Bathing Boomers
The hot tub business is booming. Baby booming.
The generation that popularized the hot tub in the 1960s and early 1970s as part of the sexual revolution is again immersing itself in hot water--this time for aching backs, jangled nerves and other problems of middle age.
“The baby boomers are getting older and feeling their age,” said Steven Hammock, president of Watkins Manufacturing Corp., the nation’s leading maker of portable hot tubs, based in the suburban San Diego County town of Vista. “As we say in the spa business: ‘A spa may not cure anything, but it makes everything feel better.’ ”
“I had 17 operations during my playing career, and I feel every one of them every day,” said former pro footballer Gary Plummer, 39, who now lives in San Diego. “When I sit in my hot tub with my wife and kids and look at the sunset, I still feel life can be beautiful.”
Even the nation’s First Boomer has a hot tub at the White House: a seven-seat Grandee model with 25 air jets, a gift from the Watkins company.
Americans are expected to buy a record 300,000 hot tubs or more this year, and most of those customers will be Boomers, the 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1965. Having created an expansive market for organic baby food, designer jeans and mutual funds, boomers are now spending $1,500 to $8,000 for a tub (installation and operating costs extra). They’ve almost single-handedly pulled the industry out of the steep decline it suffered during the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Tubs aren’t for everyone. Pregnant women, diabetics and people with heart conditions should check with their doctors before using them. But for Frederica Auldridge of La Mesa, a building contractor and Harley-Davidson enthusiast, owning a hot tub is part of the California good life--a sign that you’ve made it. Like many, her tub sits in the backyard so that she and a guest or two can enjoy the hilltop view and, yes, maybe a drink.
“I work hard. I deserve a little comfort,” she said.
John McManus, editor of Demographics magazine, says the sales spike--30% in the last three years--can be traced to Capitalism 1A: the free market responding robustly to the collective needs of a huge group of people with money to spend.
A Once-Moribund Industry Soars
California is home to the nation’s three top manufacturers: Watkins, Jacuzzi in Walnut Creek and Sundance, which is owned by Jacuzzi, in Corona.
Assembly-line workers at Watkins and Jacuzzi are working three shifts a day to satisfy the demand for tubs in plastic, fiberglass and acrylic, bearing catchy names such as Pinnacle, Quantum, Santina, Laser and Alexa (all Jacuzzi) and Landmark, Classic, Sovereign, Prodigy and Jetsetter (all Watkins). A generation of research-and-development has produced improvements in tub insulation, design, energy conservation, motor-noise control and filtration. And there’s no more waiting for the water to heat up; it’s ready when you are.
A few craftsmen, such as Robert Ghelerter of Robert’s Hot Tubs in Northern California, also make traditional tubs from cedar and teak.
“Wood is a living entity. It has more soul than plastic and ages gracefully,” said Ghelerter, whose select clientele includes Hollywood and computer industry names.
If the economy stays strong, McManus says the billion-dollar industry should continue to grow--especially since, for the next eight years, an American will turn 50 every eight seconds.
“The baby boomers have always thought they would be able to take care of themselves better than their parents or predecessors,” McManus said. “Now they’re time-strained, stressed and worried about corporate downsizing. With a spa, they get something for their physical needs that also has an aura of neo-spirituality.”
There’s also the kid factor. And what to do with the “in between” time that families know so well: the sometimes difficult period between dinner and the children’s bedtime.
Since August, the Hamm family of Rancho Palos Verdes has been spending much of it in the Hot Spring Prodigy, 6-feet-2-inches by 7-feet-3 inches by 29 inches high, capacity 310 gallons, 19 air jets, fiber optic controls, continuous pump of 1.65 horsepower, easy-lock vinyl cover. Seats five. About $5,000.
“If we weren’t here, one of us would be watching a video, another playing with the computer, maybe someone watching TV,” said Amy Hamm, 39, soaking happily with husband John, 56, and children Tara, 15, Pete, 6 and Hunter, 4. “This allows us to relax and talk as a family and to get the boys ready for bed.”
Market studies show that two-thirds of new tub owners have children at home and are looking for something to help them with family recreation and bonding. Which is not to suggest that the Boomers’ days (and nights) of flesh and friskiness are wholly past, but that moderation and maturity have taken their toll.
Even the term “hot tub” is considered passe in the industry--unacceptably redolent of the product’s sybaritic past. The preferred term today is “spa.”
“Our customers,” said Roy Jacuzzi, president of Jacuzzi Inc., “are people looking for a product the whole family can enjoy, not just lonely guys looking for a hot date.”
The Hamms, both stockbrokers, had soaked in hot tubs as an apres-ski activity during resort vacations. Amy Hamm visited spa-owning friends in Salt Lake City recently and saw the tubs’ family potential. She checked area stores and the Internet, eventually buying the family’s unit from a dealer.
“A spa is something for when you’ve got the college funds and IRAs working, and it’s time for something else, not extravagant, but nice,” Amy Hamm said. “Something for the children, but something for the adults, too.”
From West Coast Fad to Midwest Amenity
California continues to be the top market for hot tubs, but the most competitive market is the Midwest, where shoppers are encouraged to arrive with towels and bathing suits for test soaks.
“People in the Midwest used to think of hot tubs as part of the swinging California lifestyle that we didn’t get to be part of,” said Bryan DeGayner, who owns seven hot tub dealerships outside Detroit. “Now it’s becoming an acceptable part of the Midwestern lifestyle, just like a microwave or a VCR, something to make life a little better.”
“A hot tub is a great place to escape to at the end of the day and unload your stress,” said Bill Engel, a federal home loan officer in Indianola, Iowa, who got interested in hot tubs after seeing a display at the Iowa State Fair.
At a trade show in Las Vegas next month, Watkins plans to unveil a new spa for a specific customer: a Midwestern mother of three who wants a hot tub but does not want the neighbors to see her in a bathing suit or--worse yet--in the altogether.
Watkins has designed an intimate hot tub, the Solana, molded so it can be carried down the basement steps for inside installation, and priced at about $2,500.
“That mother of three in the Midwest wants a hot tub,” said Watkins’ Hammock, “and we’re going to give her one.”
