Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – May 4, 2015”

Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Monday, May 4th, 2015, and we’ll get right in to it. We’ve got a few things to cover today, good stuff, some new stuff.

[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]

Alan: Anyway, as far as stock goes, the only – let’s see, Inada DreamWave, I believe they’re in stock on that chair, and their other chairs, Human Touch, I believe, is in stock on all their chairs, and there’ll be some news coming from Human Touch later this year, later this summer, and I’ll relay that to you when it happens, but I think there’s some exciting stuff happening at Human Touch, and again, I’ll pass that on to you as that becomes available to me, I just – I’ve just been told that there’s some stuff to look forward to. Osaki, I believe, is in stock on all their chairs, Inada’s good. Titan is still back-ordered on the 8400, it’s been months for us to get that, at least the ‘Brown’ Titan 8400 in stock, and it’s supposed to be in this week, you know, cross our fingers, knock on wood. Apex chairs are in stock, I believe the Panasonic – usually the Panasonics, we often will struggle with stock of the MA73, but I – we had a couple of orders last week, or in the last couple of weeks, and they seem to be in stock, so I’m optimistic about that. I know that the 30007 from Panasonic was back-ordered a bit, that is supposed to be in this week. Human Touch, Inada, who’ve I missed, Cozzia, I never really am quite aware of their stock status, but I understand that they’ve got plenty of stock in California, in their warehouse. Who else have we – oh, Infinite Therapeutics is good – their stock is good as well. So, I think I mentioned this two weeks ago on our last update, there’s always decent stock in the summer time. It’s near the end, when we get to, the end of the year, when we get to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday, that’s when things start going haywire, and we start running out of chairs. So, but just know that there’s good stock right now, and if you have to wait, it might be a couple of weeks, if you’ve got a back-order. But don’t wait until the chairs are in, always order ahead of time, just to make sure that they’re here, and make sure that you get one, when it does come in, if it is back-ordered.

[SCREEN TEXT: iRobotics 7 Update]

Alan: OK, let’s talk a little bit about iRobotics 7. The iRobotics 7 was supposed to be out a few weeks ago. When I went to visit them, back, I believe it was in March, they said it would be within three to four weeks, they’d have it out, while I – because they were still working on the software components of it, but I think they’re – or I know they’re still back-ordered on, or not back-ordered, it still hasn’t been launched fully yet, and it should be, last I heard was the first week of May, which is this week. So, we would expect to see the iRobotics 7 out and about, and ready to sell. It’s an interesting chair, and I’m looking forward to see it again. I sat on it when I visited them, but their touchscreen remote is cool, they got foot rollers, they’ve got a nice long roller track, not an extended roller track, but a nice roller track, nice looking chair. It’s got – well, what am I, what else is there – I can’t remember off the top of my head, but it’s got some very, very nice features that I think you’re going to really enjoy, it’s a very, very nice, nice chair. It’s Taiwanese components and American components, the Taiwanese components are imported, the American components are, of course, made by Luraco in their warehouse in – or in their little factory there in Arlington, Texas, and it’s assembled here, and every chair that’s assembled – every chair that is ordered from Luraco gets assembled there, and then quality tested, control tested there, which is fantastic. So, they’ve got great customer support, or quality-control support, right before the chair ships, from the US, not from overseas. So, anyway, we expect to see that iRobotics soon.

[SCREEN TEXT: Japanese vs. Taiwanese vs. Chinese]

