Barbell Shrugged - The CEO of ELEIKO — Real Chalk #98

Episode Date: October 22, 2019

Eleiko is a world-leading supplier of professional weightlifting, powerlifting and strength training equipment. There’s a strong chance you’ve seen an Eleiko bar in a gym at some point and said, ���wow, this is really nice!” And then you actively searched for that bar, every time you returned. They are considered the Ferrari of weightlifting equipment. And after spending a week at the facility in Sweden I could not agree more as to why!   The history and energy that floats around the Eleiko facility in Halmstad Sweden is truly unlike anything I have ever experienced before. The process of making a single piece of equipment is so extensive and impressive that it truly looks and feels like a piece of art. I use to love their equipment, but now I am truly obsessed!   CEO Erik Blomberg describes the company’s mission — "We work to make people stronger so they can perform better, in sports and in life." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-eleiko ------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tuesday and it's time to drop another episode of Real Chalk on you. This time I flew all the way to Sweden to get this guy on the podcast. He's the CEO of Aleko Sports Equipment. His name is Eric Blumberg. And if for any reason you do not know what Aleko is, maybe you know the word Ileko. Sometimes people say it wrong. But anyway, they are the makers of the finest weightlifting equipment in the world. If you guys think of like fancy cars, Bentleys, Ferraris, whatever,

these guys are the Bentley and the Ferrari of equipment. Their barbells are on the stages of pretty much almost every Olympic Games. They have more world records than any other barbell on earth. And they also just make the sickest equipment I've ever seen in my entire life. If you've ever touched an Aleko bar or used anything that was Aleko, you know for sure that this is the best of its kind. Like you can just tell. But I'm not here to sell the equipment for you. What I really want you guys to know is just the story behind the company, how it was built, and you know, just a little bit about Eric Blumberg

and just, you know, what he's got going on. It's such an amazing company. And having been out to Sweden in the factory and watched a barbell get made from scratch was pretty amazing. And it definitely makes me think twice about when I do buy a barbell. Just all the things that they put into one barbell is, I mean, it's amazing. There's points where they have these little grinders

that make the knurling for the bar and they have to change them out like literally every three bars. And like those little bearings are $50 a pop. It's crazy, crazy what they put into their equipment. And there's, you know, it's very obvious why they are the best in the world. So I'm going to talk to Eric on this episode about why they are the best in the world, what they have going on, what's the history behind everything, and just more about Aleko. So if you've been in the strength conditioning world for a while, you've been an athlete for a while, you've probably seen an Aleko bar somewhere, and you've used one, or you've heard of the equipment, or whatever, and now it's time to talk to the CEO and just know a little bit more. So we're all going to just kind of be friends here,

and you guys are going to feel the vibe of me being out in Sweden and going through the factory and I think you guys are really going to like it I'm really really pumped for you guys to listen to this episode make sure if you love it and you want to share it make sure you tag me make sure you tag elekosport on Instagram and yeah I'll just be really excited to see your guys comments and hopefully you guys love it as much as I do so here we go. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I am out here in Sweden, but not just Sweden. I'm in Holmstad, Sweden. Hopefully I said that right. Yeah. And we're at the Aleko factory, which is another dream come true, which make it one more dream come true. And I got to make my own barbell in the factory, which is just, it's all smiles.

I can't hold back. I'm glad to hear. Such an amazing day. Amazing day. So for you, this is like normal everyday life. You're the CEO of Aleko. Am I saying it right? That's right.

Aleko. I feel pretty good about it. All right. First off, growing up in a family where this is like the bread and butter of the whole household, did you grow up and want to lift weights? Or was it just like something? Yeah, I mean, I was always close to the business, of course. But my sport when I was a kid was soccer or football.

So that was what I did. But even for that, lifting is a great form of training. So yeah, I've been close to it, but I haven't been competitively in lifting. So if the company started in the 1920s, that's probably your grandfather. Well, actually, it was another family starting the business here in Halmstad. And my father was very close to this family.

And he was good friends with the son of the couple that founded the company originally. And at that time, he was making completely different products. So it was founded in... Waffles. Waffle irons, exactly. So it was founded in... Waffles. Waffle irons, exactly. So it was founded in 1927

by a family here in Halmstad. And quite soon on, the husband died and the widow took over the business, which was quite unusual at the time. So she continued to run it until the late 50s. So 1957, there was a weightlifter

working in the factory, and he wanted to develop a weightlifting bar. And for this company, which was making electrical appliances, this was quite a significant diversification. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't know if you know what it stands for. No. It stands for Electrical Installations Limited Company.

