Bowflex inventor stretches creativity for next big success
February 9, 2008 East Bay Business Times - by Michael Fitzhugh
In a San Francisco cottage 23 years ago T. Dosho Shifferaw, an Ethiopian immigrant and inventor, struggled to design the perfect chair. Stuck and frustrated, he bent a spare metal rod across his shoulders and in that moment stumbled upon the key to transforming America's home gym workouts.
After discovering that the resistance of the rod created a smooth, muscle-building workout, Shifferaw created the "Bowflex," one of the nation's best-known infomercial products.
The invention made
Shifferaw - who arrived in the United States with just $500 - a multimillionaire. As the inventor and patent holder for the Bowflex, he gained modest fame, but never got credit for building the company behind the machine.
In 1986, he co-founded Bow-Flex of America Inc., which went public in 1993 with a direct sales model that later became the underpinning for the Nautilus Group Inc. He brought on two partners, who took control of the company, which later led to his departure.
An elaborate Web site devoted to marketing the Bowflex, now owned by the Nautilus Group Inc., fails even to mention his founding role. Without that recognition, Shifferaw said, his efforts to grow his current company, Dosho Designs Inc., are hindered.
In 2004, he spent thousands of dollars hiring the world-premier intellectual property firm Morrison & Foerster to have a complaint drawn up.
"I was so aggravated. It was like a big knife in my back," he said. But the premise for the suit was tenuous, his lawyer told him.
Stymied, Shifferaw set the battle aside. Now he is putting his entrepreneurial energy into inventing more products, working out of a small Albany studio where he is driven by what he calls "crazy" moments of inspiration.
In a scattered assortment of sketchbooks, napkins and papers, Shifferaw sketches out his ideas for other fitness products whenever they come to him.
"They push you," he said. "Once you initiate them, they push to be born."
Mesfin Ayenew said that his brother, Shifferaw, is always coming up with unusual inventions.
"There's no frame of reference for it. Your reaction is, 'What is it?' But by the time he refines it, by the time you start seeing it being used, you see it's something really brilliant," Ayenew said.
Shifferaw's most recent inventions include the Windjector, a unique "wind-resistance trainer" and the DoshBell, a Pac-Man-like dumbbell design that clamps on barbells, allowing weights to be adjusted to fro five to 55 pounds, depending on how much effort one wants to put into a workout.
The Windjector generated substantial interest from gyms and fitness sales outlets when Shifferaw showed it at the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association Expo in San Francisco last year. Though sales have been slow to take off, Shifferaw said he isn't giving up. Just like the Bowflex, he said "it may be too far out for people and may take a long time to take hold."
Meanwhile, Shifferaw is focused on marketing the DoshBell and its accompanying bench weight. Together they make up the DoshGym, for which he's planning to launch an infomercial and short-spot TV advertising campaign at the end of March.
By integrating the DoshGym pitch with a streaming video personal training program, fitness news and training advice on his Web site, he hopes to generate $50 million in sales over the next two years.
After Bowflex's phenomenal success hawking $1,000 home gyms to night owls, Shifferaw has became a firm believer in infomercials. He used them again to sell more than 400,000 Ab-Lifters and Torso Toners. But ads aren't cheap. Nearly $40 million a year was devoted to media buys for the Bowflex, Shifferaw said.
For any of his products to match that level of success, Shifferaw expects he would need enough capital to buy $1 million worth of commercial slots every week for a year. To fund the efforts, Shifferaw has been talking to investment bankers and brokerage firms for nearly two years but has yet to sign any investors.
With nothing other than the California incorporation papers for an early incarnation of the Bowflex company to prove his entrepreneurial credentials, Shifferaw said he has found it difficult to raise outside capital.
Working in his favor, 60 percent to 70 percent of commercial gym members still buy home gym equipment, according to a study by San Ramon-based 24 Hour Fitness.
"The consumer is always interested in something new," said Jim Bellessa, an industry analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co. "You have to be innovative."
Although consumers of home fitness equipment hunger for novelty, price sensitivity remains a big concern, too, said 24-Hour Fitness's Mike Feeney, vice president of purchasing and facilities.
"People have an idea of what they think would be a great piece of equipment to work out on. But a piece of equipment is only good if a person wants to go back to it and it doesn't break," Feeney said.
Shifferaw has faced trouble in this area before. He said getting quality goods produced in a timely fashion in China, where manufacturing is typically more cost-efficient, has been difficult.
Even with good manufacturers, choosing the right materials isn't easy. Three different products wore out faster than anticipated, leading Shifferaw to discontinue them.
His focus on products with fairly simple form factors has helped Shifferaw avoid some of the troubles that Feeney said can plague more expensive products targeted at cardiovascular workouts.
With all the headaches, why not just leave it all behind?
"I could be living in the French Riviera," Shifferaw said, half joking. "But I like hanging out with my friends."
"A lot of people, when they succeed, they forget their friends," said Ayenew. But he notes his brother has been "not only able to maintain his friends, but in areas where other people need help, he's able to help them, quietly."
Some of Shifferaw's charitable efforts have been focused in his native Ethiopia, where he helped bring water pumps to a village, as well as planted trees.
In 2005, Shifferaw and other Ethiopian-American businessmen returned to Ethiopia to help encourage native entrepreneurs and explore the potential for doing business there. But he said the Ethiopian government bureaucracy and business regulations made it too cumbersome and complicated to start a business in his native country.
"The political situation was not very conducive," he said. Even so, Shifferaw is more optimistic now, noting recent moves toward peace between the Ethiopian government and opposition forces operating in the country. "Like in business, there's always give and take," he said.
Dosho Designs continues to market the DoshGym, a multipurpose weight bench, and the JamGym, a portable system. It also is working to build a market for sportswear bearing the Dosho name in Japan, where it has been popular because of the country's association with "Dosho," a seventh-century priest who helped introduce Buddhism there.
"Most people would be discouraged just making an existing idea successful," said Ayenew, reflecting on his brother's persistence. "He knew somehow he was going to do well."
