Massenomics Podcast - Ep.250: Grant Broggi of The Strength Co.

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

What goes into making weight plates? A HELL of a lot more than you might think.  We had a blast chatting with Grant about everything he had to go through to get some of the most badass made in America plates that we have ever seen! Hybrid Performance Method: https://hybridperformancemethod.com/ and use code MASS to save 5% on all programs Lifting Large: https://www.liftinglarge.com/ and use code MASS20 to save on Lifting Large branded products Spud Inc.: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! Recorded live from western northeast south dakota this is the massonomics podcast we are the lifting podcast about nothing and my name is tanner and my name is tommy this is episode 250 tommy you know what that means you know what that means halfway to 500 finally what we always said we were going to do 500 when we started out we're like i think we can hit what that means? Halfway to 500. Finally. What we always said we were going to do, 500. When we started out, we're like, I think we can hit 500. If we don't get to 500, this project is a complete and total failure.

500. That would make us closing in on 10 years straight. Oh, God. Do you think that's possible? I mean, it's possible. It's possible. Do you think it's probable? Oh, God, I don't know.

Do you think we can continue to podcast as long as we have now again like could we that i mean that's the question go to 250 to 500 can we do what we just did yeah actually can we do what we just did after today right we're not done yet that's true all over again i think it's i think it's it's very possible but yeah is it doable god that is if you ask me if i think it's gonna happen i But yeah, is it doable? God, that is a good question. If you ask me if I think it's going to happen, I don't know for what reason I would think it won't, but I would say no. It's not going to go five.

I mean, in my mind, I'm like, yeah. I guess I kind of picture like Massonomics could easily be a successful company five years from now. So I don't know why that would mean we wouldn't have a podcast, but it's just so long. Well, and then the question is, okay, is it massonomics is still podcasting five years from now or we're hitting episode 500 five years from now because you know those aren't they'll have to go right together yeah i guess people will just have to wait and find out yeah unless you're on next week's episode

unless you're unless unless you're five years well that's unless it's the year 2026 right now and you just found out about the massonomics podcast and you're going through a backlog and you just got to episode 250 like boy those guys don't even know what's going to hit them in a year from now but what we're just saying right now that is happening to people right now they're're listening to episode four from five years ago. That is actually happening. We found out this past year that people did a lot of that, actually.

They are listening to our five-year in the past selves. Those guys are so silly. They don't know anything about anything. They still don't know much. Fast forward five years. Oh, it's the same. They still don't know anything about anything. They're still idiots. The more things change, the more they stay the same. That's right. We anything about anything. They're still idiots. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

That's right. We should probably read ads before we get too caught up reminiscing here. Ah, you are correct. Today's show is brought to you by lifting large, lifting largest at a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website,

chat support, and speedy email responses. Lifting largest home, the groundlocked deadlift slipper, and they're always in stock and ready to ship. Massonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using discount code MASS20 at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to you by Spud Inc. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and

most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. This episode is brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching. Whether your girls are training-related, nutrition and body composition-related, or both, Hybrid has a program for you. With dedicated and experienced coaches in each strength and fitness discipline. You can rest assured that you're in the best hands possible. We have a discount code with them.

It's mass M A S S and all caps. And that'll save you 5% off any training or nutrition memberships for the life of your membership at hybrid performance method.com. And this episode is brought to you by Texas power bars in 1980. Buddy cap set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with. Do you think in 1980, Buddy Capp figured that in 2021, he'd be... That people would still be using barbells? Yes, yes. The greatest bar that he had ever seen and trained with, the Texas Power Bar.

It was strong as a house with the best knurling, and it was maintenance-free. with the texas power bar it was strong as a house with the best knurling and it was maintenance free hundreds of state national international world and massonomics power lifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the texas power bar to learn more visit them at texas power bars in ditkin wow tanner you know uh i just remember two things i wanted to talk to you about oh good first is what are the chances that the year the season the winter season we make the massonomics weather filter update that we have maybe the craziest weather we've ever had ever and typically this time of year we're giving people weather reports for like how we are living in the Arctic. Right. It rained,

I think for the second time in January degrees today. Like, I don't know if it's rained in January, maybe once in my whole life. And it's rained in January twice. Now, you know, I was even just on the drive here.

I was reflecting that. I feel weird saying that I'm disappointed that it's been this way, but because of the weather updates on Instagram, I pictured a lot of like standing outside in a blizzard, like not being able to see you be like, like, yeah, here's the weather report.

It's terrible. How it is. And people being like, Oh my God, those guys live there. Like why every year we have, it's like, that was kind of the running gag.

It's like once this time of the year hit, it's like, Oh, you know what's Tanner tomorrow. Snow apocalypse is happening. And we haven't had any of that with the commute i have right now it's very possible we could have struggled to record some of these in a normal year over this you know like it's like well i can't get there it's like uh-huh you can't see five feet in front of your face or if i go there there's a good chance i won't be able to leave for like two days and that's not a good idea yeah so uh we're very mild

very very mild yeah it's been it's been pretty crazy yeah it has been wild so that's your we we have been slacking on the weather updates like but that's why we just have nothing to share like our weather is pretty similar to i think for the most part what most people are seeing across the country right now people do i have gotten good feedback on the instagram weather updates live from western north and south dakota um i do a mix of just pictures and videos uh i've done a few like selfie uh i don't know what's yeah just talking to the camera giving updates uh i asked you just saying western northeast south dakota i didn't have to laugh because yesterday in the news they they said Central Northeast South Dakota. And I'm like,

it's taking a page out of the mass economics book. And like the way it rolled off, like, and I didn't even think twice about it. And then like, the only reason it even clicked in my head is because we're making a deal about it. Yeah.

Right. Central Northeast South. And it's so funny that that is just not even something that people bat it. Right. Right. It just seems normal bat at. Right. Right. It just seems normal to them. Yeah.

You know what other thing, Tanner, I was also reminiscing about is normally this time of year, we're getting pretty jacked to start getting ready for the Arnold. That's clearly not the case this year. At this time last year, we were getting pretty jacked. At this time last year, it was like basically our entire life was going to be changed in a month. Yeah. I mean, we thought it was because we're going to the Arnold. And it was our entire life.

Little did we know our entire life really was about to be changed. In ways we would have never predicted. But yeah, like it was like this time last year, we were like, oh, we're just a little over a month out. Like, oh, we got so many awesome ideas. We got all this stuff. We got two shirts ready to go remember in your garage here yeah we probably had recently moved here then okay half a year okay we were setting we did our we did a trial run yeah we built our display which good thing we did

because we learned some things we're like oh this isn't doesn't actually lay out how we want to we had to adjust the like some of the things we were going to utilize and stuff and we're like damn we think we got this down now we did this full dry run like we never have before the dress rehearsal yeah yeah the dress rehearsal we had people come in and buy stuff from us off the street all the neighborhood kids and we've still never and we still have all that stuff and have not gotten to utilize yeah someday someday i believe we'll get to go to a thing like that i think so so what do they say about the arnold now at last i heard is maybe it'll be in like august or september yeah my mom even texted me this week and said oh that's i heard the arnold no arnold this year so

oh she did yeah yeah so who the hell are you talking to yeah i know no so but that's the last i heard i don't know is maybe they would do it in august or september yeah but then the thing it runs into is well you can't do one in august and then do it in march right i mean you could but it just seems like you're i don't know maybe people would be really really jacked for that maybe i don't know i feel like people have got to make up for lost time so hard but what it would make more sense to split the difference this is a bigger question beyond the arnold but what will say in august there is one what will it be like will people be like oh i'm dying to go to something thank god there's something finally i'm gonna go or will people be like how many people are gonna be like yeah i still don't want to go to stuff

like i you know depends on where people are at with not caring about COVID and also vaccine. Yeah. The vaccine is like the X factor. I mean, if a lot of people have the vaccine and they're just like, doesn't matter anymore. I have friends that have gotten both doses now. Or if they don't have the second one, they're very close like any week now. And in theory, they should just be like, nothing matters anymore because I'm immune, I think. I think that's how it's supposed to work.

Seems like that's how vaccines are supposed to work it seems like that's how vaccines are supposed to work right yeah i mean it feels like that's what we're being told so i mean if a lot of the country is on board with that thought process and does that uh it seems like you should have a decent turnout i guess but i hope i mean we'll be at an event someday somewhere so it'll be nice so hopefully that those have to stay tuned for episode like 280 of the podcast and we'll we'll cover we'll cover how that actually goes um yeah i'm excited to find out what happens we still they still have a decent chunk of our money that you know i'd like to know whether yeah we're gonna get compensated for that and they've probably just been investing in the market this whole time, Tanner.

They invested in Tesla. Watching some crazy swings. They're going to give it back to us with interest. Like, yeah, we invested all in Tesla. Here's $30,000. We did a little something behind everyone's back, but here it is. We hope you guys aren't too bad. Wouldn't that be something, Tanner?

That would be something. Probably not going to happen. You know what else i was thinking about when i was reading the ads and we've both done it occasionally like get a little video for instagram i assume what you're doing oh that was just for my personal i i sent it to my family i messaged saved on your phone like just to review later like i just like to listen to you you know like for some day when you're on a plane again and you're like really bored looking through stuff i'll be like ah here's tana reading the ad so funny uh as if you couldn't just look it up on youtube or uh any podcast any podcast um but what i was gonna say is we're on camera all the time that we're recording and i'm just so accustomed to that but then when when you pull out your phone i'm like oh never mind the microphone in front of my microphone with thousands of people

the camera with the big old lens and like the monitors but when you pull out your phone that's what i'm like oh i hope i don't mess up now three lights like the pressure's on isn't that kind of funny a funny thought though it is like I almost forget all of this is just so old hack it's not even there yeah right that is really funny actually but I'm like oh god not a iPhone camera

that thing away from me gotta change my clothes it's a funny thought. It is. Speaking of other funny thoughts, you're familiar with Nick Saban. Yep. Anyone that he has...

Real joker, isn't he? Speaking of funny guys, anyone that he has recruited in his tenure as the head coach of Alabama that has played for at least three seasons, has won a national championship. Anyone that he's ever recruited that at least stuck around for three years

has won a national championship. So at this point, he can basically say, I will guarantee you a championship. The track record is, yes, you come here, you will be a part of a championship team. Yeah, that is quite the pedigree to have, isn't it? That is kind of a crazy fact. Wow. Yeah, that is. That is impressive. Not that we talk a lot of a championship right yeah that is that is quite the pedigree to have that is kind of kind of a crazy fact wow yeah that is that is impressive not that we talk a lot of football on here did you watch the game at all no yeah i pretty much am so out like i i've said this before i at one point in my time actually for a majority of my life i was so focused on sports as like, just like insane. Like I loved sports and like,

especially football, particularly NFL, but also college football. I mean, just it's a feeder for the NFL. So you couldn't be really interested in the NFL and not be at least. Yep. At least paying attention.

Well, I want to know who my team's going to draft, you know, like I need to know about these players and what they did in college and how, you know, and all that. And now anymore, I just don't know i don't really it's kind of one of those things where it's almost like when you're when your tv show like you miss two seasons and it's like okay yeah some of the characters are still there that is honest it's like i'm so

far out of the storyline i don't even know anymore so i used to but i used to love fantasy football and i played in many money leagues over like 15 years. I played in a lot of money leagues and I won some cool pots of like, I won $1,500 or a couple thousand dollars a few different times. And like, that was fun. And I was like addicted to it.

