WARNING!! Before you waste another cent of your hard-earned cash on a protein powder...READ THIS!!
You've been getting ripped-off, fucked-over and done with no lube right in front of your face. Maybe it didn't dawn on you, or maybe it did, those Ferraris, $500,000.00 give aways and luxury vacations are paid for by us. What kind of quality can be going into these products? They can afford their own magazines and give away half a million in prizes all for using their stuff. Then, of course, they have to pay the employees that work for them. Wonder how they do it? I'm going to tell.
And just who am I to be saying all this? What's my background? My angle? Simple really. I've either been a partner, or consulted with, the three major supplement companies in sports nutrition. Oh, did I say partner? Exactly. Did I take part in these scams I'm going to tell you about? No. Instead, I left these wanna-be businessmen/bodybuilders and took three years off from the industry. Because some of these companies had me sign confidentiality agreements (gee, think they have anything to hide?) I can't go into a lot of detail, I can, however, refer you to an article written in the Orange County Register on the front page of the business section and you can draw your own conclusion. One last thing before we get started. I began bodybuilding as a bantam weight and eventually won the IFBB North American Middleweight title. Like you, I'm a hardcore bodybuilder and when my partners wanted to screw you over to make more money for themselves....that's when I had a problem.
Do you know how these companies formulate products? If you were like me, you believed they simply designed the product first (ie. 80 grams of protein, 4 grams of carbs, etc., etc.) and then they arrive at the price you pay at your local gym or store. WRONG!!
This is how they do it. Most companies go to a manufacturer "recipe house". When they get there, they have an outline of a product and they tell that manufacturer they only want to pay $6.00 per 2.2 lb. can or pack. (Sorry guys, $6.00 is the max most companies pay. I'll tell you why later.)
Now these "recipe houses" are interesting places. Say you want whey protein isolate in your product. This "recipe house" will have whey protein isolate vats marked A,B,C and D or 1,2,3 or 4, the point being, there's four blends. Now, the first one is 100% pure isolate, the second one 95% pure, the third one 75% pure and the fourth only 65% pure. Well, at $6.00 cost, they cannot afford A or B. They have to pay for all those six page ads next month and afford to drive their lamborginis, so you get blend C in your product. I hope all those fillers won't give you gas and make you feel bloated. This process of choosing blends continues on throughout the product's development. That means your protein content, carbohydrate content, vitamins and minerals have all been lessened to make their profit margins.
Wanna know something even sicker? Once these guys develop any reputation at all and bring in the new suits and accountants, they will sit in a board meeting and show a projection of profits by dropping the price of the COGS (Cost Of Goods Sold) if they simply dropped from blend C to D. Ever wonder why a product you've been using suddenly gives you gas or smells and tastes different? Blend D has arrived in your supplement/total nutrient product.
These big companies feel they can get away with it because they have developed a reputation of quality by then and they figure as long as they tell you it's fine and bombard you with ad after ad, you'll ignore your instincts and believe them, even though you're racing to the bathroom to avoid shitting your pants. How messed up is that? You make the owners and employees of these companies multi-millionaires, and, in turn, they betray your trust by cheapening the very product you buy.
Ever notice how these companies then try to distance themselves from bodybuilding and take a more "mainstream" approach? Yeah, we (the bodybuilders), were good enough to make them rich (it was our hard and chiseled physiques that people noticed when we were out in public and asked, "How can I look like that?" or, "What should I do?") and when we mention we use Brand X and now Brand X has a new customer, do we get thanked? No! We get some cheap-ass blend put into our products instead!
Now, before I ask you to help me show the rich boys where they can put Blend D, let me explain one more thing to you.
At the beginning of the article, I mentioned a $6.00 cost of most 2.2 lb. canisters and 20 packs of MRPs. Let me explain the standard pricing equation in this industry. It's simple, really. The multiple used is between 6.5 and 7.5. This means you would take $6.00 and multiply it by 6.5 or 7.5 which gives you either a $39.00 or $45.00 retail price. Do those sound familiar? That means you are paying between $39.00 and $45.00 for a product that might cost $6.00 to make and I stress the word might.
Isn't that disgusting! Look, everyone has a right to make a living and, I, just like you, would be willing to pay a fair price for a quality product, but these big companies continue to lower the quality of their already marginal, yet well marketed, products.
Listen, I have not been paid to write this and the fact that I am being honest with you and telling you how they rip us off would be detrimental to the possibility of my working for any of these "big companies" again. It's wrong, it's crazy and we all need to grow some balls and tell these pencil-necked company owners that we're not stupid! Come-on ads made to look like four page articles. Question and answer columns with phony questions such as...
"I've been hearing a lot about ______________ and ______________, which one should I try?"
If we all started buying on quality, eventually the "big companies" would have to raise their standards. Maybe, instead of giving away those beautiful cars, they could give us products that contain 100% of what's on the label!! We deserve better than this!!
Currently on the market there's only three companies that I would say are reputable and one that's borderline. The rest are scumbags!
Obviously, Nuclear Nutrition is one. Since this article is on their website, they didn't pay me a dime to write this. The owners believe in true quality. You won't find their products anywhere because many distributors won't carry the line because Nuclear Nutrition costs too much to make so they don't get the 30% markup they're used to. Instead, they push the low quality crap. See, those distributors sell product to all the gyms and stores that, in turn, sell it to you. Since Nuclear's products cost twice as much to make, (Blend A is expensive) yet sells for the same price as the competition, the distributors and store owners don't make as much profit.
If your local gym or store carries Nuclear, tell them Thank-You because they care. I know that sounds corny, but they would make more money selling you something else.
If you'd like to know the other companies, let me know and we'll do a follow-up about the remaining few.
