Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – June 28, 2015”

Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for June 28th, 2015.

[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]

Alan: And not a whole lot of things to cover today, but I will go over stock status, as far as I have it. As far as I’m aware, most companies have good stock on their chairs. Inada has announced that they will probably have a bit of a shortage in July and August, but it’ll be at most, from what I understand, a one or two week wait. That’s for their DreamWave, other chairs are OK, as far as stock goes. Inada still has their Flex 3s on sale for $4999, that ends on July 5th, so that’s $1000 off the regular price. So, the Inada Flex 3s, Japanese quality, Japanese made, from Inada, is on sale. Also, I believe the – oh, and Panasonic, for some reason, Panasonic, and I have griped about this many times, their inventory management is different than the other companies – and of course, we have orders for Panasonic MA73s, that’s really the only chair we sell from Panasonic right now. I mean, we sell the other ones on the website, but the only one that gets any play, or gets looked at, or bought, is the MA73, and that one’s always back-ordered. So, we have asked Panasonic to at least include two to three orders a month for us, for our company, and they said they would, but yet, we still struggle with inventory, but anyway, that chair’s back-ordered until July 10th, that week. Also, the Osaki/Titan/Apex chairs are in good stock, I believe. I know Human Touch is good, Ogawa’s good, Cozzia’s good, Infinite Therapeutics is good, I think everybody else is pretty good, as far as their stock goes.

[SCREEN TEXT: Apex Ultra Now In Our Showroom]

Alan: Now, hey, we received the Apex Ultra in our showroom a week ago, and that is the new – Apex is that newer line from the Osaki/Titan company, and the Ultra’s been a fairly popular chair, it started – when it came to the market, a few months back, it was, it came in at $4395, now it’s $2995, and I explained in a previous industry update why the price is lower, but it’s a good bang for the buck. I’ve sat on it quite a bit, I’ve had a few customers sit on it. It’s not great if you’ve got long legs, and you’re over like 6, maybe over 6′, 6’1″ and you’ve got longer legs, because your knees kind of come up a little bit, and so your calves aren’t flush against the back of the calf massager, or the calf, the ottoman, calf well, and so you can’t feel the calf massagers, they have a roller on there, and so you can’t feel that as well if you’ve got longer legs. Plus, your thighs will be kind of up, off the seat a little bit, if your legs are too long. So, you kind of have to play with the chair, recline it, it’s got three different zero gravity positions, so you can recline it quite a ways back, about 165 degrees, I think, and then you can drop the ottoman, so you’ve got your chair back, and then you drop the ottoman, and you’ll get a better positioning with your legs, but you’ll have to finagle it a bit, if you’re a little bit taller. It’s a vigorous massage too, like it does a very vigorous massage on the neck, and you know, the shoulder/neck area. It has the – of course, it’s got the extended roller track down to the butt – which is fantastic, I think, and it’s got foot rollers, calf rollers, it’s got a little music thing you can plug your phone in there, and play some music on these little speakers by your ears. It’s a smaller chair, it doesn’t take up quite as much space, it’s narrower, you should be able to get it through any door. It comes assembled as one piece, you don’t need to assemble anything, and so you just have to get the chair in your home, and unpack it, and you’re good to go. Anyway, that’s pretty much the update on the Ultra, and so, again, a very popular chair right now. If you want a gentle massage, this one’s going to be a little bit overbearing for you, you might want to use a throw blanket, or some kind of towel, or something like that, to dampen the massage intensity. The foot roller’s quite intense, you’ll have to turn the airbags down if you find it too intense. I did get an email though, from a customer that bought one, and Jonathan said in his email that when they first sat in it, it was quite intense for them, and they were a little concerned about it, but after, I think, three or four days of sitting on it, they got very accustomed to it, and it was no problem, so they love it now. So, and that, that of course, that’s a lesson for any chair, don’t – if you feel like a chair is too intense for you, you know, give it some time – that’s one of the reasons why we give you a 90-day money back guarantee, it gives you three months to try the chair out. Well, maybe not three, if you include, you know, the shipping time of a week or two, but it gives you plenty of time to try the chair and get accustomed to it, and don’t give up on a chair right away. Sometimes you’ll get a chair, and you’ll sit on it, and you’ll go ‘Oh, this is just too rough for me.’ Well, you sit on it a little bit longer, and you get used to it, and all of a sudden ‘Hey, you know what this is not a bad chair,’ and I hear this all the time, so give it some time.

[SCREEN TEXT: iRobotics 7 Now Available!!]