Oh, my God. So it really has roots back to electrical products. Oh, wow. It's amazing. You know what I think is very interesting is, do you know Bill Bowerman? Yeah. So Nike, same thing. They have a very similar story in terms of… With the waffle.

Exactly. My brother visited their HQ just recently, and he sent pictures of that waffle iron that they display in their museum. It's amazing. I actually just went to Oregon recently, and I was inside the Oregon Ducks football stadium. And like, oh my God, the facility they have there is, it's unreal. But this is equally amazing here that you guys have here. So this is the performance center here. Yeah. And this is a very new piece added on to the facility here. Exactly.

So we moved into this facility two years ago. Okay. And this is part of us expanding, but it was also triggered by the fact that we had a significant fire in our warehouse. But we're here, and now we're in our new Lakers Sports Center, where we run educational programs and courses. And we also bring people here for...

Is this facility bigger than the last one? Yes, it is. It is a lot bigger? We had a sports center in the previous facility as well, but this is bigger and better in our mind. You can tell when you walk in it's like it's very special yeah and uh this is uh this is where we cater for lifters true i wish you knew the feeling of what it is like like i remember just for me as a crossfitter

and like understanding what an eliko bar was and just like for you it's probably so much more normal than like we all had these cheap bars. And I remember my coach in college because I competed in college on a weightlifting team. And the coach always told me, oh, when you go to the competition, you're going to lift at least five kilos more just because the barbell is going to be that much better. I mean, it's amazing to hear. And I feel extremely humbled by that as well. And I hear this a lot as well. I hear about clubs that have 20 bars, of which one is a lake,

and they all run and compete to try this one. And this is really at the core of what we do. I mean, that is exactly what we want to nurture and continue to develop as well in our products. One of the big things, too too is the price of the bar. And I remember always thinking it was like very, very expensive. But after going through the factory, I don't even feel like it's expensive at all.

Like I genuinely am like, this is a bargain. Like all of the testing you guys do and all of the very particular things and then actually them all getting put together by hand, which I got to do at the very end. Like that an incredible touch yeah that's nice to hear and i mean it is it is important for us to really invest in quality and in in uh in the the development part as well in everything i mean you guys have benches here now that have rubber on them that i don't think we'll ever crack ever no exactly we have a new new type of type of material that we are quite excited about.

Yeah, every single piece of the factory process was like, this is the absolute best bearing that you can get from X place. I don't want to disclose. And then this is the best steel that anyone can get, and they have absolutely no way of getting it. This is our own partnership and all these different things, which is very interesting because for five years, I competed on the Olympic skeleton team.

Yeah, exactly. And then I did bobsled for two years as well. Yeah. This is in 2010. And I remember getting the steel for our sleds from America. It was called bandit material. Yeah. And we used to get it from the Air Force.

Yeah. And it was a type of metal that could bend a significant amount and then go back to normal because we would go around the turns and it would pull 4 or 5 G forces and the metal would bend and then it would straighten and as it straightened it would give you a slingshot effect

out of the turn. Right, well I mean that's a similar thing. So you would go faster and it's literally what you guys have done. That's what you need to optimize as well for weightlifting. Did you train a lot of weightlifting or lifting when you trained for this? It was the first time I saw an Aleko barbell. Okay. And I remember –

You need to be extremely explosive there. Yeah. And everybody – the only thing we did was power cleans. We would push sleds and a little bit of upper body work. It was really just to stay heavy. And at the time, I weighed almost 100 kilos. Yeah, okay. And, you know, I'm not very tall, so, like, that was pretty big.

Yeah. Now I'm probably, like, 85 kilos, so much less. Yeah. But, yeah, I do remember the significance of how important that steel was and how important our relationship was with the military that was giving us this very particular metal, and it was very very expensive and i feel like for the quality like the amount of work that's put into each bar with the quality

of steel and all these different things it really doesn't feel that expensive to me at all yeah that's good to hear and then i think and i think that that's one of the of course the perceptions we have uh out in the in the market but i i we we also have a range of products where we have more suitable products for different type of customers as well. So I think it's important to, sometimes I hear that a lot, but we've been on a journey of product development

and business development in the last, I would say, five, seven years where we really developed the product range as well. Well, I was noticing that because I always thought the XF bar was significantly less than the official lifting bar, but they're the same steel. It's pretty much the same bar. Yeah, we don't compromise with the steel.

