In a busy gym, athletes move quickly between racks, benches and cable machines, adjusting weights and preparing for their next set. Performance is measured in kilograms and repetitions. But long before a barbell is lifted, performance begins elsewhere: in the angle of a bench, the contour of a handle and the stability of a frame.
This growing focus on design is reflected in intellectual property (IP) trends. According to recent WIPO research , sports-related industrial design filings grew at an annual rate of 8.3 percent between 2016 and 2025, compared to 4 percent across all sectors, with particularly strong momentum in fitness and gym equipment. The rise highlights the increasing importance of product form, ergonomics and user-facing differentiation in a rapidly expanding market.
For REP Fitness, a Colorado-based strength equipment company, industrial design is not an afterthought. It is integral to the business’s every operation. Brothers Ryan and Shane McGrotty began by selling equipment for the CrossFit community from a humble garage in 2012. Now they manage a company of more than 200 employees.
To an outsider, a dumbbell is a dumbbell. But for someone who trains seriously, the details matter
Today, REP designs racks, benches, dumbbells and cable systems used in home gyms, boutique studios and institutional facilities such as schools, police and fire departments, and military training centers.
As the company expands into the United Kingdom and Europe, it is also building an international portfolio of industrial designs through WIPO's Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs, protecting the visible shapes and functional arrangements of key products.
In workout equipment, design is performance
“To an outsider, a dumbbell is a dumbbell,” says Brad Hattenbach, REP’s in-house IP counsel and a US patent attorney. “But for someone who trains seriously, the details matter. How it balances, how compact it is, how safely and quickly you can adjust it – that’s design, and that directly affects performance.”
In fitness equipment and training tools, industrial design governs ergonomics, adjustability, stability and spatial efficiency. Equipment must accommodate human biomechanics, withstand repeated stress and support heavy loads safely. A poorly placed adjustment pin or unstable seat can compromise training outcomes and user safety.
REP has institutionalized this thinking. In 2025, the company created a dedicated team that regularly reviews the entire product portfolio. Each reassessment includes identifying improvements to the visible features that could be protected as industrial designs. The questions are practical: Can the grip geometry be better? Is the knurling optimal? Are users reporting friction points?
Feedback flows in from fitness enthusiasts within the company, competitive athletes, professional reviewers and a vocal online community. Prototypes are tested internally by employees who are themselves serious lifters. “Many of our staff are competitive athletes or long-time weightlifters,” Hattenbach says. “We’ll put a prototype in the gym and ask: What do you think? What feels off? What could be better?”
REP also regularly collects feedback from gyms and training facilities where multiple athletes train simultaneously and sessions are physically intense.
We get knocked off a lot. If you release something that resonates, it can be copied very quickly
At KNGDM Sports Performance in Colorado, coaches train athletes ranging from young prospects to professionals. For them, equipment design directly shapes how training sessions are organized.
“Design dictates how we program,” says Joe Parker, co-founder of KNGDM. “It affects how many exercises we can run, how many athletes we can train at once and how efficiently we can move through a workout.”
Multifunctional systems, in particular, can dramatically increase training efficiency. Parker points to rack systems that integrate cable functionality as an example. “If an athlete can’t do pull-ups yet, we can immediately move them to a lat pulldown on the same station,” he says. “That keeps the session flowing and lets us work with athletes of different strength levels without constantly moving them around the gym.”
The result is equipment that combines multiple exercises in one unit, with handles and adjustments that are easy to use and a structure that withstands repeated heavy use – features that competitors can notice and copy.
Compact power: the adjustable dumbbell
REP’s adjustable Pepin Dumbbell illustrates how design can become a performance differentiator and a protectable asset. The product, registered internationally under WIPO's Hague System (DM/240 993), condenses a full range of weights into a compact, modular form.
Rather than lining a wall with dozens of fixed dumbbells, users can incrementally adjust a single pair from light to extremely heavy loads. The higher-weight versions reach up to 56 kilograms per dumbbell in a footprint roughly the size of a yoga mat – a typical dumbbell rack can take up an entire corner of a gym.
“The compactness is critical,” says Shane Percival, REP’s outside counsel. “It’s designed for serious lifters who train heavy but may be working out in a garage or spare room. The form factor gives them functionality without taking over the entire space.”
Design decisions underpin that compactness: the geometry of the plates, the alignment and locking mechanism, the balance of the handle and the docking system that supports safe loading and unloading. These are visible features. They also shape how the product performs in the real world.
