How Tyler Madison Engineered a 93-SKU Reshoring Program for a High-Cycle OEM

Most high volume exercise equipment manufacturers have moved off-shore for replacement cables to cut costs. See how through product knowledge and the delivery of quality and consistent products, Tyler Madison brought an off-shore purchaser back to the US, and increased production. By 2024, the account achieved its second-highest sales volume in the 20+ year history of the relationship.

The Challenge

Tyler Madison began manufacturing replacement cable assemblies for this commercial fitness equipment OEM in the mid-2000s. The cables needed to survive constant travel over pulleys on heavily used gym equipment, hold up across a family of different lengths, and be something a field technician could swap out fast, across a large fleet of machines, without special tools or downtime.

By 2018, Tyler Madison had spent more than a decade as the sole-source manufacturer for that program. Then, in 2019, the customer moved a significant share of production offshore to cut initial piece costs.

The Engineering Solution: Why Tyler Madison’s Assemblies Outperformed Offshore

1. Material Selection: Pebax® PEBA Coating vs. Nylon 11

One of the first changes Tyler Madison recommended was switching the cable coating from Nylon 11 to Pebax. Nylon 11 is a strong, general-purpose wire-rope jacket, but a commercial fitness cable is an unusually demanding repetitive-flex application — the jacket bends around a pulley, straightens, and repeats that cycle hundreds of thousands of times over a machine’s service life.

Pebax is a polyether block amide (PEBA) thermoplastic elastomer made by Arkema, which specifically identifies repeated flexing, wire and cable, and pulley applications among the material’s strengths, along with very low hysteresis so the coating recovers efficiently after each bend. (Source: Arkema High Performance Polymers, Pebax Elastomer Family / Key Properties, technical literature.)

Based on Tyler Madison’s manufacturing experience and this customer’s feedback, Pebax has remained the preferred coating for these high-cycle fitness-equipment cables.

Tyler Madison had recommended switching to Pebax, a polyether block amide (PEBA) elastomer Arkema specifically identifies for repeated-flex, wire-and-cable, and pulley applications, with very low hysteresis so the coating recovers efficiently after each bend.

[VERIFY WITH TYLER: was Pebax already standard before the account moved offshore in 2019, or introduced after the 2022 return? This determines whether the coating is evidence the offshore supplier couldn’t match, or a separate upgrade made later.] (Source: Arkema High Performance Polymers, Pebax Elastomer Family / Key Properties, technical literature accessed August 2026.)

Cables on exercise machines bend around a pulley, straighten, and bend again hundreds of thousands of times. While Nylon 11 is a standard jacket material, Tyler Madison engineered the switch to Pebax®, a polyether block amide (PEBA) thermoplastic elastomer manufactured by Arkema.

2. A Cable End Designed for Easier Fitness Equipment Repair

Each end of the cable uses a threaded through bolt combined with a ball-shank termination. The ball-shank design allows the threaded bolt to rotate freely without twisting the cable itself. As a result, a service technician can install or replace the cable using a socket wrench without having to manage additional loose termination components.

That may sound like a small detail, but in commercial fitness equipment it has practical value. Replacement cables may be installed across a large fleet of machines by technicians who need the repair to be repeatable and efficient.

The termination is manufactured to support the 1,760-pound minimum breaking strength of the underlying cable construction.

3. Maintaining Consistent Assemblies Output Across 93 Active SKUs (QA)

Managing 93 distinct part numbers, from 54 inches to 430 inches, takes more than a good coating and a good fitting, it takes a repeatable process. Tyler Madison runs every production setup through the same four-stage check, outlined below.

The Commercial Outcome: Successful Reshoring and Near-Record Growth

When the customer determined the offshore assemblies weren’t holding up to the same standard, they began moving their supply chain back to Tyler Madison in 2022.

The lesson isn’t that offshore manufacturing can never produce a quality cable. It’s that a cable assembly is more than a piece of wire rope cut to length. When consistency across dozens of SKUs matters, the lowest initial piece price does not produce the lowest long-term cost.

The Return

That doesn’t mean every overseas manufacturer produces poor-quality cable. It means this particular OEM tested an alternative supply chain, decided it didn’t hold up, and moved its business back. Tyler Madison still manufactures all 93 part numbers in the program today.

More Than 20 Years Together

Tyler Madison was founded in 1995. This relationship has lasted more than 20 years — a substantial portion of the company’s entire history. In that time, the customer’s program moved from Nylon 11 to Pebax, grew to 93 assemblies, went offshore, and came back. Twenty-plus-year customer relationships aren’t especially common in a company that’s only been around for about thirty years.

Custom Cable Manufacturing Capabilities

Tyler Madison provides full-service OEM support for mechanical cable applications, including:

• High-cycle pulley cable assemblies (Pebax and Nylon 11 jacketed)
• 7×19 and 7×7 galvanized and stainless steel wire rope constructions
• Custom threaded through-bolts, ball shanks, eyelets and specialized fittings
• Pre-production setup pull testing and lot qualification
• Permanent part hot-stamping and custom labeling
• High-mix OEM program management (1 to 100+ active SKUs)

If you’re developing a new fitness product, experiencing premature cable failures, reconsidering an offshore cable source, or looking for a long-term production supplier, Tyler Madison can help evaluate the complete cable assembly, not just the piece of wire rope.