So, I mean, the steel, it's the same steel. So, in terms of the durability and the quality on those bars, they are at a very high level as well. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. And those are quite a different price point as well. Yeah, exactly. So, when you first, or at least let's talk about maybe your father or grandfather, like when they first come into this company, how many products were there at the time that were lifting? I mean, for basically, I mean, 1957, the first barbell was developed. And then still there were a couple of,

it was a period when the company was still making other things as well, but ultimately started to specialize into the weightlifting field. And I would say for 40 years, it was only serving professional weightlifting competitions. Just barbells or plates too? Barbells and plates and the full setup for competition. But no benches,

no dumbbells. No, exactly. Just bars and plates. And it's that was for 40 years, only serving that market. What was lifting like at the time? Well, I mean, it was a very different sport back then. Very different.

You had a press as well, and you had a different type of... Yeah. And even before, you didn't even have the rotating sleeves and all that. So it was quite different. So the first at Lake O'Barr didn't have rotating sleeves? It did. Oh, okay. So it was quite different.

But over the years, I mean, that's been our sort of core market for many years. But I think really what we've done in the last year is to build on that and the expertise and the quality and the knowledge we built up there and try to expand into new segments,

the commercial fitness segment. But before that, even the performance segment, which is more universities, other professional sports, and also the military. So we want to basically spread the beauty of weightlifting and powerlifting to many more people. So would you say that, in particular particular you're probably your biggest marketer because i would say that from my bobsled career to my crossfit career i was a pretty good crossfitter for a long time and during that time i watched a lego get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and i remember opening my gym like a little over five years ago, telling somebody like, you know, that's the Aleko bar and like,

that's a special bar. So like now people come in and they know what that bar is. So throughout that time, would you say CrossFit was probably the biggest marketing tool you guys ever had? I mean, CrossFit has done a lot for this. But I mean, we actually started this journey before crossfit so in the early 2000 when when crossfit hadn't really uh really exploded in the in the way it's done and popularity we we we started to to bring this type of training and this type of products to the

commercial fitness market and and it was a very uh tepid response really so so so it was a very tepid response, really. So it was because people had a lot of views on lifting for young people, for old people, for women. So it was a very strong resistance. And then CrossFit made it cool, though, for everybody. Exactly. So then you have a bunch more gyms that need functional equipment. Yeah, I mean, CrossFit has done an incredible job of making more people discover the benefits, really. And we've worked on that in our business model. We worked with our education business. So we started an education business area really to help communicate these benefits

and try to break down some of the myths that are out there in terms of lifting. But I mean, now when CrossFit came and started to be popular, that's been the, I mean, the voice of that has been incredible. And now it's just a completely different view. It's much more focused on the basic movement of your body. It's much more focused on how you can perform, how capable you are, not just the way you look. And this is a very exciting development, I think, in society. Well, you started with two products, right? You had barbell and you had plates. And now you guys have how many products?

I mean, we're standing under at least five. Yeah, exactly. And now we have a full range of products for strength, benches and racks and platforms and dumbbells and kettlebells. But we're still a specialist. So we're still very focused on the type of strength training that we believe in and that we are passionate about. And it is really lifting at the center, functional fitness, strength, of course. So we're not going to venture out beyond that too much. So it's really about staying true to what we believe very strongly in.

Were your parents super passionate about lifting? No, not really. My father was more of a businessman. Okay. But with a very, very strong passion for the company, the people in the company. And the quality and all that stuff. And the quality and the product. And what effect our products really had on people out in the... Was he Swedish as well?

He was Swedish. Swedish? Yeah, everybody's Swedish the whole time? Yes. I'm just getting a vibe of being here in Sweden. I heard a story today at lunch. They were saying how even the animals have rights. Yeah, absolutely.

And how the animals have the ability to have their own veterinarian if they're sick. All these different things. I'm starting to feel like, man, everything sweden is like they get really gets taken care of yeah i mean yeah uh exactly i made a joke because the whole reason this came up is i was like man i feel like this this meat had like the best life ever and like you know i was like joking i was like it's such a good meat and then um jock jocko jock uh johan johan he was like um he's like yeah like you know he starts telling me this whole story and i'm like man the swedes are they have it going on over here yeah i think i think the swedish model in terms of business is really that i mean uh the people in the company

are really important so the employees are very important and and i think that's that's the way my father really ran that was his leadership as. He talked about putting the human being at the center of everything we do. And I think that's something we really try to nurture. And to some extent, it's a Swedish angle to it. But I think it's also the way he was brought up and the way he looked at life and at business. So with business, sometimes we get in these scenarios where it's like, you know what, if everything's going really well right now, we could sign this contract and do this one thing,

and you're going to have to make a lot more than you're used to making. You might have to lower the price. You might have to lower the quality. Have you ever had scenarios like that happen where it was like, you know, we could pull off this huge deal, but we might have to use a little bit cheaper material, might have to do this, might have to cut a couple corners

and degrade the brand. Yeah, we had one particular product without going into the specifics, but that was a massive project for us. And we were in a very good position for it. But ultimately, it would have had, we would have had to risk too much, like you mentioned.

