In the Beginning, There Were Only Dreams
My name is Stanisław Szultka. I was born in 1958 in Brusy, a small town in northern Poland. While my name may not be widely known, strength-training and fitness enthusiasts around the world know me as the creator of TYTAX machines.
While watching the film Jobs, which tells the story of Steve Jobs, I recognized several parallels with my own journey. Many entrepreneurs around the world will understand that feeling—the determination to take control of their future and build something of their own.
My journey began in 1988, when I built my first strength-training machine in our home garage. I originally designed it for my wife and myself, but I soon realized that others might also benefit from it—people who wanted to become stronger, improve their fitness, or simply feel better about their appearance.
Testing exercises in 1989 on the first prototype I built for our home gym.
Building my first strength-training machine was not easy. I was 31 years old and living in Poland, where the communist regime controlled all economic activity.
In 1989, Poland held its first partially free elections since World War II, paving the way for a non-communist government and a market-based economy. This new government introduced a market economy, allowing anyone to start their own business and dream of building their own American Dream.
I was still working in educational administration, and the transition from government employment to running my own business was not easy. During that period, inflation in Poland rose rapidly to hyperinflation levels, while unemployment remained very high. It was hardly an ideal time to start a business.
Still, I was young and enjoyed reading American and European bodybuilding and fitness magazines. Since my early youth, I had practiced various sports, especially tennis.
My interests inspired me to start my own company. I did not hesitate long about whether and what kind of business to start because my wife and I loved exercising on the machine I had built for our small home gym.
We founded the company in 1991, and I began building better versions of that original machine.
Our 215-square-foot garage could no longer accommodate growing production, so in 1991 we decided to build a small factory. Unable to afford a professional construction company, we built it ourselves with help from our family.
At age 33, working on the construction of our first factory.
WITH MY FATHER, WHO HELPED BUILD IT WITH US
Building the small factory was a tremendous effort, but acquiring the equipment needed to manufacture the machines was equally challenging. I could never have managed it alone without my father, who was the designer and maker of most of the devices needed in the production process.
We began production in the new factory in 1992. From 1992 to 1996, we produced successive versions of the S6. This single-station machine supported a wide range of useful exercises and was purchased primarily for small home gyms.
The photos to the right show the S6 in use in 1999.
Expanding Our Range with Multi-User Machines
In 1996, we expanded our product range and began building machines that allowed several people to train at the same time. We sold many of these machines to schools across Poland, where they were used to equip their fitness facilities.
In 1999, I decided to design a professional, multifunctional machine for bodybuilding and fitness exercises. This multi-station system would provide a varied, professional strength and fitness training experience and was intended primarily for professional home gyms.
Our first weight bench, built in 1998.
The machine was also designed for commercial clients, including small fitness studios, personal trainers, police forces, and military units. In other words, it could provide a professional strength and fitness solution wherever space was limited.
After several months of intensive design work and exercise testing, the prototype of the currently produced T1-X machine was created.
Below are photographs of the original machine as it appeared in 1999. It was then sold under the name
Although the machine performed well, I still saw room for improvement. For several years, CONAN was sold exclusively in Poland, while my ambition was to reach customers worldwide—especially in the United States.
Through hard work and a clear sense of purpose, we reached an important milestone in 2003: our first machine was sold to a customer in the United States. Entering this market meant competing immediately with established American strength-equipment manufacturers. This was challenging because we were a Polish company without government support, and American consumers did not yet associate Poland with high-quality strength-training and fitness equipment.
It was a great challenge to compete and win!
Our only way to remain competitive was to develop progressively better versions of our equipment, guided by a simple principle: keep improving or fall behind. Confident in the work we had already done, we were ready to take on the American market, and I immediately began designing the next generation of machines.
We also began thinking globally and selling our equipment to customers worldwide. But how could we show that the machines were unique, offered unlimited training possibilities, and were worth buying from a country thousands of kilometers away?
The History of
Our Digital
Presentation
Few strength-training machines can be configured in as many ways as ours. Each TYTAX machine supports at least 100 exercises, creating an extraordinary range of training possibilities within a single system. In the era before the Internet, it would not have been possible to accurately show customers worldwide the exercises and instructions for configuring the equipment for each workout, as there was no way to quickly show exercise videos.
The Internet changed everything, especially with the arrival of YouTube. But first, let us return to the beginnings of our digital presence and how we presented our products online.
We built our first website in 1997, knowing that it would allow us to present our company's offerings faster and more effectively than printed advertising or trade shows.
In the early years of our online presence, we relied on text and photos. Video was impractical because internet connections were very slow. That changed quickly, and in 2008 we began presenting our products through video.
That was the beginning of the video revolution that started happening in our company.
At the same time, online video itself was still in its infancy—YouTube had existed for only three years.
From 2008, when our first videos appeared on the website, until 2013, we produced them with the simplest equipment. They were filmed in a small room with inadequate lighting and a single HD camera. We were still learning professional video editing, and slow internet connections made uploading footage to YouTube a significant challenge.
We knew video was a medium
Our Film Studio
The breakthrough came at the end of 2013, when we decided to build our own film studio. We had to build the studio from scratch, initially fueled only by the dream that one day we would set up our machines (then called TITAN) on the film set we created.
Watch the video showing the creation of our Film Studio.
Our new film studio was completed in May 2014. Because our equipment has a military-inspired design, the studio set reflects the same aesthetic.
The new film studio is twenty times larger than the space where our videos were previously produced. Such a large studio required a substantial amount of professional lighting.
