259-5380, and either myself or one of my staff members will answer your question for you. I’m always available, you can reach out through, also through our chat, or through our email, or our ‘Contact Us’ page, or our Facebook page, or our YouTube channel. There’s lots of ways to get a hold of me particularly, and us, if you just have some general questions.
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