And we basically backed out of that i was gonna feel like because i feel like you're like like cars like you think of a bentley you think of like a very insanely well-built car yeah very expensive like everything about it and when i think of a lego i think of like this is the absolute best and it would break my heart if i ever saw something that was less than like the best yeah and i mean i talk about this a lot so so we we we are we are a fast-growing company and growth is in our is in the culture of the company so we want to grow because growth creates opportunity but you don't want to degrade no and i i always talk about sustainable growth which is which is really that it should be strategic to us, it should be profitable, and it should be humane. And the last part is really that we cannot have growth overtake our

focus on quality or let it exhaust our people or, as you say, degrade any part of the business. Yeah. So now with all the products that you guys have, is there, I mean, I'm looking around and the only thing in here that's not a Leica is probably that Schwinn assault bike and the rowers. Is there any plans at any point in time to ever make a cardio piece of equipment? No.

Absolutely not. Not, not. Especially with how tall you people are. Some of you guys got to be pretty good at skiing. That would be unlikely under my leadership at least. No, I mean we are focused on strength. That is who we are. So you will not see Lake moving into the cardio side of the industry.

I just see like a big Swedish ski machine. Yeah, exactly. And I mean we get this. I don't think you can use the C2 over there. I think you're too tall. Yeah, I actually can use that. Can you?'m trying even for me i get pretty tall on there i'm actually on that for quite a lot now i'm training for the swedish was a lot but which is the oh really the big 90k race oh awesome march uh so um but but where does that go by the way i love adventure stuff yeah it goes in uh salen uh between salen and mora okay so it's

it's a very famous it's the biggest cross-country skiing race and uh we are 20 people in the company that will do it oh that's great so it's a fun it's a fun project and i love that working out hard for that i actually like i might go mountain biking with johan tomorrow and the crew uh okay yeah yeah awesome yeah it's a nice place uh not too far from here i love stuff like that yeah so you will see a lake of people doing cardio but you will not see a lake of making cardio equipment okay yeah uh you guys actually one thing i noticed i actually forgot i almost forgot to even bring this up was the logo yeah you guys switched it probably the last year or two uh like three years ago, I think. Maybe three years ago.

And the old logo was just very simple. It was like kind of square type of logo. And then now you guys added a little bit more modern font. Yeah, we modernized it a bit, exactly. And we also introduced what we call the strength symbol, which is really to represent your arms up in the air, a successful lift. That's what it means. The feeling of achievement and really.

So we want to capture that moment of success or accomplishment. So that little, that's supposed to be like this. Yeah, exactly. Oh, cool. I always wondered what that was. Yeah. That's really cool. I like that.

Okay, so as far as being a tight knit company, how many types of events do you guys do? You plan events like every year, like the ski event, there's 20 of you guys doing it. Yeah, exactly. We do quite a bit of those things and,

and, but we let it come mostly from the people in the company. So if anyone has an idea to, to, to train for something or participate with, with staff in something i i it would it it's it would take a lot for me to say no to that we had a running race here in hamster some time ago we had uh 65 people taking part in that one the 10k runs that was a fun

fun event as well um okay so you have that and then how many of you guys are like actual world-class athletes that are working here right now because i remember uh johan was saying on the sign in the back the weightlifter who had like the world record was actually an employee here uh yeah i think yeah we've had some uh i mean we have a world champion working here in weightlifting, and we have some powerlifting national team people as well. We have Richard, who I think you will meet tomorrow. He was in the Canadian national team for weightlifting. And he works here now?

