Duffy and the iFIT team are focused on integrating AI, digital content, and hardware to build the ultimate fitness experience
Kevin Duffy, a longtime audio industry executive, joined health and fitness company iFIT a little more than a year ago with high aspirations.
“Our vision is to build the world’s most effective fitness platform,” Duffy, who took over as CEO of iFIT in October 2022, told Athlete News.
To achieve that goal, Duffy and the iFIT team will rely on equipment from iFIT-owned brands such as Freemotion Fitness, NordicTrack and ProForm, as well as a vast catalog of brand-specific fitness content.
Under Duffy’s watch, iFIT also plans to lean more into artificial intelligence. The Utah-based company recently announced the launch of AI Coach, a tool designed to help iFIT users achieve their fitness goals with personalized, adaptive training.
Athlete News spoke with Duffy about why he entered the fitness industry after a long career in audio, his long-term vision for iFIT, and the state of connected fitness post-pandemic.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Athlete News: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and why you wanted to join iFIT?
Kevin Duffy:I’ve worked for a company called Sound United for nearly 20 years, and for the past six years I’ve been the CEO. We were owners of premium and high-end audio brands such as Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, and Polk Audio. That company was sold in his April 2022. Six months later, in October 2022, I joined iFIT.
I really like working in a “passion business” – a business where you’re passionate about something. In audio, it was about entertainment, whether it was music or movies. When I took this position, I obviously had a much greater passion for health and fitness outcomes from a social perspective.
At the same time, iFIT has some key assets that we think are interesting. First of all, of course, is the brand. NordicTrack is a very strong brand that has been built over several decades. Freemotion, our brand used for commercial channels, offers versatility along with ProForm, and with iFIT on top of everything. Significant capital is invested in developing iFIT content. And we’re backed by L Catterton, a well-known investor in all things consumer products, especially in the fitness space.
Finally, this industry is in transition and an opportunity for change. All these things together were exciting for me because I don’t really like to just sit still.
ATN: How does iFIT differentiate itself from its competitors, both in the fitness content space and in the equipment space?
KD: In terms of digital fitness, our content is unique and highly engaging. It’s what we call “destination fitness.” You can walk along the Cliffs of Moher with Irish Olympians. I recently did that training, so I’m using that as an example. It’s so cool to get on the treadmill, run with Olympians, and do intervals. She says, “Okay, let’s go,” and the ramp moves on its own. It’s called smart adjustment. That’s really motivating. It makes me want to run farther than I would run alone. We provide content for every region on all seven continents and were nominated for an Emmy Award for climbing Mount Everest. You can even run with penguins in Antarctica. There is almost nothing you can’t do.
On the hardware side, I come from a company that manufactures a lot of hardware. It takes a lot of time and years of repetition to get good at building hardware. The fact that NordicTrack has been doing this for his 40 years makes it very differentiated, as does Freemotion. We will continue to modernize our hardware, which is already a huge asset. Our dual cable cross products are popular in every gym. Our treadmill is definitely the best treadmill in the gym.
ATN: How does iFIT balance the fitness content and equipment sides of the business?
KD: From my perspective, if you’re using our equipment, great, if you’re not using our equipment, great, people just need to keep training. That is our mission. But I think his iFIT at the gym is fascinating. iFIT is currently running on our partner’s Matrix equipment as an example. There’s no reason it can’t run on all hardware. I think that’s a very logical possibility.
Our hardware products need to be able to stand on their own, but we also need to leverage our content and iFIT software.
ATN: What is your vision for the future of iFIT?
KD: Our vision is to create the world’s most effective fitness platform. The word “effective” is really important to me. A lot is said about improving health in general, but from my perspective, as an industry, we haven’t improved health outcomes enough. As we look to the future of our company, we want to make it even more of a reality. I think we’re at a unique moment where technologies like AI are making that even more possible.
ATN: How are you working to make that vision a reality?
KD: There is a huge opportunity to personalize and create more habit formation. Personalization is so important because everyone’s approach to fitness is completely different. Some people want to run a 10K, some people want to run a marathon, some people want to lose 5 pounds, and some people just want to lift their grandkids.
Launching AI Coach to personalize content and habit formation. Creating habits is a very personal experience. I sometimes joke, but I wish someone would say, “You know what? Why not? ” But if you did what everyone else did, you would lose hundreds of thousands of subscribers, because people have different motivations. Some are motivated by community, others are motivated by achievement. Some people are motivated by goals and goals. Some people are motivated by a little nudge, like an AI coach waking them up at 6:30 a.m. and saying, “You promised to work out at 7 a.m., so here’s your workout.” Some people just need it. Are you ready to roll?
ATN: Given the recent market turmoil, how confident are you in the future of connected fitness?
KD:I think we are in a transition period. While this growth was occurring before COVID-19, coronavirus accelerated the rate of growth to essentially unsustainable levels for everyone using connected fitness. Then we returned to a post-COVID reality as gyms opened and there was a lot of disruption. That’s all well and good, as a large amount of inventory was purchased during the coronavirus period. Much of that work was completed in 2023. We’re in a good position to get through it, but I think the industry still has some way to go to get through all of this.
But looking ahead a few years, the future of connected fitness is undeniable. People’s training routines have become more fluid. It’s hard to believe that the world three to five years from now won’t be substantially bigger than it is today. That’s another reason I came to iFIT.