Alan: Speaking of Taiwanese chairs, I think I’ll just mention that, and I’ve written about this before, the best chairs out there are considered to be – the Japanese chairs are considered to be the best chairs out there – Inada, Panasonic, the Fujiiryoki chairs, the best quality chairs, they may not have the feature set that you want, in a particular model, but the quality of the chairs is second to none, and then we rate the Taiwanese chairs as number two. The Taiwanese chairs have, are good quality, they’re a better quality chair than the mainland Chinese chairs, but 90% of the chairs are made in mainland China, and they are the third – in a hierarchy, it would be, you know, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, in my humble opinion, and the Taiwanese chairs, there’s a few of them that – it’s not overtly advertised, which are Taiwanese, and which are Chinese, but I will tell you that the iRobotics 7, which we just mentioned, is a Taiwanese, it has Taiwanese components. So, the quality of the components are better than what we might expect on the Chinese imports. The Infinity IT-9800 is a Taiwanese-made chair, good quality chair, and you can tell when you get that chair, the remote’s a little different, it functions not quite as intuitively as the Chinese chairs – or not, I shouldn’t say as intuitively – but if you’re used to Chinese chairs, and you’re used to the way that they operate, the Taiwanese will seem a little different, a little counterintuitive, but a very, very well made chair. And then, the third chair that I, that comes to mind is the new Apex Regent, from the Osaki/Titan family, and that is a Taiwanese-made chair as well, very good quality, good chair, it’s got – and as far as that chair goes, I’ve had it in my showroom before, it’s got 3D roller intensity adjustment, and you can – that roller moves out 3.5 inches, I mean, it really can move forward and grab you. It’s got a good neck and shoulder massage, which a lot of chairs lack. It’s a very nice chair, not a huge chair, it doesn’t take up a tremendous amount of space, very space efficient. It’s got a heating pad that you can actually put over your chest, and warm your chest muscles, or your viscera, and you can also put your hands in the pockets of this heater, which is cool, we’ve never seen that in a chair before. It also has a little, kind of like a mini remote control, from the top of one of the hand – I can’t remember if it’s the right, I can’t remember if it’s the right or left, I think it’s the left hand – but anyway, it’s got a little, it’s a quick remote there, that you can adjust things on the chair, right from your fingertips, and then a little, a little plug in for you to plug your phone in, and listen to music. But anyway, good quality chair, but those are the Taiwanese chairs that come to my mind, the IT-9800, the iRobotics 7, and of course, the Apex Regent, which is the new model for Apex.

[SCREEN TEXT: Apex Ultra Sale Price – $2995!!]

Alan: Apex is a new line from Osaki, they have the Regent, the Regal, and the Ultra, and now, the Ultra. The price when that first came out was $4395, but for some reason that I’m not completely clear on, they’ve dropped the price down to $2995, at least for the current, existing stock, and I sold quite a few of those models since that price drop, which we actually experienced last week. So, for a good chair that has the extended roller track, it’s a smaller chair, so it won’t fit a huge, you know, six foot plus guy, or gal, but it’s a good chair, good feature set, it’s got the foot rollers. And if you watched my video on YouTube, you saw, I sat in it, and you can see me talking a little bit about it with Chris, the guy at Osaki, and it’s a more compact chair. It’s got the extended roller track, and has foot rollers, and it has calf rollers, behind the top of your calves, which are kind of cool. It’s got a good, firm neck massage, very vigorous, neck and shoulder massage, and it has arm, and hip airbags, and all the rest of it, but for $2995, it’s a very good price.

[SCREEN TEXT: Apex Ultra vs. Titan 8400]

Alan: Now, the other chair that comes from that family of chairs is the Titan 8400, which is also $2995. And I would probably give the nod to the Apex for the feature set, but for fitting a taller person, probably want to go with the Titan 8400, and when I say taller, I mean, like 6′ 1″ and above, the Titan 8400 will be better for you.

[SCREEN TEXT: 18 Month, 0% Interest Financing – Synchrony Bank – May 20 – June 2]

