A new vendor partner for Nationwide Marketing Group, Therabody made their PrimeTime debut at the August 2024 show in Las Vegas. While there, we sat down with Darryl Cole, SVP of North American Retail for the brand, to dive into how appliance, furniture, bedding and consumer electronics retailers can work Therabody’s health and wellness messaging into their strategy.

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Rob Stott: All right, we are back on the Independent Thinking Podcast. Coming to you once again from Nationwide Primetime here in Las Vegas, Mr. Darryl Cole, Senior Vice President of North American retail. I nailed it. Did I nail it?

Darryl Cole: You nailed it.

Rob Stott: Yeah, I nailed it.

Darryl Cole: That’s a lot of words. If we’re just getting started here-

Rob Stott: I know, right?

Darryl Cole: … yeah.

Rob Stott: Hey, if I nailed that, we stuck the landing already and we’re like 30 seconds in. This is incredible.

Darryl Cole: I’m going to quiz you later at the bar.

Rob Stott: Right, we’ll see if I can get it at the end. No, but Therabody.

Darryl Cole: Yes.

Rob Stott: So appreciate you being here. A new vendor for Nationwide Marketing Group?

Darryl Cole: Brand new.

Rob Stott: Brand new at this show.

Darryl Cole: Probably your newest vendor.

Rob Stott: Yeah, I think so.

Darryl Cole: Last second under the wire.

Rob Stott: We appreciate it. Appreciate you being a new vendor. Taking the time to step over here. Your booth did look well-manned, though. You had a good crew with you to be able to step aside. Do I understand, when I say well manned, I mean, are there bodybuilders in there? Is that what I heard?

Darryl Cole: Well, one dude was a tight end at Texas A&M, another guy. Yeah, they know-

Rob Stott: They’re well-manned.

Darryl Cole: I mean, our heritage is this premium athlete, and that’s kind of a lot of what we have.

Rob Stott: Before we dive into it, because I want get to the origin story, tell me about yourself. Tell our audience about yourself, and who you are, and your path to Therabody.

Darryl Cole: Yeah, so Darryl Cole, been selling to retailers something or other for a million years, over 20 years. Grew up working at a pizzeria I could walk to in New Jersey when I was 12 years old.

Rob Stott: Where in Jersey?

Darryl Cole: Caldwell, New Jersey. West Caldwell.

Rob Stott: Okay. Philly over here.

Darryl Cole: Oh, okay, yeah. So Northeast. But I learned about the customer, the proprietor, the owner of that pizzeria beat into me how important the customer was. And from then it’s always just been sales, one way or the other. So a long career in appliances, consumer electronics, and then most recently on the financing kind of side of things with a lease-to-own company, which was great new experience. But I find myself back selling hard goods again, manufactured products, supply chain, downstream parts, boats, trucks, all this stuff I thought I’d sworn off forever that I can’t get away from. But I love speeds and feeds. I love tech. And Therabody now is awesome because it’s all health tech.

And our mission is really, may be going ahead, but our mission is to solve ailments, address problems that people are currently treating with chemicals, or pills, or medicine, and do it with health technology products that address that.

Rob Stott: It’s a booming space.

Darryl Cole: It’s an awesome space.

Rob Stott: It’s crazy to see. And I mean, knowing the product and where Therabody got its start, it got to be one of the earliest?

Darryl Cole: We founded the category, we invented the category, our proprietary shape of the guns with the triangle. It’s patented, it’s ours, and that’s the best design that there is. So the origin story is essentially, our founder, Dr. J, he was a chiropractor, got in a horrible motorcycle accident.

Rob Stott: Not Dr.-

Darryl Cole: Not Dr. J the Sixer-

Rob Stott: Not Dr. … So the Philly guy, I got to just … Sorry, I had to ask and clear up that-

Darryl Cole: People always have to do that, yeah.

Rob Stott: … not Dr. J.

Darryl Cole: It’s a horrible Therabody thing that everybody-

Rob Stott: Just to clear up.

Darryl Cole: Different Dr. J, yeah.

Rob Stott: Anyway, the bad accident-

Darryl Cole: Yeah, so our founder, he got in a horrible motorcycle accident and tried everything as a chiropractor to treat it. And eventually the only thing he could figure out was a Makita drill, and wrapping a tennis ball or some towels around it and taping it, and it worked. And it solved his pain that he had been living with.

Rob Stott: That’s unreal.

