From the start, the woodworking, varnishing, welding, machining, sewing, assembly, packaging, advertising, mailing and sales were all done in-house, mostly by local Chaska residents who were trained by NordicTrack for their specific jobs. The company later moved to an assembly line that could put out several thousand units a day. From the start, machines were built one at a time on special benches. In the new era of out-sourcing manufacturing (the 1980s), the Pauls family, having a mechanical background, chose to manufacture the machines in-house. The company was built and operated on the cash-and carry basis, and no money was ever borrowed during the Pauls' ownership from 1975 to 1986. The ads were different in that they were mostly script explaining the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, and usually a small picture of the machine being used. The sales concept was mail-order.Īds were placed in magazines, including Smithsonian, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal.

The company was moved to the Jonathan industrial park in Chaska, where it first rented and later built a number of buildings for manufacturing, mail and phone sales, and warehousing. The product's name was changed to NordicTrack. Several of their first machines were branded 'Nordic Jock', as their original market was anticipated to be college ski racers. At the time, the Pauls were making the Flip Ski (a crutch ski used by leg-handicapped downhill skiers) as a part-time mail order business in their basement. Ed Pauls was an engineer, usually got home after dark, and was motivated to beat his Swedish friend in the race. NordicTrack was founded by Edward and Florence Pauls in 1975, when Ed Pauls invented the original NordicTrack ski machine in his garage in Chaska, Minnesota, in an effort to train for the local VJC cross-country ski race. The company has been manufacturing exercise equipment since 1975. NordicTrack is owned and managed by iFIT Health & Fitness Inc. It is best known for its Nordic ski machines, low-impact exercisers, ellipticals, and incline trainers. NordicTrack is an American company that manufactures treadmills, strength training equipment, ellipticals, exercise bikes, and accessories. Treadmills, strength training equipment, ellipticals, exercise bikes, and accessories

The vault nordictrack