The metaverse and fitness became further entwined with Liteboxer’s announcement Wednesday that it is launching a new suite of VR offerings in partnership with Meta’s Oculus.
From March 3, users will be able to take instructor-led classes and workout with friends in virtual environments using a VR headset — with or without Liteboxer’s hardware.
- Liteboxer will offer VR-only subscriptions for $18.99 per month.
- A full subscription costs $29.99 per month.
“Engagement metrics are the holy grail of connected fitness,” Liteboxer CEO and cofounder Jeff Morin told Front Office Sports. “The loan-to-value of the customer is keeping them on the subscription service.”
Morin noted that high shipping costs largely eliminate the margins on their $1,245-to-$1,445 hardware sales.
Expanding Fitness’ Target Market
“The area that we get most excited about as a company is serving customers who have had a difficult or challenging relationship with fitness in the past,” FitXR CEO Sam Cole told FOS. FitXR offers VR fitness workouts and games.
“Fitness often targets the same 20% of people over and over again,” Morin added.
Cole has noticed more people purchasing VR headsets primarily for fitness, bolstering the case for fitness as a key driver of the potentially $1 trillion metaverse industry.
“With [Meta’s Oculus] selling 10 million headsets, that starts to get to a level that can support sustained ecosystem growth through new developers coming in and building experiences for that platform,” said Cole.
