Physiclo is the exclusive maker of compression tights that comes packed with its own resistance. Started in 2013 as a medical school project, these sleek, one-of-a-kind athletic pants are designed to make your workouts harder, increasing muscle activation and calorie burn by up to 23% and 14%, respectively. The proprietary resistance technology features a special system of elastic panels that counteract movement, increasing the amount of effort and energy you spend with every step. From Olympians to everyday athletes, Physiclo resistance gear is the ideal exercise tool. (www.physiclo.com)
6. Measured using
Electromyography
Monitored using Pulse
Oximetry & EKG
Based on Heart Rate,
Weight, and VO2
HEART
RATE
CALORIES
BURNED
MUSCLE
ACTIVITY
9%
11-14%
20-23%
Measuring the effects of treadmill running
with & without wearing Physiclo
7. How PHYSICLO feels compared to other training methods:
Increasing Levels of Resistance
Make every street feel like a mountain
RUNNING
RUNNING
+ DUMBELLS
RUNNING
STAIRS
RUNNING
+ PHYSICLO
WEIGHTED
BACKPACK
STAIRS
+ PHYSICLO
DRAGGING
TIRES
8. “Wow! If you really want a workout, check out Physiclo resistance
tights!! #GAMECHANGER”
- Erin Jones (USA Triathlon, Olympic Hopeful)
“Its subtle but still noticeable. Simply you get more effect for
essentially the same perceived effort. Keeth and Physiclo turned me
from a skeptic to a believer.”
- Garrett Klugh (USA Rowing, 2004 Olympian & World Champion)
“Physiclo is the future of functional athletic wear... Amazing
product to improve your strength and conditioning in fencing or
any sport!”
- Tim Morehouse (USA Fencing, Olympic Silver Medalist)
11. Frank Yao
Cofounder, CEO
• MD Candidate, NYU
School of Medicine
• B.S. in Biomedical
Engineering, Johns
Hopkins University
• Previous:
Cofounded biotech
startup
Keeth Smart
Cofounder, COO
• MBA, Columbia
Business School
• USA Fencing
• Silver Medalist at the
2008 Olympics
• Previous: Bank of
America, Google,
Verizon
AdvisorsTeam
Community
Growth Director
Kevin McMahon
12. INITIAL TARGET CUSTOMER:
Busy, urban runners who participate
in marathons & endurance events
US compression
wear market:
$2.38 Billion
28,000
annual road
race events
in the US
Largest
age group:
25-44
57% Female
43% Male
18,750,000
road race
finishers in
2014
13. 1. E-commerce sales
2. Social media (Facebook & Instagram)
3. Event & road race booths
5. Blog and newsletter content
6. Events & promotions
7. Refer-a-friend program
8. Athlete & brand ambassadors
9. Partnerships with gyms & fitness studios
15. PRODUCT LINE
EXPANSION
Launch pants version 1.0
Pants version 2.0
New features & designs
Resistance shirts
Resistance socks, sleeves,
wetsuits, etc.
201520162017
16. TRACTION SINCE AUGUST 2015
Total Preorders: Aug – Nov 2015 $153,557
Crowdfunding $136,661
Indiegogo In Demand $16,896
Total Sales: Dec – Feb 2016 $85,562
E-commerce sales $62,170
Wholesale revenue $23,392
Number of Customers 1843
Customer Acquisition Cost $51
Exchanges & Refunds 6%, 2%
Hi everybody, thanks for having me here today. My name is Frank Yao, and today I’m here to sell you a pair of pants… and also get you to invest in my company, Physiclo.
To give you a bit of background, prior to this I was a medical student at NYU. I was also an athlete in college, and I’ve always wanted to go into rehab medicine. So I logged hundreds of hours in the clinic working with people at all different fitness levels. I know how important fitness and exercise are, but I also learned how difficult it can be for a lot of people.
Here’s the problem: we only have a limited amount of time & energy, and working out can often seem inefficient and repetitive.
Nowadays, technology has made it easier to plan and track our workouts and new routines have been invented… but many of the tools we use to actually train our bodies haven’t really changed for centuries. The biggest difference between me going out for a jog today versus… say, George Washington going out for a jog 300 years ago, is just that I’m listening to music on my iPhone.
So it’s time to evolve, and that’s why we came up with Physiclo. We’ve invented the first compression tights that add resistance to your body as you work out, designed to activate your muscles, burn extra calories, and maximize workout results.
All of the resistance is fully built into the pants itself, combining the functionality of resistance band training with the versatility and quality of performance sportswear.
Our patent pending technology features two separate layers of special elastic panels that work together to create resistance. Each panel is positioned across from a specific muscle group, and as those muscles contract, they stretch against the opposing panel, thereby increasing the amount of effort and energy you spend with each step.
But on the outside, it looks just like ordinary compression tights that you can take anywhere to fit your style. So whether your running, cycling, or squatting, you can now do more in less time by kicking it up a notch in a pair of Physiclo.
In fact, our resistance gear is so sleek and discreet that you can also just wear them throughout the day for more gradual calorie burn and muscle toning, for example while you’re at work or out running errands.
We’ve done a lot of preliminary testing to make sure that our products work. We had subjects run on a treadmill with and without Physiclo, while we measured heart rate, oxygen consumption, and muscle activity. With Physiclo we found an 9% increase in heart rate, a 14% increase in calories burned, and 23% more muscle activation of the quads and the hamstrings.
