History of the foundation

Hungarian beginnings

Sports have been a close part of my life since I was a small child. Competitively for several years I did gymnastics, then water polo, and later I took up racing cycling as a hobby.

Unfortunately, from my mid-twenties, active sports were absent from my life for almost 15 years. But I didn't break away from sports during this period either. In 2005, we launched our then-unique sports magazine a Sportime Magazine , which is published every even month to this day.

The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform for those athletes and sports achievers who cannot be included in the larger commercial publications. Thus helping to let people and potential sponsors get to know them . The publication mainly gives publication opportunities to individual amateur and semi-professional athletes.

A big boom came when I was forty. I had a serious lung disease, from which I luckily recovered.

After that, I decided that something should change in my life and I started playing sports again. Of course, soon with three sports and a little cross training. So I became a triathlete.

It's the sport and the people around it to a large extent they changed my life and my thinking. In addition to the magazine, I also wanted to deal with something else that I could help athletes with, but it is closely related to my already existing target community, the athletes. 

That's how I started several to get to know products related to health and sports , but you don't really know any of them to convince 100% of the effectiveness and quality of the product.

Every company was pushing massive marketing bullshit, but they didn't really know anything special, or their managers weren't willing to understand that we Hungarians may think a little differently . :-)

Then, one fine summer day, I thought that I should look around on the Internet to see if there is a brand that does not yet have a representative in our country. I didn't have to search for long, because I found Hammer Nutrition quite quickly for the products of an American company. After looking through the website, I wrote to the company asking if there would be a possibility of representation in Hungary. To my surprise, they answered after 5 minutes and we've been working together ever since. (The picture shows our first order - May 2016)

Did I make the right decision? It was probably the best decision of my life. I managed to get into a team where there is no obligation to comply, no traffic expectations, and no mandatory purchase of marketing tools. But whatever they said, it all worked as claimed. I was given a free hand in all areas, which gave me incredible freedom , without any constraints.

Although I had read the company's philosophy before, I actually did it myself only later, approx. I understood after two years , when Owner Brian Frank visited us.

I tell you this a lot, but maybe not enough. When I asked why the European distribution only started after 28 years, he only asked? "Why didn't you call me earlier?".

That's when I realized that this company doesn't want its product on every street corner. Its primary purpose is to introduce athletes to correct supplementation and to draw attention to the dangers of improper supplementation and the use of dietary supplements. For this, it offers and manufactures its quality products, free of sugar and unnecessary additives.

So I'm very happy that I got to know this brand and the philosophy it represents. I don't want to talk about the quality because whoever tries it will immediately feel what we are talking about. Also, let the results of the athletes who regularly stand on the podium using Hammer products speak for themselves.

History of the foundation

The question I get most often when meeting for the first time is, "What made you want to get into this business?" If this question has occurred to you, I can tell you this.

This story is about a special era, my unique background and the various influences that led me to start and steadily build this business ever since. Three decades of persistent, hard work and commitment helped me get from humble beginnings to what you see today.

ONCE UPON A TIME

When In August 1987, we presented our first product , the sport of triathlon was the latest fitness craze. "Yuppies" suffering from a lack of time and members of the fitness-oriented "baby boom" generation jumped into it enthusiastically and trained three times as much as other single-sport athletes.

He graduated in such a large amount unpleasant side effects of endurance training include fatigue, slowed regeneration, lack of energy, anemia, reduced immune functions and other ailments.

I knew exactly what had happened to these athletes and how I could help them, since by that time I had been consuming antioxidants and micronutrients for years to increase my energy levels, the to increase endurance and effectively treat fatigue and regeneration caused by training .

Remember , at that time it was not well known role of free radicals in the body and the role of antioxidants in neutralizing and repairing damage. They were not yet, in antioxidants and microelements rich specially developed nutritional supplements to treat the stress caused by high volume endurance training.

In addition, it is also the diet of most athletes it meant wrong with massive amounts of carbohydrates and almost zero fat content. Nutrition during training was also limited and primitive, with most people preferring bananas and water to the brightly colored sugar/salt/citric acid drink mixes of the time.

