ABOUT NÜO ATHLETICS
The NÜO story
At NÜO Athletics, we believe everyone is an athlete. We create accessible, world-class exercise equipment you can use anywhere. Innovative solutions that rethink working out, save space, time and empower everybody to get fitter, faster and stronger.
We were founded by Tomas Svenberg, a former member of Sweden’s national rowing team who spent years putting in long indoor training hours through even longer Swedish winters. During his journey, Tomas realised that working out in the gym wasn’t enough. If he wanted to be the best, he had to train at home, too. But home gym equipment didn’t meet pro athlete standards. So he got to thinking about making a dumbbell that didn’t need racks of weights or time-consuming, tricky adjustments. A dynamic dumbbell with a wide-band of all-in-one weight options to cater for every type of workout matched to revolutionary twist to choose controls. And yes, it would even be stylish.
After decades of research and development, the NÜOBELL was born.
Welcome to the new way of working out.
The path to perfection
1997
NÜO Athletics founder and former member of the Swedish national rowing team, Tomas Svenberg, had an idea. He wanted to create a new type of home gym, a high-tech solution that bridged the gap between high-quality training, variety and great design. So he called his friends and brought together a team with a unique mix of experience in professional engineering and athleticism. OMNIGYM starts to take shape.
2001
OMNIGYM meets the press for the first time at FIBO, the world-leading trade show for commercial training equipment in Germany, a first step on what would become a successful global roll-out.
2006
“Think again. Make it smarter.” The team at NÜO Athletics experiment with a dumbbell based on the OMNIGYM’s design principles. They build a prototype, register a worldwide patent and launch FLEXBELL, the world’s smartest dumbbell. Designer stores such as Harrods and The Conran Shop in London start to sell the second generation of OMNIGYM.
2008
In cooperation with Johnny Nilsson, professor at The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), NÜO Athletics develops and patents a high-precision gauge system for measuring power effect (WATT) derived from spin cycles.
2009
NÜO Athletics launches the first commercial generation of FLEXBELL at the ISPO trade show in Munich. The trade press recognises the ease of use and creative engineering behind this ground-breaking athletic innovation.
2010
Stairmaster (then Startrac) acquires the rights to produce and promote FLEXBELL in the USA under the brand Twistlock. Meanwhile, OMNIGYM expands into new markets around the globe.
2011
StarTrac acquires the exclusive rights to use NÜO Athletics patented high-precision gauge system under the brand Spinning.
Notable installations for OMNIGYM include a private yacht. And in other esoteric news, an acknowledged Italian artist decorates the cabinet doors to an OMNIGYM, which later sells at auction for €12,000.
2013
A new generation of FLEXBELL launches, with higher quality materials, refined engineering and higher capacity. Preparations begin for in-house production and marketing.
2020
FLEXBELL becomes NÜOBELL, but it’s a lot more than just a name change. The updated version features more accessible 2kg weight increments over the previous generation’s 4kg steps.
2021
NÜO Athletics signs joint branding agreements with Barrys, Rouge, SMRTFT and Lacertosus in Canada, USA and Italy.