Yes. Oh, cool. So we have people with that background. But it's also not everyone in the company who has been a competitive athlete I would say pretty much everyone in the company has a strong passion

and interest in training and then quite a few have been athletes as well but it's kind of a mix and when you guys go to these competitions do you pretty much just like put a leko on all the clothing and all that? Or are you guys? Yeah,

we try to, we try to get our, cause you're going to have to have some sort of like one piece for this cross country race. Yeah. Oh yeah. For that one, we will,

we will, yeah, we will, we will be clearly branded Aleko for that one. We'll have some special caps to protect from the cold. I like that. Has the clothing kind of picked up for you guys a lot? Yes, but it's still in a developing phase.

I feel like there's not a lot of great lifting clothing out there. And that's been the origin of that whole part of the business as well. I think there's a gap really in the market for really well thought through and quality clothing. Especially with a cool name on it. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be cool. On the other hand, it's not a core part of our business really. I mean, the equipment is really the core business.

But it's important to find ways to connect with the users, really. And we have a message that we want to get across as well. And I think that, I mean, to have some products for people to wear where we can communicate what the brand stands for. I think that's a good thing for us. So for everybody out there right now who's like, I've heard of Aleko bars and I do know that they're very well made. You're obviously making that good point. You guys are here.

You've made your own barbell and all that. If you had to explain to somebody the difference between your bar and somebody else's bar, how do you explain it in such a way that like really captivates them and makes them you know say like wow like this is the bar that i want to buy like let's say i'm opening a gym right now yeah and i'm like hey you know i can buy this one bar that's 300 american or i can buy this one that's a thousand yeah i think i think it's i mean quality is really the number one thing we hear from customers. So quality is critical. But when you say quality, what do you mean?

I mean, typically, when people say quality, they talk about how long the product lasts and can function and perform for you. And we have products, I mean, bars that have been out there since the 60s, and still they are used and they are perfectly functioning. I've seen them, yeah. And they are loved by people. Yeah. So I think the quality part is sort of the core, and with that goes also the safety part. I mean, these are products that need to endure a lot of heavy usage.

So just keeping them durable and safe is critical. But then we also… They require no maintenance at all i know i noticed in the back the guy had a machine that was he said it was putting five tons of pressure into this dumbbell yeah and he's like you know it'll and then this little bolt's gonna go on there and it will never get loose ever yeah exactly so i mean that's and that's that that's really critical critical but then i mean i i often talk also about the feeling. And I think what we strive for in our bars, as an example,

is really to create just the ultimate lifting experience. And that comes, I mean, for a beginner, that might be hard to understand because you need to discover it first. You need to discover just the movement. But the further in you get, you start to notice the small things you start to notice how the bar the grip feels how the spring of the bar uh osculates you start to notice if there's any slippage in the in the in the construction of the bar and and i want the bars to really be like an extension of your body and then it has to feel like one piece like extremely precise and and for a beginner it's hard but but the closer you get to the professional lifters and this this is where

we come from they are extremely detailed on this feedback so so this is this is something which is very important to us so it's both the quality and the safety aspects but then it's it's all the way through to uh through to the performance and and and and down to the feel as well yeah i think that's a that's a big thing that i noticed when i used the bars for sure is just picking it up off the ground before you've even done any sort of like high velocity like you can just you just feel the bar and you're like oh wow this is really really nice yeah i mean if if you lift i mean it's frustrating to come to a gym if you're out traveling or something. And it's a bad bar.

And you want to go in and lift. And it's just a bar that cannot perform those type of movements. So that's where we want to be a guarantee for allowing people to do this type of training. And we see it as well. I mean, when we start to do more now in the commercial fitness market, we actually see how some gyms put Eleco equipment in there and then they get this feedback on social media

where they just get through excitement about having some proper lifting equipment in their gyms. Yeah, people know what it is for sure. I remember because I travel all over and I do workouts and like a 24-hour fitness, for instance, every once in a while. And I'll be in the rack using an Aleko bar. Yeah, I mean, that's a good example because I think that we worked with them for a while now and that's where you see a truly fantastic response.

Because there's a lot of people who work out there it's very cheap membership so like your your basic 24-hour fitness has 20 000 members yeah exactly you know so i remember you know even recently doing videos in there and someone's like oh my god they have a lego bars there like which one is that because some of them will have it and some of them won't and people will ask me like on my social media like which one is that because that's the one i want to go to yeah no exactly i see that quite a bit as well yeah so um and this is i mean i think this is this is what i want to be part of our company strategy as well i mean we want to have more people discover uh how to lift and what the benefits are i mean it's a really crucial part of of the mission we're on so we want to build a great business.

