Our Story
Built in California. Shipped from three warehouses. Trusted by home studios across the US.
The Reformer in the Garage
It started with a broken spring.
In 2020, our founder — a Pilates instructor in Los Angeles — was leading a morning class when a spring on one of the studio's reformers snapped. No one was hurt, but the class stopped. The replacement part took three weeks to arrive. Three students dropped out because they couldn't maintain their practice.
That moment stuck with her: how could a $4 piece of hardware disrupt someone's health routine?
She looked at the market. Studios charged $5,000 for reformers that cost $800 to make. The "affordable" options online were particle board and hollow steel tubes that fell apart in six months.
One of her students — a nurse who worked 12-hour shifts — said: "I want to practice when I get home at 7 AM. But a reformer costs more than my monthly rent."
She quit her job, moved back in with her parents, and spent six months in a garage in Fontana, California, building reformers. The first one was terrible. The fourth prototype worked.
Why "1GKU"?
1GKU — "one good unit."
There's a philosophy in craftsmanship: you don't need to make thousands of perfect products. You need to make one product so well that everything else follows.
One good frame → one good carriage → one good spring → one good movement → one good session → a better life.
Not scale. Not speed. One good unit, every time.
The Thing About Pilates
If you practice, you already know this:
Pilates is not about looking good in a mirror. It's about showing up to the mat when you're tired, when you're stressed, when everything else is falling apart — and finding, in the movement itself, a place where things make sense.
The nurse who practices at 7 AM after her shift.
The mother who does 10 minutes while the baby naps.
The retiree who finally has time to take care of herself.
They're all doing the same thing: showing up for themselves.
We don't make equipment for that. We make equipment that gets out of the way of that.
The best Pilates session is the one where you forget the machine exists. The carriage moves so smoothly, the springs respond so precisely, the frame doesn't wobble — where the equipment disappears, and all that's left is you and the work.
That's what we build. Not a status symbol. A tool that earns its place in your home, day after day.
What We're Not
We're not the biggest Pilates equipment company. We probably never will be.
We're not going to sell on Amazon.
We're not going to make cheap equipment.
We're not going to hire influencers to pose on our reformers.
What we are is a small team that believes good equipment should be accessible to everyone. Not just studio owners. Not just wealthy home users. Everyone.
If you want to practice Pilates at home but don't want to pay $5,000 for a reformer — we built this for you.
That's the whole story. No mission statement. No vision board. Just good equipment, fairly priced, shipped to your door.