Meta Quest, Puma Launch ‘World’s Smallest Gym’
The tech giant and activewear brand have teamed up to prove that virtual reality can deliver an amazing fitness experience in the smallest of spaces
Meta Quest and Puma have collaborated to host virtual and mixed-reality events at Puma store locations in Germany to extol the benefits of “the world’s smallest gym” — one without membership contracts and crowds.
The experiential concept allows guests to explore the diverse workouts offered by Meta Quest 3 and select from a variety of fitness experiences, including HIIT, boxing, Zumba, yoga and more. The immersive VR and MR workouts are held within a specially designed 2m x 2m space.
“It’s January and gyms are notoriously crowded,” wrote Stephania Silveira, group creative director of Reality Labs at Meta. “To demonstrate that you don’t need a lot of space or equipment for a great workout anywhere, Meta Quest teamed up with Puma Group to create ‘The World’s Smallest Gym’ – pods in high-footfall areas across Berlin, where consumers can try a range of curated fitness experiences.”
Supporting the engaging Meta Quest x Puma pop-up is NBA player and Puma athlete Dennis Schröder, who is praising the “World’s Smallest Gym” on his social media pages and encouraging consumers to book a session at Puma to give Meta Quest 3’s VR and MR fitness offerings a whirl.
The Meta Quest x Puma events will be held at Puma’s store in Berlin until February 3, in the East Side Mall until January 26th and in the Mall of Berlin from January 29 to February 3. Training sessions last around 15-20 minutes.
Fitness Brands Embrace Meta Quest 3
Meta has heavily invested in VR fitness, beginning with its successful battle with the FTC to acquire Within, maker of popular VR fitness app Supernatural, for a reported $400 million.
The release of the new Meta Quest 3 headset, which dropped in late 2023, showed advancements in virtual fitness along with mixed reality capabilities like full-color passthrough and natural depth perception so users can incorporate accessories such as weights into their fitness experience.
Xponential Fitness recently joined the Meta Quest 3 platform, bringing three of its most popular studio brands – Club Pilates, Pure Barre and StretchLab – to the virtual world.
“As these technologies become more mainstream, we’ve seized the opportunity to enhance immersion while maintaining the efficiency of 2D digital fitness,” Garrett Marshall, Xponential+ president, told Athletech News. “Unlike typical VR fitness games, the Quest 3 headset’s technological advancements empower us to deliver proven workouts from leading fitness brands, all while harnessing the best virtual and social features.”
Les Mills has also signed onto Meta Quest 3 with XR Bodycombat, a mixed-reality martial arts fitness game where players can blend their real-life environment with a virtual training space.
FitXR is also taking advantage of Meta’s advancements with the recent launch of Slam, adding to its robust line of multiplayer workout studios across Box, Dance, HIIT, Sculpt, Combat and Zumba.
Sam Cole, FitXR founder and CEO, told Athletech News that the gamification of Slam allows FitXR to reach “an entirely new group of users who are anxious about exercise, and young people who are addicted to sedentary gaming.”
