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This is the extraordinary true story of the largest fitness equipment order ever.

The brass of the army went to the south. Twelve senior officers from different groups in the Army, such as TACOM (Tank Automobile and Weapons Command) and DCMA (Defense Contract Administration), have various titles, medals, badges and awards. They left the I-20 Interstate in Lexington, South Carolina, and passed Waffle House, Circle K, Bojangles, and Dairy Queen. The last turn led them on a bumpy road, ending in a palm tree-entrances on both sides. The rectangular warehouse has more than two football fields, enclosed by metal plates. Five-foot-high capital letters-SORINEX-are crowned at the entrance.

In front are various pickup trucks. Lifted, burly-tired, black and tan, white and red Ford and Chevrolet and Ram. Imagine the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops. The senior army came to ask if the southern reducer here can help them solve a national security problem that has reached a critical point.

It was the beginning of 2019, and although we had the most technologically advanced combat force ever-capable of carrying out Hellfire missile attacks from Predator drones driven by people thousands of miles away-new research found that the health of soldiers There has been a decline in the past few decades. Approximately 12% of active-duty soldiers are obese, a figure that has risen by 61% since 2002. Obesity-related healthcare and recruitment cost the government US$1.5 billion annually.

The Army is planning an intergenerational shift in its fitness culture, which will begin with its physical fitness tests. Since 1980, the test has been simple—push-ups, sit-ups, and two-mile running. However, military researchers determined that the new reality of war requires a test that includes forward-looking strength and physical training: slash deadlifts, solid ball throws, kettlebell farmers’ straps, sleigh sprints, and two-mile running. This means that the Army needs new fitness equipment.

That is 12,812,800 pounds. It is heavy for the sake of weight, which is equivalent to the weight of the 2,135 pickup trucks parked in front. According to government regulations, all of this must be made in the United States. Within six months.

Any U.S. company that thinks it can fill the contract can use the contract. The brass band has heard a lot of pitches, but they are here for another one. Bert Sorin and Nelson Lewis, a bit like Mutt and Jeff in sports, stand in front of the conference room. Sorin is Sorinex's 40-something, big-creative, outgoing CEO; Lewis is the digital-oriented chief operating officer behind the scenes in the late 1960s. Thorin is a former all-American DI track pitcher. He is 6 feet 3 inches tall, muscular, and weighs 230 pounds. He has a curly beard down to the middle of his chest. Lewis is "a guy who doesn't like sports" and is bald. Thorin is a large game hunter in a remote area, and Lewis is a bass fisherman. Sorin the Yes Guy, Lewis the No Guy.

No Guy led and did what No Guys did. "Well, first of all," he said, "it is almost impossible for you to ask. It's just that there are not enough raw materials to do this. There is not enough suitable steel to complete this order. There is not enough broken glue for the bumper plates. Not enough..." Wait. Surprisingly, the Army did not consider purchasing raw materials as a problem, and other bidders did not mention it.

Once the executives began to realize that this was a more complicated task than they expected, Yes Guy stepped in and formulated Sorinex's grand strategy. He explained that they may take a little more than six months, but they have been quietly waking up old factories in the United States to help them adopt new and innovative methods to fulfill this largest fitness equipment order in history.

Then the meeting ended, and Lewis and Thorin were left behind: "We [thinking about us] might get the job, but we might not," Lewis recalled. "But if we do get the job and don't invest in advance—as it is now—we can’t complete it."

What if they did invest but didn't get it? "Well, the house might be burned down," Thorin said. This is a huge gamble: they will use their capital to complete a non-existent order.

In the mid-1800s, the U.S. military first began to consider measuring health conditions that might give our military an advantage. Our immigrant soldiers are using Turnverein training, a method based on the aerobics and gymnastics they brought from Germany. In 1859, the Army sent a lieutenant to Europe for a three-year fact-finding mission. Based on what he learned, he proposed physical education courses and standards for the cadets and officers of the West Point Military Academy. It involves climbing a 15-foot-high wall; jumping a horse to five-foot height; running a mile in eight minutes or less; and carrying 20 pounds of equipment for a one-hour, three-mile march. In other words, a very good functional adaptability test.

As the battle changes, our method of testing soldiers has also changed. For example, World War I gave us a test tailored for trench warfare. It includes sprinting, long jump, wall climbing, grenade throwing and obstacle training.

