Dr. Alan Weidner: [00:00:15]
Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from Massage Chair Relief, and today is our bi-weekly massage chair Industry Update for Tuesday, January 10th, 2023. Happy New Year. I hope you had a good holiday season. And now it’s back to the grind. We have a number of things to cover in today’s update. I’ll start off by saying that we, and I mentioned this in previous updates, that we had reached over $100,000 in donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but every chair we sell, we donate a portion of it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And we reached, I believe we were told it was 113,000 at the tail end of last year. And so, we have reset.
[00:01:01]
Our goal was 100,000. Now we’ve reset our goal to 200,000. And for those of you who have purchased a chair from us, thank you. Because you have contributed to granting several wishes for Make-A-Wish children. For those of you that are contemplating buying a massage chair, if you do buy one from us, know that a portion of that sale on your purchase will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Daiwa Supreme Hybrid has come out with a new color. They’re calling it Black Panther. And it’s not just a new color. They have a design on it. It’s black with some gold trim that is reminiscent of the Black Panther character from the Black Panther movies. That new version, the new model is priced at 15,500. The regular Daiwa Supreme Hybrid massage chair is $13.5K, $13,500. And there’s no difference in that chair, in the Supreme Hybrid Black Panther as opposed to the other standard colors.
[00:02:06]
It is the same mechanics, same electronics, same everything except for the body and the attention that’s got gone into the detail of the exterior of the chair. And if you go to the website, you’ll see it. You’ll see the picture of the Black Panther model. One of my employees, Dominic, went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this last weekend and saw it and said, “It was a very good-looking massage chair.” He did get a chance to see some of our other suppliers. And one thing that he saw which interested me was a new Super Novo version. Now, the Super Novo has been a popular selling chair for us since it’s come out. And before that, there was the Novo XT2, and before that was the Novo XT. And then at the beginning of it all was the Human Touch Novo. Well, the Super Novo is the current model.
[00:02:59]
But in estimating a third or fourth, fourth quarter of this year, they’re going to have a new Super Novo massage chair model. And my employee wasn’t sure if it was called the X. I have put in a call to my account manager at Human Touch to get more details on it. But it’s going to have the split track. Split track where you have a track for the spine, and then a track for the seat, for the buttocks, for those muscles. And so, it’s an L track, but it’s split down in the low back area. Now, the Daiwa Supreme Hybrid is a split track. The Infinity Circadian Syner-D is a split track. The new I9 Max Special edition is a split track. And so, the Super Novo, which happens to be built in the same factory as the Hybrid and the Circadian from infinity, that is where that chair is being built. And what makes it also unique is not just the split roll or split track and the benefits that come with that, but it also comes from what I understand, with armrests that go up.
[00:04:05]
Now, as you know, or it may not know, the OHCO M.8 massage chair has doors at the side arms armrest open out like this, like doors. The Luraco i9 has armrests that slide back to give you easier access to the chair. And now, it looks like Human Touch is coming out with a chair where the armrests go up. And all of that configuration and technology is designed to make it easier to get in and out of a massage chair, especially if you’re older and you’re a little more unstable in your step, or if you’re in a lot of pain, back pain. And if you’re in a lot of back pain, you want to minimize your movement. And sometimes going to the front of a chair and falling back into it or moving back into it is very, very bothersome for someone who is suffering from that kind of pain. But we’re not clear on the pricing of that chair As a matter of fact, like I say, it’s not going to be out till the third or fourth quarters of this year, which is sometime in the second half of the year.
[00:05:01]
But I thought you’d like to know that. Also, my employee saw that Synca, the JP 1100 will be replaced by the JP 3000 massage chair. And I don’t know much about that chair. I just know that it’s a new model. I will be attending the furniture market later this month, on the 30th, the 30th, and 31st, and February 1st of this month. And I’m going to be meeting with Nick Beese [SP], who’s our account manager and main contact for Synca, here in the US. And hopefully, we’ll have that chair there and I’ll be able to try it out and give you some more feedback on it. Let’s see, what else have we got? Oh, the Ogawa Master Drive AI massage chair has been discontinued, and it’s been replaced by the Master Drive 2.0. And the primary difference between the 2.0 and the original Master Drive AI is that the 2.0 has a fixed cord.
[00:06:04]
It’s hardwired from the remote control to the chair. As you may or may not know, the Master Drive AI, the original, had a Samsung tablet that was wirelessly connected to the chair. There had been some issues with connectivity, but not always. Maybe in some areas or some homes. We saw some issues with that. But I think just to not deal with it at all, they are going with a hardwire connect from the tablet or the remote control to the chair, so you don’t have to worry about Bluetooth connectivity issues. There are four more airbags on that chair. And I believe there’s another program or two. The Chair Dr. feature is still there. The 28 to 29 programs, they still have. They have different colors. For our showrooms, we got the emerald green and cappuccino, the emerald green exterior, and the cappuccino interior because that was the only colors they had available.
[00:07:09]
They’re getting more stock in March of this year, but you’ll see that chair in our showrooms if you go to it. Oh, and they also have a gunmetal exterior with an ivory interior. They have a dark brown interior with a black exterior, I think. And then an all-black model. So, they’ve got different colors that we didn’t see on the original Master Drive AI. So, we have that. We have those chairs in the showroom. You can go out and try them out. Right now, they’re on sale for 7,999 regularly priced at 12,999 I believe. And it’s on sale until the 15th of this month for 7,999, so a 5,000 discount. That’s significant and a great deal. And by the way, the Ogawa Master Drive is kind of the high-end Ogawa chair. It has always been known to have a very quiet massage, a more nuanced, subtle massage, and it is a more gentle massage also.