We were able to enforce our rights by contacting the infringers and showing the Hague registration
Even traditional fixed dumbbells can reveal the importance of subtle design features. At KNGDM, Parker and his colleagues use REP’s urethane dumbbells. “The flat sides are great,” says Parker. “You can use them for elevated push-ups or other movements, which gives you more versatility from a simple piece of equipment.”
Such versatility creates risk. “We get knocked off a lot,” Hattenbach says, plainly. “If you release something that resonates, it can be copied very quickly.” Imitations may appear on online platforms or be imported by third-party distributors.
“We’ve had to send notices to some retailers and online sellers,” he adds. “Industrial design registration gives us a concrete basis to demand that they stop selling copies of our unique shapes and mechanisms. Without it, enforcement is much harder.”
In this case, the company focuses on protecting the distinctive shapes, plate geometry and adjustment mechanisms that make the Pepin Dumbbell unique.
Multifunctional fitness bench: Pegasus seat
Another example is REP’s flat pulldown Pegasus seat attachment, protected under international design registration DM/237 368 . What makes it stand out from a standard bench is how quickly the seat and leg rollers can be adjusted for different users and exercises, letting one station serve multiple functions without additional equipment.
REP’s Hague registration protects these distinctive design elements – the shapes, angles and mechanisms that make the seat versatile and safe – so that others can’t copy the look directly and subsequently its functionality.
“When we launched it, there was nothing quite like it,” Hattenbach says. “And we’ve since seen direct copies. We were able to enforce our rights by contacting the infringers and showing the Hague registration. Some stopped selling immediately, others required legal letters.”
For REP, these experiences reinforced the need to file early and broadly. Hague registrations allow the company to seek protection in multiple markets through a single international application, supporting rapid product cycles and coordinated global launches.
Colorado peaks inspire REP exercise equipment designs
Beyond individual products, REP has invested in building a recognizable visual vocabulary across its range. The goal is to signal that its equipment is designed as a coherent system rather than assembled from off-the-shelf parts.
Some elements draw inspiration from Colorado’s landscape, including angular profiles reminiscent of local mountain formations such as the Flatirons and Longs Peak. Other motifs include hexagonal “hive” patterns and circular “turbine” cues in structural or decorative components.
These features create consistency and brand recognition, as well as communicating intent. “We’re not just buying generic products and putting our name on them,” Hattenbach says. “We’re building a design system.”
In markets where new fitness products appear frequently, consistent design elements do more than signal quality: they create protectable features that can be registered internationally, giving REP a clear framework to defend its products.
Why design protection matters in fitness
The rapid growth in industrial design filings in the fitness sector reflects a shift: equipment is no longer defined solely by function, but by how efficiently it integrates into space and adapts to users and their training needs.
Unlike apparel or purely decorative consumer goods, strength equipment operates under heavy load and repeated stress. Small differences in form can alter load paths, joint alignment or user positioning. In this context, industrial design is intertwined with safety and effectiveness.
Yet precisely because many performance-relevant features are visible – adjustment levers, plate shapes, seat contours, frame geometries – they can be readily copied. Even more so as product cycles are accelerating meaning new designs gain traction quickly and can be imitated just as fast.
“Hague filings are an operational tool for us,” Percival says. “They allow REP to move quickly, protect early and launch globally with more confidence. Compared to a patchwork of national filings, the system offers cost and timing advantages and clearer portfolio management.”
The story of REP Fitness underscores a broader lesson for the sports and fitness sector. Innovation does not reside only in technical mechanisms or advanced materials. It is also embedded in the creative choices that shape how equipment looks, feels and functions under strain.
When those choices improve stability, ergonomics or spatial efficiency, they enhance performance. When they become commercially successful, they attract imitation. And when they are registered and managed strategically, they become IP assets.
For athletes in a garage gym, the difference between one dumbbell and another may be measured in comfort, balance and usable space. For a growing company entering global markets, that same difference can define brand identity – and justify international protection. It is not just about safeguarding products, but about supporting long-term innovation and brand identity across markets.
In strength training, the weight may be visible. But the design work that makes lifting safer, more efficient and more adaptable often carries the greater load.
About the author: Louis Meunier is a consultant with 20 years of experience working at the intersection of international cooperation, strategic communication and media. He serves as a Senior Information Officer at WIPO, working on data-driven communication and outreach strategies to increase awareness and effective use of the Hague System.
