Canadian Barbell Company - Canadian Brands

 

1.      Can you tell me a little about yourself and your brand?
 

My name is Bobby Troop, I grew up playing every sport I could and wound up playing varsity football in University at Laurier and then Acadia.
Canadian Barbell Company was a thought I played around with in my head for a few months after finishing school, returning home and starting CrossFit to sort of fill the void that was left from not playing football anymore. When I started CrossFit I saw that there were a lot of brands involved in the sport that really demonstrated an American sense of pride and patriotism and while there are some great Canadian brands out there, I thought I was onto something.
Now we're up and running and gaining momentum. Our goal is to be involved in not only strength sports (oly, power lifting, crossfit) but be involved and associated with amateur and professional athletes as well as appeal to the everyday person hitting the gym, trying to be the best version of themselves and wanting to rock some gear that they can be proud to wear as a Canadian.

2.      What was the “spark” or start of your company?

 

The spark for me was sitting around one Saturday night with some close friends, just shooting the breeze. They had no idea that I had been thinking about this for some time and then they said something about a cool brand and I told them my idea. They were super supportive and thought it was a genius idea. That gave me the confidence to act and get the gears in motion to get CBCo running. 

3.      Where did the idea for your brand come from?

It came from wanting a brand that was clearly Canadian, appeals to Canadians, the grit that I think Canadians posess and I just simply thought that there should be a brand that reflects Canadian's sense of pride while they are in and out of the gym. I think that there has been a large amount of growth in Canadian patriotism and pride on the global stage between the Olympics, FIFA Women's soccer and within the CrossFit community having 2 top 5 male athletes at the CrossFit Games as well as top level female athletes attend the CrossFit Games annually. We think that because there has been this emergence of strong Canadian performances on a global scale there needs to be a brand that gives these athletes Canadian representation and they can be proud to wear. Within all of these sports the one common thing they have is that all of these athletes have to train, they all spend countless hours in the gym and with CBCo we'd just like to create apparel that appeals to these high level athletes and their lifestyle as well as the everyday gym goer who also wants to show off their Canadian sense of pride and patriotism. 

 

            4.      What is the goal or main priorities of the brand and company (outside of financial)?

 

Currently our main goal is to just gain a solid foundation to allow for growth. We want to be an apparel/lifestyle brand. On top of this, once we feel we have our roots and are established, we are either going to team up with an existing children's program that gets kid into sports or create our own. The reason being is that I believe sports teach kids that are growing up so many lessons about character and hard work that I think are so valuable outside of the sports world and not all kids have access or are able to play sports. I truly believe that growing up playing sports has led me to continue to stay passionate about hitting the gym and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

 

5.      How do customers/athletes, and their opinions, influence or impact your brand?

Customers and athletes opinions are huge for our brand. They are the consumer and have to want what we're putting out on the market. So, feedback and hearing what people want or don't want and really trying to keep up with, or stay ahead of what's going on with our customer base and what they want is super important to us.

 6.      Where do you see your brand in one year and in five years? 

In one year we see continued growth and developing a great foundation from which we are able to have a strong presence in the training and weightlifting community. Within five years we'd like to have a solid presence in the fitness and weightlifting community as a whole and be in a position to be giving back to communities with some type of kids in sport initiative.

  

7.      What is the impact of social media on your brand and business?

 

Social media has a huge impact on our brand and business as it is such a powerful tool now to promote brands. Social media has such a large reach and enables brands like us, that are quite small the opportunity to reach a larger audience and engage more people. As a brand it allows us to gauge and observe trends and how we can be more successful as a brand and as a business.

  

8.      If you wanted people to know one thing about the clothing (art, fit, durability, etc).  What would it be?

The one thing we would like people to know about our products is that we take a great amount of pride in our products and we strive to make sure that it is high quality.  when you are wearing our gear we hope you wear it with pride as well.