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The Massenomics Mafia (w/Tommy DeFea)

Written by David Tao
Last updated on November 11th, 2024

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Today we’re talking to Tommy from Massenomics, a lifting, apparel, and social media brand — and also a functioning strength sports gym — based out of Western North East South Dakota. If that sounds strange, then you haven’t gone headfirst into the Massenomics world. They’re curators of some of strength’s funniest memes and content, and they’ve built a dedicated following among lifting nerds that needs to be experienced firsthand. Tommy joins us to talk about Massenomics origins, Jefferson Deadlifts, inside jokes that made it big online, and why their LIFT shorts truly are clothing for billionaires.

Tommy DeFea Podcast

On this episode of The BarBend Podcast, host David Thomas Tao talks to Tommy DeFea about:

  • What the heck is Massenomics? (02:15)
  • A civics lesson for the great Midwest (06:10)
  • Strength sports memes: BarBend vs. Massenomics? (11:00)
  • Western North East South Dakota (18:00)
  • The Massenomics Podcast (19:00)
  • Interviewing powerlifting legend Ed Coan (21:30)
  • “We are the coaches of the podcast industry” (24:05)
  • Meeting fans and making friends at the Arnold Sports Festival (29:00)
  • Is it really the world’s most expensive lifting gear? (32:00)

Relevant links and further reading:

Transcription

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I think there was a meme that in passing mentioned Jefferson deadlift way…This was years ago, and someone thought it was a made-up lift. Then we started talking about, “No, no, Jefferson deadlifts really is a real thing. It seems ridiculous, but it is real,” so we started making a few more jokes about it.

 

It seemed like it’s just one of those things that people latched on to because one, they couldn’t believe that deadlifting, like straddling the bar was an actual exercise. It also seemed a little weird that it was named the Jefferson deadlift.

David TaoDavid Tao

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast,” where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by barbend.com.

 

Today I’m talking to Tommy DeFea from Massenomics, a lifting apparel and social media brand. Also a functioning strength sports gym, based out of Western, Northeast South Dakota. If that sounds strange, then you haven’t gone head first into the Massenomics world. There are curators of some of strengths’ funniest memes and content.

 

They’ve built a dedicated following among lifting nerds that needs to be experienced firsthand. “Oh,” they also have a massively successful podcast. Tommy joins us to talk about Massenomics origins, inside jokes that made it big online, and why their Lift shorts truly are clothing for billionaires.

 

Also, we’re incredibly thankful that you listened to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the BarBend podcast in your app of choice. Now let’s get to it.

 

All right, Tommy. Thanks for joining us. This has been a long time coming. I actually wish people could see this podcast. We don’t use the video, because I think the facial expressions of this one are going to be fantastic if anyone’s ever watched your podcast before.

 

OK, let’s do the rundown. Who are you? Why the heck are you on this episode? Just to wrap it up after that. Where are you from? In that order.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

OK, well asking the tough questions right off the bat David.

 

Again, [laughs] my name is Tommy DeFea. I am co-owner of Massenomics. I am based out of Western, Northeast South Dakota. Some people want a city, so we say Aberdeen, South Dakota.

David TaoDavid Tao

That’s it. You handle that like an absolute pro. What is Massenomics? What the heck is that thing you mentioned in the middle there?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Massenomics. It’s actually gotten a little easier to explain over time. In the early days, it was really tough to explain what it was because we didn’t know what it was. Now, for the person that has never heard of it, the easiest way is to say, “We sell apparel, we do a weekly podcast, and we make a lot of memes on Instagram.” That’s probably the easiest way to sum it up.

David TaoDavid Tao

See, how I first heard describe it, I’ve been aware of y’all for a while. Some other members of the BarBend team first started drinking your Kool Aid and then put me on to you all. The way it was first described to me was, “There’s some powerlifters and they do some stuff, and they make some jokes, and I think they have a gym.” Do you all have a gym?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Yes, we also have a gym too. We think it is like a small club gym. We have about 50 members, but it’s not ran to be a profitable business. It floats itself and it stays sufficient and everything, but we don’t have this gym with the idea of “Oh, we’re going to get rich in the gym industry.”

 

Pretty much any profit goes right back into buying equipment. It’s created a cool spot that when people show up in Aberdeen, South Dakota, they say, “Wow, that gym exists there. This is unbelievable.”

David TaoDavid Tao

 When I think of the Meccas of strength sports, I think of Venice Beach and I think of Aberdeen.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] As you should.

David TaoDavid Tao

It’s one of those things. Back almost 100 years now just the physical culture in Aberdeen is what everyone’s talking about. I live in New York City, and we wake up every day and we go, “You know, maybe it’s time to move to Aberdeen.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

South Dakota is becoming a hot spot lately, so I don’t blame you.

David TaoDavid Tao

It was the hot spot, but for something else, unfortunately fairly recently.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] You do have a point there.

David TaoDavid Tao

Are you a native Aberdeenian? Is that way? What is the…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

You’re close. It’s Aberdonian. I actually am not. I’m from a small town right on the border of Minnesota and South Dakota, but then I’ve lived in Aberdeen for a little over 10 years now.