Are you low key breaking about your fantasy skill standard? Because I think that's what people are picking up on right now. Because I for sure lost more times than I won. You know, I don't know if net, if I gained money or lost money, but what I would say is I, I just couldn't get enough of it. Yeah.

And like, I knew, you know, just like anyone that's into fantasy football, I know these players on other rosters that I should like, I shouldn't know who the third string running back for Detroit is like, like who cares? Damn it.

I do. Right. Right. And at the time I did. And now like I, we did flip on, it was the saints were playing the bears my son wanted to watch it and we watched a little bit and i'm like hot drew breeze and then i'm like hmm goes downhill pretty pretty sure mitch trabisky is the quarterback for the bears but i wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup you know like like i'm just kind of like he's the guy that kind of looks like he's still playing

like who else is and then i i know the kind of knew the running back for the saints he's like uh tamara yeah yeah he's really legit and i kind of follow him but for the most part especially you go to like defensive players and i'm like who do not know these players yeah and at one point in time i would have been able to name like all of them although levin's you know not the not the guards and tackles and center probably maybe actually if they're pro bowlers i'd probably know the pro bowlers and not the rest but now i'm like don't know any of them i know drew breeze you know yeah remembering names especially when it comes to athletes has never been my my strong suit or forte um but yeah this year yeah this year has been um i i just yeah i mean i'm a vikings fan yeah and if they're playing good great i'll watch it's fun and if

they're not playing good it's like i don't need that i don't need that downer on my sunday so right yeah it was a pretty uh boring nfl year for me you know what's you know it's not a downer what uh quenching your thirst oh baby i'm actually we have to do there's like a basket there's like a pile of goodies over here we have to do some reverse order segment ordering here okay we normally typically would do a what's in the can prior to tanner sack uh-huh today they're kind of similar so i think we have to pull out the sack before we get to what's in the can the way that this is and we have two sets of these we have two sets of sacks and cans one of them we're going to have to save for next week um there's just too much good stuff here right so we have these two that came in these came in on the same day one from canada

one from scotland today we're going to what what's from canada it's like mr worldwide that's at at home when the packages came in it's like what is all this cool stuff and it's like see my wife uh this wasn't you said nothing yeah and you thought this wasn't gonna pan out and look we're getting have you ever got a package in the mail from scotland didn't think so all right this we are reaping rewards where's mary's package i don't see two it's just like freddie got fingered i don't see freddie's le baron daddy would you like some sausage a lot backwards man the backward man um what was i talking about okay so we're gonna do canada first so this is the worldwide sack segment and so next so scotland is gonna have to wait for next week

i can't remember i did read the card but i'm just gonna just jog my memory if this is uh too personal or if it's something that i want i don't think we're going to read the card on air okay but i'll let you it's also funny that it's a very personal yeah it is a very well so this is from kyle hendricks okay it's who the sack came from uh and i oh oh there's handwriting yes no no he wrote us a note but i think we'll probably leave the note amongst us it was a very nice uh note that kyle sent us but he also probably explains what we're going to get in the sack here so that's why i was conflicted on reading it or not i'm reading the note which makes for terrible air time but but i also can't i should have like read it i actually this this didn't work he does make a note here he says there's no maple in this

water which i'm assuming he's probably referencing back to the maple waters right for sure my parents were at my house this past weekend and my mom goes into the fridge and goes oh what's this and it was one of those maple beverages and i go they're terrible she goes what do you mean i said look read the thing yeah and i don't know raspberry maple and she goes it can't be that bad and And I hear it crack. I hear, oh, that's bad. Dumped down the sink and it was in the garbage immediately. Okay. So this is from Kyle Hendricks, sponsored Massanomics athlete, sponsored lifter.

He power lifts. He's out of Canada. We make a lot of Canada jokes. President of Ontario. He is the president of Ontario. I like the wood tie in here. So Big Kyle is a arbor arborist i don't know what the correct uh term is arboreal i think he does stuff to trees like not sexually that i know of but like

does normal things to trees that people would do to trees that ties in because for what's in the sack tommy we got something very cool in the now it is so it's like i feel like i've seen these on tv you know oh man these do have a finish on them yeah these are so cool yeah okay so i always see on kyle's instagram he's always chopping down wood and just finishing it smell good and these almost look like they're um manufactured because they're yeah he didn't say what kind of wood this is did he ah wood ah brown wood this is wood from trees this is tree wood because yours looks different than mine yeah they do oh yeah uh yours has uh but they were specifically named so it is crazy. Okay. Oh, yours is a lot lighter too.

Yeah. Wow. But he named them that this is for you. He must have been like, Tommy likes the little bit. He knows what goes with your decor. I was going to say my wife. My wife. My wife.

She will like this color more than your color,anner so kyle picked him good not only is he an arborist he's an interior decorator and master of feng shui we move into a new home next week i think this is gonna go great with our flooring yeah so kyle knew he knew he's he kind of knows what's up with wood uh my wife and i My wife was pretty excited about these, though. Yeah. And especially that this is a backstory. Like, yeah, this is our friend from Canada. I'm going to tell people this is old-growth Canadian lumber. There you go. Original.

I mean, we don't have enough facts to dispute that, so we're going to have to go with it. And this brings us to our can segment, which also we get to use the utilize the sack segment with the coasters because he makes note of us not having coasters on our end tables here right although um i'm gonna take mine home with me because i want all four it's you need four yeah all right so he provided us oh this is a true, this is what I can for both of us. So we have a can wrapped in paper so we can't see it.

Simply, we just have the number one on. Well, because so this is also what we have, Tommy. So I don't know. Are we going to what are we going to do? Are we going to just play one of these? I think, yeah, I think we just play one. So we'll come back to this one in a couple of weeks. Because like I'll say tangerine and you'll say mango.

It'll be a mango tangerine, you know? Yes know yes right right together so we'll save number two for a future episode who does number two work for it how many how many good uh references great 90s movie references can we fit into this uh this segment tanner what if i told you there was more than one can that's a really bad matrix yeah yeah i got it uh wow okay all right so should we do so we have the can number one simply simply titled number one at the moment with paper over it all right let's go in oh there is fizz and he assured us this is not maple water there is a smell picking up picking up fruit fruit essences tanner here nodes there's certain special i almost smell like licorice does it taste licorice i don't know maybe is that cherry oh that's cherry yeah Yeah. I'll tell you what it is. It's good.

That is refreshing. It is fizzy. To be honest, I didn't chill these. Just thinking about this now. It's still fairly cold. This is my pickup. God, it seems like that's cherry, doesn't it? That's cherry for sure. The question is, is it cherry something?

So we're saying it's a sparkling water cherry flavored we know that much i just i don't recognize the what i can i mean the can is white from all i can see should we take a closer look here better okay what do we got we have let's look at yours president's choice president President's Choice. President? President's Choice. Vanilla Cherry Soda. Vanilla. Vanilla. Carbonated water with natural flavors. Of course there's another flavor in there, Tanner. Okay.

Where does yours say? Yours says President's Choice. Isn't that what that says right there? Oh, yeah. But what's this? Oh, I didn't see that one. This is French. Canadian. Oh, the says President's Choice. Isn't that what that says right there? Oh, yeah. But what's this? Oh, I didn't see that one. This is French. Canadian.

Oh, the other side's French. Okay. I was going to say, why is the label different? La Choy, President's Choice. I'm sure that's how they say it, too. La Croix, Tanner. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. We're getting all educated here yeah that is indeed ingredients carbonated water natural flavor that's it this is french you would assume right i good guy french canadian oh just wait not here we go that's me. That's me setting my can on the coaster. Let me see if the coasters are. These coasters are defective. There's a ring going right through this.

Awesome. Damn. This is a great. Yeah. This is a great segment, Tanner. This was. I'm pumped about the coasters. We've been getting such cool stuff in our sack segment.

And not to. I'm not going to spoil any more surprises here, but what's behind a door. Number two, number two from Scotland is also going to be, do you know what it is? I looked at some stuff. Uh,

there is also like a secret can in there too. Oh boy. I'm not going to say any more because it's ever just from Scotland. Yeah. Yeah. There's, is it Aberdeen Scotland? Do you know,

or is it, it is sorry. Yes. Aberdeen Scotland. Oh boy. Yes. Wow. The superior Aberdeen as they would, know, or is it just Scotland? Sorry, yes, Aberdeen, Scotland. Oh, boy. Yes. Wow. The superior Aberdeen, as they've been saying.

As they think. The original, as they think. We'll decide after we... Oh, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if Aberdeen, South Dakota, was founded before Aberdeen, Scotland. I'm sure. I mean...

It's probably in the history books somewhere. All right. So that's our can can that's our sack segment uh do we have time for more how long have we been going okay here's something i got for you oh are we talking records now tanner uh no yes yes not the collection looks like it's growing not that kind of record oh oh lifting what if we had a just came to me right now what if there was a segment where it's like records and records where we talk about there we go a record and records and a record yeah so that's the segment records and records uh i've covered the vinyl records for the last

couple episodes without this so that you've already covered that part of the segment but the segment do you know who has the largest power lifting total in the world and do you know how much it is um it's not dan bell anymore okay that's what i was going to ask if you know that because is that peter petrus it's peter petrus and it's like 25 50 something yeah and what was dan's 25 25 18 okay okay just interesting that like people like that total doesn't even matter to people anymore right i mean like what i don't hear people talking about it almost like i think one is it sketchy in some was it well i just feel like because it's like a european right and so it's like so it's like not in the american instagram world so like because of that it

just but it's like andre milano chef did it it would be yeah but i also feel like he had a certain he had a different yeah yeah he did aura to him of and probably honestly because he got more americanized well i think it was two things he was russian so he has the russian lifter thing and then also he was on animal so he kind of had that tie-in with some promotion in amer in America. What did you give this? Oh, yeah, it's good. I think I would, cherry is one of my favorite flavors for sparkling water. I think I'd give it a four, four JD Powers.

This is good. Yeah. This is good. I would give it a four. I would lean towards a four and a half. I really like this one. Yeah. Quite delightful.

Yeah. Yeah. Seen towards a four and a half, I really like this one. Yeah. Quite delightful. Yeah. All the ingredients, everything is also written in French. In case we ever get confused.

That's a foreign concept to me. It is. We have to have English and French. Yeah. I mean, you always see English and Spanish on everything. And it's like, no, no, we need English and French. french is not something that's not on many things around here no sorry to get a get us off track there good beverage though yeah i just thought it was weird that people aren't really talking it is kind of yeah it is kind of weird that it just gets and i don't know if it's just because there's not like

hardly any meets going on so people are just like oh we don't care about powerlifting right now right is it also because we're like uh we're all dan bell fans so we're gonna pretend like that didn't really happen until dan breaks it back i didn't see any videos of it i i'm sure there is someone did send me some but i didn't see any popular pages posting anything about it oh usually there's several pages that will say something about right i i didn't run run across a single video on instagram with no i follow we're not going to celebrate it. We're just going to wait until Dan breaks it back and be like, yeah. We'll talk about that one.

