by Michael Strickland
Ryan DeLuca was the founder of Bodybuilding.com, the Boise online retailer. After leaving in 2015, he cofounded BlackBox VR. With BlackBox VR creates a virtual-reality workout experience that places users inside games. In this realm, they complete exercises while navigating immersive worlds and stories. He likens the experience to creating a movie where you can be the star while getting a workout. Early this year, DeLuca launched VR Fitness Insider, an online magazine dedicated to this industry he expects to be crowded in the near future.
The path to success lies in evolution: evolution of ideas, services, products and technology. I am glad to be able to watch the evolving story of BlackBox VR from a front row seat.
Athletics have been a part of human society ever since the first cave dweller challenged a rival to a spear-throwing contest. It’s almost impossible to imagine how different the world would be today without the tests of strength, speed, strategy, and skill collectively known as sports.
But that world is changing. - Ryan DeLuca in vSports – The Inevitable Merger of Sports and eSports
Being a successful entrepreneur means more just starting new ventures on every whim. It requires a winning attitude towards a business and the determination and grit to make it succeed. I ran into one such winner, Ryan DeLuca, a few weeks ago at a gathering in downtown Boise. We had a pleasant chat and he his lovely wife were characteristically down to earth. I complimented them on their wonderful ballroom dancing videos.
DeLuca's creative spirit and unending willingness to break into new territory is the stuff of legend. With remarkable inner drive and vision, he has tackled what many experts say is the future of global human interaction and events.
DeLuca's creative spirit and unending willingness to break into new territory is the stuff of legend. With remarkable inner drive and vision, he has tackled what many experts say is the future of global human interaction and events.
DeLuca's insights are profound and on the cutting edge:
With the advent of computers, a new type of activity has taken hold of society: video games. Interactive video and software combined with input devices like keyboards, mice, and hand-held controllers are now fully mainstream. There are over 1.8 billion gamers in the world today, and the average age is 35. Fully 80% of households in the USA have a video game playing device. 56% of gamers are male, and 44% are female. This is not a niche. This is about as ubiquitous as you can get.
In his article, DeLuca goes on to talk about how recently, video game tournaments have grown past the local arcade and have become a movement of their own. Known as eSports, they are beating nearly all regular sports in players and viewers. One of the most popular games called League of Legends has over 100 million players.
DeLuca predicts that The vSports Revolution is coming soon:
We don’t have to limit video games to just keyboards and controllers. We also don’t have to limit sports to real-world environments and physics. In the very near future, they will merge. We can’t wait.
Who is this man, this driving force in business and technology?
Ryan DeLuca was the founder of Bodybuilding.com, the Boise online retailer. After leaving in 2015, he cofounded BlackBox VR. With BlackBox VR creates a virtual-reality workout experience that places users inside games. In this realm, they complete exercises while navigating immersive worlds and stories. He likens the experience to creating a movie where you can be the star while getting a workout. Early this year, DeLuca launched VR Fitness Insider, an online magazine dedicated to this industry he expects to be crowded in the near future.
And he is a philanthropist. That is the reason I started the Facebook group We Love Ryan DeLuca: Good Causes That Inspire, Uplift and Serve. Check the page regularly to see the other side of the DeLucas, their caring heart.
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