And right now we’re working with NYU medical center on conducting a larger, controlled study using our products this Spring.
But subjectively, what testers and customers have told us, is that it actually does feel harder. Running with Physiclo feels kind of like you’re running up a hill. You notice the resistance immediately when put them on, you start getting tired faster during your workout, and you’ll wake up the next morning feeling more sore.
These are some testimonials from Olympic athletes who now train with Physiclo. Many of them started out skeptical, but once you try it out, you know. It’s pretty straightforward, you can tell right away whether you feel the extra resistance or not. And they do. We’ve also got a many more like these on our website and our Facebook page, including from other athletes, trainers, as well as just regular people who love to run and want to get more from their workouts.
This one is my favorite that really captures where Physiclo stands at the intersection of fitness and fashion. It’s a picture of two Tims. One is Tim Morehouse, the Olympic fencer and the other is Tim Gunn, the fashion icon, training together in Physiclo tights and making it work.
Right now there’s nobody on the market doing what we do- sleek, functional workout clothes that help you train better.
Most wearable training tools are bulky and equipment-like. For example, Titin Tech is a weighted compression shirt that adds 20 pounds of gel packs to your workout, but makes you look like the Hulk.
On the other hand, athletic clothing like Under Armour and CW-X are designed to be sleek, and lightweight to maximize Game Day performance, but it doesn’t actually do anything to enhance your workouts.
Reebok and Fila both tried to combine the two and create resistance clothing in the past, but their products just didn’t work and they took them off the market years ago.
But with Physiclo, we HAVE made it work. Our compression tights make a significant, noticeable impact on your training, with data to back it up. And unlike companies like Titin, everything is packaged together into a single, high-quality piece of clothing.
Another reason why we stand out as an technology apparel company is because of our unique backgrounds. Neither of us came from fashion.
Rather, I was a medical student at NYU with a background in biomedical engineering and biotech. My cofounder Keeth is a world class fencer and Olympic silver medalist with an MBA from Columbia.
Our goal wasn’t just to create a sweet pair of pants, but we were focused on creating a technology… that works scientifically, and actually solves a real pain point for athletes as well as regular people.
We also have an amazing board of advisors, including David Stern who turned the NBA into what it is today, and Peter Warner, who headed Nike’s sourcing division for over a decade while they were still starting out.
Our initial target customer is busy, urban runners who participate in events like marathons, half marathons, 10ks, 5ks. Running is a prime use case of our technology with a massive audience, with almost 20 million road race finishers every year. And from there, we can expand into other similar use cases, such as triathlons, obstacle course races, CrossFit, spin, etc.
A lot of our branding and messaging right now is centered around weekend warriors and urban professionals who are 25-44 years old, with a roughly even split between men and women. These people are also the main demographic for the $2.4 Billion dollar compression wear market, which is our closest comparable.
We sell directly to these customers through our online ecommerce website, physiclo.com.
Most of our marketing is done through social media, using Facebook primarily for digital advertising, and Instagram for branding and organic engagement. We’re also planning to start being at more marathons and events, setting up booths to sell directly to people there. For example, next month we’ll be demoing at SXSW as well as the NY Tri Expo.
To keep customers coming back, we’re going to create a lot of original content as well, on our blog and newsletter, in order to turn our customers into a community.
And to acquire new customers, we have a great referral program, we work with a lot of athletes and brand ambassadors who actively promote our products, and we plan on partnering with gyms & fitness studios to widen our distribution.
Our resistance comes in 3 styles: shorts, capris, and full-length tights. The prices range from $95 - $125 dollars, and we currently make on average a 60-64% margin on each unit. Right now we’re still manufacturing at minimum volumes, around 1000 units per style, so as we scale up that manufacturing cost will lower pretty significantly.
All of our products are manufactured in China and imported to our warehouse in LA. We have a strategic partnership with one of the largest activewear manufacturers in the world, who also produces for companies like Ralph Lauren, Under Armour, and Nike. In addition to bringing a lot of their expertise and experience, they’re also our Investor- they believe in us and our product so much that they wrote a $200k check and gave us a generous line of credit.
But we’re not stopping there. We’re still refining and improving our current products with new features, colors, and designs.
We just finished our version 2.0 pants with an improved fit, as well as major ergonomic changes and a key pocket.
Once we get to a higher volume, we can create resistance at different levels, which will allow users to scale up or scale down for a wider range of use cases.
We’re also working on extending the Physiclo product line, with upper body resistance shirts in the pipeline for later this year, which will work mainly on the shoulders, back, and core. And then down the line, we can also develop resistance socks, sleeves, wetsuits, and more.
Physiclo was launched via a crowdfunding campaign in August and we raised over $150,000 dollars in presales. We started shipping products, on time, at the end of November and launched our e-commerce site.
In the last 2-and-a-half months, we’ve made $86,000 dollars in sales, we have over 1800 customers, and the majority of them are very happy with their Physiclo gear. Only 8% of our orders are exchanged or refunded, and the main reason for that is just sizing.
We’ve also partnered with a number of running and triathlon teams, such as the Snapple Triathlon Team and X3 Endurance. We have a partnership with Major League Ultimate, which is one of the fastest growing sports in America and was just recognized as an Olympic sport. And we’re starting to work with gyms and fitness studios in NYC, such as Aqua Spin Studio.
And that’s it! Thanks for listening, and I hope you’ll join us, Physiclo, as we revolutionize activewear to make fitness for all.