NAIPOs Story: die Marke für Massagetechnik aus Hamburg Skip to content
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Wellbeing Technology

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We develop technology and spaces that bring relaxation into everyday life. It all started with massage, developed between Hamburg and Shenzhen.

  • Since 2016
  • Hamburg and Shenzhen
  • Over 40 locations in Germany

What NAIPO is today

NAIPO originates from massage technology. Today, three things go together: devices for home use, our own spaces where the same technology runs daily, and the service surrounding it.

The underlying claim is simple. Relaxation should not be a rare exception at a spa, but something that has a place in everyday life. At home, on the go, in places where you already are.

Where the name comes from

Two characters, two ideas. 耐 (nài) means enduring, persistent, patient. The same character is found in 耐心, patience. 魄 (pò) stands for power and vitality. Read together: enduring power.

This is not a retrospective interpretation, but a benchmark. A massage chair that breaks down after two years does not deserve the name. That's why we repair in our own workshop instead of replacing.

Massage has always been there. Just not for everyone.

In China, massage is part of everyday life. It can be found in every neighborhood, it costs little, and no one has to earn it as a reward. It has been documented there in writing for over two thousand years as Tuina.

In Europe, the same treatment involves an appointment, a journey, and a price that makes weekly habit impossible for most people. Exactly this gap was our starting point. Not another piece of furniture, but a way to bring massage from an exceptional case into everyday life.

This is what we mean when we say: anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Why Shenzhen

Before NAIPO existed, the founders worked for years in Shenzhen. Today, Huawei, Tencent, DJI, BYD, and ZTE are located in that city. Hence, its nickname, the Silicon Valley of China.

What that practically means: If you build a product there, you talk to the factory and not to an intermediary. Motors, rails, controls, and fabrics are all within a few hours' reach. This proximity is why a change to one of our chairs takes weeks, not a model year.

The second half of the work happens in Hamburg: selection, testing, service, and the decision of what goes to market.

Massage is the foundation

Massage chairs are our main product and the origin of our expertise. Everything we know about mechanics, materials, control, and software comes from them.

Our chairs combine classic massage techniques with body scanning, app control, and proprietary programs. The software behind it, NAIPO OS, is developed in-house. Anyone who owns a NAIPO device owns technology that we built ourselves and use ourselves.

Two sites, one development

Development takes place at two locations. Strategy, software and everything related to the European market is developed in Hamburg. Shenzhen is where the manufacturing proximity is located: components, mechanics, prototypes.

This division is not a coincidence, but rather the reason why we don't just buy devices, but co-develop them.

Own. Or simply use.

A massage chair is a significant investment. That's why we offer two paths to the same technology.

One leads home: you buy a device and use it daily. The other leads to our premises. In the NAIPO Relax Lounge, you book a private room with a chair, lighting, scent, and sound. In the open area of our stores, you can try it out without booking anything.

Both offer the same technology. Only the barrier to entry is different.

We don't just develop our technology. We operate it.

A sold armchair disappears into the living room. We only hear about it again if something isn't working. An armchair on our own premises is in front of our eyes every day.

  1. DevelopHardware and software are developed in-house, between Hamburg and Shenzhen.
  2. To operateThese same devices run daily in our own facilities, in continuous operation.
  3. LearnWear, operation, service cases, and programs show up there first.
  4. ImproveWhat stands out goes back into quality control, service, and the next generation of devices.

This is not a data promise, but a short distance: Between the person using a device and the person building it, there are only a few meters here.

Why a store is a lab

A sold armchair disappears into the living room. We only hear about it again when something isn't working.

An armchair on our shop floor is used by strangers every day. Different body sizes, different expectations, hundreds of cycles a week. Wear and tear becomes apparent after months instead of years. A program that no one lets run to completion is noticed before it goes into a thousand households. And whoever stands next to it hears the question that isn't in the datasheet.

That's why a shop is more than just a sales area for us. It's the place where the next generation of models is created.

Rooms where technology works

Our locations are not showrooms. The same models that are sold in the online shop are available there and are in operation all day long.

This includes everything that makes a stay enjoyable: the Relax Lounge as a private space, open areas for trying things out, scent, music, and now functional beverages too. It's not a wellness program, but rather a place where our products are in operation and can be experienced without an appointment.

The First Dedicated Store

In the middle of the pandemic, NAIPO opened its first proprietary store at its headquarters in Hamburg. This served both as a retail space and as a testing environment for new products and services.

From prototype to concept

The opening of the first Relax Lounge in Hamburg was delayed due to the pandemic but was realized in 2020 as part of the headquarters. Today, it serves as both a retail store and a test site. Those who try out an armchair there often give us direct feedback. This feedback is incorporated into every product generation.

Over 40 locations. One standard.

