The Road to Operation Phoenix
Donate to the Cause
A couple weeks ago we got a call from Jimi Letchford from CrossFit, asking if we’d be interested in donating some equipment for Operation Phoenix; a CrossFit organized, non-profit that raises money and donates equipment to outfit the men and women of our military, with the best possible fitness equipment available.
I told him, Torque Athletic is like every other company in America these days, happy to be in 13th year of business, but without a lot of extra money on hand. But, what we do have is a kick-ass manufacturing facility, the largest powder coating facility in Southern Indiana, a direct line to good old American steel from Indianapolis and a bunch of people willing to put in some extra work for a good cause.
After a quick conversation, Jimi said we’d be the perfect company to take on the fabrication of a custom pull-up system for the Army Base at Ft. Leavenworth. They needed something that could accommodate 40-50 soldiers at a time, plus something that would be high enough to hang rings.
Had we done this before? “No.” would we give it a shot, “Hell yeah.”
We’d seen pictures of other rigs and that had been built and wanted to make this one better. We’d noticed other systems we had seen looked a little cramped. They typically have 6ft wide sections that only allows 36” of space for a person to perform pull ups. We extended the space to 44” to provide plenty of elbow room, and a comfortable space for each person.
What we ended up with is two 16ft long, 8ft wide, 8ft high rectangles that could be connected, or set up separate. Each segment has the” Flying Fran” bars for extra pull-up space, or a place to hang your rings in case you don’t have the ability to hang them from the ceiling.
Pull-Up System in the Raw
We also had the challenge of making this pull-up station applicable to two different situations: the first would be in a basketball gym. This had to mount to a wall for stability, but then in 2 months, they would be moving the station to a soft-sided facility where the Pull-Up System would have to convert to a freestanding unit.
Odis Meredith, our engineer and designer came up with a simple plan, add in some mounting brackets that hold the unit steady, but away from the wall, so all four sides of the unit could be used inside the basketball gym. Then, when they move into the soft walled facility, where the unit will be free standing, they can bolt the legs to the ground and nothing will move it, not even 50 kipping soldiers.
Of course, nothing goes as planned. The day before we were to leave, the unit had been powder coated and was being finalized, the guys at our manufacturing facility were putting it together and making sure all the hardware was included when I spoke with the facility manager at Ft. Leavenworth. He mentioned, off-hand, that the building was old, and only had a 6ft doorway to bring the unit in.
Shit.
I sheepishly walked back in and told the guys the bad news, the unit wouldn’t fit through the doorways. I expected a good old Southern Indiana ass-beating. Instead of getting mad, Odis and the guys started sketching out on the floor how they were going to make it work.
After a few minutes of hot debate, Odis looked back at me and said: “No problem.” That was 11am, the day before we were to leave.
The Torque Crew
Cut to 1am the next morning, the guys had worked through lunch, had worked through dinner, but the good news was the modified unit was back in the powder coating oven and ready to be put together for a final check.
Odis and I got a couple hours of shut eye, and were back in the facility just a couple hours later at 4am, loading up the final pieces and heading for our 10 hour drive from Evansville, Indiana to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.
6 cups of bad coffee, 4 tanks of gas (H2 Hummer, dragging a car hauler), and too many beef jerky sticks later we arrived at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. This is the longest serving Military base west of the Mississippi and is a beautiful place with long rolling grassy hills and plenty of open space for families and soldiers alike.
We were met out front of the Harney Gym by Major Dave Maxwell, of Iron Major CrossFit, he’d been our contact throughout the process and a good calming voice in the confusion of trying to get this from idea to completion. He led us into the gym where we were going to be setting things up. Right away we were glad we’d made the modifications, the doorways were tight and there was a bend in a hallway which would have proven impossible.
Odis - Gettin' er Done
Major Maxwell recruited some people to help us and in no time we had both parts of the unit set up on two opposing walls. There was plenty of other equipment there that had made the journey from other companies willing to join the Operation Phoenix cause. C2 machines, bumper plates, plyo-boxes, everything you’d need for a kick-ass CrossFit gym.
Dave & Stuart of Iron Major CrossFit
We were invited to stay for dinner, but opted to get back on the road for our 10 hour journey back home. We thanked everyone, took a few pictures and said goodbye to our new friends and started the long drive back home. 25 hours after we started the journey from Evansville, we were back – tired, but happy.
Again, we’re very proud to have been asked to be a part of such a great organization. The people at Operation Phoenix are completing their goal to outfit the men and women of our military so that they can be prepared to fight for the freedoms we all appreciate so much. Thanks to Jimi Letchford and the folks at CrossFit for inviting us to be a part of this good cause, and thanks to everyone who bought T-Shirts or donated to Operation Phoenix.
The Final Set Up
and thank you all for your support. Because of our loyal customers 2009 was a great year for Torque Athletic, with the introduction of new products like the MOD III Squat Cage and collaboration with Operation Phoenix to provide a custom pull-up system for the the Army Base at Ft. Leavenworth, we had a great year and hope you did too. We also reached an new bench mark by shipping products to 26 different countries. It still amazes us that our small company, that began in the back of a garage in Southern Indiana has grown over the past 13 years to serve a worldwide audience.
Active Expert Joe Decker works out with some tractor tires.
What started out as a call from Mike at CrossFit Gotham asking if we wanted to sponsor the 2009 CrossFit Games, despite giving us about 24 hrs to make up our minds, ended up being one of the best decisions we’ve made recently. To compound an already tight schedule, Jimi Letchford called asking if we could supply the competition kettlebells-60 of them. With 6 business days left (before they needed to ship) that was basically impossible as our kettlebells are made one at a time. Well Odis Meredith, founder and lead engineer at Torque Athletic, doesn’t know the word impossible. I’ll say this, I’m glad I live in SoCal. He and the crew out in Indiana busted out 22 hour work days for several days in a row to get them done, and they did (even added a custom metallic silver handle color). So no problem, right? Wrong.
Last week, the crew over at CrossFit asked us to supply them with 60 kettlebells for the annual CrossFit games. We worked overtime bending steel, powder coating, and molding kettlebells this week to make the Thursday pick-up deadline for UPS. They are now on a truck headed to the Games.