West Wichita is getting a new showroom, but it’s not for typical types of merchandise

A new and somewhat unusual showroom is opening Monday in west Wichita.

O2 Box Midwest, which is opening in the Avante development at 3801 N. Ridge Road, is going to offer what CEO Angie Bergmeier called hyperbaric oxygen solutions.

“This is the next big thing for wellness,” said Bergmeier, who is from Hutchinson.

“Basically, what you’re doing is taking a dive,” she said of altering the atmospheric pressure a person feels.

The showroom will have various-size hyperbaric boxes for residential and business customers to try out.

“The chamber has to be pressurized, so it’s enclosed,” Bergmeier said. “You go inside and close the door. . . . You just comfortably sit in it.”

Users, who can see out of the box, can watch a movie, work or use their phones while in the box.

“These are very safe models,” Bergmeier said.

She said there are no lotions or potions to use with the boxes.

Unlike some hyperbaric chambers in which people lie down in tubes, Bergmeier said there’s no claustrophobic feeling with these boxes.

“It’s taking you from 1.0 atmospheric pressure to 1.3,” she said. “It creates extra blood flow into your system.”

The extra oxygen can help with aches and pains and a variety of other issues, Bergmeier said.

“It’s just a helpful wellness unit.”

Bergmeier is a distributor for O2 Box Inc., a Japanese company that she said has sold more than 10,000 of the units in Asia.

She’ll sell boxes in three sizes. One will accommodate a person or two, the next-largest one can hold six to eight people, and the largest model can hold eight to 10 people.

The two smallest models are available to test next week, and the larger model will be coming.

Customers also can see a demonstration on the company’s website, Bergmeier said.

“I would call it the next-biggest bio hack in the United States.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 4:04 AM.