 We didn't make this round because we we needed additional business right now We made it to help people so if we're going to help people let let people help people So their money and their dollars and a hundred percent of the proceeds and so a good portion of their dollars are going to fight The cause of this keeping everyone at home to start with You're listening to barbell logic brought to you by barbell logic online coaching where each week We take a systematic walk through strength training and the refining power of voluntary hardship Welcome to the barbell logic podcast. This is Matt Reynolds and I am here today with a special guest Burt Soren who is the I don't know president CEO all things at Soren X At Soren X comm a lot of you are most of our listeners will know about Soren X Soren X is a it's really a high-end Custom they make amazing equipment. You guys have seen our good buddy coop from graduate reviews talk about them a lot Brett McKay I think has had you on the podcast on the Art of Manliness podcast in the past Soren X was started by your dad a long time ago before you before we had this massive explosion of all of the equipment Manufacturers you guys were one of the first so Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me first of all. So, yeah, Soren X was started as a pet project by my dad He was always in the lifting Lifting and to building and making solutions better and the equipment that was currently at that time in the late 70s It was on the market. Just wasn't good enough. It wasn't either Adjustable enough strong enough Or worked in the way that he wanted. He's a big guy six five probably 250 at the time and It just the stuff wasn't built for a large athlete at the time So he said I could build it better. So when I was a garage and started your dad always looked to me I remember when I was a kid and you know high school in college Your dad always looked to me like the consummate strength coach like he'd looked like us He looked like a division one strength coach, right? So big dude barrel chest shorty shorts Right. Yeah, it's kind of like a combination between Pizarango and Tom Selle. That's right Which is not a bad look knows it's it's awesome So and then what I always knew about Soren X was I think I felt like and this may not even be entirely fair But certainly back in the day, you know in the late 90s early 2000 Soren X was like that It was the best equipment for University gyms division one pro it was that kind of a lot of a lot of like the best high-end commercial quality stuff and I think you guys still do a Lot of that but you've now branched out especially with the growth of the home gym market You guys have branched out into the into the custom home gym market and also still provide you are the high quality Like we all kind of know about those lower quality guys that make their stuff in China and whatnot and it's it's it's you know You're you're you're trying to pay the cheap rate Soren X is on the other end Are you guys are the premium end of the equipment side? Is that fair? Yeah, that's fair and I appreciate that. Thank you. But but yeah, you're exactly right. We started really our business Yeah, there were some local high schools and things like that that we were doing but by the mid 80s we were doing full custom builds for Universities like Kentucky and Tennessee and you know for their football programs and that's where we made our name in the human performance world So things had to be bigger had to be stronger had to be more adjustable because that was the athlete level that we were working with where You know the University of Tennessee in the mid 80s and 90s You know a 400 pound bench isn't extraordinary and they're gonna do it all day long And a bench has to be able to take that kind of pounding. So that's where we've always been and we've always done home gyms It's not like we still don't we I guess we see it now There is a home gym market, but it before it was just do people want really good stuff in their house And if you do like let's say Garth Brooks in the 1990s We had a home gym from us and and and regular people too. So we've always sold to homes It's just we're we've kind of been under the radar as the go-to guys go-to guys So we're just not as widely known. I guess I feel somewhat recently I think it's a difference between you know, you sometimes you want to go out and you want to eat filet mignon or a nice ribeye And that's so next and then there are other places that are the dollar-double cheeseburgers and you might and that's you know It's probably higher quantity lower um, yeah higher quantity lower quality cheaper and and for you know broke college kids Those things are fine what I oh And again, we ultimately I think there are so many people we would just want to get people training, right? So training getting people training is the key The reason I wanted to have you on the podcast is because yesterday you made a poster today Saturday this podcast will go up on Monday Yesterday on Friday you made a post about a new rack that you guys are offering the off the grid rack Which is not your typical rack that you guys offer and I love the message And so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about this It was this idea of first off if for those of our listeners I'm sure