Not long ago we wrote an article for Joey Mullaney's website introducing ourselves and our origin story. Here's a peak and go over to Joey's site and look around.
Hey, how are ya?!
Following Steph Hammerman’s recent guest blog post, todays guest blog post comes from Equip Products, an adaptive fitness equipment provider. Most fitness companies focus on serving able-bodied people. Equip Products seized an opportunity to provide equipment for the growing but underserved adaptive fitness community.
Equip Products has built an amazing brand in the adaptive and broader fitness world. I use the Ski Erg Machine 5x per week and have had great results from Equip’s other products. I am so pleased that the adaptive fitness community has a trusted ally in Equip and am excited to introduce the owners, Mark and Dana Askew-Harris!
Meet The Team From Equip Products!
Equip Products was born out of a need for fitness equipment that allowed people with a variety of challenges to not only overcome but dominate! That was the thought we had back in 2016 at the CrossFit Games in Carson, California. We went back to our shop and developed our first adaptive product — the LapMat™.
Inspired by a brief conversation with Kevin Ogar of CrossFit Watchtower, and later by a push from Angel Gonzalez of CrossFit Redefined in Houston, Texas we started work on a mat that wheelchair athletes could use while lifting weights to protect their legs. We specifically designed this mat to guard against skin issues that barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and a whole host of heavy things can cause.
Angel had a group of athletes he communicated with by text. At this point, we had five wheelchair athletes that had input into what this mat should do for them. We had no idea what an impact these athletes would have on our lives. We sent the first usable prototypes to Steph “The Hammer” Hammerman, Chris “Stouty” Stoutenberg, Kevin Ogar, Angel Gonzalez, and Chuck Melton, who had recently won gold at the Para Olympics in Rio for Wheelchair Rugby.
By the 2017 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin the LapMat™ was featured on the main stage for an adaptive exhibition. We were thrilled about what this group had done and are grateful to this day for letting us play a part in developing this product.
It was clear to us that the adaptive community, at least in the fitness market, was underserved, and in fact, we could not find another company that specialized in adaptive fitness products. We started hearing from other athletes about things they wanted to be developed and knew we had to keep going down this road. It did not take long for our list to grow longer than we could handle. The only thing left to do was to create a company specifically for Adaptive Fitness products.
In November 2017 we created Equip Products with the goal of being the Adaptive Fitness Communities resource for any and all impairments. Since then, we have developed dozens of products on our own and in conjunction with other athletes and companies all around the world. We ship worldwide and hear about new ideas weekly.
Most recently we debuted an adaptive wider ski erg base for the Concept2 Ski Erg. We have a whole line of Visually Impaired products that will be released very soon, and we continue to tweak and make our existing products better with input from athletes all around the world.
Our biggest inspiration for products comes from the community. We attend events to market our products and watch competitions, but more importantly to listen to your needs and ideas. Many of the best ideas have come from our discussions after an event or at dinner listening to a new challenge. We love what we do and look forward to the next idea or inspiration from the community we have come to regard as family.
One Love,
Joey, Mark, and Dana