About Us

The Beginning – From a marketing ploy to a thriving business and community

Being young, energetic entrepreneurs, we ignored the red flags that seemed to be everywhere in the economy. The recession was almost in full swing, the per capita income in our market was $18,500, and almost every week a local company was either closing its doors or reducing some of its workforce. Maybe it was an unnerving fearlessness or maybe it was just sheer stupidity. Who knows. But we opened our fitness center anyways, hoping that a $45 gym membership wouldn't be one of the first expenses our members cut back on.

Knowing we had to compete with Snap Fitness, as well as several other gyms in the area, we had to find our niche, our purple cow if you may. After a month of steady gym memberships, we finally stumbled upon our pot of gold: offer our gym members access to any dietary supplement they want for only $1.99 over our cost, a little perk for Ageless’ members!

A simple idea turned into almost an overnight success. Within a month, we had customers driving 45 miles to stock up on supplements. They didn’t want to sign up for the gym. They wanted to sign up for our “supplement club.”…..

The Big Idea

We asked ourselves, "What if we could sell a supplement membership in addition to our gym membership?". Muscle Geeks was born….

We took Costco’s business model, and made it even better. Instead of using a varied mark-up pricing scheme for members, we decided to sell every supplement and tanning lotion (which is over 5000 products) for $1.99 over our cost. We envisioned even as our volume and discounts grew, our mark-up would always only be $1.99 over cost.

We started small. We fixed any early malfunctions, and retested until we had it perfect. We consulted accountants, lawyers, and professionals who have been in the business for years to ensure Muscle Geeks was scalable. We crunched the numbers, and then we crunched the numbers again. The numbers, the expert opinions, and the feedback from the initial Muscle Geek members: everything was a hit. Muscle Geeks was ready.

The Future

The future of Muscle Geeks looks extremely bright.

• In 2007, over 25 million people purchased supplements for fitness or weight loss
• In 2007, total sales for The Sports Nutrition and Weight-loss category was $19.6 billion, 7% growth from the previous year
• The market for sports nutrition and weight-loss products is proected to grow by $1.3-1.9 billion dollars each year until 2013.
• According to Zappos, eventually over 30% of all retail transactions will be online

We’re quickly approaching our initial goals, and have already created new goals for the next 12 months. By June of 2010, we plan to:

• Have our 10,000 active members
• Fill over 100,000 orders
• Save our members over $1 million dollars (just $100 per member)
• Launch our own house-brand of supplements at just $1.99 over cost (Imagine 1000g of creatine monohydrate for only $6)
• Lower our mark-up to just $0.99 over cost instead of $1.99
• Create a new business model that puts the consumer in charge, not the business.

Only with your help, can we achieve these goals. So, please spread the word.

The Founding Geeks

Dr. T.J. Allan, Pharm.D – Lead Geek

The founder of Muscle Geeks, T.J. received his doctorate of pharmacy from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 2007. While working on his doctorate, he was inducted into the prestigious Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society. After graduating, he received specialized training in managing patients with diabetes, managing patients in long-term care facilities, and community vaccinations. He is an active member of the National Community Pharmacists Association, American College of Apothecaries, American Pharmacists Association, Illinois Pharmacists Association, and the American Botanical Council. He also serves as a preceptor to pharmacy students from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville School of Pharmacy. He currently practices as a community pharmacist at an independent pharmacy in Illinois.

In addition to his clinical practice, he specializes in dietary supplements' effects on physical and mental performance. He’s a featured writer for various publications regarding the use of dietary supplements. His most recent work includes “The importance of BCAAs in Training” found in Fight! Magazine, and “Rhodiola rosea: natural stress relief for the mind” found in Bluff Magazine.

Charlie Hicks – Shipping Leader

Charlie joined Muscle Geeks after serving 4 years as warehouse manager at Premium Retail Services in St. Louis, MO. Supervising over 10 employees and two 40,000 square foot warehouses, he shipped over 480,000 packages each year. Using efficiency and technology he has not only improved Muscle Geek shipping times, but also saved money.

In addition to Muscle Geeks, he's an avid weightlifter, paintballer, and poker player.

Amber Shelton – Customer Service Leader

When we began looking for a customer service leader, we knew we needed the touch of a woman. With a bachelor in kinesiology from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Amber was without question the woman for the job. Her successful athletic career, which ended as being named a Division II basketball All-American, bred a lifelong love for fitness and athletics. Her dedication and passion for physical fitness has trickled down into every crevice of Muscle Geeks, and is exemplified by all of our customer service representative.

Not only is she the most athletic founding Geek, but she’s also pound-for-pound the most muscular. She strength trains, runs marathons, and has even contemplated competing in figure  training.

Pete Visintin Jr. – Sales and Marketing Leader

With a MBA from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and prior experience in the fitness industry, Pete joined Muscle Geeks in preparation for our national launch. He's worked at Matt Hughes' Hit Squad gym and managed Ageless, LLC. Involved in almost every area of Muscle Geeks, he's directly responsible for the continued growth of Muscle Geek.

Pete is also an ACE-certified personal trainer, and owns BallQuick Athletics, LLC, a company that teaches individual skill development for basketball players of all ages. To learn more about BallQuick Athletics, visit his site.