Darryl Cole: And that’s where it started. He partnered with another founder, essentially, and the two of those guys brought this category to life within the last decade.

Rob Stott: If I understand right, that original prototype still is around somewhere?

Darryl Cole: I didn’t see it, but I heard it’s here.

Rob Stott: It’s crazy.

Darryl Cole: So, it’s still around. And we kind of tell that story and generation one, generation two, and the evolution of it. And then a funny thing kind of happened where COVID, the dynamic that every retailer and manufacturer went through, what we saw in our category was a lot of people just nailing the price to the bottom. An exploding category, because anything you could get was selling in high demand.

And we just saw this price erosion, and Therabody at the time was named Theragun, and changed the name to Therabody. And that was part of a mission statement that’s, “We are going to bring this health tech from just massage devices to all of health tech.” So that’s got us now into these three pillars of performance, wellness, and beauty now. So we’re in this beauty space. You can see some of the products over there too. But that’s where, instead of creams, and pills, and things like that, you can use LED light therapy with some of our products on beauty. And then in wellness, a big, huge part. And what I think is great for the members here is the sleep innovation that we’re starting to come out with. So that’s a great synergy. And then of course we have kind of our core in the performance.

Rob Stott: Yeah, well it’s a unique space. I was going to ask, and I’m glad you brought that up, because it kind of helps to guide us to that point of … CE retailer is kind of what made sense in my head at first. But now you’re talking about the different beauty and the other products that you got. We got mattress dealers that this could be a perfect accessory in their stores. So there’s not one type of retailer that this brand is necessarily designed for.

Darryl Cole: Well, that’s really cool about the category, and our brand in particular. Because we chose that path, and stayed at the premium, and bringing that value, and not just chasing the wrong types of business goals. And stood for what we believe in, is that, as such a new, young category and new, young brand, we can be in every room of everybody’s house, if you think about it, with some kind of product or the other, and we’re just not there yet because of how new it is.

And that’s what’s starting to happen, though. The product is dynamite if you use it, and then you start repurchasing. So that’s why I think it’s really important for us to join forces with Nationwide. The company has not had that. We have a lot of sporting goods dealers, and golf shops all over the country, and of course some larger partners, but this is a space that we have not made the handshake yet. And I think there’s a great opportunity.

Rob Stott: I’m glad you brought that up, too. I think of the traditional retailers where I see this, and frankly you mentioned this isn’t the category where it typically is, right? So it is a great opportunity. I know, just a couple hours of the show floor being open and whatnot, but early conversations with members, what are you hearing from them?

Darryl Cole: It’s cool. What you got to do is try the product. So we are putting people in the jet boots, and-

Rob Stott: Oh no.

Darryl Cole: … that is like-

Rob Stott: Oh no, I’m going to have to go over there, now.

Darryl Cole: … now they’re immobilized.

Rob Stott: You got them, they can’t go anywhere,

Darryl Cole: Now you just can’t leave.

Rob Stott: I see how this works. That’s great.

Darryl Cole: Yeah, so we’re just demoing it, and it’s been a really great response so far. I think a lot of the retailers, and this is what I was hoping for, is they come here for something new, for ideas. How are they going to go forward for the next several quarters of their business? This is an opportunity to do something new and, “Hey, do I want my RSAs on the floor to demo when they’re selling a mattress? Do I want to take a sleep mask that’s a new product come down in October, and maybe have that be sort of buy two, get the gift card type of promotion. Does it go in a thank you package after the fact?”

I think there’s a lot of ways that you can bring it to life, and on the show floor, by demoing, it’s fun, it’s getting a lot of talking going, but hopefully dealers are thinking, “I can do this every day in my showroom.” It’s a different experience that they’re going to have anywhere else.

Rob Stott: Yeah, you’re giving, I mean, as much as it’s educating them on the product itself, and what your pitch is to them as a retailer, you’re inherently educating them on how to sell it to their customers as well.

Darryl Cole: 100%.

Rob Stott: Yeah, it is one of those things, too. And we’ve seen studies, and people that read our blog know we’ve covered, sort of ad nauseam now, the need for and craving amongst consumers for that in-person experience. I mean, it’s your category, and brand, and product specifically is one of those that you got to see it or try it to believe it.

Darryl Cole: Definitely.

Rob Stott: And it’s awesome to see some members over there getting kind of strapped in and taken for quite the ride, huh?

