Brand Loyalty! (What are your brands of choice)

[Boka]

So guys and girls what brands do you trust and use for your training?

Personally, I use ProLab for glutamine, protein, and creatine. And as of recently AnimalStak for multi-vits.

[Adam Knowlden]

I use Champion Nutrition for protein, creatine, aminos, malto and glutamine.

I use twin lab and Hi-tech for vitamins.

This is a great thread Boka, I'm interested in member's preferred brands of vitamins for possible future ABC ventures.

[Boka]

[ QUOTE ]
I use Champion Nutrition for protein, creatine, aminos, malto and glutamine.

I use twin lab and Hi-tech for vitamins.

This is a great thread Boka, I'm interested in member's preferred brands of vitamins for possible future ABC ventures.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good to hear Old School, hopefully ABC will start carrying more brands. Not that there is anything wrong with Champion, but variety never hurt.



Also Old School I am curious on a mods take on all these new flashy suppliments that seem to be comming out on a weekly basis?

I personally view anything with a catchy fraze or a high-tech graphic as being useless becasue if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

[GMUnit]

[ QUOTE ]
I use Champion Nutrition for protein, creatine, aminos, malto and glutamine.


[/ QUOTE ]

What brands did you use before you got sponsored by Champion?

[Adam Knowlden]

[ QUOTE ]
What brands did you use before you got sponsored by Champion?

[/ QUOTE ]

Basically whatever my gym had on sale./forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I bought a lot of ON, but honestly that is because I really didn't know about Champion.

[ QUOTE ]

Good to hear Old School, hopefully ABC will start carrying more brands. Not that there is anything wrong with Champion, but variety never hurt.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the input, I don't know that we'll offer anything that directly competes with Champion Nutrition.

There's a lot of reason for this, the primary one being quality and also Champion provides a service that is invaluable to us.

ABC is in a unique situation. We aren't using the store to make a living, its all about expanding the websit. We all have other career goals.

Basically to make a living off of an internet store like bbing.com, you have to be able to have a lot of control over the value chain of the company.

A value chain is the set of activities required to design, procure, produce, market, distribute, and service a product or service.

Being profitable in the bbing supplement world is all about being a low cost provider. To do this effectively you have to be able to outmanage rivals in the efficiency with which value chain activities are performed and in controlling the factors that drive the costs of value chain activities, or you have to revamp your overall value chain to eliminate or bypass some cost-producing activities.

This requires a ton of time and resources. Outperforming rivals in controlling the factors that drive costs is a very demanding exercise!

Champion does all of this for us. Its a great partnership because it allows us to bring money into the site (our server is really expensive) and not have to run an entire business. It allows us to focus on all of our future ventures, our educations, JHR, the forums, and all the behind the scenes stuff we do like discussing ways to revolutionize the body building world. /forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

So you see, adding other companies that sell whey or what have you, would only be a hindrance to us, not a help at all. It does limit our variety, but sticking with Champion allows us to maximize our research capacities (our chief asset is our intellectual property), and forum interactions.

So we want to expand the site (so we do have an interest in making the store profitable), while providing members what we believe are the most quality supplements, but not have to spend thousands of hours running a business. Not to mention morally, we would not sell a lot of the products our potential competition would sell.

We do, however, want to expand into vitamins and other health products that bodybuilders utilize, i.e. flax.

[ QUOTE ]
Also Old School I am curious on a mods take on all these new flashy suppliments that seem to be comming out on a weekly basis?

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have a particular supp in mind?

I basically stick to the normal products that have science to back them up.

[ QUOTE ]
I personally view anything with a catchy fraze or a high-tech graphic as being useless becasue if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. If you mean those 20 page adds in flex, no I don't use those products at all.

I am also curious about something...this is to anyone who wants to answer.

Would you pay a few bucks more for quality?

For example,

if you saw Brand X on the shelf and Brand Y on the shelf, if you believed Brand X was superior, how much more would you pay for it?

Let's say Brand X was $30 and Brand Y was $25. If you knew Brand X was a better quality would it be worth it to you to pay the extra $5?

Also what is the price limit you would put on quality of whey? Thanks! /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[book]

Brands for protein are usually Dymatize and Champion (Dymatize is more "pure" but lists soy protein as an ingredient and does not list the amino acid profile so I don't exclusively use it).

Vitamins I usually get are Twinlab Multi w/o iron but I'm considering getting NOW ADAM as it is essentialy the same thing.

Mostly everything else I buy from NOW or the cheapest provider such as Higher Power.

To Oldschool's question I would pay a bit extra for a moderate to large increase in quality. If a vitamin is only say packing an extra 5% comapred to a cheaper brand and if there both well dosed, then I wouldn't be bothered. Likewise I wouldn't pay extra for some mix vitamin supplement like ZMA, I would just buy them seperately (thouh It'd be cool to see a deal specifically FOR buying the seperate components for ZMA).

[Boka]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a particular supp in mind?

I basically stick to the normal products that have science to back them up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well the only things that come to mind right now is a comerical I saw on the TV today... One was NV a weightloss suppliment that promised some 30 or something pounds of weightloss in 6-8 weeks, or something ot that effect. also the adds in fitness mags with flashy graphics are a good example, the ones that promise they are "XXX times better then, creatine(or what ever else) and work faster"

[ QUOTE ]
if you saw Brand X on the shelf and Brand Y on the shelf, if you believed Brand X was superior, how much more would you pay for it?

[/ QUOTE ]
Personally I perfer quality, I'll live with the cost unless it is outragous and i cant afford it.