But as part of that, we want to be this voice for having more people engage in physical activity and strength training. And ideally this type of strength training as well. So I remember for me in my gym, I did have a pretty good budget when it came into doing all these things. But I wanted to kind of stay with the Rogue brand because that was the CrossFit brand. When you're competing, everybody just wants what you're going to be using in the competition. So partial to Aleko and knowing how amazing the brand was, I bought five Aleko bars, and then I bought like 30 regular Rogue bars. And I was pretty confident because I was like, you know what? They have a lifetime warranty, the Rogue bars. And I was pretty confident because I was like, you know what?

They have a lifetime warranty, the Rogue bars. And I've already like through those, and I remember just being like excited about them when I first got them. They were great. But if you don't take care of them all the time, like nothing against Rogue, but like if you don't take care of them all the time, you're like not constantly oiling them. You have to take them apart at certain times.

And then the actual, there is no whip on the bar like it's it's just a bar and it is something that when you start getting better at lifting you notice a massive difference when you pick up the aleko bar and anybody who's good at lifting they just run over to try to grab that bar yeah and the bar is not constructed there's actually no markings on the bar to take it apart it's not supposed to be taken apart no you're not supposed to put oil in it there's none of these things but my my bars even though they're lifetime warrantied and i was like oh these are the last bars i ever have to buy i've had to replace them already yeah but the aleko bars that i've had in there they look like they're not even close

yeah to being able and i mean so i wish i just got all the bars to begin with. Yeah, yeah. But I think this is where we come from. So we've taken on feedback from professional weightlifting clubs and federations for over 60 years. And we did a rather big upgrade to the bars a couple of years ago where we really worked on that part specifically in terms of sealing the sleeve and trying to really make it last for even longer. So we made some significant upgrades there as well,

which was quite interesting. And I think that pushes the durability even more. Going through the factory process and hearing Johan talk about this, there's one particular part where the knurling of the bar requires these two little bearings that go into the machine. And he was saying they're equivalent to almost $50 for the thing that makes the knurling on the bar. And every three bars, you replace those. So you're spending $50 per three bars on just making the knurling only.

I mean, the grip is essential for us as well. And that's been sort of something where, I mean, that's the area of connection between the lifter and the product, really. And if you take a microscope and you look at it, it's a waffle. Exactly. So it goes back to the waffle iron history. For those of you who don't know, I swear to God, you look at it and it's a waffle.

Yeah. No, but that's true. So it's a funny link back to the history. Yeah, I like that a lot. So, I mean, it just goes to show, like, if you're spending $50 on just that one little thing, and then he was talking about how the bearings that were going in was, like, literally the absolute best bearing in the world that you guys can get your hands on, and then, like, all these little pieces were all the best things in the world. Like, it really made the value of it, to me, just seem, like, priceless completely.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. And we care a lot about the products, and we feel pride when we hear those things, and we feel very humbled to hear that as well. But we also try to push it every time to the next level. So that's what I was going to say next, was like, okay, the barbells are down pat. No one's coming close to these things.

I've heard of other amazing companies that are, you know, sometimes they get billets for some of these big competitions, which I don't really know what goes into that, what doesn't go into it. But I do know you guys have the most world records of anybody in the world. So that's always nice. Yeah, and I think, yeah. And we are at most of the big competitions every year as well. So that's really been the… And it's a feeding frenzy trying to get the equipment when it's over like a world championship or an olympics like everybody wants to buy it and it's yeah exactly all those limited pieces yeah that's

right do you guys have a museum of stuff anywhere where it has you have like little bits of all the olympics or anything yeah we have we have some old old uh really old pieces as well which we can i'd love to see that. Okay, so the next thing, the bar is down pat. And then all of a sudden I start, you know, the grid lead comes out and I went and tried out for that. And I remember that was the first time I saw Alico kettlebells. And they were colored. And I was like, oh, my God, it's super cool.

And then all of a sudden they pulled out dumbbells. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And then I remember I went over to the dumbbell to check it out. And I remember seeing the handle spin. And that was when my mind was blown. I was like, wow, this is really cool. Can you talk to us about what it's like to have a dumbbell with a rotating handle and all of the benefits that come with that? Yeah, I mean, we recently launched a new rotating dumbbell.