many of them have gone on the equipment manufacturers. There isn't much out there Right, so demand has outstripped supply tremendously There are very few racks available. There's very few There's very little equipment available right now the turnaround time is long A lot of these equipment manufacturers have even shut down their websites for a week or two weeks to kind of fill the Backorders and so you came out yesterday. I love it You were out in the woods Surrounded by pine trees and you had this off the grid rack Mounted to a couple trees in the woods and you told people like hey We know we knew like what can we do? We're equipment manufacturers and I don't want to steal your story I want you to be able to tell the story, but it was like hey How can we provide quick cheap solid equipment to people who need it right now and Then the best part about it was you said like we're gonna take our Profits from this thing and we're gonna donate them to took the fight against COVID-19 And so I wanted to have you on the show and talk about it because one our clients need it Our listeners need this because many people have reached out like we don't we can't find any equipment And you guys have filled a need there and then I love it it rather than Praying on the fact that demand is so high and supply is so low You were like look we're just gonna take our profits and we're actually gonna donate them to the fight right here So I I love that's why I wanted to have you on the show. So tell us a little bit about how that came about I appreciate it. Yeah, I guess You know the thing is we've been extremely blessed in our business We have some military contracts right now that are certainly paying the bills we've been deemed necessary and Essential by the US government to stay going because we have giant contracts of fulfill for the for the army for the ACFT That's the the army combat fitness test that you may have heard about. Yeah, so we're rolling and rolling hard and University orders are pouring in left and right. I mean, we're doing okay. It's But that all being said those are all business Those are all orders that have a 8 10 12 week lead time, which has been more specific more Dialed for our business model. So of course when this thing kicked off Jim started closing my phone and all my sales guys phones are blowing up from really a lot of our College and pro-client saying, you know, we're the Houston Texas We're shutting down my guys need something to train on and you know, I'm just using them as an example But it was happening left and right To the point where we started looking through old scratch and dent trailers anything that we had there There was a demo unit and you know bumpers that mismatch like anything we could get people and of course that goes super fast sure and So I got talking to my this is last Wednesday. I got talking to my The guy that runs at my shop and I said, all right What let's let's get X number, you know squat stands going there was squat stands all of something We could get through the shop fast. He's like he's like Burt like we're down welders right now We're down pre fab right now. We're already slammed at the tilt what we could get out the door Adding something else that we don't know we have clients for right now when we when we're shorthand It isn't an option. I said well, we have all these guys needing gear And we kind of laughed he goes all right We'll come up with something that doesn't need human hands to touch it right now. We could figure it out and So, you know, I was here in the cave like we're podcasting right now. So I was at the house a little home gym I started sketching out some things that would work a Face timed my design manager there at work said hey hop on a FaceTime with me showed him what I was thinking He got it right away Probably 20 minutes later. He had a drawing of it sends it over yet Let's do it the next morning. It was cut out bent. It was put in our marketing manager's house Literally that day. So within 24 hours. We had a prototype working tweaked it tried a couple things over the weekend and of Monday we we made 50 of them and We've already sold about four times that many in the first day of launching it on Friday And the idea of it was let's get something that we could get to the shop super fast that doesn't need a bunch of additional labor and People could get them my goal is for people to have them ship From our location at three to five business days versus eight or ten weeks or whatever it may be Hey, if I get if I saw a thousand next week, I'm sorry That is probably gonna be a little longer, but we're doing what we can we've literally changed our whole model Not that we need to believe me. We were we have enough stuff to do But I hated hearing all these coaches talk about and and home gym guys talk about hey This kid's going into a senior year. He's been trained as you know for the last ten years to be ready for this And all the gains we got this year are gonna be lost and yes, can people buy kettlebells and bands? Sure, we've sold out of basically kettlebells and bands But you have to actually load at some point sure if you're gonna be a big strong powerful athlete So a rack was obviously what we needed to do So we designed this rack and we said, okay Let's put it at a price point that anyone