Darryl Cole: Oh, it’s phenomenal. And the brand is just, it’s a great brand. The leadership’s phenomenal. It just stands for all the right things. Everything that we do is founded in science and based in science. So every single thing that we put out has a scientific claim one way or the other. A lot of products you can use your HSA, FSA account. It’s an actual medical device.

And it goes really to the core, and this is, I don’t know if I’m supposed to share this story, but whatever, I will. This is why you bring me on. But when I’m in the LA office, I am across from one of the founders. My desk is across, and this guy is more on the product side. And I heard him talking to a supplier saying, basically, something to the effect of, “You will never sacrifice quality with our product. I don’t care about the cost, I want the best possible. My brand name’s going on this thing, it will deliver the best experience-” and he hung up the phone, I said, “I will sell through a wall for you like that, any day.” That’s how-

Rob Stott: That’s incredible.

Darryl Cole: … you bring product to life.

Rob Stott: Committed they are to it? No, that’s awesome.

Darryl Cole: Yeah, phenomenal. So I think that’s incredibly exciting. So yeah, it’s just a lot of excitement, and I think there’s a story to be told. The brand is out there a lot of places. It’s a growing brand. I can’t believe you saw it in the gym.

Rob Stott: I was going to say, exactly, that’s what I was going to say.

Darryl Cole: So we have contracts with all … And that’s the thing-

Rob Stott: There’s stuff here, yeah.

Darryl Cole: … we’re everywhere. We have retail location in Caesar’s. The brand is everywhere. We’re everywhere. And the reception’s really good, because it keeps working, and people start to see that need. So I think the magic is, I want to bring that to Nation Wide. And I love the independent dealers. That’s near and dear to me. So how do we make that handshake and how do we execute it –

Rob Stott: The awareness is snowballing, clearly. Seeing the product out there, to the education around not even just your brand, but this space, the health and wellness tech, how is that coming along, and what are you guys doing in that area to make sure that, sorry, the customers are learning, but to make sure these retailers know what they’re talking about so that they can be the experts on the floor?

Darryl Cole: Yeah, a lot of it is awareness. A lot of it’s like, “I hadn’t thought of that.” It’s like, “What if you use this instead of that?” Similar kind of story. In the early stages of the company, the founders were asked, “Who’s your competition?” by investors looking to invest in the company. And they’re expecting some other device to be named. And they said, “Melatonin, that’s what we’re competing. We’re trying to solve these problems with health tech.”

Rob Stott: Listen, we might need to talk, because I do a lot of walking at these shows and there’s a bottle in my backpack right now-

Darryl Cole: There you go.

Rob Stott: … so maybe I might be stopping over at that booth a little bit later.

Darryl Cole: I think we just figured out the staff discount.

Rob Stott: Right? We’re going to work on that. No, that’s incredible, man. This is a great story and a great brand. I know Randy and the team are glad to have you here. It’s awesome to get you on the floor and showcase this to members. It’s a unique space. And I’ve been coming to CESs, so we’ve seen the … Is wellness in the Sands or have they moved that over to the main convention center at this point?

Darryl Cole: I am too new to know, but yeah.

Rob Stott: I forget, I feel like it’s in this part of the CES Expo. But neat to see the category grow to what it has, and-

Darryl Cole: Yeah, it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing-

Rob Stott: It is.

Darryl Cole: … for the consumer.

Rob Stott: Honestly.

Darryl Cole: It’s a good thing for the marketplace, great thing for retailers to know how to sell products. So I would just encourage everybody, come stop by, check the stuff out.

Rob Stott: And we’ll throw links too. If you’re not here and you’re watching this after the fact, we’ll have all the links underneath where you can go learn more about the brand, and what their story’s all about. But man, this was awesome.

Darryl Cole: Yeah, appreciate it.

Rob Stott: Let’s see, just a quick … National-

Darryl Cole: No.

Rob Stott: No, damn. Retail sales manager of North America? Is that close enough?

Darryl Cole: Close enough. Close enough.

Rob Stott: We’ll just have to go back to the beginning. I’m going to edit that.

Darryl Cole: Yeah, putting the drinks on your tab later.

Rob Stott: That’s incredible, man. Darryl, I appreciate it. This was a lot of fun.

Darryl Cole: Yes sir.

Rob Stott: Hey, go have some fun out there.

Darryl Cole: Will do, man. Thank you so much.