Alan: But anyway, OK, Synchrony Bank has their 18-month processing fee break for me, May 20th for 10 days, so May 20th to, I guess, the 1st of June, but just wanted you to know that – and you’re probably aware of this from other updates – but we use Synchrony Bank for our financing, and you can get 6 to 12-month financing any time of the year. But the reason we don’t carry higher financing month periods is because of the processing fees, they’re outlandish, they’re like 15 to 20%, and that eats up all the profit margin. And so, a few times a year, and Memorial Day is one of them, they lower the rates down to around 9%, which is still outlandishly high, or maybe it’s 7%, still outrageous, because credit card processing fees are like 3 to 3.5%, and PayPal is 3%. So, these guys, they get us, coming and going, with the financing, but anyway, from May 20th, for the next, for 10 days after that, it’ll be 18 months, will be available. So, jump on that, if you’re waiting for a decent financing opportunity. Let’s see, what else – oh, Cozzia chairs, now, Cozzia chairs are Chinese chairs, made in the East Pao factory in China, same place where the Osaki chairs are made, and maybe, I don’t know, all of them, but a lot of the Titan chairs are made there as well, East Pao makes a lot of chairs, and now Cozzia – and I’ve always had a weird relationship with Cozzia, because I can only sell online, certain models, but I cannot have them in my showroom. So, they’re online only models, so I’ve never sat in them, I have no idea what they feel like. I can compare them to other Osaki chairs, or Titan chairs, that are similar look, and similar feel, and that probably have the same components, but I’ve never sat on a Cozzia chair in my showroom. I’ve never had one, and the reason that is, is because I’m considered an online retailer, even though I have a showroom store here, in Salt Lake City, Utah. They will not even let me have a Cozzia model here in my showroom foyer, because another company, called RC Willey, has an exclusive to the Cozzia brand, here in Utah, and wherever else. So, it’s kind of a weird deal, I’ve never liked it, it’s always been a bit goofy to me. I’ve sold a few Cozzia chairs, but without really having context of what those chairs are like, I’ve not really been able to, you know, pitch them, because I don’t really know about them, and I’m not going to pitch a chair that I don’t know about.

[SCREEN TEXT: Ogawa Massage Chairs!]

Alan: Well, I heard that changes were coming, and I was going to go visit Cozzia when I visited Fujiiryoki and Human Touch, back in March, I think, but they said ‘Wait, wait, we’ve got some news, and we want to visit with you after the news is out, which is going to be around June.’ Well, they just announced, this last week or two, that they’ve got a new line of chairs called Ogawa, O-G-A-W-A, and there’s only two chairs, and they’ll also have a couple of smaller massage devices for the feet and calves. But the two chairs they have, one’s called the Ogawa Active, the other one’s called the Ogawa Refresh, and I think the Active is going to be priced at around $2695, $2895, something like that, and the Refresh is going to be priced at $4995, and I’m excited about this line, and I’m going to tell you why. Number one, it’s made in one of the top three factories in China, which is East Pau. So, we know that the Chinese quality on that one is going to be as good as any other major factory. There’s a lot of small factories, excuse me, excuse me, small factories in China that don’t make as good a quality of chair, but the East Pau chairs are good chairs, and the Ogawa chairs are going to be made there. The second reason I’m excited about it is because not only do I put them on my website, but I can have them in my store, hello. So, now I can actually do a review on them, and do some videos on them, and you know, give you some feedback as to what the chair is really like. And the third reason I’m excited about them, even though there’s only two models, one of them, the Refresh, excites me, and I’ve not seen it yet, and I’ve not experienced it. I hope to experience it in the new few weeks when I’m visiting in California again, but it has an extended roller track, and the chair can recline, fully horizontal, like a bed. Now, the reason I’m excited about that is because all the other chairs that have L-tracks – like the Iyashi, like the 8400, like the Apex Ultra, like the Titan Alpine, which is our most popular selling chair right now, they – the chair back and the seat are one unit, because the extended roller track goes down and underneath, and so you can’t flatten it out, because it’s a hard track, a hard, rigid steel track. Well, they’ve come up with an innovative technology, where they separate, I think, the chair-back rollers from the seat rollers. So, now you can separate, the seat from the chair back, and you still have the going all the way down in to your butt. Now, I don’t know if they end at the low back, and then a new set of rollers start on the butt, and when I talked to their guys last week, I’m not even sure if they were completely sure of how the technology works, but it does work. I asked them if it was 3D, and they said no, and none of the other L-track chairs are 3D, but I’m excited to try this chair out, and it sounds like a good chair. I’m excited to have in our showroom, but I’ll know more about that in the weeks to come, as I try this thing out, but anyway, just thought I’d throw that bone out to you, the Ogawa chairs. We’re going to have them on our website, probably – well, hopefully we’ll have the category up on our website this week, and then the chairs themselves in the next – in the next week or two. Anyway, enough of that.

