http://www.niftycomics.com/nerd/archive/2006_05_01_niftycomics_archive.html
It seems Mat is also a film critic:
http://filmsensei.com/
...and film producer:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473334/
What I can't seem to find is any mention of him being a fitness equipment expert... not even in his bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Nastos
When I wrote to Mat to discuss why he wrote a review of my product without actually evaluating it and why he lied about the design, he only lashed back with more false accusations about my designs, attacked me personally as a racist, and then finally just blocked me from his email. I tried contacting him through his comic book site, but I guess he blocked me there too.
That's OK... if he won't talk to me, I'll just put the emails here for all to see:
----- Original Message -----
From: brianm@spiritfitness.com
To: sensei@treadmillsensei.com
Cc:
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 7:15 AM
Subject: Your Spirit review
I was directed to your website to read your recent review of Spirit products. Seeing as I am the engineer who designed them, along with all the Sole products, I was looking forward to seeing what you thought. Imagine my suprise when I read your less than flattering review. I tried to comment, but it seems you don't encourage that...now I know why. I copied my comment below for your reference.
Sensei, you are a very dangerous man. I have designed fitness equipment for 25 years and have never came across the likes of you. You are a scary person and I hope to let as many people as possible know how you operate. And please remove reference to Dyaco building Smooth and Sports Art products...just more of your misinformation and another reason I am convinced you have no idea what you are talking about.
Brian Murray
Spirit XE300 Elliptical - 2.5 buddahs may have been a bit too generous for this under-performer.
All I can say is WOW! This treadmill Sensei guy has absolutely no business reviewing fitness products. He obviously doesn't know all that much about fitness product design, engineering, quality or biomechanics; not to mention not knowing what product he is reviewing! This is painfully obvious by what he says in this review of the Spirit XE300.
I am an engineer with over 25 years experience in designing fitness products, from $200 - $10,000. I happened to have designed all of the Sole and Spirit elliptical products. I don't mind people being critical of my designs (I've dealt with these critics for a loooong time) but when a review is completely wrong, I must say something.
The Sensei states that the Spirit XE300 is the same platform as the older Spirit XE125??? Sensei, maybe you need your vision checked or maybe you're drinking too much sake. First off, the product has not been shipped yet, and secondly, you didn't even work out on it at the trade show, nor have a detailed look inside. The XE125 and the new XE300 are completely different designs! Yes, we have shortened the platform (now the same basic platform as the Sole E25, which you gave a best buy rating to!) but in no way has that affected the stride length, as you say in your review; it IS 20 inches.
The flywheel weight is indeed 30 pounds of cast iron steel, not 16 pounds of plastic (where did you get that idea...sheeesh) I don't even know how you think it's 16 lbs, or made of plastic, you never even looked inside the machine! You state that we have dropped quality??? How can you say that without even having one of these to look at? I think you are not being truthful here. I have increased the steel tube sizes, added a steel rear shroud over the track, improved the pedal adjustment to an acme shaft with infinite adjustment, gone from copper bearings to sealed ball bearings in critical pivot points, added features to the electronics, upgraded all hardware to grade 8 (health club quality), improved tolerance specifications in critical areas and improved the powder coating to higher grade. Otherwise this is the same machine specification as last year’s XE350, which you gave 4 Buddhas and a runner up for best buy in its category with lesser specs than this year’s model! I'm confused…..by the way it is spelled Buddha, not buddah! Not much of an Asian, are you? That's right, you're not!
-----Original Message-----
From: The Sensei [mailto:sensei@treadmillsensei.com]Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 11:30 AM
To: brianm@spiritfitness.com
Subject: Re: Your Spirit review
Mr. Murray:
Thanks for your note. It's funny how if we review something positively I'm told we're great and if we give a negative review I'm the worst possible person in the world. In fact, this summer we have been getting more complaint emails every week about Spirit product - to the tune of 8-10 right now but it has been has high as 10-15 (which I will begin publishing in my reviews shortly, along with some very interesting problem video sent in by a few different readers). That's more than we get about Proform or Bowflex. As I said in my articles, the new models were all reviewed at the Denver show and would be updated in more detail once we've been able to take one apart. If you've fixed the flywheel issue from last year then that will be reflected. The only unit we could see "under the hood" was one of the incredibly unimpressive Esprit line, which was even mentioned in one or two of the articles.
I do have a question for you, were you also the engineer who designed the Z88 and Z700? Both of those units shipped out with problems known to Spirit and, in the case of the Z88, still haven't been fixed. According to the tech I spoke with in Denver (Brian J introduced me to him..Jeremy, I believe...I'm horrible with names) that problem hadn't been fixed on the new model either.
Now, I do understand that you are completely in love with the equipment you design and feel it is the best equipment on the market. Every manufacturer feels that way -- we've gotten similar notes to yours from guys at Icon and Bowflex (a guy named Ron Arp emails me every few weeks from Bowflex). My reviews are my opinions and I state it as such in every article. I also tell our readers to go out and get on equipment at a local shop to try them out (we even wrote an entire article on it last year). No other review site does that.
The Truth of the matter is, we supported Spirit like crazy last year because of initial reactions to the product. Unfortunately, as problems with the units began to surface and my readers began to complain to me because I directed them to your product, I can't give Spirit as much support this year. Luckily, the wisdom I was presented with at the trade show was that this internet thing really doesn't affect the marketing and advertising Spirit is doing and has little to no affect on sales (I believe the phrase I was told was "minor incremental increase"). I'm confused about a company not wanting the $1mil+ in sales my site generated for them last year again in the upcoming year, but I'm not as business savvy as some I guess.