Which I just saw get made and is insane. Yeah, exactly. So it's the Evo. And there's a big difference, actually, between, not to interrupt you, the new one and the old one. Yeah, I mean, the big part is in the rotation. So we basically try to mimic the smooth rotation of a barbell and get that into a dumbbell

to allow for some high performance training as well. So snatching with a dumbbell. And I think it's, I mean, what we've been able to produce here, I think it's quite amazing. I mean, the feel of this dumbbell is incredible. The smoothness. It really is. I just used it just it's uh we we we know that in the same way as we know the uh the bars and um the the the construction for the bearings as well as a different new type of applying the uh the the bearings for the for the rotating part which actually allows us to go down in diameter a little bit which is helpful for this this type product. It would be more suitable for most people. Most of the rotating dumbbells out there are sort of a fat grip version almost.

Yeah. So it's one of those products where you need to pick it up and feel it. And if you do, you feel it's a special piece. Right away. I remember because you guys were filming for the Barbell Shrugged episode and I was getting a little set in. And every time I'd pick it up to do like a bench press, you immediately like I didn't realize like how important it was to have that rotating handle. Like just to bring the dumbbells up to your chest.

Yeah. And it's kind of turn around the dumbbell versus the dumbbell turning you. Exactly. And same with a weightlifting bar as well. I mean, you still need to have a connection to the weight. So it cannot just spin without any control. You still have to be able to feel connected to the product. So we worked a lot on just trying to optimize that rotating part.

It actually is amazing to bring that up because I did feel like there was something more than just the spin that i was like why do i like these dumbbells so much is it because i'm in this facility is it because of the knurling or is it because like that that's so that's like something that you guys are really focused on is just the connection yeah absolutely so how do you measure a connection like i i mean that that is that is a hard thing i mean and and you need to speak to a lot of people of course that's what i was and you need to speak to a lot of people, of course. That's what I was saying. And you need to have, I mean, hear from both the professional people who are experts at it, but also just get people who haven't really done much training with these products at all before. And then it comes down to the people in the companies as well who are very experienced with this type of development work.

But this is where it becomes a little bit of an art, and it's not just completely scientific, because when you start to go into the field and trying to optimize how you are connected to the product through rotation or through the precision of the construction, that's where you need to have some artful skills as well. Yeah, for sure. I just feel like you guys really did a really good job. And I just was wondering what constitutes that feel for the masses.

Did you do like 10,000 studies? I mean, we've tested a lot. So we've been back and forth on a lot of different versions here what type of other grips like did you have that failed did you have anything that was non-waffle uh no we did not have any i mean the waffle should be there and it actually makes a lot of sense for for the grip it actually does yeah so um but we just tried to i mean we did multiple uh ways to apply the uh the bearings apply the bearings and just how tight the precisions are there. So that's what we played around quite a lot and experimented. But I personally feel extremely happy with this end product.

It is an amazing feel to this dumbbell. Have you ever had another finish besides chrome? We tested a lot of different finishes. I remember there being a gold one at one point. Yeah, we had a gold one. That was a special type of, and we've done it in some circumstances. The chrome has some very significant advantages. It's a very resistant treatment over time.

And we have a very high-quality chrome process here in Sweden that we use, which is also optimized for this type of application. So it is a very useful treatment and finish for this type of product. But we've also tested a number of different finishes. Is there like a black chrome? Is that a thing? No, but there are different black oxide solutions that you can... It just doesn't last long. No, and then there are different types of more like paint finishes as well.

But this is also part of the development work. Yeah, because I remember, I think when you first came out with an XF bar, it was black. Yeah, we had a black version as well. It was black, right? And then did it wear out eventually, the color? Yeah, that wore out. In a few years? It did not last as long as a regular one.

Because I want to say every illegal bar I've ever seen that is really old or even the really nice ones that I'm always used to seeing, they're always chrome. Yeah. And in my gym, people sweat on them, this, that. Everything happens. We're by the beach, so sometimes it gets a little rusted, but you just brush it off.

It's very, very resistant. And I just was wondering if you ever guys played with any other oh no we we play a lot yeah so um i knew i was making my own bar today and i was like well maybe i'll make it black i've never seen a black one or like my gym is orange i was like maybe i'll make it orange yeah but we we're still very classical in our in our as well. I mean, we play around a lot in our development work, but we also have a very strong professional lifting community as well, which is quite rigid on how I barbell. Yeah, I think it's good to keep it classic. Yeah.