David TaoDavid Tao

Got you. Now, I was expecting you to be from a small town because no one’s like, “Oh, you know I’m originally from Chicago, but I ended up in Aberdeen.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Actually, you know what? I have met a few people that are originally from Chicago and now live in Aberdeen. It’s weird how that goes. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

 I should shut up. I’m about to make some enemies here. Your native eyes Aberdonian. How big is Aberdeen? Tell us a little bit about the strength culture there that you all are the focal point of.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Yeah. We’re are in the middle of nowhere here. We’re not on a major interstate or anything like that. You don’t accidentally come through you have to be here on purpose, if you’re coming this way.

 

City population about 28,000 and the next city of any size, you’re looking at about 200 miles away. We’re isolated out here. It’s put us in the world of our own. Actually forgot what the second part of the question was already.

David TaoDavid Tao

When you get equipment shipped to Aberdeen, do they bring it in via a sled?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

It’s like most shipments, it comes by freight but then that last 100 miles, there’s no roads or anything. That’s where they got to get creative, horse and buggies, sled, all that stuff. Any means possible, they get it here.

David TaoDavid Tao

We are joking. There are roads to Aberdeen just not really big ones. That’s the point, right?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Yeah, basically.

David TaoDavid Tao

We’ll get back to the strength in a moment. Right now, we’re having a civics lesson.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We’re setting the scene here.

David TaoDavid Tao

We’re setting a scene. We’re having a civics lesson here for this new center and hotspot of strength sports. Why does Aberdeen exist? What is the economy in Aberdeen based around? I’m assuming it’s not Internet memes.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

It’s not. If you looked at the biggest employers in town, we have two different hospitals. 3M is a fairly big employer. It’s a lot of manufacturing jobs, and then the agricultural industry is a huge part of the economy around here. Those are the bigger industries in the region that most people would be familiar with or run across, if they came through town.

David TaoDavid Tao

 Was Aberdeen one of those places that a long time ago, farmers would like bring their crops to sell in there?

 

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Actually, to give you the full history, a really condensed version. Aberdeen’s nickname is the Hub City. That was because it’s where a lot of railroads meet. It was the hub of the region, so they call it the Hub City.

David TaoDavid Tao

How did it become a hub for strength sports? Take us back to the Massenomics’ journey.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

The Massenomics’ journey, boy, if we had to start here, my business partner, his name is Tanner. He’s the one that Massenomics exists. You can say he’s the one that created Massenomics.

 

If we go back far enough, we were all lifting at a commercial gym in town together, few of us guys come to known each other because we would all lift at the same time. There’s not a ton of people in the area that were interested in powerlifting and lifting heavier weights and doing it with proper form and programming and things like that.

 

You start hanging out with the guys and you get a feel for what everyone else has for training, you respect that, and you’re there for spotting them and all that. One day, Tanner says, “I created a YouTube channel.” I’m like, “Hey, good for you, man.” I didn’t know him that well at the time. He’s like, “Yeah, here it is,” and he shows me a screenshot.

 

All I see is like S and no marks, or something. I couldn’t read it. I’m like, “God, I don’t get it.” He’s like, “Oh, sorry, sorry. It’s cropped.” He’s zooms that out. Massenomics. I’m like, “Hey, dude, that’s really cool.” Massenomics. That name has a instant ring to it.

 

I told him, I said, “I’m a graphic designer. I can make you a logo.” He was, “Oh, that’d be awesome. Yeah, let’s do it.” I make him a logo, which is the Massenomics logo today. I sent it over. He’s like, “Dude, that is amazing. That’s so cool.”

 

Then I said, “We could put that on T-shirts.” He’s like, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, so here’s a printer here, we’ll get it on some T-shirts.” That was where it started right away. It was this website where we did…

 

We didn’t know we were doing like blog posts and articles. We had like a T-shirt you could buy. Then from there, it turned into, “Hey,” Tanner says, “I just bought 2,000 pounds a weight, I got to find a place to go.”

 

He found this little room in a basement. I think the first Massenomics gym was about 20 by 20. It was basically the size of a bedroom.

 

There was five members. We started lifting and getting into strength sports. With that came, we were doing powerlifting meets, we started doing Strongman. We also started competing like Highland Games. There is a Highland Games competition held in Aberdeen every year.

 

It snowballed from there. We got excited about things, we started doing it. Massenomics gave us the opportunity to reach out and talk to other people. That is the condensed version of the history and how we got going with everything.

David TaoDavid Tao

My favorite part about that story is that Tanner started a YouTube channel, which is accessible on any Internet device, and he chose to show you a screenshot of it.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] I’m trying to remember if it was a screenshot or if it was like a…I don’t know how he had to pull it up. Either way, I couldn’t see the name Massenomics. I don’t know how he did that.

 

David TaoDavid Tao

Because you have a few options there. You could use the YouTube app to navigate to the channel.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

That would be one and the most obvious.

