Delivering the Gratz equipment you love on-time

“After a second delay notice from Gratz, we reached out to David. It was then that we learned that we were not alone in waiting a long time for our equipment. Everyone was waiting for Gratz.”

Hi everyone – 

This is John and Elizabeth. You may have heard -- We are the new owners of Gratz Pilates, working in partnership with Executive Director, David Rosencrans to reinvigorate Gratz.

For us, this is a big commitment. We feel the responsibility of stewarding this historical and beloved brand, so we wanted to share why we invested in Gratz, and a bit about our own background. If you read this note to the end, you will see why we invested, and who we are, are intertwined. Let's start with who we are.

Elizabeth is a long-time technology executive and entrepreneur. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley. After college she lived and worked in Japan, learning to speak Japanese along the way. She returned to the USA to begin a career in technology, working for companies like Microsoft, LinkedIn, Intuit and Unity Technologies. She led teams in human resources, real estate, facilities, and many other areas. Her last few jobs were as a CPO (Chief People Officer) where she headed global teams for significant corporations. She left the tech world roughly five years ago to start on her entrepreneurial path. She founded a specialty pickle company called Last of Seven. As you may have guessed, Elizabeth comes from a big family, and she is the youngest of seven kids. Last of Seven won two national food awards for being among the best producers in their category.

John is also a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and began his career on the product side of things, managing brands and products for companies like Clorox and Pepsi. From there, he went on to manage Haagen Dazs company outside the USA, and from there was the CEO at Wilson Sporting Goods. As CEO, he got deeply involved in the sports business, the NFL, the NBA, and with college sports around the world, and he worked closely with the industry leaders in the tennis world. His background in sports led him to become the president and eventually CEO of Electronic Arts, the company that makes EA Sports video games. It was the sports connection that brought John to Silicon Valley. He later founded a private equity company and then led Unity Technologies from being a small company through to a successful IPO.

OK – enough about us!  What about Pilates?

John’s story with Pilates is very similar to stories some of you have experienced and all of you have heard. He hurt his back such that he could barely walk after a ski accident more than 20 years ago. He was slated for invasive back surgery, but his doctor warned him that it might not work. Not a confidence inspiring message from the surgeon. However, the surgeon also said that if John could strengthen his core enough, he might be able to self-heal. That led John to Pilates.

At first, John found some “exercise programs” that used a reformer. Then he met Alicia Doyle (now Alicia Stone), a wonderful, classically trained instructor that was certified at True Pilates in NYC. Literally from the first session, he could feel the difference and was hooked. It was clear to John that Pilates was way more than just exercise, it was a way of life.

John trained with Alicia in San Francisco until she moved east. He spent north of 250 hours of training with Alicia. She introduced him to Jerome Weinberg at True Pilates East, and he was lucky enough to have a few hours of training with him - an amazing experience! Once when John was visiting True, he was also able to train with Sari. Truly an honor!

Today John trains with some amazing classical instructors in Santa Barbara (Colleen Ferguson), San Francisco (Angela Gifford and Miki Kim) and Philadelphia (Nicole Smith, Amy Berger), always learning and getting stronger with their guidance. He also enjoys training at home in his Gratz equipped personal Pilates studio.

Elizabeth is a more recent student of Classical Pilates. While she has always lived an active lifestyle and prioritized wellness both personally and professionally, it was the non-stop evangelism of Classical Pilates by John that converted her. Elizabeth was able to train with Colleen, Angela and Miki mentioned above. Each has contributed to her understanding and appreciation of Classical Pilates. Although Elizabeth is early in her Pilates journey, it has become an integral part of her wellness routine.

John set up his first home Pilates studio more than a decade ago. When he sold this house, the fully Gratz-equipped studio stayed with the house. About two years ago, we started creating a Pilates studio in our home in California. We ordered a Gratz Universal Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, and several other pieces. Then we waited - and waited.

After a second delay notice from Gratz, we reached out to David. It was then that we learned that we were not alone in waiting a long time for our equipment. Everyone was waiting for Gratz.

Early this year, while still waiting for our Ladder Barrel and other apparatus, we visited David in Philadelphia. We liked David immediately and felt that we might be able to help address the challenges Gratz was facing with investment and by applying our years of experience in solving difficult problems.

While it seemed a little far-fetched, we broached the idea of investing in Gratz and found both David and Roberta to be open to the idea. We found common interests with David and Roberta in wanting to support the growth of Pilates, the longevity of Gratz, and supporting the global Pilates community. This is how this leg of our Pilates journey began.

Today, we are spending most of our time in Philadelphia at the Gratz office and factory. Our focus is almost entirely on production. We are working to increase our productivity, while maintaining and increasing quality. We look forward to getting on the road and meeting studio owners and instructors around the world, but right now we think it is important to keep the main thing, the main thing – getting everyone their Gratz equipment ASAP.

As we look to the future, we believe Gratz must deliver orders dramatically quicker, and do so with incredibly high quality, every time. So, we are in Philadelphia, working on this. As we write this, we are in Philly hiring a new welder and evaluating options for faster and better shipping. We have also hired several great people to help us address the many improvement opportunities in our factory.

In short, we are fans of classical Pilates and could not be more excited to help Gratz better serve its customers. For now, we are focused on manufacturing, but we look forward to meeting many of you in person soon and sharing tangible news about improvements in manufacturing and shipping.

All the best,

Elizabeth and John