PULSE CHECK ISSUE NO. 01
🏋️ The Gym is Dead. Meet The Performance Playground.
We’re in the middle of a massive cultural reset, where the gym isn’t just a place to lift. It’s becoming a tech-forward, recovery-integrated, social hub. And the funding pouring in proves it:
🏓 Padel Haus has raised $7M to scale its padel and recovery concept across the U.S. We experienced it firsthand at our last NYC event—an experience-driven space that blends sport, recovery, and culture, featuring world-class courts, social lounges, and design-forward details. Less gym, more social hub.
🔥 Othership, the guided sauna and ice bath experience from Toronto, just secured $11.3M to power its U.S. expansion. But this isn’t just about shocking the nervous system, it’s about building destinations that make space for regulation, deepen human connection, and drive transformation.
As co-founder Robbie Bent puts it:
“We’re incredibly proud of what we’re building with Othership: creating spaces that support emotional wellness, community connection, and transformation.”
We’re thrilled to share that Robbie Bent, CEO & Co-Founder of Othership, will join our Catalyst Series NYC panel on July 29:
Cutting Through the Noise in Wellness.
Robbie is reimagining recovery—not just as a wellness ritual, but as a cultural experience that helps people slow down, reconnect, and thrive. His perspective on building meaningful spaces and helping brands stand out in a crowded market will be a highlight of the conversation.
🏙️ Life Time—once your suburban mega-gym—just signed a lease for a 52,000-square-foot luxury athletic club in Midtown Manhattan. And here’s the big play: they recently acquired HPLT (High Performance Lifestyle Training), Brian Mazza’s experiential fitness brand. Translation? Life Time isn’t selling gym memberships anymore, they’re entering the same conversation as SoHo House and Equinox, offering lifestyle memberships built on elevated design, curated experiences, and community as the core product.
Why the surge in funding?
Because we’ve shifted how we seek connection and balance. These spaces have become our third place—not work, not home, not your local pub, but a hybrid environment for movement, mindfulness, and social belonging. In a world where loneliness is peaking, the real currency is community—and wellness is its new catalyst.
This isn’t luxury for luxury’s sake. It’s creating infrastructure for the next generation of performance living.
🦿 From Labs to Trails: The Exoskeleton Era Has Arrived
Earlier this summer, Hypershell made headlines by donating 30 AI-powered exoskeletons to the American Hiking Society for National Trails Day. Their flagship model, the Pro X, reduces exertion by up to 30% and boosts leg strength by ~40%—making long treks and rugged climbs more accessible for trail stewards and volunteers alike.
But this wasn’t just a one-off activation, it’s a signal.
According to a new global forecast, the exoskeleton market is set to 4x by 2030, growing from $0.56B to over $2B. What was once confined to medical or military R&D is now hitting the mainstream, driven by demand in industrial, recreational, and consumer performance spaces.
Breakthroughs in lightweight materials and AI-powered movement adaptation mean these devices can respond in real time to terrain, gait, and muscle fatigue. Smarter support, less bulk, becoming a natural extension of the human body.
Why it matters:
This is wearable performance tech designed not for astronauts or elite athletes, but everyday humans seeking stamina, strength, and accessibility. From the mountain trail to the factory floor, bio-augmented movement is no longer confined to labs—it’s here.
🚀 Inside Apache Space: VR, Think Tanks & Team Bonding
How do astronauts prep for the moon or Mars? At Apache Space, NASA’s Johnson Space Center uses high-fidelity VR—digital twins of lunar terrain, omnidirectional treadmills, and simulated maintenance tasks. Crew members can walk, work, and respond in lifelike conditions, while performance metrics like oxygen use and fatigue are tracked in real time.
But this level of innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the result of collaborative gatherings like TIM III (Technical Interchange Meeting)—where engineers, researchers, and operators share ideas, challenge assumptions, and spark breakthroughs that might otherwise take years.
Our own experience? After TIM III in May, everyone dove into the Space Cowboy Olympics—a hands-on field day designed for creative problem-solving and team connection. Think VR simulations, relay races, and even batting cages. The goal? Break down barriers, test concepts fast, and spark new perspectives in ways no boardroom can.
Why we care:
Because real innovation happens when people collide, in the same room, under pressure, solving real problems. VR like this isn’t just futuristic training; it’s a bridge between mental and physical readiness, and a reminder that progress thrives on collaboration.
Gear That Signals the Future of Performance
Two major moves caught our attention this month:
🔥 Nike x Hyperice: Recovery as Culture
Two performance giants, Nike and Hyperice, just dropped a collab that makes recovery gear feel like a sneaker drop. The Nike x Hyperice HyperBoot combines compression, heat, and vibration into a sleek, wearable boot designed for pre-game warm-up and post-session recovery. What this signals: recovery is no longer an afterthought it’s a core part of the athletic performance, now packaged in a way that’s accessible, aspirational, and culture-driven.
🎧 Loop x McLaren: Sound Meets Speed
Loop just teamed up with McLaren F1 to create earplugs that look like performance gear, not an after-market fix. The design is sleek, aerodynamic, and inspired by the cockpit—proving sensory optimization is the next frontier for focus and recovery. From Formula 1 tracks to live events, sound control is becoming performance tech.
The Margin That Matters
Everyone’s talking about the F1 movie, but what gets us fired up isn’t the speed, it’s the precision. That obsession with the margin, the extra 1%, the invisible edge, is what defines modern performance.
It’s what we saw come to life at our Willpower Human Performance Summit in March:
🧠Presage Technologies measuring cognitive stress in real time.
🛌 Absolute Rest turning sleep into a competitive advantage.
⚡ Neufit accelerating recovery with neuromuscular stimulation.
🥗 Dr. Ben House showing how even micro-nutrition tweaks can move the needle.
🧠And insights from Jason Karp, founder of HumanCo and Hu Kitchen, who built a career around translating personal health setbacks into performance breakthroughs.
And now? The tech powering these margins is moving fast.
Open Motion AI is making real-time biomechanics accessible beyond elite sports, capturing movement data that used to live in labs and putting it in the hands of trainers and athletes everywhere. The edge is no longer guesswork, it’s data at the speed of motion.
Behind that movement is Eric Ross, the founder driving this shift. And he doesn’t just talk performance, he lives it. When the Texas floods hit, Eric volunteered for Search and Rescue in San Marcos, applying the same mindset he brings to innovation: stay sharp, move fast, and show up when it matters most. We’d like to express our gratitude to Eric, and to everyone who volunteered during the Texas floods, for their courage and commitment to helping others when it mattered most.