"Then, coming out of Vietnam, we entered the garrison environment," said Dr. Whitfield B. East, who has been a professor of sports science since the late 1970s, who has developed fitness training for the Army since 2000. During the Cold War, many senior military officials believed that “nuclear weapons are so prolific that we will never fight another land war because the war will eventually lead to some nuclear confrontation,” East said. "So people started thinking about [transition from combat-related fitness] to health-related fitness." In 1980, the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) was established, which included two-minute maximum push-ups, two-minute maximum sit-ups, and two-mile running .

Twenty years later, the plane hit the tower, and the troops returned to the ground in a new dynamic form of warfare. Infantrymen carry 90 to 130 pounds of equipment and armor. They sprint short distances, run long distances on uneven terrain, kick doors, climb ledges and walls, quickly lift and haul heavy objects, etc. "From a physical point of view, we were not prepared enough," East said. In fact, APFT can only predict 40% of a soldier's combat capability in combat. Modern combat requires strong back, hip, and hamstring strength-muscle groups not involved in the test.

The soldiers paid a price for this. About half of active soldiers are injured every year, and 70% of them are overuse injuries, such as tendon injuries and stress fractures. Our unhealthy soldiers are 49% more likely to be injured than healthy soldiers. We are losing millions of working days and spending billions of dollars to treat injuries that may be prevented by smarter fitness training.

By 2012, the military is conducting research to determine which tests can better prepare troops for combat. "We identified 113 common soldier tasks and refined them into 11 tasks with high [stamina] requirements," East said. "Then we deconstructed these and found that there are five key physical structures in these 11 tasks." Such as moving under load and over obstacles, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, moving heavy objects quickly, etc. Then from there it's just R&D to find the correct series of exercises that mimic these structures.

This new test will be used to assess the fitness level of each soldier, and the Army will provide them with apps to help them train. It believes that this will alleviate existing health problems, reduce injuries, and help better prepare for upcoming soldiers. Due to the greater shift in the population to obesity, recruits tend to be dangerously deformed. Among Americans between the ages of 17 and 24, only 29% are eligible for military service. One of the most common reasons for disqualification is obesity. The CDC predicts that obesity will continue to increase in the next 15 years, thereby further reducing Army eligibility. The number of candidates. A policy think tank believes that the military's inability to find suitable recruits is an "imminent national security crisis."

The new test is called the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). Each ACFT kit will include a hexagonal barbell, 18 bumper plates, and a pair of barbell collars for deadlift; two 40-pound kettlebells for carrying; a sled for towing; and a ten-pound weight The medicine ball is used for throwing. "When the government needs to purchase materials, it will issue a so-called RFP or request for proposal. It basically says,'We have to buy X quantities of Y materials,'" said Will Allen, co-founder of Harpoon Ventures. A venture capital company specializing in defense contracting. "When the RFP drops, companies will have open and fair competition to win the contract." The RFP for ACFT equipment was released on December 28, 2018. The bidding begins.

Before you use a blue laser to cut a barbell similar to a space-age machine. Or hang a chilled hot steel squat beam. Or the hot blast furnace they came from. Before you reach all of these, you will see the walls on both sides of the entrance to the Sorinex factory are covered with steel sign boards with different signs printed and painted in different colors. There are hundreds. These signs are located on the top of every custom counterweight frame Sorinex makes for its customers. Proudly displayed on these walls is always extra.

There are from the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Flyers, UFC and all DI strong schools: Texas, Stanford University, Georgia, Oregon, etc. There are also signs from famous home gym orders: Joe Rogan's gym, Hulk Hogan's gym, Jocko Willink's gym.

Bert Sorin's father Richard is the person you call when you have a special request. The gym teacher and self-taught welder obsessed with weightlifting began manufacturing equipment in his carport in 1980. This is something designed for the highest performance picky meat heads. Those who need their equipment. The news spread, and soon he began to customize orders for others with extreme physical performance. Weightlifter, Olympic weightlifter, DI football team.

By 1987, he built the nation's largest custom weight room for the University of Kentucky football team. In 1992, he changed the job from a hobby to a mature company, which he called Sorinex. Every job is customized. The materials are the best in America.

