2009 CrossFit Games, Kettlebells and Good Times
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.
Loaded on pallets, shipping time calculated to get them there the day before the competition begins, and the Bells are off for Aromas, CA. Oops, forgot about the 4th of July. Relax said the shipping company, they’ll be there by Thursday, noon. Flash forward to Thursday night, 7 PM (competition begins 9 AM Friday morning) still no sign of our shipment. The shipping company called and said, “New arrival time-noon Friday”. As the panic set in I did what any responsible Brand Manager would do-I cracked open a Bud Light and let Odis handle it. And handle it he did. He found some Special Forces style company who ended up intercepting our shipment at around 2 AM, off-loading it to their trucks, and getting it to Aromas before the competition started Friday morning.
It was all uphill from there-Jimi, Dave, Kenny, Angie, Mike, Chuck, Hailey and the whole rest of the CrossFit crew kicked-butt for Torque Athletic. Our booth was a focal point throughout the weekend for some fun Strongman style competitions, and we met a lot of great people. We want to thank everyone who came by and used our products, the competitors who left nothing behind and I’d like to personally thank Rory Mckernan and Ange Worthington for basically telling me, “Torque Athletic has to be there.” They were right. See you next year,
Ian, Odis, Beau and Jacob
Strong work guys! I’m sure you made quite an impression.
Great to meet Odis and the gang at the Games! Odis made me a one-off Top Squat with short handles (for short people) a few years ago, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Meeting him was a highlight of the event for me (as was not killing myself on the pushup spikes!)