Revbox pitches online to take on the world

After three years of developing, testing, building prototypes and working with experts, Christchurch based developers of the revolutionary stationary wind braked trainer the Revbox ERG, are turning to the Internet to raise funds to take it to the world.

The Revbox Erg is posed to have a huge impact on the international stationary trainer market and after being built in New Zealand its developers have launched a crowd sourcing funding campaign on Kickstarter. 

Indoor cycle trainers have come a long way since they were first developed to use when the weather had turned nasty or during the winter months when there’s less daylight hours, says managing partner and developer of Revbox New Zealand Philipp Schacht. 

He stresses they had clear objectives to create a device that would allow extremely high power outputs, offer a range from very low to very high cadences and would be suitable for even the most powerful elite athletes through to recreational riders wanting to improve. 

“The Revbox ERG is a totally unique machine that utilises air breaking,” he says. “It has no rotational inertia so every part of a pedal stroke is making an athlete stronger. We’ve worked hard to make it light, compact and very cost effective.”

Schacht says their vision is to take the Revbox ERG international and make a real difference to the way people train and get stronger, anyone from people with injuries requiring rehabilitation to keen recreational cyclists balancing work, family and training through to elite athletes wanting to win Olympic medals.”

The Revbox Erg already has several brand ambassadors on board, including Commonwealth Games gold medallist Linda Villumsen who used the Revbox in her build up to last year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games, saying it helped improve her strength, pedalling efficiency and was ‘great to do specific training efforts.’

“You only have to experience the Revbox Erg once to get a real feeling of what it can do for you,” Schacht says. “It can match your lifestyle and your training needs and the world needs to know about it. When combined our new smartphone App, the Revbox ERG is the ultimate cycle training machine.”

In line with Kickstarter.com guidelines, the project has a set number of days to raise all the funds or it receives nothing. The Revbox Erg has a 45-day fundraising window, from start to finish. If the allotted budget ($50,000 NZD) is not reached before 15 April, all pledges are cancelled. 

“The Revbox is protected with several patents in key markets. The first 70 first generation Revbox Ergs sold out very quickly to different athletes of various levels in seven countries and their experiences went into the second generation machine which is now ready to be released to the global market.” 

Schacht says the company now needs additional financial support to set up cost effective production, pay for the tooling and to set up the worldwide distribution channels.