could afford or most people can afford or at least more people could afford than normal $349 no glitz no glamour in there and We we looked all over the country. We figure we could ship it for a hundred bucks everywhere for 48 states So that'll save some people some money You have an additional hundred if you want to get plastic protection on it So you're you know for a little over run around 500 bucks. You're out the door and it can be that week And then we started looking at different discounting Structures and and we just said hold on a second like We didn't make this rat because we we needed additional business right now We made it to help people so if we're gonna help people let let people help people So their money and their dollars and a hundred percent of their you know The proceeds and so a good portion of their dollars are going to fight the cause of this keeping everyone at home to start with yeah, and We're just kind of a conduit to help people get what they need to do So I mean Soran X always been a solutions-based company We we pride ourselves and driving forward the industry with new innovative solutions this is kind of I believe one of them and It doesn't look like a normal Soran X piece for all the bells and whistles and high-end is super Gucci But as I kind of said in that video, it's a wartime rack for wartime scenario I mean it's it's not the coolest thing we've ever made or the most bad a but You know the hold a bar off the ground is gonna be strong And you know, let's be really honest if three days a week you do front squats and pull-ups You're probably not gonna be in bad shape. That's right. Yeah, it allows you to do squats It allows you to presses allows you to bench presses, which is of course we can deadlift off the floor I love the rack. It's too different. It's two separate vertical pieces and can mount to Your garage wall on some studs you can mount it like I said on the video you mounted it to a couple trees Basically anything that's sturdy You can put these vertical mounts on and because it's two separate pieces You can actually adjust the width you've got some flexibility there in the width You know if you're a great big guy and you need to take a grip on the squat on a bar That goes all the way out to the collars You can make the width a little narrower for the rack if you're somebody that takes more of a closer grip It's wider you can set the rack at a point just inside the collar So you've got some flexibility there and then you've really thought through Little things like that, you know, you've got a spot up at the top so that you can throw your barbell You know in a in a in a spot on top of this rack and you can do pull-ups from the barbell So it gives you an option to do pull-ups or chin-ups You've got all kinds of little things like that things a whole carabiners like lots of little you thought about this Even so even though this is a sort of a machine-made rack, right? I assume it's just you know, is it is it water jet and and bent late We laser it bend it. Yeah powder and it's and it's golden which is awesome You've still really thought through some of those Functional pieces of this thing to make it as functional as it possibly could for for being one of your lower-end racks, and I love it Oh, thanks The funny thing is that we call the peak system the the drop-in where you could take your Olympic bar and drop it into The top for a for a chin-up bar. That was something I used Probably 17 18 years ago and a pair of squat stands with a little welded V on top To drop a chin or drop your Olympic bar so you could do chins It never took off before it's time whatever and so we started looking at this rack He said okay, well, we're gonna need to have a chin station But we didn't want to have to weld anything sure So how do you even if you have a less expensive chin bar? You still have to have the flange as welded and then you have bolts and then that drives up the cost for more We go hold on if they got a rack that means they have a bar if they have a bar put it on top There's your chin bar. It's nice. You're right. You're all and it gives you a place to store it if you need so it You know sometimes remembering things that worked in the past kind of come back to help you out Absolutely I if I remember right it sticks out of the wall just like 13 and a half inches something like that, right? I believe that was right. Yeah, we just wanted to make sure when you rack a bar You still had at least a hand with yeah in between the plate and the wall So you you know, don't smash your hand but and also You know as you walk in you have space for your face. Is it a little close when you're squatting? Sure Yeah, but again, we wanted to have it where you can put it almost any room in the house or in a garage I still parked your vehicle and not have to do any Extra work or extra stuff moving parts pins things like that. We're just real simple Yeah, actually was thinking about this. It's very unconventional thought process But you know we've got a lot of people as a matter of fact Most of our people at Barba logic online coaching who don't train at home now and train at gyms live in cities and They often will live in apartments And so they don't really have an option for a home gym in an apartment But I actually think this gives