After Li Shi’s analysis, Che Rong was completely stunned.

When Tuoguan Fitness first opened, their results were poor and they consistently lost money. Many gyms on the verge of bankruptcy transferred their locations to Tuoguan Fitness, and those owners thought they had found someone to take over their failing businesses, feeling quite pleased with themselves.

But soon after, Tuoguan Fitness skyrocketed, and now they had opened branches in ultra-first-tier cities like the Capital, Magic City, and Sheep City!

Other gyms wanted to learn from this model, but they couldn’t!

Tuoguan Fitness was extremely strict with user selection and also provided fitness meals from Slackin’ Delivery. The reason their customers could endure such strict conditions was because Tuoguan Fitness had already established an excellent reputation—everyone knew they got results, so people gritted their teeth and persisted.

This was a virtuous cycle.

If other gyms tried to do the same, they would be dead before they knew what hit them.

So Che Rong had stopped paying attention to Tuoguan Fitness affairs, since only Tenda could make that model work anyway.

But now, judging from Mr. Li’s meaning, he clearly wanted to leverage the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack?

Although Mr. Li was providing the money, if anything went wrong, both parties would bear the risk.

After buying the Smart Fitness Clothes Racks, they would need to find places to put them, which meant clearing out some of the other fitness equipment and rearranging the entire gym layout.

If these racks took up space but no one used them, and they had already removed some of the original equipment, the fitness experience for regular customers would actually deteriorate.

Given Star Bird Fitness’s current state, if something like that happened, they would be basically at death’s door.

Li Shi noticed Che Rong’s hesitation.

“Mr. Che, think carefully. Does Star Bird Fitness have any advantages compared to other chain gyms? None at all!”

“Relying solely on price wars is a dead end. All gyms are lowering prices and competing with each other, and the final result will be that they all go out of business.”

“Now, the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack represents both risk and opportunity. The first person to eat a crab and the second person are treated completely differently!”

“Although Tuoguan Fitness also has Smart Fitness Clothes Racks, the number of members at Tuoguan Fitness is strictly limited, so not all demand for using Smart Fitness Clothes Racks can be satisfied.”

“As for buying one’s own… this equipment takes up a lot of space and isn’t cheap. Although there’s a moving service, many people will buy them, but many others won’t.”

“People who are neither Tuoguan Fitness members nor willing to buy their own Smart Fitness Clothes Rack—isn’t this a perfect target customer group?”

“Right now, other chain gyms are still slow to realize this. If Star Bird Fitness can be the first to launch an ‘Interactive Fitness Zone’ centered around the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack, and use this as a topic for promotion and discussion, successfully capturing this target user group, it will inevitably bring extremely high recognition to Star Bird Fitness, giving it a head start among all gyms!”

“By the time other gyms follow suit, Star Bird Fitness, as the first gym to launch a similar model, will definitely have gained something!”

“Moreover…”

Li Shi paused and lowered his voice: “Given my relationship with Tenda, I can guarantee that Smart Fitness Clothes Racks will be supplied to you as a priority.”

“As far as I know, the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack is in a continuous state of shortage due to the OEM factory’s production capacity.”

“So buying online definitely won’t work out.”

“I know Chang You, the person in charge of Outu Technology. As long as I step in to negotiate a business purchase with him, I can get the OEM factory to increase production capacity and obtain the products in bulk. And given the limited initial production capacity, only we will be able to get the products—other gyms won’t!”

“This situation won’t last long, as other gyms will eventually get the products too. But even if our lead is only two or three months, that’s enough, because by then, we will have already sold a large number of gym memberships and captured a large batch of customers!”

“Mr. Che, you must consider this carefully. If you don’t participate, I’ll still find other gyms.”

For Li Shi, Star Bird Fitness was his first choice.

Although Jingzhou had several other chain gyms, they were basically national chains with headquarters possibly in the Capital, Magic City, or other major cities, making cooperation less smooth.

And the small local gyms in Jingzhou were too small in scale—they couldn’t accommodate many Smart Fitness Clothes Racks and had limited room for development.

