A Letter from our Founder, John

Hello, I'm John, one of the founders of the sportswear brand MEAT, and I want to share my story with you.

I was exposed to the American hardcore fitness lifestyle at a very young age, and ever since then I had trained at a hardcore gym in Venice, CA. The way I would destroy the weights and set new PR’s practically every time I trained, my gym partners nicknamed me The Meat Man.

I am a maverick when it comes to fitness. I’ve never appreciated the vibe of commercial gym chains and their fancy modern equipment. I’m obsessed with hardcore, bare bone gyms, something that looks like it could’ve been a makeshift gym out of a garage. These are the places I get a real pump at. Heavy dumbbells and intense culture, there should never be a gym that stops at 70 pounds. Every plate needs to be real iron and there has to be serious lifters ready to work. Bodybuilding is an artform that pursues the ultimate. Only in this kind of hardcore training environment can I truly perform to my limits.

In 2017, I got together with a few of my like-minded friends at the gym and we put together an idea. At first, we only wanted to design some simple gym accessories to give out to other people at our gym. It soon began to get more and more attention so we started a brand out of it. We decided on naming it MEAT SPORTSCLUB because of my nickname. Gradually, more and more people who trained with us started asking for and wearing the gear. We felt very accomplished and being recognized by everyone around us was our driving force. The goal at the time was to simply add comfort and help with performance for everyone training. Frankly speaking, I didn’t think about the long-term development of our brand, I was just focused on providing something that was missing in our community.

Fast forward to more recent years, what really propelled the MEAT brand forward was by chance. In early 2020, the independent gym we hold near and dear to our hearts closed down for good. This was our home and it was a utopia for us. With low turnover and few members, most people have abandoned this seemingly old-school fitness concept and harcore spirit. There just simply are not enough harcore gyms that fit our criteria. This was a great blow at the time, and it really got us thinking about how the spirit of hardcore bodybuilding is getting farther and farther away from us.

The Golden Era of Bodybuilding represented by Arnold Schwarzenegger is as good as it can get. We worshiped him while in pursuit of our ultimate dream. It was still back in 2020 that my partners and I decided to build MEAT into a full-line sportswear brand that can carry that spirit of harcore bodybuilding with it. We had the realization to take up the responsibility to stand up and use the brand as a platform to express what we believe in, to use modern means to promote those not so modern concepts, and to promote the hardcore spirit that represents our generation.

Our brand name MEAT soon began to no longer only relate to my nickname, it is now also an acronym for Men’s Exercise and Training. Our products follow simple, straightforward, and powerful design principles. The gear provides support for fitness while still having enough space to show off your physique. We have also begun to colaborate with independent hardcore gyms and fitness athletes to help more people understand the essence of harcore bodybuilding and the inheritance of the Golden Era with MEAT as the carrier.

This is my story of how MEAT came to be. I hope that the future for MEAT is not just it becoming a sportswear brand seen as only clothes, but also a platform and a force. We want it to be a culture for the people to connect with and wear with pride. Hopefully when you are in front of a barbell and facing all that weight, our brand is there to inspire you and push you to your limits. MEAT, bringing out the bodybuilder in you.

If you’ve come this far and read this much into our brand, you deserve something special. Here’s a coupon code for 20%OFF entire order at checkout: MEATMAN20