Some of these nameplates bear the logos and acronyms of America’s most elite combat forces, such as the SEALs and the Air Force Special Operations Command. "We have a very close relationship with the military. Over the years, we have been the equipment of choice for many special forces in all different departments," Thorin said. "Maybe four or five years ago, we started to hear rumors that they would change all performance indicators within the Army, which would change the way everything works. So we started thinking about this."

Fitness equipment manufacturers do not manufacture every piece of equipment in-house. Like many companies in resource-intensive industries such as electronics, cosmetics, and clothing, they will cooperate with different suppliers and manufacturers to purchase different parts of their products. In some cases, they may even cooperate with third parties for them. Customize and manufacture the entire product. For example, in 2019, there were only two factories producing crumb rubber bumper plates in the country. Equipment companies such as Sorinex work with these manufacturers to develop bumper plates that meet their specifications.

Therefore, the problem that Sorinex faces in 2019 is twofold when it comes to formulating how to implement the ACFT bid and build the strategy needed by the Army. First of all, no matter what the formula is, there are not enough ingredients. "There is not enough broken rubber for bumper plates. There is not enough steel. There are only so many plants that can make bumpers and kettlebells," Lewis said, referring to the specific requirements of the requisition order. "And we know that everyone involved in the project will share the same resources and draw from the same resource library."

Take, for example, the 1.5-inch tubular steel required for Sorinex's hexagonal reinforcement. Steel is milled into different shapes, such as plates and tubes of specific sizes. Timothy Gill, chief economist of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said that steel mills are trying to forecast demand for steel products and produce accordingly. But as Lewis said, Sorinex is asking for "steel loaded in train cars", in a very specific form, immediately—even if Sorinex has not won the contract. Sorinex anticipated a steel crunch, so it bought as much existing steel as possible from American steel mills and ordered as much as possible.

Second, there are not enough manufacturers to complete the work fast enough. "So our whole approach is to'test standard resources'," Lewis said. "We did not reuse the same source of [equipment and materials], but introduced a completely new source for the product. We found a spring collar man who can make spring collars in the United States. We found a new casting company that can help We make kettlebells. We sourced sledges from another manufacturer. And, of course, we can make hexagonal bars."

To solve the bumper problem, Sorinex "cooperated with a company to introduce a new source for rubber bumpers," Lewis said. Then they figured out a way to make the United States the third bumper manufacturer, planning to lease a factory in Florida and "dig it out of the ground to help process orders."

For all these kettlebells, Thorin contacted an old company called BCI Solutions at the Red Brick Foundry in Bremen, Indiana. He said: "They are a small [family-owned] husband and wife organization. There is not much history of making kettlebells before." "We asked them,'What can you do?'"

"We manufacture products for multiple industries, including agriculture, construction, oil and gas," said Steve Pfefferle, BCI sales director. Think of nuts and bolts, cast iron parts, and auto parts. “When we talked to Sorinex for the first time, it was a conversation about contracts, schedules, and project management.” The company began work to make a mold for the kettlebell, and Sorinex signed the mold.

One problem: BCI will have to transport a pile of heavy iron balls-these items will turn into cannonballs behind a freight truck traveling on the highway at 75 miles per hour. "Each truck weighs approximately 40,000 pounds," Pfefferle said. "[Sorinex and BCI] must work together to develop packaging that ensures safe delivery."

Sorinex also discussed the production of pills with Mondo Polymer Technologies of Reno, Ohio. Each weighs up to 10 pounds and is covered with gripping, non-squashed liquid PVC. "The conversation was very candid," recalled Joe Sikorsky, Mondo's national sales manager. Sorinex is well aware of the scale and crazy nature of this work. Mondo even held his own meeting with the military. A review. "We believe that we are capable, but if any [problems] occur, we must supply the army before we can supply anyone else," he said. "Then we [prepare] put our noses on the whetstone."

This requires an increase in the number of forming machines that produce balls from 6 to 12. "In this way, our production capacity has doubled," Sikorski said. Then they plan to change their business hours. The standard eight-hour working day will become history. This command needs to run 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

A plan was made. Material reserves. New manufacturing partners gathered together. Thirteen months have passed since the Army abandoned its ACFT RFP. After some creative planning, intense negotiations, and terrible commitments to manufacturers, Sorinex submitted it with ten other equipment companies before the deadline of February 4, 2019 Its proposal. It took four months to decide the winner.

It split the contract between Sorinex and the main military contractor Atlantic Diving Supply.