Star Bird Fitness was a local gym in Jingzhou, neither too large nor too small. Negotiating with Che Rong made it easier to maintain control and offered better prospects for development.

It was precisely because of this opportunity with the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack, along with all the suitable conditions, that Li Shi finally decided to invest in Star Bird Fitness.

Li Shi felt that since he had been benefiting from Mr. Pei’s ventures, he naturally should help others benefit from his own ventures too—many hands make light work!

Of course, if Che Rong adamantly refused, Li Shi would have to find someone else.

Che Rong lowered his head in thought. Clearly, he had been swayed by Li Shi.

Everyone knew that Jingzhou’s only investment miracle was Mr. Pei. And right behind him was Mr. Li of Fuhui Capital.

Mr. Li’s investments following Mr. Pei had extremely high success and profit rates. Basically, any project Mr. Li showed interest in that was connected to Tenda would succeed.

Moreover, Mr. Li’s friendship with Mr. Pei made this plan even more solid.

If he could, through Mr. Li, indirectly attach himself to Tenda’s big leg, how difficult would it be to revitalize Star Bird Fitness?

Although Mr. Li’s plan carried some risk, compared to the benefits, it was truly negligible.

Worth a try!

With this in mind, Che Rong nodded: “Alright, Mr. Li, I accept this condition!”

“I will establish an ‘Interactive Fitness Zone’ in all our gyms, equipped with Smart Fitness Clothes Racks, and assign two dedicated fitness coaches to monitor and guide members in using the equipment.”

“Then we’ll focus our promotion around this point, encouraging people who want to play Fitness Battle to come here and sign up!”

“As for the equipment procurement, I’ll leave that to you, Mr. Li!”

Li Shi nodded with a smile: “Don’t worry, I’ll contact Chang You from Outu Technology directly. We’ll get the products straight from the factory and deliver them immediately!”

Compared to online shopping with its small, individual orders, this kind of gym procurement would mean hundreds of devices at once—Chang You had no reason to refuse.

Star Bird Fitness had more than a dozen locations, and if each location purchased ten units, the first batch would require over a hundred units.

And this was just the first batch; there would be more later.

Once they found this model viable and the response enthusiastic, Li Shi would naturally continue to add investment or use other methods to raise funds, allowing Star Bird Fitness to rapidly open more branches and expand this model in the short term.

While bringing a large number of orders to Outu Technology, they would also allow Star Bird Fitness to expand rapidly by taking customers from other chain gyms!

So the end result would be a win-win-win for Tenda, Star Bird Fitness, and Fuhui Capital—wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Li Shi also thought they could consider talking with Shangyang Games about providing some small benefits for customers using Smart Fitness Clothes Racks at Star Bird Fitness in the early stages.

Just like GOG’s free skins for internet café cooperation, they could allow customers to use some free outfits when playing Fitness Battle at Star Bird Fitness, or give them some tokens.

They could even create a Fitness Battle themed store when opening new locations, with life-sized statues of game characters and fitness settings similar to those in the game to attract more customers.

Of course, Li Shi always kept in mind that the premise of enjoying Tenda’s benefits was to leave the majority of profits to Tenda.

So, Star Bird Fitness’s new stores would definitely try to avoid overlapping with Tuoguan Fitness locations, instead competing with other chain gyms, and even advertise Tenda’s products in their own gyms, striving to be good junior partners.

Li Shi also clearly understood that Mr. Pei hated scalpers the most, so he chose to contact Chang You directly, getting products straight from the OEM factory and opening another production line, which wouldn’t affect the original inventory of Smart Fitness Clothes Racks.

This way, they wouldn’t cause shortages that would benefit scalpers, yet could obtain products in bulk, quickly establishing Star Bird Fitness’s “Interactive Fitness Zone” to gain a first-mover advantage.

Based on his understanding of Mr. Pei, Li Shi had made the entire plan flawless.

After reviewing it once more, he felt the chances of success were very high!

Li Shi and Che Rong finalized the details, formally established their cooperation, and prepared to make a big move!