Alan: OK, the iRobotics 7 is actually available now, actually available, and it’s been months since I went to Dallas. I think it was March when I went, or maybe even February, I can’t remember, but I went there, and sat on their prototype in their factory, and I liked it, but I can’t even remember how it felt now, because it’s been so long since I sat on it, but it is now available. It’s $8490, is the price, so similar to the DreamWave price, call me if you’re interested in the chair. I’ve got a – I’ve kind of got a little bit of an introductory special on it – but it’s only, you know, through the phone, or for people that come to the showroom. So, give me a call if you’re interested in that chair, but it is a nice chair, a well-built chair. Remember, a good portion of the chair is manufactured here in America, in Dallas, in their factory, or their headquarters in Dallas, and then they have imported Taiwanese parts, and Taiwanese parts –Taiwanese chairs are considered to be good quality – if you were to rate quality of chairs, Japanese would be the top, Taiwanese would be the second, mainland Chinese would be the third, as far as level of quality. They’re always continually getting better, but the Taiwanese chairs have a reputation of being quite solid. There’s a couple of Taiwanese chairs that we carry, one is the Infinite Therapeutics IT-9800, and the other one is the Apex Regent, which is made by Johnson Wellness Chairs, or Johnson Wellness, and anyway, Taiwanese chairs are good. So, this is what this chair has, and it’s also got the remote control that looks like a phone, and it feels like a phone. It’s got a very – it looks and feels just like a smartphone, you can touch – it’s an actual touchscreen, with icons that you can touch for various things – it’s pretty cool, and pretty progressive. It’s got a 32-inch roller track, which is, it’s not an extended roller track, like an L-track, but for a traditional track, it’s pretty long, 32 inches is a pretty long track. That’s longer – as a matter of fact, I think that’s the longest track, outside or extended roller tracks, that’s the longest track that I’m – that I think we’re aware of. Before that it was 31 inches, and I think Panasonic MA73 has that, I believe the Dreamer has that, couple of other chairs have a little longer traditional track. Let’s see, so I’ve got the iRobotics 7 up on the website. The photos on the website are not so great, they were too big, and so my web guy’s got to work on the photos, so I don’t know if they’re – I haven’t checked this morning to see if they were adjusted – but the iRobotics 7 product is actually on our website. You can read all the features there, you can go on a comparison chart, and compare it, and see what it, you know, what it has, all the features it has, and hopefully the pictures are up, ready to go today, but we will have that, if not, it’ll be done this weekend.

[SCREEN TEXT: Ogawa Active SuperTrac]

Alan: Let’s see, oh, the Ogawa Active, the Active, I received an email on Friday from them, saying that they’ve changed the name to the Ogawa Active SureTrac. Now, SureTrac is the name of their roller track, they’re kind of giving this patented track a name, it’s called SureTrac, and what this does is the Ogawa Active has an L-track, so it follows the S-curve of the spine, and goes under the butt, and that’s the L-portion of the massage. Well, all the other chairs that have L-tracks, you can not flatten the chairs out, it’s one piece of back, and seat. So, it kind of is like a scoop, and so when you recline it, it scoops back, it scoops under, but it’s always in that zero-gravity position, you can not flatten it out, which might be a concern for some people, or an issue for some people, I know some people have asked about that. Well, they’ve come out with a chair now, and this special SureTrac, or SuperTrac – oh, my goodness, I can’t even remember the name of it, what was it, is it SureTrac, or SuperTrac – I think it’s SuperTrac, I can’t remember now, I can’t even remember, but I just got the email about it, and we’ve changed the name on the website. But anyway, what it does is it allows the chair to flatten out, and then the track under the butt, and the track on the back, hook up, kind of like a railroad track, and now the rollers can go up and down your back, down in to your butt, when you’re in a completely horizontal position, so that’s kind of cool, and that’s the Ogawa Active.

[SCREEN TEXT: Ogawa Active Price = $4999]

Alan: And they also lowered the price, their minimum advertised price has just dropped from $5499 to $4999, plus we have a $500 instant savings on it. So, you can get that chair for $4499, which is a good price for an L-track, that’s right in line with other chairs, like the – well, right in line, you know, with the Iyashi, Titan Alpine, Ultra – all those chairs in that $3000 to $5000 price point. So, anyway, nice chair, and I went and visited Cozzia/Ogawa a few weeks ago, and you probably saw the video on our YouTube channel. But we actually have the chief operating officer, COO, Mark Holmes, sitting on a chair – and he’s one of the head guys that actually comes from Hong Kong, and the factory that’s in Shaolin, China, and he’s like one of their principals over there – and he’s sitting on the chair, and explaining how it works, and how it feels, and you can watch that video, anytime.

[SCREEN TEXT: S-Track vs. L-Track]

Alan: Also, let’s see, oh, I wrote – speaking of L-tracks and S-tracks, I wrote an article – I get a lot of people, this is the question they ask ‘Does this chair have S-track or L-track?’ Well, you have to understand that S-track is on every chair. Every chair has the track that follows the curvature of the spine, the L-track is just those chairs that have extended that curve underneath the butt, and to the top of the hamstrings. So, every chair has an S-track, whether it’s an L-track chair, or not. And you can read that article, I talked about it, I even put some pictures in there, and I kind of go in to detail, explaining the differences and similarities between L-track, and S-track chairs, so check that out on my blog.

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