REK opens a San Francisco shop to rent, repair, and spar with 6-foot fighting humanoids

REK, the company behind viral VR-controlled humanoid boxing events in San Francisco, is opening a streetfront shop where visitors can watch, train on, and eventually buy or rent full-size fighting robots, according to a KGO-TV / ABC7 report published June 25, 2026. This is not a home chore rollout. REK's pitch is spectacle, developer access, and combat sports energy in a city that already hosted its gym demos on Van Ness.

Cix, a REK representative quoted in the piece, said the team has been staging robot fights for a little more than a year. Earlier rigs stood about four and a half feet tall. The new storefront showcases six-foot humanoids with far more striking power. Cix was blunt about the use case: "It's not going to be making your dishes that's for sure." He compared a hit from one of the machines to "a motorized bat" moving at highway speeds.

What the REK shop is supposed to offer

ABC7 reports the space will combine showroom floor energy with hands-on services:

• Repair humanoid hardware on site
• Buy or rent humanoid platforms (pricing not disclosed in the story)
• Classes where newcomers learn to walk a humanoid and program basic behavior
• Live demos emphasizing sound and weight, not just choreographed flips

Cix framed robot fighting as "the robot equivalent of car racing": a high-stakes sport that stress-tests motors, balance, and control stacks under pressure. He likened the spectator vibe to Mortal Kombat stepping out of a console and into steel.

San Francisco context and crowd reaction

The story lands in a Bay Area that has already seen REK bouts tied to America's 250th birthday celebrations and prior "Futuristic Fight Club" coverage from the same outlet. Visitors quoted by ABC7 treated the larger bots as proof that decades of sci-fi hype is finally physical. Kamran Karic called the six-foot unit "Iron Man" on sight. Karmen Leung said it was striking to watch machines "getting into a fight right now" after years of talk.

For HomeBotRadar readers tracking Unitree G1, Figure 02, or NEO Gamma, the contrast matters. Those catalog humanoids target home assistance, research, or elder-care pilots. REK sits in the entertainment and developer-gym lane: bigger bodies, harder impacts, and a business model closer to esports or motorsport than dishwashing.

What we do not know yet

ABC7 does not publish a street address, opening hours, MSRP, or safety certification details for public sparring. We do not know which humanoid OEM supplies the six-foot chassis, whether rentals include operator training, or how REK's repair bench relates to manufacturer warranties.

Treat this as a San Francisco spectacle and training storefront story until REK posts confirmed specs, pricing, and a consumer purchase path we can verify. If the shop begins selling a named home humanoid with dimensions, battery life, and a normal warranty page, that hardware would be evaluated separately from fight-night demos.