you a certainly a temporary option even in an apartment, right? You can you can you can lay some some horizontal studs across the wall and Make sure those are driven into the studs and you could actually put this in your dining room or and it's doesn't take up much Space and it would allow you to train even in a small You know a lot of these like micro part of the 500 square foot apartment You've probably got a spot on the wall that you can put these where that you know It sticks out a little more than a foot and with that with a barbell with a limpet plates on it's only gonna be an additional 9 inches so you're talking about less than 2 feet stick it out of the wall even with weight on the bar So it's pretty tight It's it's very efficient. You're gonna have to stand somewhere anyway So you're gonna have to have a little bit of space there to start that's right That's right. So awesome rack comes in a few different colors, which is pretty cool as well And yeah, just super efficient that I love that three to five day turnaround for shipping out You'll get you'll most people are gonna get it within seven or eight days. I would assume again So I would say so, you know based on how many hundreds of thousands of people listen this podcast and blow the thing up It may push it back to To eight or nine or ten days But you can get it in a hurry and this is a this is a great Thing to have and then I was thinking about this, too I would love to have one of these just as sort of a secondary rack even as I go back. I've got a nice home gym I'm like you have got a big like, you know super nice rack and everything that I need But there are times when it would be really nice to have a little secondary rack on a sidewall or and so this brings a Lot of versatility I as well for me I have my home gym is in a in a large bedroom in my house, but I have some stuff out in my garage I've got a reverse hyper out in my garage and a lat pull-down machine some of those things And this would be a great rack to stick in my garage as well as just a secondary rack to have when the weather is nice And I don't want to I don't want to train in a bedroom. It's perfect again an outdoor You could you can mount it outdoor to any myriad of things including trees, which is pretty cool And it's the right time of year for that right so it's pretty nice in most of the 48 states right now to be able to go Outside and train It's pretty it's pretty cool. We have a gym outside at our farm And we also have another little strongman area out at HQ and this is the perfect time to go outside and train and we do I'm a big outdoorsman, so I do a lot of lift run and shooting and so You know tying that all in together and literally when we bolted it to the racks the other day We just literally walk through the woods until we smashed the bar up against it So okay, these trees are roughly the right width and with our ratchet, you know with our little guns zip zip zip And we were training and that that rack is still sitting out the woods right now Yeah, super cool, and I'm sure we'll hold up for years that you know that you've got the nice powder coat on it, right? I mean so it's gonna yeah, is it gonna be perfect? No, I mean if people have asked you You know, what do you do if you leave outside? I don't know you leave something you leave a lawnmower outside It's painted its metal. It's gonna get some rust off course just will but again, it's a $350 rack You know, it's a wartime solution and really like I want people to buy them if they want to help out and if it'll help them But you know, it's it's this isn't about selling racks This is about hopefully people that I'm friends with or not friends with and just you know If you're if you're into training and really live that strong lifestyle Then I respect you and I just I'd hate for someone to not have an option to train Because training has done so much in my life. I made my life under a barbell. Yeah, so you know to I think we've been extremely blessed with being successful and if we could turn that into putting back into the community Whether we make money off it or not, I think it's the right thing Well, and I think that's the that's the best part of this whole thing is when you said look We're gonna take the net profits and we're gonna donate them to the fight then then you know like you put your money Where your mouth is it's like hey, we you would love to sell 5,000 of these things because it helps the fight not because you're not gonna put any money in your pocket You guys are gonna you're gonna recoup your costs and that's it Because now it's taken away late time We've got to create a monster a little bit But hey if I have to get Local if we tap out our machinery and I have to get local other businesses with lasers and benders and get them involved in making it Well, great. Guess what we just did we just poured into the local economy That's right or maybe help the local struggling business that that's the that's the stage to if we have to we've already looked at that You know, maybe we hopefully or not hopefully it all happens who knows like it's it's really where we're early on in the fight right now It's a it was a great idea. I'm glad that you guys did it. Let me let's send people to the right spot So if you go to soarnex.com that's s o r i n