Venture capitalist Allen said that what made Sorinex's bid stand out may be the company's history of providing equipment to elite troops and its ability to predict problems that the military did not expect and propose solutions. For example, it foresees that if each kit is transported on its own pallet, the military will face significant storage problems. "Pops [Richard Sorin] came up with the idea of ​​making a sealable plastic box for the kit," Sorin said. "Every item fits its place. The army can stack and store them. It is weatherproof and does not produce any waste." By using wooden pallets in an innovative way, Sorinex avoids the thousands of pounds of trash that pallets can generate .

"We are fishing for beluga whales," Thorin said. "But what happens when you put him online? There is a quick moment of excitement. Then "Oh, bullshit"."

When Solin told his employees and partners to start work, news came from the military in July: Of the ten other companies that submitted bids, two companies protested against the contract, claiming that they had been unfairly ignored. Some people firmly believe that it is impossible for Sorinex to make all these bumpers in the United States. A tortuous company cannot understand the twists and turns. The U.S. Government Accountability Office had to stop the project and investigate.

"So everyone joined and went all out, and we had to stop working in four or five days," Lewis said. "We have initiated a purchase order worth $2 million. We have [partners] calling us and saying,'I have someone to pay. I have family to support. I have other contracts [available], but if I accept They and you get this contract, I won’t be able to meet these dates... We tell them to stick to it. There is only this we can do."

They all sat for a few months, surrounded by steel.

When the Army and GAO lawyers denied these two protests and gave the green light, it was already October 2019.

In a few months, Covid-19 will begin to cause severe damage to the industry. "The pandemic has disrupted the supply chain and the logistics involved in transporting these materials from point A to point B," said economist Jill. He pointed out that it's not just steel, it's harder for manufacturers to get anything. Lewis' early bet on hoarding steel has paid off, which allowed Sorinex to be frantically looking for more steel while still being sufficient to maintain production.

The next problem is that they cannot build equipment from behind the computer screen. This requires hot, hands-on factory labor. Sorinex must apply for the necessary business designation to continue production. In order to keep employees social distancing, they work in shifts around the clock. As a result, they can help alleviate one of the many burdens of a pandemic.

"We need extra bodies," Thorin said. "So we started to recruit people from our communities, and hire bartenders and workers from companies that had closed down so that they could make money. Shipping, boxing and labor jobs."

One reality has not changed: the Army requires Sorinex to complete a job that usually takes four years in six months. Its manufacturing partners are progressing slowly, so Sorin and Lewis must innovate around this.

"When you have to [make a piece of equipment] 18,000 times, if you can save 10 seconds each time you make it, you can save a lot of time," Lewis said. He worked with Sorinex's partners to adjust the production process, which resulted in major changes. "A company would say,'I can't produce so many things in a day', [I would say]'Okay, okay, let's move your raw materials 15 feet closer to where you made them into equipment place.' "

Or take the boxes made by Sorinex for each equipment kit as an example. "This decision reduces the labor and resources for pallet construction," Thorin said. "This alone has saved more than a million nails. It is overwhelmed by all the sawdust that is used to store materials and build pallets."

Although it took nine months instead of six months, Sorinex has collected everything from all the American factories it revived, filled the final ACFT equipment box, and shipped it to the military when I visited the company headquarters. Thorin and Lewis were in Thorin's office, and both sat back in their leather chairs, willing to reflect on the madness of this process.

Their big early bets—bank steel and reputation with partners—have paid off. "This is a nightmare. This is a logistics nightmare. This is a storage nightmare. This is a procurement nightmare," Lewis said. "But I really enjoy the fun. It's great to see all the work done in the United States with American resources. It provides a huge boost for our partner companies. Because of this project, we hired 50 or 60 people."

American companies, working together to produce:

183,040 pounds of pills. 1,464,320 pounds of kettlebells.

The total value of the RFP bid: $64 million.

Sorinex began delivering the first of 18,304 ACFT kits to Army bases in late December 2019-starting with the Army National Guard in Frankfurt, Kentucky. It completed the order delivery in July 2020. The Army officially started using ACFT testing in October of that year.

Military fitness seems to have been improving. "[ACFT] challenges everyone. This is desirable," East said. "If you [get] full marks, you are really different." Just as Sorinex pursued and realized what seemed impossible with ACFT orders, among the more than 500,000 soldiers that have participated in the test, nearly 1,000 have won Full marks.