[pokstad]

What makes a fitness program hacker friendly? That's basically reinforcing some stereotype that all coders belong to this fraternity of brothers. We don't. We are professionally programmers, but once I step outside of my job I am no longer a programmer. Fitness shouldn't be targeted at a specific profession, instead it should be targeted at people who work in similar conditions. Office jobs vs programmers, which makes more sense to target? There's way more people working office jobs with health issues from sitting, but the converse isn't necessarily true about programmers. A programmer might not work in an office, they might work at some hip startup with exercise equipment everywhere. My employer has it's own gym with personal trainers, but I doubt most small non-engineering offices do. You're going to hurt the bottom line by using a "hacker" tagline to sell this service.

[jplarson]

A business needn't go for as broad a market as they could, and is often rewarded by targeting (and really resonating with) a narrow niche.

Due to the name I immediately felt right at home, that this was totally for me. "Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."? Heck yeah, speaks right to me.

I signed up without hesitation and enjoyed a nice 26 minute break from coding. Something aimed at "office workers who sit all day" likely wouldn't have gotten that response from me.

(And if the "hacker" tagline really does end up weighing down this venture, spinning off a rebranded version or two for other niches could quickly solve that problem.)

[Cakez0r]

The idea of a pragmatic plan to get in shape appealed to me as a programmer, but I read this kind of language and cringe:

"Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."

"Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

I think the "hacker" market can be captured without being so patronizing.

[grrowl]

> "Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

This resonates with me more than "...Level Up.", because it's true. When I was working out my whole body worked better, including my brain, so I appreciate that angle in the marketing.

[pokstad]

My whole point is that they aren't resonating with that niche. Being a hacker doesn't say anything about your fitness level. I know plenty of Engineers that are healthy as hell and work out regularly (myself included). This is basically stereotyping engineers into the pale fraile archetype. Not everyone who codes is a vegan-overly-politically-correct-Bay-Area-hipster. There's a lot of diversity in people who consider themselves coders.

If you want to call it "Geek" fitness or "Nerd" fitness, that's one thing. The whole level up angle is being done by Fitocracy successfully and they aren't targeting coders, they are targeting people who like games and tech, which is a large group of people who may be put off by the hacker angle. By labeling hacker, they are saying that "only people who code will really understand our product".

[jaysonelliot]

Agreed 100%. I've seen several fitness sites try to brand themselves as "geek" or "nerd" oriented, but at best they're just the same old thing with a couple of video game jokes added.

I'd love to see someone actually address the motivational and cultural differences that people from the geek subculture have, instead of just thinking that you can slap a coat of paint on the same old bro-and-jock approach.

[spada]

Agreed. Rebrand it now to target those who sit all day.