Oh, in regards to your Asian statement: my partner, the Treadmill Sensei, is full Japanese and his family has lived here since the early 1900s. His grandparents (on both sides) and parents were all in the internment camps here in California during WWII (they're from Marin up in Northern California). He has been a repair/service guy since he was either 19 or 20 and just turned 42, and he does most of the review process. Please keep any racist statements about his heritage to a minimum, especially when writing as a representative for Spirit Fitness.
Anyway, thank you again for your comments and your opinions. Please feel free to write either of us with questions or comments any time.
Take care,
-Mat N. (and Toshiro)
www.treadmillsensei.com
From: brianm@spiritfitness.com
To: The Sensei
Cc:
Date: Monday, September 10, 2007 07:57 pm
Subject:
Re: Your Spirit review
Mat,
My email and comments stand, you're a hack. I am not concerned in the least if you give my designs a bad review and I certainly don't care what my counterparts in the industry write to you about. What I do care about is you blatantly lying about my products. It is funny how you rave about Sole products when they are the same basic specification as Spirit.
You don't know much about products you review, plain and simple. We had no flywheel issues, I don't know where you're getting your information. By the way, a flywheel is a weight...nothing more. The only problems it could possibly have is to be unbalanced or have a bad bearing, and we have had neither of these problems. The "unimpresive" Esprit line you saw was the Sole line painted white, you idiot!
The Z88, exactly the same product as the F63 (from treadmillsensei: "The Sole F63 Treadmill Review - Excellence in Execution") only the color is different, built on the same assembly line by the same people and same quality control. This product is very mature and Dyaco was building this model for years befor Sole picked it up.
The Z700, same as Sole S77 except for color (from treadmillsensei: "The Sole S77 Treadmill -- Best Non-Folding under $2000") also has no manufacturing quality issues.
Your feeble attempt at disgracing me by calling me racist is contemptible. My wife is Taiwanese and Taiwan is my home for the past 15 years. I never said anything racist....I merely stated that you are not Asian, which you are not, but you pass yourself off to be on your website. You write the reviews and you state on your site that your assistant Mat helps you. You came to the Denver show, not Toshiro. You wrote the reviews as Sensei and stated you (Sensei) rode the equipment in Denver...In case you forgot what you wrote about yourself on your own site:
"About TreadmillSensei.comTreadmillSensei.com was founded in mid-2006 by the Treadmill Sensei in an effort to help people confused by the sheer number of treadmills and ellipticals now available for sale. After having looked around and seen the rather anemic, and sometimes misleading, reviews on other sites, the Treadmill Sensei dedicated himself to writing the most detailed and helpful reviews available anywhere on the net. Using his knowledge as a service/repair tech the Treadmill Sensei is able to provide more extensive and in-depth reviews than anyone else online. allowing customers to be well educated before spending thousands of dollars on new fitness equipment.To help get his words out to the masses, the Treadmill Sensei partnered with Mat Nastos, a 4-year veteran of the fitness industry and former Marketing Director for HomeGymCentral.com, who has more than 15 years of internet experience. With the site running "full steam ahead," the pair now run the site full time from an office in the Treadmill Sensei's legendary repair shop, the DOJO, in southern California"
Have you looked up how to spell Buddha yet, Sensei?
No problems are surfacing anew...and you know it! You have an agenda, period. I will make sure my readers hear all about your inability to objectively review products so consumers can make an educated buying decision. I write a widely read blog and you are my new topic for the foreseeable future..this email will be the next one I post. You are in this to make money, which is fine, but it should never be at the expense of the consumer....your customer.
Brian Murray
From: The Sensei
To: brianm@spiritfitness.com
Cc:
Date: Monday, September 10, 2007 09:21 pm
Subject: Re: Your Spirit review
Is this the same product Spirit is having to design testing boxes to send out to retailers for when problems arise (the now-famous wiring issue)? Great engineering work there! The Z700 had a console issue which made the screen too blurry for owners to see. Both were shipped out knowingly by Spirit. I'd stay off of YouTube if you think the Z88/F63 is such a great product...there is some interesting video on there from "satisfied" Spirit/Sole customers which I'll be linking on the reviews here in the next week.
Good luck and I'm glad you enjoy the website. You have now won a spot in my Spam filter.
Mat N.
From: brianm@spiritfitness.com
To: The Sensei
Cc:
Date: Monday, September 10, 2007 10:58 pm
Subject: Re: Your Spirit review
Mat,
You are a bigger idiot than I thought! We have no "famous wiring issue"....I designed test boxes for all our products as another aide in supporting our main customers, Independent fitness dealers. Funny how you misinterpret good customer support as a quality problem.
The very first shipment of Z700, 4 years ago, had the problem with a fuzzy screen which was imediately addressed....old news. But even our products sometimes have a problem, although our failure rate is well below 2%, unlike Horizon at 71% out of the box failure rate! This number comes from Horizon themselves and is why they had to set up a facility in SoCal to do 100% inspection on every product shipped. Your good buddy Lamar (now out of business) also had a very bad quality track record...but that doesn't seem to dampen your enthusiasm for these two. So you found a few disgruntled customers...every product in the world has them, some more than others, Spirit and Sole far fewer than most in this industry.
You can block me and ignore me, but word will get out about you and your shady business practices. You wouldn't know a good quality treadmill or elliptical if it came up and bit you on your ample rear end! I am having a great laugh while reading your site and will be pointing out your many errors, not only on Sole and Spirit, but on everything you write about. I especially like your lame attempts at giving fitness advice and trying to explain what causes numb toes, among other glaring inaccuracies....LOL! My readers will have a good laugh too.
My next blog will show some behind the scenes machinations by Mr. Mat "comic book sensei" Nastros. He has written many emails to various people that show his true motivations...and they have nothing to do with helping the consumer
Brian Murray
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