iFIT

In 2025, NordicTrack (one of iFIT's equipment brands) launched an uncompromised, highly premium treadmill called the Ultra 1. The strategy behind this product was unlike that of anything else NordicTrack had made, highlighting the treadmill's exquisite design that elevates the home space rather than detracting from it. Another, lower priced Ultra treadmill launched shortly after, and NordicTrack's Pilates Reformers also launched under the Ultra umbrella, all echoing the same beautiful design and premium workout experience.

Because of this severe departure from the rest of NordicTrack's product line, the brand needed to feel distinct and premium. One of the largest focuses on this was on the web experience, shifting to a more bespoke look and feel tailored to the brand. This involved creating custom, highly interactive components specifically for the Ultra line of products, as well as using these to create a new web page flow in both mobile and desktop settings. Collaboration with our development team was crucial in order to answer their questions and work through hurdles they uncovered and approve pages through QA testing and revisions. This testing period became more rigorous than usual due to the high level of interaction and subtle animation compared to our other pages.

The end result is a customer experience that matches the premium quality that comes with any Ultra product. They are truly unlike anything else being done in fitness as of release, combining decades of experience and industry knowledge that NordicTrack has always been known for with a modern design that elevates any space it’s in. Other assets that I got to work on for the Ultra brand included various displays and advertisements. All of these materials feel high-end, uniquely made, and unmistakably Ultra.

During the launch of the Ultra sub brand, NordicTrack and iFIT also launched their first Pilates Reformers under the Ultra brand. This was a huge undertaking as we not only had a new sub brand to position, but we had a new area of the business as a whole within the sub brand to bring to market.

One of the biggest challenges of this project was how we positioned these new Pilates Reformers within the Ultra brand. Being a part of this rebrand set the modality of Pilates as a wholly premium experience, but it was also important to emphasize the accessibility of having a Pilates studio experience in the home. Even though the products themselves were high-end, uncompromised experiences, they are also more affordable and convenient than many studio memberships.

We tackled this challenge through very focused messaging on the premium product, the accessible library of expert instructors, and the unique experience of having the machine and instructors in your own home. This messaging helped us position the Reformers in a way that felt like a premium solution for the seasoned Pilates user rather than a cheap alternative to studio classes. There was never any mention of this being cost-effective Pilates in copy or in visuals. Only a focus on the experience of the product that made it unlike anything else, including a class membership. This messaging carried through the web experience, advertisements, signage, and displays as we carried the Ultra brand image through the launch of these new Pilates Reformers.

Each modality in NordicTrack’s product lineup, whether it’s treadmills, bikes, or strength equipment, has unique health benefits, and therefore a unique target audience based on their fitness goals. To help address this, we built ads specific to each modality that directed to focused web pages outlining these health benefits of each category of machine and workout.

I worked on one of these campaigns for our ellipticals, which offered intense cardio workouts without the joint impact of a traditional treadmill workout. One of the challenges to this primary benefit was avoiding unnecessary risk for our legal team in claiming any explicit health benefits our elliptical workouts provide. They wanted to avoid claiming that the machines were “good for your joint health” or anything explicit like that. Our team of copywriters did a great job of collaborating on ad concepts and workshopping the exact messaging of the ads and the web page to work with our legal team’s accepted risk levels.

Ideating on concepts for specific ads and how they tie back into the web page was one of the most enjoyable parts and biggest challenges of this project. Every ad has a very specific, single message, while the web page references all of these messages in a cohesive package. I also worked on one of these campaigns for our exercise bikes. For these assets, I mentored and directed one of our design interns as she built out the actual deliverables.

In 2024, NordicTrack partnered with the Tour de France to create an officially licensed exercise bike. Along with this, we launched iFIT workouts with cycling pros and Tour de France riders tailored to preparing users for their own cycling tour.

On the creative team, we had prepared and received approval for a creative concept well before the assets for the product would launch, like we typically would, and had even delivered many of the assets. However, at the eleventh hour, we got word that stakeholders had decided the concept was no longer working. Our team had to come together quickly and produce a new direction. My creative director and I had a day of ideation and iteration to come up with a handful of ideas, and the next day, we got approval on a new concept from our pool.

From there, we updated all of the assets that had already been approved and handed them off, and carried out this creative concept on the remaining 20-30% of deliverables. Despite the frustrating circumstances, I was very proud that we were able to cover for our stakeholders and still deliver on a concept that helped launch this bespoke cycling experience. The product was clearly designed with a lot of care and inspiration from the tour and its riders, with nods to various aspects of the race built into the machine's design. It felt great to be able to match that level of respect in such a short timeline.

ProForm is a very interesting brand within iFIT. The product line received the least amount of attention and time from decision-makers, and vicariously from our team. However, it seemed to continue to perform at least at some level. We continued to sell the products, continued to run promotions, and continued to keep the brand.

Because of the lack of critical eyes on the brand, I personally viewed ProForm as a creative sandbox for ideas that I wouldn’t typically explore with NordicTrack. A lot of creative concepts that we explored and executed for ProForm would simply be too off-brand for NordicTrack. I also appreciated how the brand was much more accessible, both in terms of price and how it frames exercise and working out in a less serious, intense way.

These assets are parts of various seasonal sales for ProForm that we got to work on. It was so creatively fulfilling being able to work on more bite-sized campaigns that could really stretch outside what would traditionally be “on-brand” for ProForm.