[SCREEN TEXT: WholeBody 5.1 & 7.1 from Human Touch]

Alan: The WholeBody 5.1 and 7.1 chairs, from Human Touch, are on our website now. I had the 7.1 information on there, but I hadn’t written some of the summaries of it, and the 5.1 replaces the old 2.0, the WholeBody 2.0, and the 7.1 and the 5.1 are nice chairs. They’re nice to sit on, they’re nice looking chairs, they both have the swivel base, they’re a good looking, small chair. But when I visited Human Touch a couple of months ago, as I alluded to earlier, I sat on the 7.1, and I recorded – I think I recorded that, but it’s a nice chair for – it’s $1799, it’s under $2000. It’s got the figure-eight rollers in the calves, it’s got the new FlexGlide Orbital massage technology on the back, which is supposed to reduce the pinching and the grabbing. Oh, and it had, it had the Body Pro, BodyMap Pro, which is like kind of a scanning thing, but what was really cool about it was it had this convection, warm-air convection system for heating the back. It wasn’t a heating pad, put somewhere here or there, it was an actual convection system of moving warm air around your back, so you could feel it throughout your back, and it was very comfortable. I remember sitting in it, and being quite impressed with how comfortable the chair was, and how comfortable the heat was, but the chair’s kind of cool, for under $2000. Man, that’s probably my chair of choice for under $2000. And I think the rollers, if I remember correctly, went down pretty low in to the low back too, which was a knock of some of the earlier Human Touch chairs, that the rollers didn’t go down past the belt line. Well, now they go down a little lower, and I think that’s pretty dang cool. I like that chair, and I plan to bring that in to the showroom.

[SCREEN TEXT: 1-Month Old Inada DreamWave Available ONLY $7699]

Alan: And let’s see, one last thing before we go, I have a ‘Brown’ DreamWave. It’s only a month old, and it was in – and we shipped it to Arizona, we’ve had it shipped back here – it’s in the boxes right here in the back of our showroom. But it’s in impeccable, perfect, pristine condition, it’s a brand new chair, brand new Inada DreamWave chair, and I’m selling that one for $7699. Now, it’s regularly $8499, we’re doing it for $7699, so that’s $800 off, and it’s one month old. The warranty’s all still intact, three year, parts-and-labor, in-home warranty. The Inada DreamWave, as you know, is considered one of the – if not the world’s best massage chair – and it is a wonderful chair. Even with all the other chairs that are coming out on the market, I still sell plenty of this chair, because of its popularity, and because of its quality. The Japanese chairs, Inada, case in point, less than a 1% failure rate, close to a zero failure rate, three year, parts-and-labor warranty, it’ll last you 15 to 20 years, wonderful, wonderful, well-made chairs, and Inada’s one of the oldest massage chair companies in the world. I think it started in 1961, or ’62, or ’63, and massage chairs didn’t even show up until the first prototype was built in 1959, so Inada’s been around, they know what they’re doing. The chair is in magnificent, pristine condition, ‘Brown,’ which is a color that they’re often back-ordered on, and it’s a dark, dark brown, a very handsome looking chair. But, and this is not the old Sogno, this is the new Inada DreamWave, it’s only a month old, for heaven’s sake. Call me if you want it, you call me at my phone number, can you read that number there? It’s 888-259-5380, 888-259-5380, call me, and I’ll – it’s first come, first serve, it’s just this one chair, it’s boxed, ready to go – it’ll ship out tomorrow, or today, or whenever you call me, and you’ll have that chair in a matter of days. So, I think that is about it, I mentioned two weeks ago that I had some big news to announce, and I’m still working on this. Hopefully I’ll have this for you in the next, on the next update, I thought things would happen a little quicker than they are, but it’s taking some time, but I’m excited to announce this, some stuff to you, and we’ll do that, knock on wood, fingers crossed again, on the next update. Well, that should do it for this week. I am Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’ Thanks for watching this industry update. If you want to check out any of our other videos on chair features, go to our YouTube channel, which is MassageChairRelief, it’s http://youtube.com/massagechairrelief. And of course, if you found this video helpful, thumbs up ‘Like’ us on YouTube, and share us on your Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn accounts, to help us spread the word about massage chairs. Have a fantastic day, and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.

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