At that time, the most problematic of all was the position regarding the nutrition used in endurance sports. The experts of the time voiced that wrong theory (and this was then slavishly preached by every publication) to "fill up what you used up" from fluids, carbohydrates and electrolytes.

Thanks to the athletes tried to cram 500-800 calories down their throats every hour , and they drank massive amounts of water. Of course, this kind of thing didn't lead to anything good for athletes at the time (and it doesn't lead to it now either).

Fuel replacement and in terms of nutritional supplementation, it was the dark ages of endurance sports. Participation in events lasting 3-4 hours (not to mention 6, 12, 24 hours or longer) was almost always associated with negative physical symptoms such as stomach upsets , GI distress and/or stomach upset - which in more severe cases required a life-saving infusion in the medical tent.

THE triathlon Its growth in the 80s was followed by senior cycling in the early 90s, followed by mountain biking in the late 90s.

Meanwhile "the ultra effect hit" also - every imaginable ultra-distance race started to be organized and this trend continues to this day. As the world of endurance sports and the number of athletes grew, so did our company.

This unique interplay of circumstances created the ground for me and gave me the opportunity to create the first, specially designed for endurance athletes nutritional supplements . In the time that followed, I continuously developed exceptionally effective fuels, supplements and other products that meet the needs of endurance athletes.

THE HISTORIES

Another element of the story is how I started when I was 20 years old Selling nutritional supplements from my San Francisco apartment in 1987 .

I was born in 1967 and at our Hollywood Hills home before the midwife arrived.

My dad's were true Southern California "hippies". The my dad was a chiropractor and always supported the need for nutritional supplementation for optimal health. My mother she was a holistic healer and midwife.

In our household, we didn't eat a lot of sugar, wheat and processed, preserved dairy products - we mostly ate whole foods, we didn't have "junk" , as my mother used to call everything that came packaged or canned.

I could say that we were eating granola before it was cool. I remember I took vitamins when I was 4 years old .

I started to be attracted to sports at an early age, especially to those sports in which you could roll on wheels, I learned to ride a bicycle after my second birthday , and not long after that I was able to skateboard.

For my fifth birthday I was already riding a motorcycle and soon I was competing in BMX and motocross races . Since going to school was optional in the "liberal" school I was enrolled in, I spent most of my days cycling, skateboarding or riding a motorcycle.

In 1976, my two sisters and my mother moved to Chad , where my mother's new husband became the deputy director of the Peace Corps in Chad. We lived in N'Djamena, the capital.

The following 3.5 years were the most exciting and knowledge-giving period of my life. In addition to the innumerable experience and changed perspective, which in one of the poorest countries in the world The years I spent at the age of 8-12 give me, I cycled and rode a motorbike as much as I wanted and played soccer every day at school.

All this in 37 degree heat. Adequate hydration and nutrition were vital, if not for me, for most of the people around me.

Our second 2.5-year assignment in Chad was cut short by the civil war that spread throughout the country and was getting worse by the end of 1979. After a week of siege from N'Djamena they fled to neighboring Cameroon us for 6 weeks.

Then when they told us that "no stone was left unturned" and the Peace Corps suspends its work in Chad, we are back We settled in Southern California and Long Beach , where I spent my senior and high school years.

I immediately started a life on wheels again, cycling, skateboarding and riding motorbikes when I wasn't at school or at work, so that I can finance my racing .

In high school, I joined the water polo and swimming teams of Wilson High School in Long Beach, the leader in everything and many times the district champion. This it meant 4-5 hours a day in the pool and that was just the cross training to my true passion, motocross.

There were a lot of competitions at that time , I competed one or two nights a week and usually also on the weekend, if there was no match or I had to go to some swimming competition. In addition to these, I also maintained my good academic results in the school's faculty subjects, while I took on any job to be able to pay the costs of the competition.

I knew firsthand the profound effect that proper sports nutrition and supplementation can have on regeneration and energy levels before, during and after training and competitions. High dose CoQ10 and various antioxidants using a combination of I was able to keep this program mind-blowingly active. As soon as I stopped them, my regeneration fell apart and I took every opportunity to take a nap.

