Quell is positioning itself as a kind of low-cost version of Peloton (less than 1/10 the price, he notes). You could too, if you were in the place of the London startup. With stationary bike maker value skyrocketing during the COVID-19 lockdowns, fitness startups are all the rage - heck, look at Mirror's recent acquisition of Lululemon.
A more appropriate comparison, however, is probably Ring Fit Adventure. The Switch-based peripheral is closer to Quell in terms of price, scale and experience. The startup is taking a similar game-based approach to the fitness experience.
At launch, it plans to offer a boxing-style first-person game that will pit you against an array of monsters on PC, Mac, and iOS (with Android compatibility in the future). What sets Quell's approach apart, however, is the wearable resistance system. It's basically an adjustable system of resistance bands that simulates impact and tracks the wearer's movements through a series of on-board sensors, including a gyroscope and accelerometers.
They are still the early stages here. Today, in fact, marks the launch of the product's Kickstarter campaign, which will seek funding of just over $ 30,000, with the system starting at ~ $ 182 per pop. It dropped from around $ 200 for the final unit, and most importantly, it includes free access to all product software updates. Prospective buyers may be subject to a $ 10 per month fee for premium content.
Like many other things on the system, the subscription model is still being worked on. "There will be a narrative story mode and a quick combat mode that you will have," the company tells ProWellTech. "And the entry fee will expand the possibilities for things like local and online multiplayer, along with new expansion content over time. And there will likely be cosmetic and other enhancements to your character."
Along the way, the system will likely expand to further gaming experiences to keep it fresh. Quell is also exploring the possibility of opening things up to third-party developers to create their own content for the system.
Much of this is still hypothetical, as Quell is still an extremely small team, with four people currently working in one of the founders' London apartments. In fact, the team only really got together in earnest in February and returned full-time two months ago. Despite these humble and recent beginnings, however, the company already has the backing of Y Combinator and $ 10,000 in pre-orders since its website launched last month. It's amazing how much interest in home fitness something like COVID-19 can generate.
Quell plans to begin shipping the product to backers in December. Maybe by then people will be back in the gym. But at this rate, who knows?
