Brands

Carmin

Our pilates brand: the reformer, and the screen that mounts on it. The machines are drawn and built here; the connected console goes with them. One brand, because it is one product.

Brands

A machine and its screen, designed together

Carmin began with a pilates studio we were fitting out, which asked us to rebuild its storage. Then the wall supports. Then a machine, because no model on the market came to the right height for the room. Three projects later the same pieces kept recurring: we settled them into a range rather than redrawing them each time.

Professional pilates equipment is not reinforced domestic equipment. A studio reformer takes ten hours of use a day, constant adjustment and bodies of every size. What actually works are the carriage and its bearings, the springs and their hooks, the straps and their anchor points. Those parts are chosen to last and, above all, to be replaced on site.

The screen came later, and for an economic reason rather than a technical one. A pilates studio lives on its classes and loses money between them: open slots are the hours when the machines are there, free, and nobody comes. The member does not know what to do alone, the operator cannot pay an instructor for three people. That is the gap the connected console fills.

The two are not two products bolted together. Height, angle and cable route are drawn with the machine rather than added afterwards: an arm fixed to a frame that was not designed for it ends up vibrating, and a console that vibrates does not get looked at. That is why both carry the same name.

A reformer occupies roughly 2.40 by 0.70 metres, but it is the space all round it that decides the studio's capacity: room to get on and off, room for an instructor to pass between two machines and correct a posture, room for the carriage to run without fouling. The spacing is the dimension we settle with you on the drawing, and the temptation to add one more station is always paid for in comfort.

The floor decides the rest. A machine on a floor that undulates does not run the same at both ends, and the fault is felt immediately. We survey the levels before pricing the machines, and we say plainly when making good is needed - it is a budget line, not an end-of-project surprise. See space design and manufacturing.

Carmin is never bought on its own. The machines arrive with the layout, the installation and the setting up, and the whole connects to the rest of the club. For the world all this belongs to, see fitness and cross-training; for studios delivered, our projects; for the other brands we install, the Brands page.

The range

What the brand covers

The reformer

The studio reformer, in two rail lengths, with a carriage on sealed bearings and a set of colour-coded springs. The hooks are reachable without crouching right down, which sounds like a detail and is not when the setting is changed forty times a day.

Consistency from one station to the next shows in no photograph and is felt in the first class. A member who moves along the row should not have to relearn the feel: same height, same carriage travel, same resistance at the same notch.

Every wear part is in the spares catalogue and in stock: straps, springs, bearings, upholstery. We state at quotation stage what the fleet will consume over five years - the line studio budgets systematically forget.

The on-board screen

A screen on the machine rather than on the wall: a member lying down looks straight ahead, not sideways. The angle is set once for the machine and is found again from one session to the next, which matters more than you would think for an exercise held for three minutes.

The interface is dark and high-contrast, because a pilates studio is lit warm and low. The controls are large and few: they are reached without getting up, often mid-position.

The cable runs through the arm and the frame. On another manufacturer's machine we check the mounting before committing: a cable trailing on a studio floor is a cable somebody will step on.

The guided programmes

Four families of guided pilates programmes - pilates, strength, mobility and recovery - each by level. Duration is chosen before starting, because an open slot lasts as long as the slot lasts.

Each exercise states the spring setting before it begins, and repeats it on every change. That is the point at which members on their own get stuck: they know the movement, not what resistance to do it at.

This is not a beginner's app. A complete beginner starts with an instructor, and the console takes over afterwards - it does not see a shoulder creeping up.

Member tracking

For the operator, a simple table: who comes, at which slots, how often, and what that looks like over three months. Open sessions appear alongside classes, which finally makes the two comparable.

Those figures serve two concrete decisions: which slots to open or close, and which members to call before they stop coming. A three-week break is visible, and that is the moment when a call still achieves something.

The data belongs to the studio. We do not exploit it, and what is collected is set out in the privacy policy.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How many reformers does it take to open a studio?

Six to eight are enough for a studio starting out, keeping a comfortable spacing rather than filling the room. One badly placed extra station costs more in renewals than it earns in capacity.

The right way to put the question is the other way round: how many members per slot are you aiming for, and how many slots a day? Area and machine count follow from that.

Is the screen compulsory?

No. A studio can be fitted with Carmin machines and no console at all, and the console mounts on other manufacturers' machines in most cases.

Fitted together, they are simply set up together: height, angle and cabling are allowed for when the machine is built rather than added afterwards.

Does Carmin replace an instructor?

No, and it does not try to. A corrected class remains irreplaceable: a console does not see a shoulder creeping up or a pelvis tipping.

It serves the hours when there is no class. Studios that install it generally keep the same number of classes, with more people in them.

What happens if a part breaks?

Wear parts are in stock and the work is done by the teams who installed the equipment. The drawings are here: a part that is no longer made can be made again.

The schedule of checks and their frequency is on the maintenance page.

Fitting out a pilates studio?

Tell us the area you have and the number of stations you are aiming for. We will tell you what fits, at what spacing, and what the floor and the acoustics will require.

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