[00:08:05]
If you’re looking for deep, deep, intense, deep tissue massage chair, you’re not going to get it from that model. But it does have a very relaxing and more nuanced, more gentle massage. The X77 x massage chair has gone up in price. They have two materials. They have what they call sin flex, which is the synthetic leather, and they have Brisa, which is a type of fabric. And the Brisa chair, I believe, has gone up to 8,299 from 7,799. And the synthetic leather one has gone up to 7,799. So, the prices have gone up on those chairs. One change we also noted is that the red and black color is not available anymore in the synthetic leather. It’s only available in the Brisa color. So, that’s for those of you who are interested in that chair. Those are the things that you need to know.
[00:09:07]
We have a floor model for sale. Now, I’ve told you this before and I’ll tell it to you again. There have been logistics hang-ups with the Kai GTS9. They are they have stopped taking orders on that chair. I’m not exactly sure what the plan is. My employee who was at the CES over the weekend said that Kai, the company that they come from in Korea is Hue Tech, but the Kai brand has a new model out. And I had not known about this. And I stay in pretty close contact with Furniture for Life, which is the distributor, the US distributor for that chair, and the other chairs that we carry for them. But I have not heard that a new model is coming out. So, I’m interested to hear more about that. I don’t know much about it. I may be able to see that chair when I go to Furniture for Life at the end of this month. But the GTS9 massage chair is a very difficult chair to get a hold of right now. We sold off our floor models. Now we carry the GTS7 in our showrooms, which people like, and we do sell.
[00:10:12]
The primary difference between the two is that the GTS7 does not have the sonic wave technology coming out of the foot rollers only, it only comes out of the back, whereas the GTS9 has the foot roller sonic wave technology. There are some other differences as well in terms of the ambient lighting options, and a couple of other things that I don’t remember right now. But the chair is essentially … Oh, the design of the chair is different. The GTS9 is more of a pod-shaped chair, whereas the GTS7 is more, a little bit more, I don’t know, a little more. What’s the word? A little more … I don’t want to say traditional, but it doesn’t have the pod shape. It has a more defined headrest with the armrests. And it’s got very, very nice lines. It’s a nice-looking chair.
[00:11:05]
But anyways, the GTS9 is not available anymore until they tell us any different. And we’re hearing things like April-May at the earliest that these chairs will be available again. The GTS9. GTS7 is available. Having said that, we have a GTS9 floor model in our Southern California store that is available. Now, that chair regularly retails for 11,999. We have it in our showroom there. We haven’t had it for very long. I think we’ve only had it since July. And the price on that chair I believe is 8,999. And so, if you want it, it’s one of the few that are still available, if not the only one that’s still available in the country. So, if you are interested in the GTS9. Call our toll-free number. Our toll-free number is 888-259-5380. Or you can call our Southern California store directly at 562-865-4607, I believe.
[00:12:08]
But you can go on our website and go to the location, the Southern California location page, and we’ll have the address and the phone number of the store. Let’s see, 562-865-4607, that’s the number. Anyways, that chair is available. And of course, there’s only one, so it’s not like I have a bunch that you can pick from or that you can get. But if you want that one, and it’s in perfect shape, it’s hardly been used. So, please feel free to give us a call if you want to get that chair. All right. I think that’s about it for news and notes in terms of what’s going on in the industry. All these new models are kind of exciting. And this is a good time for announcing new chair models. We are going to be cycling through our pre-owned chairs a little bit more often now to make sure that every person that buys a chair has a decent factory warranty still with it.
[00:13:05]
Our lifetime labor warranty will apply to all of our chairs, whether it’s a floor model we sell, a pre-owned chair, or a refurbished one or whatever. Our lifetime labor warranty will be available for those pre-owned shares. And in case you don’t know what our lifetime labor warranty is, after the factory warranty has expired, you will be responsible for getting the parts for the chair, but our company will take care of the cost of the service calls to repair your chair if you need a technician there. And so, that’s something that’s very unique to our company. Nobody else does that. And it’s not something that we hide or we don’t talk about. It’s on our website. It’s as clear as day. And it’ll be on your receipt when you purchase a chair from us. But just know that you’re going to be covered on any chair you get from us, even if the remaining factory warranty isn’t much.
[00:14:03]
Maybe that’s only a year that you’ll get from a pre-owned chair, but a lifetime labor warranty you will always have. So anyways, that’s what’s important to know. Of course, if you have any questions about anything I’ve talked about, you can again call us on our toll-free number, 888-259-5380. And your call will always be answered. And if we don’t get to the phone, leave a voicemail and then your call will be answered shortly thereafter. There was something else I wanted to talk about. I’m trying to remember what that was. Well, I’m starting to forget things more and more. And they say it comes with age, but I think I’ve always been kind of a forgetful guy. But anyways, we can share anything that we’ve neglected to cover in this update with you on our next update, or in our weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to by going to our website and downloading my free report; 11 Things You Need to Know Before Investing in a Robotic Massage Chair.
[00:15:07]
And once you download that report, you’ll get our weekly newsletter, and that’ll have all the updates that I don’t cover every two weeks here. Well, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from Massage Chair Relief. If you found this video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up like us on our YouTube channel, and help us spread the word about massage chairs by sharing this or any of our videos with your friends and family on your various social media platforms. Have a great day. I will look forward to seeing you again in two weeks. Bye-bye.