How do you fit 10 years into one blog post?

Ummmm, could someone tell me where the last 10 years went? It seems like just yesterday that our small crew was dragging 12 foot uprights up and down an escalator to set up our first booth at GameDay Competition in Mankato, MN. We never dreamed that, ten years later, we'd be in our own 194,000 square foot facility and manufacturing our own products. Whoa. 

How do you sum up 10 years of hard work, laughter, tears, and a few gray hairs? I'm going to start with some of our first products and see where it takes us.

Where it all started: The Talon and Profile Racks

We founded the company based on the Talon Barbell Collar concept and then veered sharply to concentrate on creating our flagship product, the Profile Squat Rack. The Talon had to wait a while and simmer. 

Our Profile Rack and Shark Tank

So...we're one of the few companies that's had the privilege to appear on Shark Tank twice. We filmed in 2015 and our first episode aired February, 2016, where we showcased the PRO Rack and secured a deal with Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O'Leary.

Our follow-up appearance was a 'where are they now?' spot in April of 2017 that coincided with the launch of PRx Fit - a simple fitness app that showcased workouts with our equipment. (We've since upgraded to a new app called MVT Fitness - it's got PRx Fit courses and so much more!) 

Space Saving Storage Solutions

One of our cofounder's favorite sayings is that with PRx Performance, you're able to fit a whole gym on eight feet of wall space. We made that possible by creating smart, wall-mounted storage solutions for everything in the gym. Our Hanging Bar Storage & Weight Plate Storage products are must-haves for every gym!

Talon Barbell Collar

After establishing ourselves as the leader in space-saving fitness equipment, it was time to focus our attention back on the Talon and get it launched. Over the years, they've been received with mixed reviews - some people love them and some people, eh, not so much. While not for everybody, we're really proud of our innovative idea and design. And they're so much easier to use than traditional collars (spring collars, I'm looking at you).

Birth of a New Mission Statement.

So for the first few years of PRx, our slogan was Lift BIG in Small Spaces. Pretty fitting (sorry, not sorry). We designed (and patented) an awesome folding squat rack and had a few unique storage solutions that also hang on the wall.

In 2018, we recognized that not only were we creating opportunities for space-constrained people to build a home gym, we were also alleviating the time and money limitations too. Could and should we try to incorporate that into our mission? We did. Our company mission went from Lift BIG in Small Spaces to Fit Fitness into Life. By helping you save time, money, and space, we make it easy to fit fitness into life.

Build Limitless 

Fast forward to PRx today. We launched our Build Limitless series in 2022 and continue to revolutionize the fitness space with our modular design. You see, the Build Limitless line was created to meet you where you're at. Whether you're just starting out or have been at it for a while, Build Limitless allows you to start with a rack that makes sense for you today and lets you build it into more without having to start over from scratch.

Line Expansion

We've also been quietly expanding our space-saving solutions beyond gym equipment. We know there's more to living a healthy and active life than working out in a gym, which is why we designed and developed products to store all the other stuff in your garage or living space. In the past couple of months, we've introduced bat and stick storage, golf bag storage, some handy 'junk' drawers, and have more coming down the pike!    

Locations

Like the man in black sang, we've been everywhere, man. We've moved seven times over the last 10 years. We kept out-growing our space! The worst move was in the middle of the pandemic (August, 2020) when our office and warehouse catastrophically flooded due to a water main burst. Overnight we were forced out of our beloved 'Old Main' space and split into two locations. It was, quite frankly, a shit show. But, we fought through it and luckily we'd already been planning to build a new facility that could accommodate our continued growth. We broke ground in September, 2020, the month after the flood.

We fully moved into our shiny, beautiful new PRx Headquarters in February, 2022. It's so amazing to be in our forever home that's 100% ours!  

Culture of Innovation

We've had a few ideas that have hit the scrap pile over the years. Our favorite (that we can talk about) was our Wall-Mounted Hyper HD. It was a great product, but when we launched it we didn't have the internal resources to meet demand. Long story short? It was too big and we were too small. Unsustainable. Maybe our product dev team can conjure a more sustainably designed product someday.   

Best Memories

Because sometimes the best memories rise from our largest adversities, we've got to mention the lost trailers, jack-knifed Escalade, having the website on for 30 seconds a day during the first two months of the pandemic (we tried to limit sales to what we could realistically produce and ship within eight weeks), very limited bathroom situations, days with no water, very little heat, mice... 

But along with those challenging situations, we've enjoyed our annual Board Meetings (ours are a little different than a typical board meeting), BJP, potlucks, all the dogs, making the Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies list four year in a row, and of course OUR CREW. Ah, the fun memories of all the stupid stuff our wacky team has done over the years to stay sane, have fun, and help you keep fitting fitness into your life.

Wow, what a journey it's been. And to you reading this? If you're a customer, we can't thank you enough for investing in our equipment and yourself. If you're not a customer (yet), check out our stuff - it's awesome. And we can't wait to show you what's next!