Brief History of Blank Label Performance
Hello Everyone!
We've been open for a little over three years and we figured it would be fun to do a brief history of the company. We'll include some stuff about the owners but this is mainly for BLP as a whole. When products came out, the motivation behind them, what it took to formulate them, etc.
As many of you know, Crusade preworkout was our first product. I had already developed the "formula" for Crusade years beforehand but never really knew what to do with it. I walked around to gyms on Fort Bragg, where I am stationed, and would have a white container with some words written on the lid. It was my personal stash and it would eventually turn into Crusade preworkout. Eventually my guys would run out of preworkout and ask to use mine. They tried it, loved it, and then requested that I make some for them. I was living in the barracks at the time so I bought some bulk ingredients and measured them out on a pop-up picnic table that I bought for a few dollars.
Around this time, in 2015, I deployed for the second time overseas. I made sure that I had enough Crusade to cover me and went across the pond for a few months. While I was there a bunch of guys wanted to try it. Mail was a little slow so no one's mail, including supplements, was coming in. Luckily I had a little extra and handed it out whenever people asked. The same thing happened as before, they loved it and asked where they could order some. I had already had the entrepreneurial bug and I started actually looking at the possibility of starting a company and marketing a product. I had enough contacts and experience with chemists, doctors, etc., to make a usable product but wasn't sure if it was possible alone.
Around this time, late 2015, I casually mentioned the idea to Dave Wiley, who was in the same unit as me, while we were driving back from lunch in town. He immediately asked what a share in the company would cost. I hadn't even thought that far ahead and I asked him why he had been so quick to want to invest. Dave had tried the product many times, had a container of his own, and wanted to see it go legit.
He was navigating a tumultuous time in his life and I was preparing for the next deployment, so we did the natural thing for two guys with a dream and no free time. We started Blank Label Performance.
We had 5 owners at the time, most of whom have dropped off for one reason or another. It was just Dave and I to stay with it consistently. We started working 20 hour days to compensate for working full-time military jobs, going to school, and running a new business. Before we knew it we had labels made for the one product and a nice list of preorders. All preorders included a shirt and some swag that we had scraped together. Some of those customers still order from us to this day and we're grateful for them.
On April 1, 2016 we officially opened the website and put our single product up for sale. We filled our preorders and started working as hard as we could to acquire new customers. We got some sponsored athletes who loved the idea and started working R&D. We quickly realized that we couldn't only offer one product and that an aminos product would keep us competitive. BCAA 2-1-1 was born, which we've now rebranded into just "BCAA".
Business was going well, we started showing up at events, making fundraising for veteran charities our number one priority. We still donate 100% of proceeds at events to veteran charities. We set up booths in NC, SC, VA, GA, FL, TX, and probably a few others that I can't remember right now.
It was about this time that we were finalizing two more product formulas. One of them, Fasted Shred, came to us through one of our sponsored athletes who was making a similar product on his own already. It was a no-brainer to give a fasted cardio fat burner to the bodybuilding community. All of the research was done, we consulted our scientists and wizards and reached a 90% solution on Fasted Shred and our first nitric oxide supplement, which we called "Pump Formula". Now it's called "Blood Force Trauma". We released them both as Beta Phase products in mid 2016, right before my third deployment.
Fasted Shred did extremely well, it was hugely popular with bodybuilders and people were finding themselves weeks ahead in their prep before shows. The pump formula (Blood Force Trauma) was being used by bodybuilders to increase their pump but we found a niche use for it as well. Minutes before going on stage, competitors would take a single serving and by the time they hit the stage they were noticeably more full. We had discovered a bit of a secret weapon for our bodybuilder athletes.
Everything was going well, business was increasing, and then I was hospitalized with malaria that I had picked up overseas somehow. I was back in the states at this point and shacked up in the hospital losing weight, struggling to keep food down. While I was hospitalized, I would hit my daily weigh-ins pounds under the previous day. When I started losing weight I knew that supplementation had an answer to this problem. If Fasted Shred can help people metabolize fat and get lean, then something could help me put on the weight that I had lost. I didn't have anything else to do at the hospital except do research and skype with business contacts to get the world's fastest supplement R&D process done. Our Boosted Aminos product was born out of this process. Within three days of being discharged from the hospital, I was back in the gym, Crusade preworkout and Boosted Aminos leading the charge. 30 days later I was back to my previous weight, lean, and stronger than I had ever been before. The malaria complications would keep messing with me to this day but it's all gravy at this point. The gains were back and I felt amazing.
After we released the Boosted Aminos, we signed two of our sponsored athletes, who are still with us, Joshua Petrecky and Charlie Steinhilber. These two inspired us daily to work hard and do right by the people who supported us. Shortly after this, we signed Brittney Dabney on to the team as well. And we've been crushing it ever since. Taking wins at shows, going so far as to see Josh get his IFBB pro card, and watching the physical and mental transformations our athletes have undergone. Their hard work motivates me every day to be a better person and work harder to achieve what I want.
Future projects for us include developing new products, getting our products in distribution channels all over the world and eventually building a warehouse on a beautiful Florida beach.
Thanks for supporting us and stay tuned for developments.
This post was written by Marcel Blood. Check out his story on the About Us page.