[ QUOTE ]

Let's say Brand X was $30 and Brand Y was $25. If you knew Brand X was a better quality would it be worth it to you to pay the extra $5?

[/ QUOTE ]
Always do! /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Also what is the price limit you would put on quality of whey?

[/ QUOTE ]
however much ProLab cost at the store! /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif At my usual place that about 45-47$ CND for 5lb but I've paid as high as 60$ CND before.

[TheShanMan]

Regarding paying more for higher quality... what book said. If I see extra value in the product, I will pay a little more for it. And in the case of all the champion products I use, it is for that reason as well as the desire to support this site that I'm willing to pay a bit more. But on the flip side, I get what to me appears to be a quality glucosamine/condroitin/msm product from costco called which is a lot cheaper than the champion product. I don't see a good enough reason to pay a lot more for this kind of product, and since I no longer have joint issues, I can't imagine changing my mind. Same goes for my malto and dex, which I get at a local home brewing shop for dirt cheap. It may have some clumps in it, but I can live with that.

Another factor is I already spend a substantial amount on supps (glad my wife is understanding!), so do I spend significantly more to buy a "higher quality" supp than the one I'm using, or do I use it to buy some other supp I'd like to start using or start using more of?

[aricho]

i have ON whey and i'm trying to decide what creatine works for me best......i've got BSN atm but i'm gettin some prolab on thurs.

I would try Champion but i havent seen it anywhere in AUS

[GMUnit]

[ QUOTE ]

I am also curious about something...this is to anyone who wants to answer.

Would you pay a few bucks more for quality?

For example,

if you saw Brand X on the shelf and Brand Y on the shelf, if you believed Brand X was superior, how much more would you pay for it?

Let's say Brand X was $30 and Brand Y was $25. If you knew Brand X was a better quality would it be worth it to you to pay the extra $5?



[/ QUOTE ]

I guess my whole "whey protein purchase history" has started at the cheap stuff and progressed to the more superior/expensive.

I started with designer whey (got an expensive 2pounder as a gift) about 6 years ago when I was 14... A friend of mine from church who was about 4 years older who both worked at GNC and was sponsored by Prolab (so I trusted He knew his stuff), asked me what brand I was using, when I said designer he grimaced, mentioned something about the amino profile, walked me out to his car, pulled out a big tub of GNC Vanilla whey he had from work and gave it to me. For the next three years I used GNC whey.

On one trip to GNC I bought some cheap twinlab whey that was on clearance. I told my mom it smelled bad. She said it just smelled really chalky and I told her that it smelled like "fish food". LOL, Needless to say that was not a good break from routine.

I moved on from GNC brand to Optimum Nutrition (I heard it was better) spending more money for it (I think Gnc brand used to be cheaper pound for pound than ON at GNC, but I think its different now). Later on I switched to more expensive EAS, then back to ON (I switched stores too: Vitaminshoppe).

I finally broke down and spent a little extra this spring to buy Champion when it was on sale at VS: WHOA best tasting whey I've ever had. Currently I'm finishing up a tub of Champion while I wait for a few new brands I decided to try to come in (my first online supplement purchase ever): Scitec Sci-pro and Iron-Tek Essential Natural whey. Online they were about the same price as tubs of champion, so I decided to give them a try.

[ryancostill]

I guess the two main brands I am loyal to would be optimum nutrition (for whey, casein, glutamine and creatine) and champion nutrition (for whey, although I think I may very well try their creatine and glutamine in my next round of purchases).

And yes, I would certainly pay more (10-25%) for quality.

[Armor for Sleep]

I use champion whey because I think it tastes the best. My favorite flavor is Banana - goes great in my morning shake with oatmeal, PB and some apple juice. I'm also using an ON tropical fruit flavor right now for my PWO shake, but after its done I will try out the champion Tropical sunrise flavor. i'm not sure about protein quality - i'm going by superior taste

as for your question Old School - for me, it depends on the product. for things i believe to be utmost staple in my diet, such as whey and creatine, ill be willing to shell out the extra $. but for things i believe are 'extra' such as ZMA and glutamine, i probably wouldnt.

[klosey]

whey i use bulkpowders whey as these come unflavoured but you can choose flavour system for it

bulking powder - on serious mass

creatine - aviform

vitiminim - nutrisport

cutting tablets - met rx

meal replacer met rx

[TM40]

I agree with TheShanMan in regards to spending more. Depends on the product, and secondly if the extra money could go to something else.

As far as brand supplementation-

NOW- ADAM multi (When I have the money), Carbo Gain,
and Dextrose, occasionaly Liquid Glucosamine Chond.
w/ msm
BulkNutrition- Glutamine, CEE, CM, HMB, Glucoronolactone.
ON- 100% Whey, Pro Complex PM
Champion- occasionaly Whey, and the new JSF
FOLGERS- COFFEE

I have tried alot of brands and this is the staple I have found I like (benefits vs. cost). I am willing to try new things, but with the amount of items I purchase I am not fond of spending too much extra.

[Adam Knowlden]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I like Maxwell house myself. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[pinoymjl]

Very nice thread. I often use Universal Nutrition products for my creatine, protein powders/bars, and multivits. I have occasionally tried their other anabolics and thermogenics in the past but only for the experience.

[IronFuji]

For whey, I used to buy prolab, and then switched to ON. I used ON for a while until trying champion which I thought tasted much better. But I just got some ON again, cause it was on sale for 30 bucks canadian for 5 lbs on supplementscanada.com./forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif For creatine I like prolab, it's the cheapest I can get and good quality.