It may be the island’s best kept business success secret.

An Isle of Man fitness technology company that is currently valued at over $102 million and is selling its products globally, in 84 countries around the world.

The company is called Myzone and its managing director and co-founder, Phil Whittam, says: ’We are an Isle of Man company. It began in the Isle of Man, was created in the Isle of Man, and nobody is aware of what we do.’

The company began manufacturing fitness trackers back in 2011.

Phil recalls: ’Myzone began in 2011. It was introduced to me by my colleague Dave Wright who has a wealth of experience in the fitness industry. He put together the concept and I developed it in the Isle of Man.

’It started as a member engagement tool for fitness clubs, in the early stage of heart rate wearables.’

It was a market with lots of potential. Fitbit had launched its first fitness tracker just over a year earlier and by 2011 it had paired it with an iPhone app.

(At the time this caused a little bit of a problem: it turned out that users who recorded their sexual activity, in terms of time spent, were unwittingly sharing that information with the world and with Google.)

The Myzone concept was, and remains, a different beast from Fitbit and the later Apple tracking devices, as Phil explains: ’Fitbit is a consumer model, Myzone is a business to business to customer model, focussed on facilities and hubs and their members. It’s community based.

’Our concept was that fitness clubs would buy the device and sell them to their members, or give them away as part of the membership.

’The club then acted as the hub, gathering all the data from the devices.’

Then in 2015, Myzone changed to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Phil says: ’This allowed smart phones to act as a receiver and that was a game changer. It enabled Myzone to develop apps so that it could work with a user’s mobile phone. It was no longer limited to the sphere of leisure clubs, the data was now instantly available and uploaded through the Myzone app.’

This also changed Myzone’s marketing strategy. Phil says: ’We always distributed Myzone through third parties but when BLE technology came along we decided that we were more than capable of selling Myzone ourselves. So we developed our own distributor network and incorporated subsidiaries in the UK, USA, Mexico, Germany, Singapore and Australia.’

Another thing that sets Myzone apart is that their products are designed to be worn specifically when you exercise, rather than all day long, recording random movement.

It is a serious fitness product, measuring heart rate, activity time and calories burned through a device on a chest strap that you wear while working out.

Because it’s close to your heart you will get a 99.4% accuracy compared with other wrist-based fitness trackers that measure blood flow and only give around a 60% accuracy at high-intensity levels.

The company has also recently introduced a Myzone Switch model.

Phil says: ’Myzone Switch incorporates both a chest strap and a wristband. Users can switch between wearing the wristband when doing low-intensity activity to a chest strap when doing more strenuous exercise such as jogging.

’We understand the ease of the wristband over the chest strap but we don’t want our users to lose accuracy.’

The Myzone devices also use colour-coded zones of intensity to turn effort into Myzone Effort Points (MEPs). This allows challenges and competitions to be run. In the setting of, for example, a fitness club, this acts a bit like a golf handicap. You may not be as accomplished, or as fit, as other members but if you are putting more effort into your workout, you will earn more MEPs.

Interestingly, this is even helping children in a number of primary schools in the UK to understand what the appropriate amount of effort for an activity should feel like.

As well as providing member engagement in fitness chains including Bannatynes, David Lloyd, Gold’s, Fitness First and L. A. Fitness, it is popular in elite sports settings such as Wigan Warriors and Dallas Cowboys. FC Isle of Man is also using Myzone to maintain footballers’ fitness.

Phil says: ’Myzone’s next expansion is into corporates. The differentiator for us is that it works better through any community hub and is a great way of encouraging physical activity with everybody engaged. It motivates them to move more and to reach their goals.

’People can also motivate each other and share their progress through achieving badges for attaining the World Health Organisation’s recommendation for physical activity.

’I could challenge Mo Farrer to a half marathon, and he might come in an hour ahead of me, but I could earn more MEPs for putting in more effort.’

In a hospital setting Myzone is now being used by medical staff to set and monitor goals for pre-op fitness and post-op rehab.

In the US, Myzone launched a Congressional Physical Activity Challenge which pitted the Senate against the House of Representatives and Republicans against Democrats. (Just for the record, the Senate and the Republicans both came out on top.)

The devices are manufactured in China, the same as Apple, Fitbit and other fitness trackers though Phil says that the Covid supply problems with goods from China have seen companies looking around for alternatives.

Despite having nearly 100 staff at its subsidiaries around the world, Myzone remains a Manx company. There are around 10 people working at its base on Prospect Hill, including Phil’s son, Andrew, who has joined the business.

’On the Isle of Man we concentrate on developing products and running the business. And all the data from users around the world is collected and stored in our datacentre in Ballasalla,’ says Phil.

Myzone has earned the attention of private equity firm BGF and high-profile investor, Vin Murria OBE. Together they have recently put $17.2 million into the business and she has joined the board as non-executive chair

Phil says: ’Launching the MZ-Switch opened up new markets for us. It is now an ideal solution for a corporate and school environment, and our partnership with BGF and Vin will help drive these new markets in addition to building on our long-standing support for the traditional fitness industry.’