To illuminate such a large space, we installed professional ARRI lighting in the studio.
The studio is equipped with a rotating camera arm several meters long, capable of supporting multiple 4K cameras and capturing exercises from several angles.
We began filming in the spring of 2014 and recorded several hundred hours of footage over the next two years. At the end of 2015, we made another major decision: to adopt a new global brand identity.
The change was a difficult one because we had already recorded more than 1,500 exercises under the TITAN name. Because that name could not be registered as a trademark in many new countries, we needed an alternative that could support our international growth.
The decision was a difficult one because by then we had already recorded more than 1,500 exercises under the TITAN name. However, TITAN had never been registered as our trademark. As our international presence grew, we realized that we were continuing to invest in the reputation, recognition, and value of a name that we could not secure as the foundation of a global brand.
As we began building TYTAX into an international business, this was an important issue. Every product we developed, every customer we reached, and every year of work added value to the brand behind our machines. We wanted that growing brand value to be associated with a name we could register, develop, and protect as a long-term business asset. We therefore made the difficult decision to leave the TITAN name behind and create a new global identity.
Video production in our studio has continued ever since. Filming demonstrations for each model requires considerable effort—not only because of the number of exercises involved, but also because some models are exceptionally large and heavy.
We ultimately chose TYTAX® as our new brand. We began recording under the TYTAX name in mid-2016, by which time the trademark had already been registered in several dozen countries worldwide, including the United States, our most important market.
Each recording session begins with positioning the machine on the set. Because even our lightest model weighs more than 660 lb, we had to develop a practical way to move the equipment into place.
See in the video how it's done with the T1-X, which weighs over 1650 lb.
Preparations for Recording Exercises.
Recording each exercise is preceded by setting up the machine for the specific exercise. See how this looks with the smallest of the machines—the S7 model (it's always important to maintain exercise hygiene at the start).
Behind the scenes.
Showcasing the thousands of exercises available across the TYTAX range requires a tremendous effort both on set and in post-production. The video below offers a behind-the-scenes look at the recording process; the footage has been slightly sped up.
When we are recording more exercises and are already very tired, it is nice to have my grandchildren, Piotr and Natalia, visit us on the film set.
What Has Having Our Own Film Studio Given Us?
With our own film studio, we can showcase exercise technique and machine setup precisely from multiple camera angles.
It also means we can record new exercises as soon as they are developed.
Producing videos in-house significantly reduces costs. Outsourcing would be expensive and would limit the continuous improvements we make to each model.
Each year, we refine our video production at every stage. These are often small things, but together they produce significant results.
Looking back, building our own film studio was a strategic investment in the company’s development. Without it, we could never have presented the full capabilities of each TYTAX system so effectively.
Machine Production—Evolution, Not Revolution
When we began producing our first strength-training machine in our newly built facility in 1992, we relied on very simple tools and production equipment. The production relied mainly on my good ideas regarding the equipment being produced and my father's decades of experience in how to carry out this production.
Now, after several decades of the company's existence, although numerically controlled machines and robots play an increasingly significant role in the production process, technical solutions devised by my father 20, 30 years ago still play a crucial role.
And, of course, throughout all these years, the entire production technology has been unified by the work of highly skilled employees.
The beauty of our history is that our products and production methods continue to evolve together—through steady progress rather than sudden revolution.
Watch a video comparing the old and new technology in our production process.
Respect for the Values on Which Our Company Was Built
The strength of our company is based on the respect for what we do for our customers around the world. What we do is supported by my family and wonderful, dedicated employees who always patiently help me fulfill my dreams of building even better machines.
With my son Mariusz.
WHERE EVERY IDEA IS PUT TO THE TEST
Throughout the years, as founder and CEO, I have either designed or supervised the development of every machine. The design process begins much earlier, with testing new ideas in the gym next to my office.
Calling it a gym actually understates the significance of this place, as, to be honest, it is the most important place in my company, where new machines and exercises are tested. Every exercise that can be performed on each machine, or on an additional equipment option, has been thoroughly tested by me.
In dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of repetitions, as in the case of rowing with the RM option.
See how I test the execution of new exercises.
REMEMBERING WHERE WE STARTED
We are known worldwide primarily for our large strength-training systems, but I never forget that the company began with a much smaller machine. After many upgrades, that original concept evolved into the S6, which remained in production until 2021.
To honor that original machine, I designed the S7 in 2021.
The S7 is an excellent small home gym, especially suitable for small apartments, with a rich variety of exercises particularly for women.
2022—WITH THE S7 PROTOTYPE
Designing the S7, testing exercises, and recording exercises on a film set with models took over a year in total. But the end result is worth this hard work, as you can see in the video below.
We believe that our machines, which are entirely manufactured in our factory in Poland, will change the lives of many people around the world by bringing joy through physical exercise and providing great health benefits.
My wife and I, as the owners of our company, are delighted that today, several decades after building the first exercise machine in our home garage, our factory is a highly respected global manufacturer of professional strength training and fitness equipment, especially for home gyms.
Sometimes the Greatest Stories
Begin with a Simple Dream
My wife and I have remained close to that beginning. Since 1992, we have exercised in our home gym five times a week for at least 50 weeks each year. After all these years, training together is still something we genuinely enjoy.
That same consistency shapes the way our machines are developed. We test ideas, refine details, and improve each model step by step, with the goal of creating equipment that performs reliably and remains useful for many years.
But what truly sets us apart is our commitment to improving the quality of life for our customers. Every machine we create is a testament to the fact that health and well-being are accessible to anyone ready to take steps towards change.