e x dot com the off the grid rack is right there on the home page We don't even need to send them to a Subdirect it'll it'll you'll see it right there It's it's upfront close and personal and you can order that from soarnex And for those of you guys that are heard and most of you guys know you're probably had an ad at the beginning of this podcast We we have a sale right now It's 50% off your first month of online coaching at Barbell logic and we'll send you a hundred dollar gift card to the two soarnex So if you want to use this like the you said it's 349 bucks. The shipping is 99 So we'll cover the shipping if you sign up for online coaching will cover the shipping We'll send it to you digital so you get it instantly so you can send it We can use it immediately at soarnex get that thing ordered and within a week You can be training on solid equipment with a with a top notch strengthening conditioning coach at Barbell logic and so again for us the same sort of thing We've been very careful not to try to pray on the fact that many people are training at home We've been careful with running deals and stuff I you know you see these people on Instagram and it's like use discount code corona or like we're not We're not doing that shit that bothers me and so Yeah, we don't do that at all you can go to barbell logic Com the discount code is actually April 20 and that will immediately save you 50% off your first month and all you have to do in the Notes is right soarnex and we'll send you a soarnex hundred dollar gift card right away Bert dude. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate what you've done for the community Not just from an equipment standpoint, but you've been very active in the straight and supporting the strength community over the years A lot of our good friends You know with you've got great friendships with Coop and with with Brett McKay and Ryan Mickler and Brent and Lily and guys that are friends of of us and friends of the show and so we were thankful that Well, I think we're we share a lot of the same values. It's so It's been nice. It's awesome to get to talk with you and meet you and and thanks for having me on and of course I love what you guys are doing and just just simply the name of of what you guys are doing barbell logic I mean, that's let's really just boil it down to that That's right. Whether that's the design of the off-grid rack or or training It's all barbell logic and we know we need it We know we need to get under the barbell and get some work done So that's right kudos to you for what you've you've built as well. Thanks, dude simple hard effective. That's what that's what works That's what's great about this rack. It fits exactly what we do simple design Heavy-duty it's gonna be super effective get the job done right now while you're stuck at home Go to soarnex.com and pick it up and use discount code April 20 April 2 0 at barbell logic.com for online coaching man. I love it. Thanks for doing this thing I know you've got a busy weekend. You're like the bankers right now. They're trying to like process all this stuff There's not you're not working. I know you're not working Monday through Friday right now. I know it's seven days a week Yeah, it's you know if you're awake you're working, but today is my son's fourth birthday So happy birthday. He takes priority. So we're gonna take him fishing. He want to go fishing for his birthday We're gonna have a hopefully if we get lucky we're do a fish fry. That's the priority. What are you fishing for? What kind of fish? The blue gill and bass we have a little pond and that he bought his first fish two days ago And so he's super amped about it. That's awesome When we hang up, I'm gonna take a quick workout and then go to the house and pack up fishing Love it. Is he doing a like a little Zebco 33 with a bobber or something? I got him a little tackle box and fisher out for his birthday. I love it man He'll be all he'll be super pop. That was what I did my pop. It's kind of funny Side note. I got him. He wants me to tell him a fishing story every night before he goes to bed So I was running out of fishing stories So I gave him a cliff notes version of the old man in the sea and he is now falling in love with it So I have a three-year-old as you know, he's four today But a three-year-old who is a Hemingway fan and wants to watch old man on the sea Old man the sea on YouTube all the time. So that's that's pretty that's pretty cool oddly enough my 15-year-old daughter right now was reading that for school and I remember reading it when I was you know, I love it and I was like so I asked her I said, have you done any research on the on the guy that wrote this book? And she's like, huh? I was like, you know who Ernest Hemingway is and she's like, huh? I was like hold on I was like hold on. We got some stories now like this guy was a badass Like he liked to get in fights and drink absinthe and he was you know, he was crazy And so he was certainly the art of manliness. That's exactly right before it was before it was cool That guy was he was nuts. So dude. Thanks again for being on the show. Happy birthday to your kiddo go enjoy your family and You guys go support SORNEX and their fight against COVID-19. Thank you for listening. We will see you in a few days Thanks a ton