So speaking of the classic, the whole performance center that's out there, how many famous athletes have you had in there? Do you have a lot of people from Sweden, maybe a famous soccer player, or a whole team of soccer? Yeah, we use this center for different purposes. Our only course is, of course, in the education field. And then we have it for the the national federations to to run camps uh training camps we had the british weightlifting team here we've had

the german weightlifting team here the swedish of course the danish and so so brazil have been here so so it's um uh it's it's used for that and then we also occasionally run competitions here so so we ran a when we uh moved into this place we ran a european championships for uh masters weightlifting so we had 500 people competing here in during 10 days oh that's cool so that was uh that was a pretty hectic guy pretty hectic but a fun a fun week yeah um so where we have to get pretty small with 500 people yeah it was quite busy but uh it actually worked pretty well yeah yeah it's a big space it's super big space yeah i'm amazed at the like accommodations that you guys had so far like the food that i had at lunch the coffees that we're

able to get all the time thank you the sparkling water machine is one of my favorite things in the whole world. I feel like I need that for my house at some point. Why Holmstad? And do you ever plan on making an even bigger facility in another location, or will it always be in Holmstad? We have never talked about moving the company from this place. I mean, this is the heart of the company. This is where it was founded. This is where it was founded. This is where,

this is where we, we all live. And, and, and you can actually see on a lot of, a lot of the old, old equipment and the old clothing as well. That Halmstad was there from the beginning.

It's a Lake Sweden, Halmstad. So even in the, in the professional weightlifting community, Halmstad is sort of known for making the world's best bar. So this is it. This is the spot. All right.

Exactly. So if anything does happen, you guys get even bigger, which is going to happen in the next 10 years. You'll just keep adding on here. Yeah, here we can grow, and we have space as well near to here where we can grow. So we're going to continue to expand, and we have a plan for that also. So you have one more factory, and it's just for plates? Yeah, exactly.

So that's in another part of the city. And it's literally that whole factory is just plates? No, that's a rubber factory for different type of rubber products, but plates is one key thing. All right, cool. All right, well, I think that's all the questions I really have. Is there anything that you'd like to add that I didn't hit on that you'd like to talk about? No, I think this was a really nice conversation,

so I'm really happy to have you here at the Laker HQ. I'm happy to just sit there and drill you and keep it short and sweet and get all the good questions out. I literally cannot thank you enough for having me here. Being able to walk through the factory and make my own bar was something I'll remember forever. Yeah, awesome. I made a joke with Anders.

I was like, I haven't had it. Everyone here has children, but I haven't had one yet. And I was like, I feel like I had my moment. Amazing. Maybe it's better to have that before you have the real child. The real baby now. It might not be as good. I don't know.

Well, I'm very humbled by that so thank you very much for yeah thank you very much for having me on the show thank you very much for hospitality and uh now i'm just excited to work out and use all the weights yeah me too thank you thank you again all right ladies and gentlemen that is the end of the show i hope you guys loved it flew all the way to sweden for that one if you have any questions or anything make sure you tag myself or aliko Sport on Instagram. We'll get back to you right away. In the meantime, I have a new challenge coming out. Super, super excited about it. It's going to be called the Earn Your Carbs Challenge. And it's basically going to be an advanced version of my last carb cycle challenge. And it's going to be, in my opinion, way, way better. So I'm really, really excited about it. Carb cycling has been around for years and decades and all this stuff, but the earn your carbs lifestyle is something that is new.

It is something that I've been trying to create and try to get all the numbers down that. So it works for everybody for years now. And I'm finally done with this thing. And I'm so, so excited. It's going to be just an easier lifestyle for people to live, to stay lean and not have to worry about what they're eating. And you know, if they have access to this or that, it's just going to really be this truly earning your carbs lifestyle, and it's going to change people's bodies faster, and more effectively, and easier than ever, I'm so, so excited for it, so all I want you guys to do is check out jimryan.com, g-y-m-r-y-a-n.com. You guys can get updates. And on Monday, which is today, you guys can start signing up for it.

It starts October 30th. And by the time you guys listen to this on Tuesday, which is tomorrow, you guys will be ready to sign up. If you guys still want to just do the first level, the introductory style of carb cycling, I still have the original carb cycling packet available on the website.

You guys can buy that. You can still be part of the Facebook group for life, where I go on there and do live Q&As, and we do all sorts of stuff on there. You also get free e-books and training and Chalk Online and all sorts of stuff that comes with it. So make sure you guys, again, just go to JimRyan.com, check it all out. And again, if you are a listener of Real Chalk, which obviously you are, you just type in all capital letters, REALCHALK, and you guys get 25% off any of the books that are in the online store. All right, guys.

Again, thank you so much for listening. Of all the podcasts in the world, you choose mine, and I love it, and I love you guys back. So I'll see you next week at Tuesday, on Tuesday, at Tuesday.