NAIPO can now be physically experienced in over 40 cities across Germany, in showrooms, retail stores, and pop-ups. No appointments needed, no pressure to buy, just a genuine experience.

A part of it may be taken home

What has an effect in our rooms is rarely just the armchair. It is also the scent in the room and the light.

Under Wellness Club by NAIPO, we group together the things that make this effect portable: aromas, reed diffusers, selected products for everyday life. A few carefully selected items, instead of a random wellness assortment.

Wellbeing can be built in

The same technique also works where people work, wait, or stay overnight. Hotels, offices, gyms, hospitality.

For these environments, we supply equipment and concepts that can be integrated into existing spaces. For businesses, this is not a special path, but the same idea taken one step further: bringing recovery to where people already are. Inquiries are handled via NAIPO Business.

"Wellbeing shouldn't be the exception. It should fit into everyday life."

The Team Behind It

Behind the German-Chinese brand NAIPO stands an experienced management team.

Gang Chen

Gang Chen

Co-founder

Gang Chen came to Germany in the early 2000s and studied here, including at the University of Freiburg. In Hamburg, he and a business partner built up an electronics brand. It was later moved to Shenzhen and is now publicly traded. The connection between the two locations, on which NAIPO still stands today, dates back to this time.

Since then, he has been involved in building up several consumer brands. In parallel, he works on construction projects with automated warehouse robotics. For NAIPO, his network in Shenzhen is particularly important. It opens up factories, components, and development statuses that are otherwise difficult to access from the outside.

David Eberst

David Eberst

Co-founder, Strategy and Software

David Eberst is a co-founder and is responsible for strategy, product development and software. Among other things, he developed the NAIPO OS, the control and data layer behind the chairs and lounges. He has shaped the brand strategy and developed the concept according to which showrooms and relax lounges operate today.

In 2017 and 2018, he got to know and assimilated the Chinese work culture from within. As a native German, this was a prerequisite for working in Shenzhen not as a visitor, but as part of the development. Since then, he has been involved in product development on site, in China and in Hamburg, where development also takes place.

He has been working with Gang Chen for years. Before NAIPO, they both developed consumer brands together.

Tag Eins

The beginning of a wellness brand that rethinks regeneration and makes massage accessible to everyone.

How everything has grown

  • 2016-2017First office. First Norderstedt, then Hamburg.
  • 2016-2017Between Shenzhen and Hamburg. Development of the first massage devices.
  • 2017Development. In addition to massage devices, massage chairs are developed.
  • 2018Results. NAIPO in the American TV show "Hallmark."
  • 2020Opening of the first experimental store in Hamburg. In the middle of the pandemic.
  • 2020Foundation for the Relax Lounge is being laid, but delayed by the pandemic.
  • 2020NAIPO donates 10k FFP2 masks during the pandemic.
  • 2022Around the world. Including a NAIPO Store in Cyprus and 20+ test sites in Europe. Collaborations with KaDeWe and Selfridges London.
  • 2024First NAIPO Art Edition. Exhibited at Muthesius and NordArt.
  • 2024-2025Brand Collaborations
  • 2025Marcel Jansen, German football legend and former HSV president, represents athletic versatility and responsible commitment in German football.
  • 2025NAIPO App for iOS and Android.

Awards & Media Presence

NAIPO was honored with the Plus X Award as "Best Brand of the Year 2025," as well as the Red Dot and iF Design Awards. The Relax Lounge was nominated by the German Wellness Association as Innovation of the Year. Media outlets such as RTL, FAZ, Business Insider, Women's Health, and Forbes reported on NAIPO. Products were included in official gift bags at the Grammy Awards.

“These shiatsu massagers will melt the pain right out of her neck, back, legs and other parts she didn’t realize were hurting.”

Forbes on NAIPO

Sustainability as a standard

From 2021 to 2025, NAIPO collaborated with Naturefund and offset its CO2 emissions through the Blue Planet Certificate. Packaging is increasingly made from recycled materials.

We see the greater leverage in product lifespan. New products are developed to be repairable, and we carry out repairs in our own workshop. A product that lasts ten years doesn't need to be offset.

What we do not claim

In this industry, many figures are advertised without units. A massage roller moves in three axes: up and down, back and forth, and in depth. Anything beyond that is a number in a brochure, not an additional direction of movement.

That's why we state what a chair can do and immediately define its limits: rail length in centimeters, body height range, number of programs. Where we cannot prove an effect, we do not claim it.

A massage chair is not a medical device. It does not replace physical therapy or medical treatment. It makes it easy to take twenty minutes for yourself every day. That's precisely the point.

2017Founded
25+Countries
40+Locations in Germany
2Development Centers

What we're working on

Our goal is not to sell people occasional moments of relaxation.

We want to build technologies and spaces that make recuperation a natural part of everyday life. At home. In our spaces. And in places where people already spend time.

Find Well-Being.