don't take our word for it.
Today Show
June 15th, 2006
Atlantic Monthly
July / August 2006
The Next Starbucks: How massage went from the strip club to the strip mall
by Virginia Postrel
Palmer and an ambitious young business partner, Sam Keller, are out to create the Starbucks of chair massage—to turn a fragmented, feel-good industry into a ubiquitous brand. Their new enterprise, Zubio, is all about creating consistent expectations, for both client and practitioner. download pdf »
Read additional thoughts and behind the scene photos from Virginia's Blog »
San Francisco Examiner
June 2nd, 2006
David Palmer: Bringing standardization to the field of massage
by Staff Reporter
Apparently, it is not politically correct to call someone a masseuse anymore. David Palmer, who is sometimes referred to as the "father of the chair massage," says the term was retired long ago. Palmer is a massage practitioner and entrepreneur with the hope of standardizing the field of massage. His latest venture, Zubio Inc., is an on-site massage station company with stations scattered throughout malls, office towers and corporate events. He believes franchising the massage business will demystify the field a bit. read more »
Massage and Bodywork
February 2006
Massage for the Masses
David Palmer, Chair Massage & Zubio
By Karrie Osborn
"I want to change the world."
These are big words. And though sometimes used precipitously, you know when you're in the presence of someone who embodies the commitment of his passion. It's that passion and those words that live in the heart of David Palmer, longtime chair massage guru and a man who knows clearly his mission in life - bringing safe touch to the world.
For the past 20 years, Palmer has never wavered from this goal, all the while designing and developing the first-ever massage chair in the mid-1980s, founding and running the TouchPro Institute in San Francisco, and teaching chair massage techniques to more than 11,000 practitioners worldwide. read more »