Thanks to motorcycle racing, I also picked up a knee injury from which there were two surgeries and exploring road cycling as a rehabilitation tool. I graduated in 1985 and moved to San Francisco, where I began studying international economics at San Francisco State University. I worked as a parking attendant in the evenings and on weekends I sold at a gourmet produce stand in Tiburon. So I had 4-6 hours a day to cycle and did nothing else, I traveled the Marin Headlands peninsula and the bay area.

However it got frustrating very quickly the lack of nutritional supplements on the market specially designed for long-distance cyclists and endurance athletes. That's why I went back to the solution I tried in high school and started taking high doses of CoQ10 and antioxidants. Its effect on my energy, endurance and regeneration was just as amazing as it was in high school.

We wrote 1987. There were many unique circumstances and the previously mentioned due to unsatisfied market needs , it was a given which product I could use to satisfy the demand - it was a perfect solution for an entrepreneur looking for a job.

I dropped out of school in 1986, I abandoned my plan to work in international trade to become an entrepreneur . In 1987, with the help of my late father, Gerry S. Frank, DC, I launched the E-Caps nutritional supplement family specifically for endurance athletes.

Our first product was a high-potency CoQ10 supplement containing a single active ingredient. He followed that a few months later the Race Caps and Enduro Caps – today we have combined, updated and developed the two into the Race Caps Supreme. These first three products were soon followed by Boron, Chromemate, Xobaline and Energy Surge. To this day, they are among my favorite products.

Gerry was sadly taken very quickly by cancer in 1991 before he could liquidate his order to join me in the day to day work.

THE EARLY YEARS

At that time it became clear that fuels intended for endurance athletes were not available .

After a while, I stopped counting the complainers. Everyone told us about how they got sick and were unable to perform to the best of their abilities due to the diet during the competition. This led to Sustained Energy (co-developed by Dr. Bill Misner and myself), the first product of its kind, which contained three types of complex carbohydrates, protein and a series of nutrients supporting fat metabolism.

During the development process, it was still running as "Wild Bill's Triple X Mega Fuel", then "Energy Surge" name was discussed until we settled on "Sustained Energy". With no flavoring or added sweetener, it tasted like soggy cereal or wallpaper paste, according to many. Nevertheless, he revolutionized nutrition during training sessions exceeding 3 hours.

Shortly after the successful launch of Sustained Energy, I started developing Hammer Gel, until then the only one in the United States under the name Leppin Squeezy specially energy gel existed.

I was aware that I could improve on the original, just as I could do with the "sports drink" concept. Like Sustained Energy, it is also one of the ingredients of Hammer Gel I skipped refined sugars and chose complex carbohydrates instead in the form of maltodextrin or real fruit concentrate for the fruity taste.

The absence of refined sugars and citric acid the main reason why Hammer Gel it works much better than any other gels and that's why athletes say they don't experience side effects like with other gels on the market.

1995 is another important year was for me. In addition to the existing endurance E-CAPS supplements and performance enhancers, I started to introduce Hammer Nutrition Endurance Fuels products. That year I moved my family and business to Whitefish, Montana. In addition to myself, I had one full-time employee, in 2014 the Hammer Nutrition team consisted of nearly 40 people at our Whitefish Center.

THE STORY CONTINUES

As the popularity of my products grew, more and more bicycle and other specialist shops became interested in them.

I never really intended to sell my products through distributors, but I'm glad I did effective and healthy products they reach consumers.

In this setup, the challenge is to ensure that customers receive exactly the same advice and customer experience from the distributors as if they were buying directly from us. That's why we love you working with distributors who “get” this new business paradigm - in today's world of web shops, traditional "brick and mortar" stores can thrive if they focus on service, educating and informing customers!

For this reason, I decided to help distributors with free educational materials, I extended the Our 100% satisfaction guarantee for products bought in stores and I started holding update information and employee trainings across the country.

The distributors they found that if the customers were well refreshed, they improved more in the sport and returned to the store more often, forming a better and closer relationship with the people there.

The distributor side of our business has now grown to the point where we are connected to thousands of stores across the country, but in order to maintain the integrity of the brand, pricing structure and business plan, I have decided to I give up on supermarkets and discount stores about easy money offered by

I think, that this is one of the reasons why we still have our original distributors and now, per square meter, nutritional supplement products bring them the most income!

Brian Frank
owner