Yeah. What did he have just the other day? It wasn't like a thousand and something for a double? A thousand thirty for a double, I think. Yeah. Pretty wild stuff. That's heavy. You take them, you double them for just one, right?

So he should be able to squat like two thousand and sixty. I would think that's about right where he's sitting now. I think that's how they calculate that. Yes. That's how they calculate that. Yes. That's how the one RM calculator works on bodybuilding.com. Do you think Dan uses that when he's trying to figure out what to go for? I assume that's how he's gotten this far.

I mean, Oh God, I hope, I hope the convention hall has good cell phone service. Cause I got to get a bodybuilding.com and put, check my one RM, check my one RM before I go max max out today i'd like to think that's how that works well he just he does uh benches 315 for a set of 10 mark it down at 500 it's what it's what the calculator says come on yeah 225 by 10 says 315 so i can do it

yep you don't need to waste your time loading all that weight on when you can just i did live in a world that many many years ago where i would hear people say that sort of thing like oh no i did 225 for 10 so i that's means i can do 315 yeah which seems wild to me now but that's you would actually just find out i existed in a time and place where that's what people did and said. Simpler times. Yeah. Yes.

Should we read some ads? Yeah, let's do it. And then we will get our guest on the horn, which up to this point, other than by reading the title, you wouldn't know who it is. Here we go. The Massonomics Podcast is brought to you by Spud Inc. and the Lat Saw with cable handles. The Spud Inc. Lat Saw is a new level of back mutilation. This medieval

looking torture device is designed to work your lats at every possible angle, letting you get the most out of the econo tricep and lat pulley or low pulley system at your home gym. Use the included deluxe cable handles to move from wide to narrow grip instantly. The lat saw includes one pair of deluxe cable handles, and you can check it out online at spud-inc-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. If you've been training without a coach and have been looking for a competitive edge, remember to check out hybridperformancemethod.com. Hybrid has 15 different strength and fitness programs covering everything from powerlifting and strongman to gymnastics and general fitness, all included in one training membership. That's not all. Hybrid also offers one-on-one personalized nutrition coaching that uses lifestyle habits and a flexible approach

to shape your nutrition plan around your current lifestyle instead of turning your lifestyle upside down in order to support unsustainable habits that only work in the short run the way most programs do. If you're ready to take your training, nutrition, or both to the next level, use code MASS, in all caps, that's M-A-S-S, for 5% off membership to all programs for the life of your membership. Today's show is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell, building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar.

In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born. It was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, world, and massonomics powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more

about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit texaspowerbars.com. Today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Since 2004, Lifting Large has been providing the lifters across the world with power lifting gear from titan support systems lifting large has the largest in-stock supply on titan wrist and knee wraps in the world lifting large is home of the ground like deadlift slipper and they are always in stock and always ready to ship they also have er combo racks in stock and ready to ship to you know they do say that the er combo rack is like the ground-locked deadlift sliver of combo racks. Of combo racks, yes.

I think they've been using that as a marketing line in Sweden or wherever they make those. If they're not, they certainly should be. Yeah, we'll give them that one. They are the only powerlifting supplier with live chat support available during the weekdays. You can get email replies to questions in hours, not days. And they are now accepting Amazon Pay and Stripe for a quick and simple checkout. Once your checkout is complete, your order will

ship fast with same day shipping on most products. Massonomics customers can use code MASS20, that's M-A-S-S-2-0, to get 20% off Lifting Large branded products and also receive an additional 50 rewards points added to your Lifting Large account your orders at lifting large.com and you can follow them on instagram at lifting large.com that's at lifting large d-o-t-c-o-m thank you to our sponsors thank you sponsors now it's time for our guest we're going to call grant owner of the strength co we featured his plates on our last episode or 45 pound plates as seen on episode 249 of the Mastodon Podcast. As seen on 249, and now we're about to find out more about it. Here we go.

Like how many pounds a 45-pound plate weighs? I want to know how many. I want to know how many. Ah, Mastodonomics. Ah, Big Grant. We found you. Is that right? You got me.

You found me in California. Grant, you're live on the show with Tanner and Tommy. We're excited to have you on. What's up, Grant? Glad to be here, man. Good to talk to you both. Excellent. So we were just saying last week we busted out the 45-pound strength co-plates. Those look super cool. We'll probably want to talk about those and what you're doing with those quite a bit but i guess first what first how do you say your last name um well well it was it was brogy for a long time that's what the italians would say it and

then uh my italian grandfather moved to boston as a uh eye doctor and said that uh irish people couldn't figure it out so he switched it to brogy so to this day we we say brogy okay but rip but rip and over at starting strength we'll call it brogy okay okay he's a little more cultured than your average person yeah he's a little more cultured than your average person you know he cares about traditions yeah what did you say you said your grandfather was your grandfather the first generation uh no my great my great grandfather actually from italy but my grandfather you know filled with the abuse yeah yep yep gotcha okay cool so tell us a little bit about the strength co and what what all you got going on over there we we know some of it but

i don't know some of it's probably even a learning experience for us right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in general forms, kind of started strength training. I mean, strength trained in high school, college, you know, like your average guy. And then when I joined the Marine Corps, kind of as an artillery officer, you know,

had guys that had to lift 100 pound artillery shells and was looking for a way to make it seem doable. And so kind of stumbled across starting strength early in around 2008 or 2009 or so and kind of like that. And then as I became a Marine officer, um, started coaching guys and, and then during my career, you know, became a starting strength coach and started coaching people out of the garage. And next thing I knew, um, I had a gym kind of all by accident. And, um, and then, you know, as, as things progressed in the last 12 months, now we make equipment. So it's been a wild ride for sure. That is a wild ride.

There's a lot of things. The one thing I'd note right away, I was also an artillery man, but I was in the Army. Yeah, good. 13 Bravo, right? 13 Mike, actually. 13 Mike. MLRS, I don't know. Are you familiar with that then also?

Yeah, yeah. it's 13 mic mlrs i don't know if are you familiar with that then also yeah yeah so i uh not to not to geek out making a note but but but but i for my first gig was with hymars okay you guys do a track version two pods we do a wheeled version so yeah yeah yeah very familiar awesome good stuff um yeah so you how long have you had the gym going then? Did you say that there? How, how, what year did that? No, I didn't. So, so 2016 open in the garage, 2017, um, July, 2017 opened the first location in Costa Mesa, first brick and mortar spot. It kind of got to the point where, Hey, I got a lot of people coming through here uh i'm part-time i'm still active duty but maybe we can make something work and uh yeah that's when

we opened the first one uh middle of 2017 and so now how many locations do you have we have two locations um both here in orange county california and uh so we opened the first one summer 2017 then to early 2019 opened the uh or actually december 2018 opened the second one and kind of was kind of see like hey can we do multiple locations can we make this thing scale and uh thought we could and things were going great and then um you know a year called 2020 landed yeah right yes that that we remember that year yeah you're weird i can't believe you guys remember that i think i was there for that so are your doors open now or what are things like yeah so we're open now um i mean we'll probably get into a little more of this as we go on but

i mean as things currently sit I'm open at both locations, Costa Mason Villa park and have a decent amount of people coming in. I mean, COVID is, I mean, it's, it's hitting people in California right now. You know, I think if we were to say in 2020, you know, it was like, Hey, do you know anyone that has COVID? And now it's like, yeah, I know a whole bunch of people that have it. But yeah, yeah, we're open at both locations. And, you know, for what you can expect for the current times, things are okay. That's good. And so you guys have been, like, is it from day one? Have you guys been a starting strength affiliate?

Yeah. So when I started the gyms um you know starting franchise gyms didn't didn't exist and so you know i emailed rip and uh said hey i'm looking to start a gym i'd like to be an affiliate and you know he was like oh you're gonna have bare steel bars and he's you should name an orange county strength and conditioning because everyone that does strength and conditioning does well. And, you know, I said that just was a huge, a huge help. But yeah, we've been an affiliate gym from day one. And that's what we do.

We teach the starting strength method at both our locations. And, you know, it's, you know, we're passionate about getting people strong and we think it's a real effective way to do it. And our average clientele, you know, as I watch you guys and I've followed you guys over the last year or so, you know, we're not the powerlifting crowd. We're the, hey, my dad has back problems crowd. Or, you know, hey, I'm a young kid, and I'm really small. I want to get stronger. problems crowd or, you know, Hey, I'm a young kid and I'm really small. I want to get stronger. And so that's kind of like our passion is, is there's a lot of people that can figure this out on their own. And there's a lot of people that have no idea how to figure it out on their

own. And that's who we're trying to help. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. You know, when we, I read the blue book a few times and we've got an opportunity to be on rips podcast also and you have actually yeah where i first first uh my first exposure to you and uh finding out about out about the plates that you were getting made and all that was through there uh and that's i think where some people get it a little twisted sometimes as uh you're looking at maybe some a power lifter that's squatting 700 pounds and dead lifting 800 pounds and benching 500 pounds is is uh novice linear progression the appropriate method for them no but also that's not starting strengths goal you know that's not who the who it's just like what you said it's not who

it's catered and and or marketed to yeah i think it's a couple different mediums you know it's like and and because rip is big in the strength world, people confuse it like his way is the only way and all this stuff. And it's like, I mean, I just view it as like, no, the starting strength method is trying to get the general person that's atrophying better. And all the other methods are great as well but they're a lot of them are focused on making a strong person really strong right and so it's just a different approach yeah i agree yep yeah for sure uh quite honestly the thing i'm most excited to talk to you about is the equipment because i personally just love gym equipment we have massonomics gym which is our our it's public gym kind of a club gym whatever you want to call it that we've got here and uh you did send us the pair of 45s like I said I remember listening to you on starting strength I think at the time I don't think you had anything out to market yet but it was you're working on that um can you talk about the that process of you now have plates that

you can sell you've made it all the way through the process you know i'm sure there was a lot of testing going on where do you get them made how do you get them made and even before that yeah even before that like what what went through your mind that was like you know what we should make right it's like how did that how did that idea even come to exist? Yeah. To me, like, you know, we,

we sell a decent amount of stuff, but the idea of like, all right, we're going to make plates. That seems like, Oh, that is a bridge too far. Tanner like that.

