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Amid ever rising interest in Pilates in Australia and New Zealand and a growing demand for related equipment, a market for fake and counterfeit products has emerged in recent years - something Balanced Body distributor HF Industries is actively combatting.

As revealed in a feature article The Highest Form of Flattery in the latest issue of Australasian Leisure Management (issue 162), and as innovative manufacturers in many nations know all too well, their products are often copied, and Balanced Body’s reformer products are no exception.

Chris Skinner, Managing Director of HF Industries, a supplier of Balanced Body equipment since 1996, has been instrumental in the rising interest. However, this has also spawned a number of imitators.

As Skinner explains “we encounter direct copies of Balanced Body products - even down to trademarks and branding, that are illegally imported into this country, sometimes by suppliers importing multiple items and also for use in a single location - using our name, our images and our materials in their promotions.”

With suppliers, Skinner notes “they import the machine, hold them in a warehouse and get instructors to go and sell them to people and advertise through different media as Balanced Body product, generally about a thousand dollars under our price. We’ve got to know who a lot of them are by their boxing and various other means.

“They’re the easy ones to make phone calls to, advising them of our position, how we protect Balanced Body’s patents and what they need to do.

“But with individual facilities, many have come to us and got a price and then think of how they can get a competitive edge over the rest of the marketplace and go and buy a copy, not wanting to pay the price that we charge.

“In some cases, they know they are buying copies, but some of them actually think that they’re buying Balanced Body product at a cheaper price.”

As for discovering the copies, Skinner and his team look online every day for products that infringe. In addition, he states “a lot of discovery comes to us when someone has purchased a copy and they think that it’s ours and it’s broken down - or they can’t find who sold it to them in the first place - and they then need some service.

“When they ring up, we ask ‘what’s the serial number?’, they say there isn’t one, so we ask them to send us a photo of the equipment, after which we go back to the inquirer and say ‘you’ve bought a product which is illegal, you’ve bought a product which has been copied, you do not have Balanced Body product.”

When fake Balanced Body products are recovered, Skinner has them destroyed.

He notes “we’ve had those who have ‘lawyered up’ - which ends up costing them considerably more, we have had those that want to negotiate, saying ‘we will buy Balanced Body at our next location if we can keep these’ and we have people that say they didn’t realise the product was counterfeit.

“But it’s pretty simple.

“We don’t ever discount our product.

“We don’t show favouritism to any particular company.

“We supply many of the major fitness and wellness groups and they are all on an equal playing field as far as we are concerned.

“We provide them with different variations and different machines in our range to suit their purposes.

“But to have someone down the road from them who has purchased an illegal product, who promotes themselves as a facility with Balanced Body product, then uses our pictures, our name to try and attract business - that takes business away from the people that have actually come to us and purchased our product.

“We feel we have justification to stop the copies and protect our clients, because our clients are our future and our clients come back and continue to buy from us when they open new studios and facilities.

“They expect us to provide them with service, support and the backing that we’ve given for 46 years.”

Why Australia?
While Balanced Body protects its patents around the world, Australia is at the forefront of the brand’s efforts in relation to combatting counterfeiting.

The reason is, unlike many other nations, Australia’s love of group exercise.

Skinner explains “while the number one exercise worldwide is dance, the number one exercise in Australia is Pilates reformer classes. That’s where it’s at. America is starting to catch up. Europe is starting to catch up. We have inquiries coming through our website every day from all over Europe, Singapore, Taiwan are taking off and Korea is strong, but not so in the actual commercial fitness market.”

Taking Action
When HF Industries discovers copy Balanced Body equipment, Skinner explains “what we do - depending on where it is - is to notify them they are infringing with illegal product. We ask when they bought the item and who they bought it from. We require them to take down any reference to Balanced Body in the marketing and promotional material.

“Some people are upfront, and forward us the information, while some people try and throw spanners in the works.

“However, in all cases we pursue the buyer, take the counterfeit products away and destroy them.” Skinner goes on to state “we will not have our patents copied and our name, marketing materials, images and IP used by those looking to take advantage of people or by those looking to get the best deal to take such an advantage.”

The whole machine is then destroyed, with Skinner adding “from there it’s the buyers choice, they can either come and buy purchase from us and get the proper product, or they can go and buy from one of our competitors - and there’s some good competition out there - but they can’t buy product that infringes on what we have as protected.

“As we check our systems, we find that 90% of these enquiries, at some point had come to us and got a pricing, which would suggest they knew exactly what you were doing.

“You went and bought someone else’s product and whether you knew that it was a fake, infringing or whether you didn’t, the simple fact is it’s illegal in this country. You can’t purchase that product. That product isn’t allowed to be brought in.

“So, we need to go after the people that brought it in, the people that manufactured it, which means yes, we go into countries like China who have copied our products.

“We go after them and whatever they’ve brought into Australia and New Zealand and take the product out of the market.

“Some people who have bought the copied product say they’ve sold it on or say, ‘we’re going to give it away to our instructors’. Well, that again is illegal they can’t give it away to anyone and they can’t sell it to anyone.

“There are only two areas for us.

“One, our protection and two our client’s protection.

“The people that have spent the money and paid to get our product deserve to be supported. They are the ones being ripped off.

“Competition is one thing, stealing and using another’s identity to try and gain an advantage, needs to be stamped out.”

Click here to read the full article in Australasian Leisure Management magazine issue 162.

Subscribers to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine just need to click here to access the full issue. 

All AUSactive business members will have received this issue by mail as a member benefit.

So as not to miss out on future issues, non subscribers can click here to subscribe. 

Click here to contact HF Industries via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

Images. Counterfeit Balanced Body equipment being destroyed (top) and at the tip (below), Courtesy of Chris Skinner. Middle image shows Chris Skinner at the HF Industries warehouse.

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