Technogym started in a small Italian garage, and became a US$2.6 billion fitness empire. Now founder Nerio Alessandri is betting personalisation will define the future of wellness
For the first half-hour of our Zoom call, I can’t help noticing that Nerio Alessandri is in perpetual motion. He moves from side to side, bounces slightly, shifts his weight as though the chair beneath him is alive. I chalk it up to restless energy – this is, after all, a man who built a global fitness empire from his garage – until, as we wrap up, he suddenly stands, grips the seat beneath him and hoists it into view.
It’s not a chair at all, but a giant medicine ball. “Active sitting,” he grins, as if revealing a magician’s trick. Even mid-interview, the 64-year-old Italian founder of Technogym is finding ways to train. The moment feels like perfect shorthand for his four-decade career: maximise every movement, interaction and opportunity.
This drive has made him one of the most influential figures in the fitness industry. Those heart-rate monitors on your gym equipment? He invented them. The screens on treadmills? Also Alessandri. And now, the US$2.6 billion company he started in 1983, at age 22, is leaning harder than ever into data-driven personalisation.