It will never, ever in a million years happen. A bridge too far. I don't know if you did your homework and know that that's a classic military movie, or if you just happen to say that, but we, I actually, I mean, I did know it was a military movie. I didn't, I didn't throw just happen to say that but but we i actually i mean i did know it was a military movie i didn't i didn't throw that in there on purpose but

we won't tell anyone yeah yeah we'll tell anyone yeah we'll tell anyone how much research you guys did um so i mean i think i think for me it came down to i'll try and get a cliff notes version but you know when the gems closed in californ California as a business owner, I thought, okay, this is my livelihood. You know, I got out of the Marine Corps, November of 2019. So we're just kind of going to full swing. We were looking to open a third location, things were going well. And then we get ordered for the gyms to close. And at the time, you know, early last year, we didn't know what this whole thing was or how deadly it was or whatever your thoughts on COVID are irrelevant, but like,

didn't know what was going to happen. And so my thought in terms of keeping the business alive was, Hey, what am I? I'm a high value, high touch, high cost, uh, you know, coaching business. touch high cost, uh, you know, coaching business and the people that pay will continue to pay if I continue to provide them value. And so, you know, we closed March 16th, uh, and March 17th, we unbolted every rack and took every, you know, York weight and every barbell out of the gym and delivered them to people's homes. And part of it, it was twofold. One, it was, I thought that, you know, Hey, if the world's really going to shut down right now, uh, I think you guys would agree with me on this, that like lifting is important to people. It's important for their health. It's important for their strength. It's important for their mental sanity. You know, I need to give them an outlet. Right. Yeah. And then two,

You know, I need to give them an outlet. Right. Yeah. And then two, it was also a business move of, hey, if I don't do anything, I'm going to be closed because everyone's going to quit because I get it. Like I have a car payment and I now no longer get to drive the car. I'm not paying this anymore. And so it was kind of a twofold move to do that. And as we started moving stuff out, you know, the biggest thing we started to run into issues was with was plates. You know, I was buying out warehouses of used equipment and trying to outfit members. And then when it came down to it, we started building squat racks and we'll probably talk about that. it we started building squat racks and we'll probably talk about that we started building stuff but the thing that i couldn't make was plates which is the biggest thing and so i originally well to answer your question i thought okay i i need to make plates because everything else it seems like there's an availability of source, but plates seem to be the problem. And there was one point where there was a guy who had come to the gym for a few months, a guy from China. And he reached out when he saw us making racks. And he said, hey, look, we can make you plates, this, that.

Like, we can get it into the Port of Long Beach. And I thought about it. But I just thought, you you know and during this time i'm getting emails from members hey i lost my job this that whatever and that's where maiden usa kind of became that's something i've always wanted but kind of i noticed like hey if you don't do it here like a lot of people suffer and uh that's kind of when we started calling foundries and saying like hey we should probably make some plates because um the shortage and the imports like who knows what the future is wow okay and so you start call and then so what does that process look like then once

you're starting to like scope out someone that can actually do this stuff? Yeah, yeah. So we had started making, you know, squat racks and stuff and it found local steel suppliers. And I went to a foundry right here in Costa Mesa, California, and I walked in. And at that point, we'd had a nice piece done by us by the L.A. Times that, you know, talked about kind of like giving equipment away. And that's what first talked about kind of like giving equipment away and we that's what first generated a lot of demand and i remember going to the local foundry and i kind of used that as what i thought would be credibility and saying like hey like this is what we're doing we're making

these things like we're looking to make plates and then dad laughed at me and said you want us to make exercise equipment and it's a pretty well-known founder here. And I said, well, yeah, I think there's a huge demand. I'd like to do it right here, local. And he said, yeah, we're not interested. Why would he not be interested? Isn't business business to them? So I would think so. I mean, this was early on, right? We were moving quick. This is end of April. And I just think, you think you know i mean i think a lot of people didn't know what was gonna happen and so i i laughed and i remember being a little bit discouraged and uh i actually called rip and i said hey i'm looking to make plates um you know this is what i think i want to make what do you recommend and he gave me some ideas and i got connected with

someone in georgia i'm from south carolina originally and i got connected with someone in georgia i'm from south carolina originally so i got connected to someone in georgia and they responded to me and i sent them all the dimensions we actually mailed a plate from rips gym to georgia broken like old york back uh 45 mill plate to georgia the guy did the whole quote process came back into me. It was over $2 a pound, right. To me before, before shipping, before any of that. And I was like, man, this doesn't work. And so I started at that point really investigating like, okay, what is it like, where's the cost at? and at that point i realized there's something between horizontal um horizontal casting and vertical casting and i realized that vertical casting

was a lot more efficient could get cost out and so i continued to search and i was looking up places so with just that detail is that something, does not every foundry do vertical casting? Yeah, exactly. A lot of places in America, uh, in particular do horizontal casting. Um, so is it one of those things, just the amount of room that it takes up laying flat? Is that like where the efficiency is? It's just that think of it like a, think of it like a brake rotor, right? If you could think of a brake rotor, it's like it stands upright. It's roughly 15 inches tall. It's very thin.

And very few people make those. And the people that do make them for the big automotive makers. And everyone else makes other train parts and different things so like here in the u.s because most uh foundries moved out in like the 80s or 70s even you know it just came down to like what does the american consumer want and most people needed things that were like bigger longer wider and so vertical didn't make sense yeah and like i yeah i don't know that everyone will understand that but it's it just comes down to like the way the the world has shaken out over the last three decades that most things are imported and the

things that we do make here are particularly for like American products. And as a result, most most foundries and I'm not a foundry expert, although I know probably no more than the average person. But most things are done horizontally. So as I did research, I realized, like, hey, if you want to make a 17.75 inch thing upright,'s an inch 0.25 wide you need to vertically cast it for it to be um efficient and so i just started going to random foundries and and filling out the contact forms like i try to call no one answer and i ended up uh getting a wapaka foundry which is like actually ends up being the largest american foundry and no kidding i just fill out the like my first name is grant my last name is brogy this is my email this is my phone number and then it's like message and i'm like, hello, I, uh, I'm in California, you know, we're making gym equipment. I sent a couple of news articles to like, try and provide some validity and said, I

want to make plates and I submitted it. And when I submitted it that day, I never thought in a million years, anyone would call me back. But the very next day I get a call he's like hey this is kevin from wapaka so where's where's wapaka it's in wisconsin you couldn't tell from my action no well we recognize it decently it sounded like someone that was trying to be an imposter to our region yeah it sounded like someone that wasn't from South Carolina living in California. I get it.

And so he took me seriously. And honestly, I couldn't believe it because of the experience that I had here in person in California. And I said, yeah, this is what we're doing. And he said, well, do you have CAD drawings? And so during all this time, we been you know making home depot squat buckets and we started welding and this was all my marine buddies you know guys that were actually engineers and kind of helping me out and i remember being on the phone and looking over we're in my gym that's now empty that we were pouring concrete out of to make Home Depot buckets. And I looked at over at my buddy Andy and I said, do you know CAD?

And he starts shaking his head and gives me two thumbs up. And I said, yeah, we can get you a CAD drawing. And they said, okay, great. Like send us the stuff and we'll give you a quote. And I hung up and I was like, like hey dude like they want to do it and he was like really i was like yeah do you actually know cad and he was an engineer that had previously worked for nasa he's a reservist with me now the reason he was in california was we were supposed to go do a marine exercise they got canceled because of covid so he ended up

living in my house and i said look dude here's the specs this is what i want to do like let's get a drawing over to him and so he drew it up on cad and we sent it over and they sent us a quote back and with the vertical casting i said oh this is like legitimate like we could actually like the the difference between horizontal versus vertical was astronomical and still high, still high because at the time in, you know, early 2020, even when people were experiencing high cost of plates, it was much lower than it was now. And we'll talk more about steel and ore and what they're doing right now. but like, you know, people have always viewed this per pound and like, what does it cost per pound? And while that's kind of fair,

it depends like, what am I buying? You know, like it, it depends what's being done to it. But, but yeah, so we got it over the design over to them and,

uh, they said, you know, it'll be about eight weeks. And this is early April. And I think you probably saw me at Rip's podcast in May. And man, a ton has happened since now and then. Yeah. So how many times, like, did you have to make trips out to Wisconsin then?

Or could you do this all remotely with them? No. So we started doing it remote um i had the design you know what we wanted was a couple things one we wanted the 45s be the correct diameter uh we didn't want deep dish we wanted a thinner plate but we wanted a you guys have seen coop from garage gym and you've seen rips videos about like the lip, right? We wanted that. And so we wanted to be able to handle the weights. And this wasn't just from those guys. It was from, I'm a barbell coach and I've seen in the gym, like weights that are

easy to handle and weights that are a pain. And so we, we sent over the designs, we did it. And so we, we sit over the designs, we did it. And so there's something in foundry talk called pooling, which means you create something that creates the mold that creates the product. And so just to get going with a 45, a 25, a 10, a five and a two and a half, just to get the tooling going before you've made a single plate you know it's 50 grand yeah and right right and so and this is that during a time we're like what what is the email i get every morning when i wake up hey grant i really love the gym but i gotta cancel i gotta cancel right so like you see revenue going down the tanks. I got eight employees and you're trying to launch this other thing and you're pouring concrete in the Home Depot buckets, knowing that like, maybe this helps right now, but it's not the future of like the end of the

world is not going to end up with people squatting up a Home Depot bucket. And so, and so, you know, you're trying to decide. And so I say, okay. And, you know, I take all the savings I have and I say, we're going to do this. And I throw it towards the tooling. And they make the tooling. And so, like, in this kind of thing. And it's also weird for Wapaka because they're a gigantic company. They deal with Ford, Dodge, GM, John Deere, and I guess the strength coat, right? Put that on the list.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We made it. But they're not used to dealing with some smaller consumer. Like people that care about the price of things that they're purchasing. Right. I mean, the biggest thing my salesman has told me over the past 12 months has been like hey when most people call and yell at me i think oh their salary is based off that they call and yell at me when you call and yell at me i can feel that like yeah this doesn't work

there's problems yes right yeah so so we send them everything and they go through the sampling process and this was to answer tanner's question when i first went out to wisconsin was when they were going to afford the samples and so i go out there and i tell them hey look let me film let me do stuff and they're like no no no what we do is proprietary oh and i'm like no you don't understand like this is what people want to see like for sure if we're gonna make a premium product they want to see americans working iron getting poured out of that thing into a mold and that so they wouldn't let me film and so i go in there and they make the first 45s and i remember grabbing them and just being like, oh man, we totally screwed this up.

The lip was way too fat. Like everything was wrong. And I was like, I've Jim cancellations are coming through at the cyclic rate. And I've, I've invested all my savings and like, I'm not happy with this thing now to the, to the average consumer they probably

wouldn't notice but in my mind uh the lip uh face as you call it was just way too fat and so i say hey i want to change this from the 45 and the 25 and so i go back to the engineers and you know they're doing stuff and we go to actually get it going. They say, hey, we can retool this in about two weeks. I said, okay, great. You know, we wanted to weigh 45 pounds. You know, we're trying to care about the accuracy, all that stuff. And then I remember they retool it. They're like, hey, we're ready for production.

I'm like, great. And then an email hits my inbox that I owe them 20 grand. And I'm like, wait, what? And they're like, oh, oh yeah to retool this wasn't free and it's just the difference in and i don't blame them for all of it but it's just the difference between the they're used to working with ford gm yeah that are putting in orders for millions and millions of pieces to g GM, the person making those decisions, $20,000 is an afterthought.

You know, that's not relevant. Talking about it costs more than... Yeah, right, right. It doesn't mean anything, right? It doesn't mean anything. So I ate that one, right? And I'm like, ah, man, like what's going to happen? And so then we, you know, we went into production. Well, we didn't go into production yet.

We went into the well we didn't go into production yet we went into the production of samples and at the time and I'll say it until I die there's no one I love more than Mark Ripito but he told me to go raw iron he's like raw iron raw iron it'll blue with the lifter Grant

I've heard him speak about that many times you've heard him speak about it right and he's entitled to that this is america but but i get a sample of 45s uh so i go back to wisconsin i get a sample 45s and i remember looking at them you know the new design lip and i go to grab and they said no no put gloves on and i was like gloves and they're like oh no if you touch that it'll rust and i go no it won't rust like it's raw iron it'll patina with me as i age as i get stronger as i get stronger so will the plate and they were like oh no it's

definitely gonna rust i grabbed it bare hands i grabbed it bare hands i played with it i took photos and that was the point where i noticed like oh there's sharp edges on here i need to add a chamfer on the edge right like there's so many things i mean i'll be honest with you last march what did i know about plates nothing i mean i knew a little bit because i'm a barbell coach but i didn't know how to make them. And I realized like, Oh, that's sharp. That shouldn't be like that. And so, you know, so we, so at that point I said, Hey, I want to chamfer. I don't want it to have the sharp edge all that stuff. And I remember they said, okay, we'll make those changes in design, whatever.

