TRX: Randy Hetrick (2018)

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2018

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1997, Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick was deployed in Southeast Asia, where he was stationed in a remote warehouse for weeks with no way to exercise. So he grabbed an old jujitsu belt, threw it over a door, and started doing pull-ups. Today, TRX exercise straps dangle from the ceiling in gyms across the country and are standard workout gear for professional athletes. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," we check back with a husband-and-wife team who experimented with fruit, spices and vinegar and came up with a gourmet ketchup line called 'Chups. (Original broadcast date: June 26, 2017). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	Hey, it's Guy here. So today's story isn't just about TRX Straps, which you'll learn a lot about in just a minute,
0:34.0	but also about how to deal with knockoffs and people who try to rip off your idea, and would start it out as a personal workout for Randy Hettrick,
0:43.0	ended up becoming one of the hottest brands in fitness today.
0:47.0	This story originally ran in June of last year, and I hope you enjoy it.
0:52.0	The manufacturer that I had started with didn't have a depth of manufacturing experience in kind of product that I was bringing,
1:03.0	which is this product has to be very durable.
1:05.0	And so one of the very early, large lots of inventory we ordered arrived, and we'd sold out of everything.
1:14.0	So of course we were out of stock by the time it arrived, and desperate to ship what we hooked up the first Suspension Trainer Leanback
1:21.0	and the handles just cracked like potato chips.
1:32.0	From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:41.0	I'm Guy Ross, and on the show today, how a former Navy SEAL turned an old Jiu Jitsu belt into a new fitness phenomenon called TRX,
1:52.0	then nearly lost it all when copycats ripped off his idea.
1:57.0	It's unlikely you'll find a gym in America, or for that matter, in most parts of the world, without TRX straps.
2:07.0	And if you're not familiar with them, they're these heavy-duty nylon straps that hang from an anchor in the ceiling,
2:13.0	with these foam rubber grips at the ends.
2:16.0	And with these simple straps, you can do rows or lunges or push-ups or pull-ups, you can slip your feet into these loops at the bottom and work on your core or your legs.
	...

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