I remember reading about this one about a year or so ago. It’s the Gym Concept Car by a person named Da Feng. It is exactly how it sounds. It has a transformable mobile gym inside of it. So, yes, initially crazy – sounding idea that might invoke images such as those endlessly long limousines with everything in them including the kitchen sink from some old cartoon, or perhaps this Goofy cartoon from the 1940’s:
After the initial craziness fog has cleared, however, how does one actually weight this concept? The Diseno-art page claims that this is what concept cars do in the first place: challenge norms and create new boundaries, and what better way to do this than with a crazy idea? After all, crazy ideas are simply those that people are often completely unfamiliar and uncomfortable with, so they shy away from them and label them negatively. Sometimes these comments are just, but many times they are not, as far as I’m concerned.
But what about this particular concept? Does it deserve negativity or is there something underneath it all that could actually be practical in some way? I personally think so.
The car’s built-in array of exercise equipment apparently includes a stepping machine, rowing machine, bench press, pull up simulator and arm weights. The car can even be charged by the energy used by the person working out. Note that this isn’t the only way to juice up the vehicle, as its batteries come with a plug-in socket. Sounds interesting, to be honest. Still kinda crazy, but interesting nonetheless.
While I don’t advocate in any way this design be incorporated into any consumer models (I don’t really get the need for outlandish millionaire toys. I’m not rich enough to appreciate them), I do kind of see some sort of practicality in this when it comes to business uses.
The Gym Taxi, for example. The gym looks to be constructed in such a way that it maximizes space as much as possible, so it could be done in such a way that the gym be placed in the back passenger area without the need to add more space to your average taxi cab. Standard taxis that roam around cities probably shouldn’t be equipped with this, but rent-a-cabs and such could. Now, the business major in me screams that this most probably won’t cover the costs of outfitting and maintaining the vehicles, even without a marketing survey of any kind. This would probably work in an area where rent-a-cabs are an extremely popular industry. As such, at least one of the companies might be brave enough to take a risk on this venture to challenge the rest of the competitors. If the product is marketed well enough and the business strategy is sound, then why not, right? Big business is all about taking chances.
The fitness buff in me is all for the idea, of course. It’s why I took time to write out this article in the first place. I’m always all for ideas that promote better overall health for everyone in any way, no matter how initially wacky they may seem. If they’re just wacky, then I throw them away, but if they have some glimmer of hope, like this one, then I’ll side with it for sure.
What about airplanes? Well, the mini gyms would take up too much space for economy seats, so that’s definitely out, but what about for the extremely spacious first class and business sections? Some airlines might bite, if the likelihood of people paying extra for their business class seats to have mini gyms is moderate enough. Could be, could be. But more thought should be placed in the matter.
So, yeah, I kinda like this thing. The idea, mind you, not the concept car itself. I feel that there’s some sort of future behind this “mobile gym” business, but someone just needs to properly tap in some way.