And the plant manager, who's been there for like 40 years, getting ready to retire. And it's Mary. They let me stay at her house when I come like awesome lady. Like the story is like full on Americana. They were like, Oh man, like some Marine vet from California is trying to make something in USA. Like, yeah, it was beautiful. And so she said, Hey, my local gym guy will probably take these. And I said, oh, no, no, no. I'm taking these 45s home because I want to remember the ass pain that this was to make them. And so I went to the local FedEx and shipped them home. I say all that to say they're in my office right now, and they're covered in rust. Cover.

Like the whole thing is covered in rust. You mean it doesn't just have a fine blue to it that's aged? Yeah. I mean, the blue is coming. I assume when I turn 40, it'll be there. It's just going to take a few more years. And so the automotive industry, which is what WAPAC is, that's who they primarily service, they said, you should do a clear coat. And I get their clear coat specials from the line.

They're telling me why it's great. I said, boom, let's do a clear coat. And like, you know, I get their clear coat special. So the lines are telling me why it's great. I said, boom, let's do a clear coat. And I told them I wanted it to look like iron. That's what I told them. So they send me some samples and man, I've never felt dumber in my life than this time. They send me a sample of 45s. They're beautiful. And you can go back and see it on Instagram because I loved it.

And I i we actually made a video about it's on youtube and i i look at the 45s and they have a clear coat finish i pull them out of the box and it's the greatest thing i'm texting mary the plant manager i'm texting my salesperson this is the greatest i'm looking at them they look like iron except they're coated right it's a beautiful thing i bring my camera guy and we film a video of why clear coat is the best everything's great and this is just this is just dumbness on my part and my camera guy leaves and i go i'm gonna deadlift for these things i throw them on the bar i do a set of deadlifts and guess what happens they start chipping and peeling and i'm like oh yeah and so you know i call i got back here hey all this text i sent you i was lying this is terrible and and i mean but this is the thing you know like you

can you can make something and get it out to someone but like for me as i you know i think for me as a barbell coach it was like i was thinking about the end user and i just thought this is bad you know this is bad like this is gonna chip and i wasn't even thinking we don't even need to talk about online retail and customer service but i wasn't even thinking about the complaints I'd get. And you guys understand that you guys ship stuff. I was just thinking if I was the user, this isn't how I'd want it to act. Right.

So you go back to the drawing board. And at this point, this is like July. I'd already taken pre-orders. I'd already taken, because like I'd already given all my money up. I had to start getting some revenue coming in. And so like on my website for a month, it said hey it's going to be clear-coated and then

i get clear-coated it's total shit yeah and i'm like ah so so we went back and they came back with an ecode finish and they said we think you should ecode and in their defense they they got it through e-code real quick they overnighted it to me and um i got it and as much as i love rip and he's right about chili and hamburger steak man if you're in the online retail business e-code's the way to go you can't screw it up yeah and that's what they are today they're black i mean would you call it black e-coding then yeah black e-code so then so then that's you know it's just interesting it's so that so then they send me black e-code and it's great right and i'd actually gone to wisconsin they sent me black e-codes and it's great. Right. And I'd actually gone to Wisconsin. They sent me their e-code facility and I put my hands on some kettle balls or make the recode and you know,

I kicked it around and I banged it against something that I could tell it was good. And I thought, Oh, this is it. And at that point I had learned like, Hey, before you tell someone that this is what you're going to make, you need to test it. And I said, okay, e-codes, you know what it is. And then I said, Hey, but what about color? Cause I'd like it to look like iron. And they're e-codes you know what it is and then i said hey but what about color because i'd like it to look like iron and they're like well you know think of it like health care right there's in network and out of network and this is the largest founder in america they're like if you want a different color you can get a different color this is what the cost is going to

be i was like oh no no i'm really cool with black. They have a great color. Great color. I think they look great. I think they look great. We gave them the unofficial award for best looking plates in the Massimiliano's gym. I don't know if you maybe haven't seen it yet. We did talk about it last week and I love them.

They are so cool. I guess you don't know if you call it four-spoke look to the plate. It just has a very classic cool look to them. They are tastefully done, not overly designed, but there was still you can tell some thought that went into the

design. We're all on board with it. Good. It was function. It was function that was the thing. And it's kind of like, you know, as all the stuff we've made, I viewed this for if I was a barbell coach, coaching someone to get stronger.

Because that's like, I mean, to be honest with you, the barbell coaching business isn't great right now in the state of California. It's not too hot, right right and the manufacturing business is better but like to this day i view myself as someone that cares about people getting stronger and that's kind of what i've put into all the stuff we made from the racks the bars the plates you know it's it's it's hey, what is the end user experiencing? And it's a weird thing in the home gym community because you, you know, most people don't actually care. You know, they just want weights. They just want this.

They just want that. And I just thought, you know, maybe it's the southerner in me. But, you know, maybe it's the southerner in me, but like when my grandfather hands me a Bowie knife and he's like, I got this when I was this many years old. I'm like, whoa, and it's still here. Right. I mean, that's kind of the approach we kind of took in designing stuff. And that's why, like, I mean, the number one negative review to get is it's too expensive and uh and i tell people all the time hey you want something else go buy something else like like you don't like we definitely in my opinion we're producing a high-end product um that costs more and i mean that's just that's just the way it goes

yeah so you came out with the you know we went through the process of it and everything there and you at the end of the day you got really cool plates what i was kind of wondering is the the supply or the the raw materials like are you having can you get as many plates as you want to get right now or if assuming you can't what's that process like like how long do you got to wait i, how long is it going to be that way? And, and you mentioned before price of raw materials, how does that fit into? Yeah. So, I mean, just to be raw and open about it. So, you know, I talk about, you know, kind of putting my savings into it and saying,

Hey, I'm going to go for this. Um, and so we get the tooling done and we get ready for the first production run. And at the time you know i wanted to do 44 000 pounds and like i i don't know what you guys think marine officers make but like we're not we're not elon musk right and so but like my dad taught me to be prudent i had some equity in my house and saw interest rates drop i was like hey i'm on a refi. And so I refi, I get some cash and I was like, okay. At the time, my major thought was, I don't know what the gyms will do, but I know that if gyms close, people need equipment. And so kind of my thought was, you know, hedge it that way. Let me, let me speak to the average consumer in their garage.

And then if people want to come back from coaching, we're here. And so, yeah, I refied my house, took some money. And I remember doing the first 44,000 pounds of plates. And at the time it was a eight week turn. And so I said, okay. And they said, well, well you're you're a new client of ours so it's cash with order and you got to remember like this foundry yeah i think it's been around since like 1946 like they don't deal with grant brogies they don't deal with strength codes right they like deal with like big companies and so so I said, okay. And so it's whatever it was, 50, 60K to get the first 100 plates going. And they say, hey, we turn.

And so now I'm pre-ordering. So I'm like, hey, I need capital if I'm going to keep this going. And we're trying to get to market. And so we put it there, and the plates come, and we start shipping. And here's a whole other thing thing I didn't understand, right? Like, what kind of box do you use? How much does Cora get? Like, do you ship 245s in the same box?

Do you ship them in separate boxes? And guess what my test subject is? 44,000 pounds of plates. It's not like I was like, hey, let me get 1245s and like see how my orders go yeah so you know we ship and uh we were strapping things together and i mean basically what we found on the first run was you we ship west of the uh you know mason dixon line everything's okay we ship east of it hey you get a percentage of a chance that people are going to have issues and um and and not to mention like shipping costs right so i'm already a premium product and i don't know how much you guys have followed this and i know you guys ship a lot of merchandise

um but yeah if you deal with usps you know it's just gonna take forever yeah but if you deal with ups and fedex you know that they're like, they're totally overwhelmed. And so I'm trying to negotiate prices with, uh, UPS and FedEx. I was using both at the time and, you know, it just, it just got a little crazy. And so we started, I started looking for, okay, you know, how do I reduce costs in shipping? How do I reduce cost in manufacturing? And everything came down to volume. And it just came down like, hey, Grant, how much risk do you guys want to take? You know, like how much do you want to be all in?

And so there was a point there where I just said, yeah, like I'm betting the house. I just said, yeah, like I'm betting the house. And what it came down to me was, and again, if gym members ever listen to this, it's not a knock on any single one. I totally understand everyone that quit. Like there's zero blame. But it just came down to, as I was watching basically two facets of business going on, the in-person gym business was on a rapid decline. And I'm like, okay, I need to put this on the other side. So with all that, did you ever have the worry like, okay, you're not Rogue Fitness, so you don't have the marketing budget that Rogue Fitness does. Did you ever have the worry that

I'll have all these plates, but just the word won't be able to get out? Like I won't be able to, enough customers won't be able to find me. Was that ever a concern? Yeah, no, a huge concern. I mean, I think around this time we started making barbells and it just came down to, so like one of the things we've benefited was demand right like rogue couldn't keep up i love rogue i've loved i've loved rogue since i found them like to this day love all their products

in my gym everything's rogue haven't even converted it because i haven't had the supply to do so but yeah i wondered people would call me you know friends of friends of mine, I won't name them, but they know them. And they'd say, do you really think you're going to go against rogue fitness? And I, and, but I viewed it differently. I didn't actually think I was trying to do that. And I still don't. I, it was, Hey, I care about people getting strong and there's a demand for this. And there's a lot of American businesses hurting and if we make something here it'll matter but yeah no i did worry of is of with the will the demand be there and what we've seen today um to answer the previous question is you know steel prices shot up in december 30 30 boom

through the roof steel and we're talking steel Remember there's steel and there's iron. Iron comes from ore. Ore reflects iron plates. Steel reflects, you know, your squat racks. And it jumped 30%. And I went to do another run of a hundred squat racks. And my steel guy came back and said, hey, prices are going up this much.

And I yelled and screamed at him about like, hey, why do i have to deal with all those pass-throughs i've spent this much money there and he came back to me and was like yeah yeah this is a commodity deal steal one up yeah and i was like yeah yeah i guess by the way america's been printing lots of money not tied to commodities stealing up and so i was like ah you know i get it and so um so and that's where though at scale to answer your question with rogue and word of mouth and getting the views is you know it's um commodities probably affect a larger company a little bit less because they do bigger runs

they have deeper inventories all those things um But to answer it for the relevance of this conversation, and I didn't mean to do this, except that I believe in strength training. The greatest thing Rogue did for me was make an E-coded 45, 35, and 25 and stop there. Because when they released a few weeks after mine so this is the other thing you think of each plate has a minimum run right so like people don't think logistics okay so i'm gonna ship out of california we're getting ready to ship out of georgia i'll talk about it in a second mom i ship out of california the founders in wisconsin plates get poured uh every time the foundry decides hey we want to run a particular part they say it's only worth it if we run this many okay there's this many means something different from a 45 than two and a half so like you know i have to buy at a minimum 345 i have to

buy 750 two and a half for them to turn two and a half on so then all that stuff gets poured now you have like okay what kind of pallet does it go in what kind of boxes that come in what kind of uh dividers are in between each plate to make sure they don't get damaged you know they're going to go from the foundry to the machine shop the machine shop's going to machine the outer diameter the inner diameter, the chamfer. And then from there, now you're going to have iron, raw iron, that got wet through the machining process, has to go to the coating, but can't rust.

