After an illustrious career that resulted in eight Grand Slam tennis titles, an Olympic gold medal and a place in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Andre Agassi is giving back. And he’s giving back to the fitness industry.
Last week in Los Angeles, Agassi and his longtime strength training coach, Gil Reyes, unveiled their new line of strength equipment, BILT by Agassi & Reyes. The line is modeled on the equipment Reyes had designed for Agassi to use during his tennis career. The two teamed up in 1990, not long after Reyes left as the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Two years later, Agassi won his first Grand Slam and his only title at Wimbledon.
The BILT equipment consists of 12 machines, most notably the BILT Flat Bench, the Change of Direction Machine and the BILT Abdominal Machine, plus a spring-enhanced weight stack. Other machines consist of the incline bench, decline bench, isocurl, triceps press, power stride, low back machine, calf flex, hip flexors and quad system.
Long-term, the company plans to include additional strength and cardio machines as well as nutrition products based on Agassi’s training regimen as designed by Reyes. Last year, when the company applied for a trademark, it listed in the identification section dietary and nutritional supplements, supplements packaged as bars, a powdered nutritional supplement drink mix, protein supplements, and vitamin and mineral supplements.
Club Industry Managing Editor Stuart Goldman interviewed Agassi and Reyes last Thursday in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles. Also in the room was Steve Miller, president and CEO of BILT by Agassi & Reyes, and Steffi Graf, Agassi’s wife.
Miller also is CEO of Agassi Graf Holdings, overseeing for-profit entities and one nonprofit foundation, the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. He was interim CEO of Power Plate International until 2009 and then served as chairman of the board for another year before focusing his attention on his duties at Agassi Graf Holdings.
Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, including the “Golden” Grand Slam in 1988, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004. Graf and Agassi, who was inducted last year and is healthy after having hip surgery last November, still play tennis occasionally, mainly for exercise, exhibitions and charitable obligations. Married in 2001, the couple and their two children live in Las Vegas, headquarters of BILT by Agassi & Reyes and Agassi Graf Holdings.
The interview with Agassi and Reyes can be found here.