So the timing has to be right to get it over to the E-coaters. The E-coaters run it through. Boom. Once we get the plates here, we have to run it immediately so it doesn't rust. We submerge it in water. We add the dye. We apply electric current. And now it's done, and it's's ready to go e-coaters don't sit on plates you can't tell them hey send me half of it and just hold that they don't have the inventory for that it's got

to go right and don't forget the tractor trailers the truck drivers all these people you have to pay it every step of the way and now you have a truck load of 44,000 pounds. If you're doing a drive-in, which means like a semi 46,000 pounds, if you're doing a flatbed with a step up, meaning the driver can still have some of his own personal belongings, 48,000 pounds. If you're going to have a straight flatbed, right? Like there's all these things that like go into okay now how much does it cost to ship to california now it lands in california here's 48 000 pounds on a flatbed someone's gotta unload it now we're gonna take the 45s not damage them put them in boxes corrugate through the roof corrugate i mean cardboard because everyone's shipping everything. No one's shopping in person, right? Boom, boom, boom, boom.

I get it boxed up. I got to print the labels. Guess what? UPS can't send it. You want a brown truck to show up and pick up, I don't know, 50,000 pounds worth of weight? Not going to happen. So what do you have to do? You have to pre-plan a freight truck to come up that's going to take you to supply thing what does that mean it means that it means that someone

got a notification saying your item is about to be shipped it got put on a pallet the pallet stayed until midnight when the ups truck showed up the ups driver picked it up it was the next day that he actually drove it into the facility in anaheim and it sat i'm sure it's out there because they have a lot going on outside of the shrink co and it's two days by the time someone scans the label and the average consumer gets the notification of like your 45s in anaheim and so i say all that to say like it's just it's a much bigger process than, look, I'm a consumer too. I buy stuff all the time. And now I realize like, oh, man, there's a lot happening behind the scenes.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I'll let you guys talk. So I guess if I had to summarize that, it would be find a foundry, make plates, step three profit. Is that how that goes? So it's that easy. That's what I took out of that. I think that's what you want to do. I just, I'm shocked at how simple it all is.

It's a wild ride. And like the other thing is, and I mean, I think that you guys will appreciate this. Think about it. Someone orders a pair of 45s. That's a 90 pound box. Yeah. Think about a warehouse worker that can pack that up 500 times.

Right. Yeah. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, like these are problems. I was like, oh man, should we, should we ship these as singles? Like, I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's a heavy endeavor and goes back to what I believe in is that people need to be stronger, but it's even on my side, you know, we hired basically, you know, we had zero warehouse last March, you know,

now I have three permanent personnel that work in there and then when like a truck arrives uh i have another 10 people that come in to kind of you know plus it up to do what we call production get everything boxed and ready to go and but like it's weird when it comes down to hiring or like who's gonna do that because like I don't know. You've got to be able to lift it. Yeah, can you lift it? Yeah. Just a small anecdote. The plates did make it to western northeast South Dakota in very good condition

in the packaging. I did notice that. Great to hear. Very good. Great to hear. And it arrived and your UPS driver was out a breath or what? I missed it when he, when I wasn't there at the time, I would have loved to have seen how that process works though,

because, and, and it's funny. And you could probably relate to this better than anyone that we would talk to. When we brought the plates on the podcast last week, it's funny in the gym you'll you'll pick off a 45 pound plate off the the the pin on the rack you'll just snatch it up throw it on the bar don't even think

twice about it a 45 plate pound plate when you're in the middle of lifting does not relatively speaking feel all that heavy you know you just grab it with one hand, throw it on the bar, whip it up there when you're not lifting, when you're just, uh, when you're just moving those around, those feel three times heavier than they do in the gym. Like just insanely how, how heavy really a 45 pound plate is when you're thinking about it, not in the context of throwing it on the barbell in a gym. Yeah, no, it's amazing. And so think about, and luckily for us, everyone we've hired has been somewhat connected to the gym. Everyone that works for us, whether they're coach or they're in the warehouse, actually works out at the gym.

And so we don't, and that's by design, but I actually can't imagine so so i'll fast forward a little bit so now we're going we're shipping we're making moves you know we're we're productions ramping up and what i realized was like hey if you actually want to compete with the big boys you got to bring shipping costs down and this is when you know i'm gonna talk real current times january 4th 2021 fedex and ups said rates are going up they can't keep up and then like i don't blame them and so you know since november last year i've been working to open a fulfillment center on the east coast right because this has been

the problem has been hey the guy in california gets his plates quickly and he gets them you know undamaged but like when the guy in west palm beach orders like not only is it six-day transit but that means that six assholes have to pick it up and move it along the way and they pick up a pair of they pick up a pair of 45s that are in two 45-pound boxes strapped together. And they go, oh, that's heavy. And they toss it, right? And so I said, I got to do East Coast fulfillment. And so now go talk to big fulfillment companies.

And I've talked to them all. And when you tell them, they say, okay, tell us the size of your boxes and the weight. And when you tell them, oh, it's 18 like, like tell us the size of your boxes, the weight. And when you tell them like, oh, it's 18 by 18 by three and it weighs 90 pounds. They're like, wait, what? I'm talking, I'm talking big companies are like, wait, what? Yeah. And so lucky, lucky for us, that first founder I talked about earlier that, um, was doing horizontal.

We didn't go with them, but they started making kettlebells and dumbbells golden's cast iron they're called and as time went on they ran in the same issue that i'm now and they said hey shipping to california is terrible uh and the guy george is a genius he said he said you know what we're experiencing will you fulfill for us and i said yeah absolutely and so now he sends us kettlebells and dumbbells we don't sell them on our site or anything like that but we just warehouse them box and ship for him but he knew that like oh grant will understand like what it means to pick up, I don't know, two 50-pound dumbbells, put them in a box, and ship them.

And so now through some of his contacts, it looks like knock on wood, knock on coronavirus, who knows what's going to happen in 2021, but it looks like by early March, we're going to offer shipping from both locations but think about this you know to the guy back at home ordering you know it's so now i have okay i'm running i finally got a groove i'm running this 44 000 pounds of plates every month that are coming to california if i want to ship out of both locations, I got to double that, right?

I got to say, Hey, a truckload's going to Georgia and a truckload's going to California so that now I can bring the price down to the consumer, which is the goal. But what does that do on the manufacturing side? Think about this. The foundry gets an order that says, hey, you know, 645 blah, blah, blah, the other place. The next day they get another order that says 645 blah, blah, blah, the other place. They're an efficient company. What are they going to do? They're going to say, oh, we got two orders for 1245 in total. Run them all.

So they run them all and they send them to the machining. What's the machine shop say why would i run a 10 when i have 1245s and like take my guys off something they're doing i'm just going to run these all and then they say okay we have 45 000 pounds here max load for a tractor trailer let's go ahead and send this to paint and then the foundry calls me because remember machining and coding are a subsidiary of the foundry says hey we got 45 000 pounds of 45s ready to go and i go that does nothing for me i need i need five parts 45 25 10 5 two and a half to go to georgia and i need five parts to go the other place they go yeah yeah but we ran this for

efficiency and i go great i'm trying to bring it and like so you know and they're learning too right they're learning too is what i'm saying you know and i tell my guys over there all the time is hey i understand why you did that but like i need half of all of these products to go to either side of the company so that my consumer pays less than shipping and like if we don't do that then like all the business you get from the strength code goes down and i understand i'm not general motors but but they get it right like they're feeling coronavirus like everyone else and so this is these are the things when you know i laugh i posted something on instagram recently about uh all my personal about people asking for discounts and i you know you know there was a time in my life where i asked for them and now you start to think you mother

my favorite thing is when someone on a chat on an email or something says do offer discounts and i've told everyone that answers customer service no we do not thank you for your interest in our products yeah and like and i don't blame them but like this is gonna be a problem i mean stealing ore through the roof surcharges you know we get a monthly surcharge from the foundry every time they do iron and the increases we've seen i just got february today it's insane and you know this is going to come down to not only do people want made in usa for some reason and everyone has a different reason for why they want that. But do you want this product? Because, you know, back to starting strength, I'm doing their gyms right now. And so, you know, they're looking to

open one in Plano. And I called the owner. I said, are you really going to open this February 15th? And he said, yeah, well, it looks like it. He goes, why is it such a big deal? I go, well, you're tying up a considerable amount of plates. And if it's not going to be February 15th, you know, I can sell these to consumer. And he wrote it back and was like, oh, you know, people are starting to realize if I'm not buying from you, actually, where am I going to get plates right now? And there's not many gyms opening right now. But think about if you're a guy that wants to open a gym like i'll tell you right now we basically i don't put for sale unless i can fulfill within that month right so like right now uh the last batch we fulfilled was december 15th

and i think on christmas day i said i was back in stock and I put on the website, we'll ship January 18th. So I'm always like, hey, if I can ship within a month, I'll be happy. But if you're looking to open a gym and buy a considerable amount, I don't know where you go. I don't know how you do that right now. It doesn't exist.

No, it doesn't. Yeah. What do you think at some point in time what you can supply will catch up with the demand or what all of all of us suppliers can supply will catch up with that like how do you uh speculate that that plays out yeah i mean i think this is part of the reason that i'm trying to open in georgia and, I, I thought I knew something about business owning a gym for a couple of years.

And then this year is totally flipped on my head and realized that I know nothing. And at this point I probably feel like I know a little bit and now I probably realized that I'll realize in a few months I know nothing. Yeah. But like, I mean, the biggest thing I've learned is like, it's just scale. You have to keep going. And so in order to catch up with supply, like, what do you want from me, Tanner? I've already put my house on the line.

My gyms are on the line. Like, what do you want from me? Right. So I say that tongue in cheek, but like, that's what it comes down to. It's like, who's willing to do that? And it's different for different people. You know, I really, you know, people say to me all the time, cause I'm in the industry, rogue must be banking a killing.

And I just think, oh my God, I can't imagine the amount of CNC machines, the amount of energy costs, the amount of electricity bills, the new employees, the people that are boxing things wrong, right? Like these are people, these are things that normal people don't do. But I do think, um, you know, in order to catch up, you got to double down. I mean, my biggest goal has been to have an inventory and what a great problem to have. What a great problem to have but like that has been my goal because i actually think what speaks to someone in 2021 is in stock ships immediately and we've seen that with our barbells our barbell manufacturers

out of minnesota and luckily i mean he's been able to keep up and i've been able to say you want a bar you buy it it ships the same day and um and so that's where i want to get with plates i think we're probably 30 to 45 days from that but um i think supply catches up but also man i had no idea steel was gonna jump 30 like when steel jumped 30 this is just this is recent 10 days ago went to order so basically i mean you wouldn't do anything at scale you got to do in bulk we went to order 100 squat racks and we've been ordering 100 squat racks every order for you know 10 months now and i deal with a rep there and the owner wrote me back and said, we got to re quote this. And I thought,

what in the hell? Um, and, but like, it's just, yeah, I don't know what the future brings. Like, I don't know. I don't know. I think us prices are going to go up first quarter grant Brogy's take worth nothing. I think us prices are going to go up first quarter and then probably come down i don't know when imports are going to come back on the line and i don't know what that does long term right because back to we've talked you know things being awesome versus 45 when you're lifting it working out not massonomics like you guys reach a wider like my audience is very specific people that want to get stronger you guys reach like power lifter these people like do they care i don't know like

like they actually probably want something that's the cheapest um but like right now i'm available yeah and so like i don't know when cheaper becomes on the line what that looks like. And does that coincide when cheaper comes on the line? Does U.S. price of domestic steel and ore also drop? I mean, who am I to say? Yeah, that's beyond what I know. Yeah. The only thing I'll know that I really want to talk about it's kind of off topic

was like a couple weeks ago when you guys when i sent you guys those hats and i saw your instagram today you don't talk politics neither do i when i think of those hats yeah it was supposed to it was supposed to be funny yeah right it was like funny yeah these hats are funny yeah and i was like oh these hats aren't funny anymore they're not funny like that's the decision to make the hat and uh so so but i say that to say if you go back to something that's not funny steel iron whatever that's how like i posted you guys talking about the hat and i still thought it was funny. Yeah. We're two weeks removed. I don't think it's funny anymore. Right. Right. Like, you know, like things change very quickly and, uh, it's just interesting. The gym consumer market, I mean, in, in, in general, the gym consumer market

is someone that says, Hey, my gym's closed. I want something cheap to work out with. that says, hey, my gym's closed. I want something cheap to work out with. And that's not what I can provide. It's a different thing. Yeah, I think there's... You know, Coop talks about it a lot too. And you don't need... Not everyone needs...

We don't need a lot of the stuff we have in our gym to get stronger. But I think there's a lot of people like us that, damn it, it is fun to have it like it makes getting stronger more fun and like really cool plates yeah are part of that to me yeah and it's the whole thing of like you know just pricing strategy and unless you actually unless you absolutely are the very cheapest then that's not to your advantage so unless you can say you are the cheapest it really doesn't do you much to say i'm the second third fourth cheapest fourth cheapest. And also selling to, whether you want to say

a higher end market or a slightly more upscale market, it gives you some more freedoms to do things too when you're not competing solely on price. But you know all these things. Yeah, no, I mean, I don't, I've learned them, right? I'm not the guy that's sitting here saying he knows it all, but I've learned some things. But no, I've just felt that it's like when I buy things. I want to buy things that are going to last a long time. So that's kind of how we do this. But with all that said, you guys, on your end, you got the hats.

You baited me to send you 45. you have them so happy that like like like i feel worse about it now actually yeah no no you shouldn't be you shouldn't feel bad i want to send you the rest of the place i just don't have that yeah but like well what did you guys think because you're lifters like like you're building a business you understand like well i i know you said like hey you think they look cool but like what did you actually think oh no we we legit they are our i they're the best looking plates in the gym hands down and they're the nicest too like they they feel good they look good you can tell that quality and care was put in every step of them no not not because you're on the podcast right i? I mean, I think if you listened back last week, I even said the same thing. I, they are now my favorite plates. Like

we have, we have, uh, you know, a nice set of rogue calibrated plates in our gym too. And those are really nice, but that's also kind of a different product, right? That is a different product. And I aesthetically, I I'm saying aesthetically, I love these plates. Like they are exactly what i like prior to having your plates you know we've got a bunch of old york milled plates in the gym and i still really like those um but there's just something these um fit that aesthetic but also in a new product yeah and that's like this is the new america right this is what we can do yeah that's what it feels that is what it's like and that's and i will say out of out of when the hats were

unveiled you were a little more nervous you know you were a little more worried you were and you're in south dakota i'm in california think how i feel oh yeah you could i was like i mean you could have put the hat on and went to a bar and people would have just, people would have tipped their hat to you just so it wouldn't have raised any eyes. A few people you run into around here might want to punch you, but then a lot of people would want to hug you. And like, I just don't want to make either of those. I don't want to interact with anyone. Yeah.

I don't want either of you to talk to me. You know, I didn't want to talk politics at all. I thought it was funny, but If anyone listening wants to buy a hundred red hats that say, make America strong again, I'll happily wholesale them to you. Just give me a call. The red one in particular is really making a statement.

Yeah, yeah. My wife actually told me I am not to wear that. Wear the red one. No, the blue one. Yes, the blue one I think is, I think you can get away a lot more with the blue one. It makes a slightly different statement.

A little softer. I do also just really like that hat like we talked about, whether what's embroidered on it or not, that Made in America hat is cool. So I love you guys' line of stuff. And what's interesting because i think tanner talks about this on your podcast like you can't find a hat made in the usa and i i was looking you know we kind of developed like you talked about hey this is a brand made in usa and so our t-shirts everything is and and that doesn't matter to some folks and that's fine.

Um, but for us, I was like, I want to do it. And when I looked at hat companies, it was like, Oh, you want to make an USA hat?

It's 188 hats. And it costs this much. And I was like, what? And so, but like it is, but it is a quality ad. It's nice.

And so, um, I have some red hats that uh you know don't say america make america strong again and uh we have a new patch that's gonna go on them that'll be sellable to anyone but i hope we make a math a mathonomics hat that says uh you know that's made in america that could be great there we go uh there we go the made in america t we we handle a lot of t-shirts around here we've seen our fair share of t-shirts and we do the made in america t we we handle a lot of t-shirts around here we've seen our fair share of t-shirts and stuff and the made in america t-shirts you have are very nice too i

think we both kind of commented on that separately too yeah we did we did like quality on those yeah yeah they're nice you guys should call me after we talk about getting some because they're they're um they're actually not just because like hey i wanted the tag to say Made in the USA. It's actually a really nice t-shirt. It is. Yeah, they are. It is. No, it is for sure. Yeah.

Well, good. That's awesome. What else? We need to play our overrated, underrated game. We play that with everyone. So, I mean, like I said, I love equipment. We've had Tim Gristle on before. He owns Ghost Strong Equipment out of Iowa. said i love equipment we've we've had uh tim gristle on before he owns ghost strong equipment

out of uh iowa and uh with with him or you i could probably ask you yeah we could keep this going and i gotta put a disc i gotta put a disclaimer out i remembered text messaging him on instagram when he came out with the j hooks that roll yep and i said and and this is fault on grant had no idea what was going on i messaged them and said hey i own two gyms opening look a third i'd like to put all these j cups in my gyms is there a discount yeah if there's anything i could do in my life, I'd go back and I'd delete that message. It's funny how that is. And he said, no, there's not. If you want them, we can make them.

And they cost this much. So good on him. I'm sorry, Tim. Funny how that comes full circle. Yep, yep, yep. But go ahead. Play the game. Okay.

So this is our overrated, underrated game. The basics of it are we have a series of special The Strength Co. Topics specifically for you here. And you can't ride the line in the middle. You got to come up with overrated, underrated. That's the biggest part. Okay. Overrated or underrated?

M16 rifle it's a weird time to ask that question that aside that aside underrated M16 sucks

so you said what overrated overrated not into the M16 So you said what? Overrated? Overrated. Not into the M16. Current events, maybe it's underrated. But right now, overrated. Is the M16 still the standard issue

weapon for the Marine? The Marine Corps, it's about 50% transferred. Mostly it's to the M4, is your ar-15 but like in general and and people get mad at me about this i'm not a gun nerd i'm just like a marine that had stuff issued to me but i would say i would i would say that's what i can i can relate to that yeah yeah okay overrated or underrated Americano coffee drinks? Ooh.

Overrated. Overrated. I like them less. Yeah, I like them less. Overrated. Americano is overrated. You should drink straight espresso. Okay.

And do you sell espresso? Is that right? Yeah, we have espresso. And let me back up because I'm not just promoting what we sell. I was always a drip coffee guy until April of this year. Did the people at the foundry get you going on it? Is that what? No, no. Actually, someone on Twitter, a guy from italy that like lives two

blocks from apparently there's a place called palazzo de brogi and he said hey i'm gonna send you an espresso maker a small little espresso maker i won't nerd out too much called a brica and he's like and it'll you'll love it and he sent it to me and i to be honest i felt bad i said i guess i need to make coffee this thing i really just want to make a pot of drip coffee and so i made it and i filmed it and i posted on twitter and he dm'd me and said grant they sent you the wrong machine that's a a mocha pot. You need a brica And I remember thinking like what a pain in the ass this guy's been so nice now I have to send this thing back so he goes Can you please return it and he like send me a screenshot like some return label big GPS?

I know when returned it and then he sent me like a small espresso maker it's called a brica and Now that I've had it i'm like uh i'm espresso all the way overrated is an americana because you don't need to pour out hot water don't need to water that down okay yeah you don't need to water that down all right continue overrated or underrated push-ups? Man, you guys are really hitting home. That's what we do. I think overrated. Yeah, if you love the barbells, push-ups, you don't need those things.

And the Marine in me, there's a lot of benefit from putting 40 people online, someone in front leading them, and seeing mental courage. But overall, for the sake of the mission, overrated. That's fair. Last one, and probably the most controversial. So this one's an important one. It's worth all the marbles. Overrated or underrated, 35-pound plates.

Oh, overrated or underrated 35 pound plates i don't want to curse because my parents may listen but they do they're overrated i mean it's so stupid and so like let's let's forget about the lifter let's forget about the lifter let's talk about the guy that had to build that that means another fifteen thousand dollars in tooling just to make it when at the same time he could just run more tens that could be put on the end of the 25 like nothing i thought 35s were retarded based off like lifting and being a barbell coach and like what Rip taught me but like now that I know in the manufacturing progress I don't think anyone

would have made those it's so stupid 35 I'm out oh man I'm sorry mom and dad but 35 they're cats I love talking about 35 pound plates. They do get a reaction out of people more than you would ever expect.

Yeah. I gotta be honest, I like Tanner a little more. His accent's a little stronger. People say I am, what is it? Beavis or Butthead? Beavis. I get busted for that a lot.

I sound like Beavis or Butthead. Thatavis. I get busted for that a lot that I sound like Beavis or butthead. Tanner's from western northeast South Dakota. I'm from northeast South Dakota, so there is that dialect difference there. You are more northeast, but by birth, that's true.

The northeast is more aggressive. Where at in Minnesota are they making the barbells? Yeah, that's what I wanted to know. Because we're not far from Minnesota. Wow, hang on. I want to see... If I said Grand Prairie, would that be possible?

Probably. Hang on, hang on. Let me tell you, I'm looking, and this is bad that I don't... If you need any boots on the ground there, ever let us know. It probably might not be too far from us. I'm looking at all his email handles and he doesn't have the address. Um, yes,

it's something Prairie. I can tell you that. And when I looked, when I, so I got there, I got their contact from coop, you know, I wanted to make barbells and, and you find like in the manufacturing thing, you know, it's like, so for plates, like, no kidding.

The skin is in the game. We've, we bought the tooling and we're doing it for barbells. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's a white labeling deal. It's like, Hey, someone's already invented the wheel. And now there's people on the site looking for it. Let me just like cap the strength on it. And, uh, and so I messaged Coop about it and he was nice enough to us to, you know, review our first generation squat rack. And he said, Hey man, I've reviewed a lot of things i think these are the best guys and i called them and i said hey let's make 100 barbells and yeah yeah something prairie

minnesota but they're great there's a few prairies yeah it's a prairie minnesota like i'll message you after the show but what i love about the guy is he always says yep so i call him we're about we're about because we're about to start selling a loadable dumbbell. So I messaged him and said, hey, I want to make a loadable dumbbell. And he goes, yep. And I go, yeah. So I want it to be this and this and that. And he goes, yep, yep, yep.

And then he calls me today and he goes hey we got a bunch of barbells done early and i go yep okay what does that mean he goes yeah do you want to skip early and i go yeah and like like every time i talk to him he goes yeah and i'm like i don't know if this is minnesota or what this is maybe it's south dakota i just feel like you're describing people from this area yeah that's true i feel like I'm describing anyone that's not me. Yeah. Yep. Yep, that's right.

Okay. I feel like you guys have laughed more at this podcast than normal, and I'll take that as credit. I feel like you had a good time. Absolutely. That's what we do it for. We wouldn't do this if it wasn't fun. No, that's awesome.

One other thing I would mention, you know, we mentioned coop a few times. I don't know if you've ever worked, talked to Adam at garage gym lab at all too. He also does a really great job. Just something to think about if you ever, if as a resource and that sort of thing, garage gym lab, and we've had him on the show before. Very good guy, knowledgeable guy, and does a really good job. They do some similar things i would say but also send me adam's address and i'll send him a pair of 45s yep yep no but seriously send me his address i'll send him a pair of 45s no i i i is it okay i didn't tell you this part adam lives lives with me. If the address looks the same, don't think twice about that.

No, no. I still think I respect anybody like you guys. I was excited you had me on because it takes a certain kind of person and I'm going to be funny right now i don't mean to but to say yep i'm gonna do this right like it takes a certain kind of person and so like anyone that is willing to say that i i'm i'm happy to do stuff with send me his address and i'll send you and him another set of 45 and you guys will be

in a good place. This deal just keeps getting better. Look at all this iron. One last important thing I was going to ask. This will come out this next week here, next Monday. If people want to buy plates now, can they?

They're in a great spot. This releases next week. january 18th my next shipment lands of 88 000 pounds okay everything will be in stock except for tens but but uh i i build myself some overage there you know in every product we we expect like some defaults and stuff or something, defects, something to be wrong. So, yeah, January 18th, for the first time since we've been selling plates, which is August of last year, we look like we'll have a little inventory and they can they'll ship immediately and then february 15th um we'll be shipping uh again and by march 15th we'll be shipping out of both coasts for cheaper shipping rates because if you ever we know some people want a discount well and if you ever want to split the difference on that shipping you know western northeast, South Dakota is right in the center of the country there.

Maybe you don't need an East Coast, West Coast. You need someone right in the middle. I mean, my thought is that you guys aren't bought enough in the starting strength, and I don't know if you can put 245 in the box. But if you post some impressive lifting videos, maybe you'll convince me otherwise. No, I'm interested. We should talk about that. Hey, maybe you'll convince me otherwise. Okay, that's fair. I'm interested.

We should talk about that. Hey, we're always open to everything. This was awesome. I think this is a great show. I think we've got to have you again someday in the future to talk more about this stuff and get a progress report down the road a little bit. Yeah, I'd love to talk to Bob. It's funny.

yeah i'd love to talk to bob and i mean i uh you know it's funny the podcast i did a podcast last night with the guys at hazard ground and the only reason i plugged them is because they they just they just show veterans and their usual story is people that have um seen very bad things in combat and i messaged them six months ago and i said i haven't seen very bad things in combat. And I messaged him six months ago. And I said, I haven't seen very bad things in combat, but this is what I have seen. And the guys wrote me back and they said, Hey, um,

we can schedule you in January. And I remember this is six months ago being like January. Really? When I do a podcast with these guys, like whatever, but it was great. like whatever but it was great you know it was great because the amount of stuff we were able to

talk about was was awesome because things have changed so yeah I hope to get on with you guys again I hope to get you some 25s 10s 5s and 2 and a half I hope for your roommate they get another set of 45s also a little disappointed that you have a roommate at your current age for your roommate. They get another set of 45.

Also a little disappointed that you have a roommate at your current age. But that's okay. Got me. Got him. Tanner, you've said one other thing. I keep thinking it's just so many good things. You're just leading people out at this point now.

There's like 13 other things. Are you familiar with the old joke in the in the military where no i'm not an officer i work for a living yeah very familiar with that um do you take offense to it um so my time is no i'm not an officer i work for a living yeah yeah my time my my time as an officer, I would not have taken offense from that because I do respect the staff and CO and NCO and understand that mentality. My time as a business owner,

fuck you. You have no idea what goes into this. It sounds like you probably... We've taken from this that you do work for a living. So you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Turns out. Turns out I do.

Yeah, that's fair. All right, cool. We appreciate it, Grant. That was very good stuff. And so for any, by the time this is out, you can basically go on and buy these plates. If someone is interested, where can they buy the plates? Where can they find you? All that good stuff.

www.thestrength.co, thestrength.com. All of them lead to us now. You can go click on store, uh, sport out the strength.com works and everything's there. And what we pride ourselves in is outside of plates. But by the time people listen to this, it should be, everything shifts the same day. Like you, you place the order. We print the label and ship it. Got a very passionate staff. I'm very grateful for.

And, uh, yeah, go check it out. www.thestrengthco.com. Awesome. Perfect. Thanks, Grant. Thanks a lot, Grant. Yeah. Thank you guys.

And, uh, I hope to come to Northeastern, Western, Southeastern, Middle, South, North dakota and have a beer with you guys you're always welcome anytime you need the time wait close out and i know that tanner wants to have the last word but close that question did like the state really give you a new sign that says home with the massonomics podcast we be Be honest. There's certain things we can't necessarily disclose on the podcast. I get it. You work for the government. You can't tell everything.

I get it. But congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. See you. Tommy, what do you give it oh I think we know it's official that is official cool beans that was cool beans yeah that was and that could have easily have gone on much longer but I'm just seeing we're gonna hit the two-hour mark for

probably the first time in our lives I'm questioning what when when if when we have hit two hours i don't know if we never have but it's certainly rare maybe we never have you might you might probably know better than me i i remember there was a time we're like we're at an hour and 40 and we kept going we're like an hour 48 let's just get but i don't know if we've hit two i really don't think we have well should we hurry up really really fast so just shut it down don't hit two uh we better shout out today hurry up really, really fast? Shut it down. Don't hit two. We better shout out today's sponsors. Today's show is brought to you by Lifting Large.

Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting Large is home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they are always in stock and ready to ship. Massonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting large branded products by using discount code mass 20 at checkout if you're going to get some new strength code plates you're going to want some deadlift ground lock deadlift slippers you are left in so you are you want to use those plates to their full advantage that's exactly right today's episode is also brought to you by spud inc the goal of spud extracts is to make products that support

sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching. Whether your goals are training-related, nutrition and body composition-related, or both, Hybrid has a program for you. With dedicated and experienced coaches in each strength and fitness discipline, you can rest assured that you're in the best hands possible.

We've got a discount code there, too. It's MASS, M-A-S-S, in all caps, and that'll save you 5% off any training or nutrition membership or the life of your membership at HybridPerformanceMethod.com. This episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. And wouldn't that pair great with a pair of strength cold plates? We're going to make that mashup happen soon at Mass Now's gym. I could just even tell before they're together that it's already a beautiful, beautiful pairing. In 1980, Buddy Cap set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born.

It was strong as a house with the best sterling and it was maintenance free. Hundreds of state national, international, world and massonomics power lifting records or massonomics records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more visit Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary

bars at TexasPowerBars.com Our sale went really good this last week too you know we didn't touch on that but uh like we said um those bent shorts did not last long at all nope they're gone 100% gone yeah they're out of here basically all of them were gone within like five hours pretty much yep 100 of them every everyone with the official certificate of authenticity they're going up actually most people have i think almost every one pair is out two people by now so usps is actually going a lot faster now i think you know it's weird there's like almost anomalies i think it's certain maybe just certain regions of the countries where things

are issues still but like our midwest region seems like people get stuff pretty fast some international stuff is still crazy and some stuff to canada where people have been like it's taken like a month but then other stuff it's we send it and they get it yeah or within a couple of days yeah so it is kind of random about that but uh overall yeah these i always get baffled i'm like you got that and posted it already i'm pretty sure i just set that in the... I saw some people posting this week. I'm like, how did they get that so soon? Grant says they guarantee same day. I don't know that we guarantee same day,

but we do guarantee it gets shipped up and packed out pretty quick, mostly because I personally can't stand the anxiety of seeing a whole bunch of orders that have to be packed. I'm just like, no, I can't rest. I can't sleep well until i know that it's we're back to uh square one or back to back to a starting point yeah that's just not the way it works around here tanner yeah and tanner you know what i'm doing

right now i'm recording another one of those videos that i can just look at in the future um you know when i'm just sitting around bored i don't know what to do with my hands now. And all of a sudden, we're two hours in, and Tanner doesn't know what to do again. Yeah, the phone camera comes out, and I just freeze. He's locked up, people. No, that was a great episode. We appreciate Grant having him on. And hey, if we got another set of 45s on,

we'll have Grant on every week. I was i was gonna say he doesn't know this but yeah yeah he's booked i'm gonna text him uh uh tomorrow and be like hey want to come on again by popular demand people are demanding you come back on so they're demanding you just send us like just crates and crates and i have a guy that could use some plates too yeah if he sends Adam a pair of plates, Adam is going to owe us pretty big. It's just that Adam has been, Garage Gym Lab Adam has been repping quite a bit of masticonomic stuff.

This is just an elaborate play to get a lot of people to owe us though, right? Yes, I want people to feel like they're indebted to us. You can be like, well, remember that one time though. We'll pull the card at the most inopportune time for them.

For everyone. Yeah. No, you're wearing the Lift Hard Live Easy shirt. I'm wearing the Classic OG shirt. You can find everything else that we sell on the site. We did sell out of the Blue Bench heavy shorts, but lift shorts are still in stock. We sold a pile of lift shorts still, but luckily we had our largest inventory we've ever had. So those still are available in all sizes small through 2xl um we got a pretty good supply of mostly everything

right now yeah new silly pints yeah the new silly pints are pretty good but we also got a large stock of those so we still have some of those and then uh the sumo pole shirt we still got some of those around yep i don't even remember what else do we even have tanner i think that's probably everything huh i'm also conscious of saying yep or more so it's a it's a midwest thing we have to say yeah yeah yeah yeah yep it's yippers do you ever respond to someone yippers no because i'm not a psycho yep i uh text respond that to my wife sometimes just because i know she it infuriates her she always goes don't say yeppers and you said okie dokie yeah yeah yeah okay um that's about it that was it huh that's all that's it that's all we got to do all right you can find me at tomahawk underscore d you can uh make sure to follow massonomics at massonomics see you Follow Masanomics at Masanomics. See ya.