David TaoDavid Tao

You could use any Internet browser on a mobile device. We’ve had this technology since 2007, the year the first iPhone came out. I had to point out that part of the story because little bit of an Easter egg there.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

No one ever said, “We knew what we were doing here.” [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

When was this?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

This is when he first started talking about it was the very end of 2014, early 2015. I think the first ever video put on the Massenomics channel was December 28th, 2014, and then we started putting more out in 2015.

David TaoDavid Tao

That means that Massenomics is older than BarBend, so basically you’re the rabbit we’re still chasing when it comes to strength sport.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We are the master, you’re the sensei right now. It’s how it goes.

David TaoDavid Tao

We have our editorial meetings or business meetings or all hands meetings, and the first thing we point to is on the proverbial whiteboard, the Massenomics logo, with a circle and a red line through it. This is what we’re chasing guys.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

 [laughs] Their meme game is on a whole another level. We have to get there.

David TaoDavid Tao

Your meme game is actually on a whole another level. Excellent segue, you make my job as a host super easy. Fuck what the memes, who comes up with the memes?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I will say that Tanner is the brains behind the memes. I would like to say that there is some collaboration involved, but really without Tanner, the social media side wouldn’t exist.

 

He has posted twice a day, every day for five years now, and with the exception of re-posting some people wearing our shirts or doing something cool in our apparel. 98 percent of it is all originally produced and made content.

David TaoDavid Tao

Does this man have a regular job?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] Yeah, believe it or not, his job…He is in the agricultural industry, he handles major amounts of money in loans for big businesses.

David TaoDavid Tao

I was worried about the state of agriculture in the United States but that…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

You know it’s in good hands.

David TaoDavid Tao

I just assume he runs everything. I feel a heck of a lot better about our food supply.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

You should, yes.

David TaoDavid Tao

 Let’s talk about some of the specific memes. If you haven’t checked out the Massenomics page while you’re listening to this podcast, do it. That’s an easy thing that I’ll tell our listeners to do. It’s definitely worth it. You have some memes on repeat, I love your…

 

You have your verses cards where you’re matching up a strength athlete with, I don’t know, someone else from mainstream culture or history or another concept, because their names are similar. We’ll talk about those in a second. You have rookie cards or player cards.

 

Then you have a lot of memes around…As you all call it, “The one true deadlift, the Jefferson deadlift.” I think that 99.9 percent of Jefferson deadlift content, right now comes from Massenomics and the 0.1 percent or 0.01 percent comes from us making fun of your all’s Jefferson deadlift content. Why the Jefferson deadlift?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

That is one of those… [laughs] It’s hard to say where that one started.

David TaoDavid Tao

Start with Thomas Jefferson when he admitted…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Go back to what 1776-ish, the founding of America, but I believe Tanner would probably have a better idea. There was a meme that in passing mentioned Jefferson deadlift way…This was years ago, and someone thought it was a made-up lift.

 

Then we started talking about, “No, no, Jefferson deadlifts really is a real thing. It seems ridiculous, but it is real,” so we started making a few more jokes about it. It seemed like it’s just one of those things that people latched on to because one, they couldn’t believe that deadlifting, like straddling the bar was an actual exercise.

 

It also seemed a little weird that it was named the Jefferson deadlift. That’s where it had the legs to make this joke. “Yep. Thomas Jefferson made it.”

 

I actually remember we were coming back from the first Arnold that we ever had a booth that and we were mentioning, because several people came up to us and talked about the Jefferson deadlift at our booth, and we thought, “Wow, we really thought there was like four people online that thought this was funny.”

 

It was mentioned several times, we just said, “Maybe we really need to run with this thing. Maybe we should make a shirt about it and just go all in.” That’s what we did. We went back. We started planning out a shirt. We started planning out like a Jefferson deadlift, just all these memes for it.

 

Eventually, we had a Jefferson deadlift competition online. We like to think that we hold the official record board for Jefferson deadlifts ever performed. It’s one of those things where it starts as a dumb joke and we ran with it for way too long. People seem to know us as the Jefferson deadlift people now.

David TaoDavid Tao

It turns out there are more than four people interested in Jefferson deadlift memes, there were six, and I’m really excited for you.

 

Funny enough. The club I started weightlifting with in Massachusetts. It’s now known more broadly as the Norwood Training Center. A lot of great lifters have come through there, but over a decade ago, when I was working out there and training there, we needed a name for the club for registration, because we were competing in local and regional meets.

 

I was like, “Well, what do we call the club?” Because it was just a garage. It was a garage, and we would move trucks and equipment out of the garage, moved platforms into the garage for every training session.

 

I remember just being like, “Well, I don’t know. Why don’t we call it like…?” Everyone was arguing. They were trying to figure it out. I was like, “Why don’t we just called Thomas Jefferson Weightlifting?”

 

The first few weightlifting competitions I ever did, I was listed under Thomas Jefferson Weightlifting as my club, which is a club that I want to be clear, does not and never did actually exist.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

If it’s in your heart, can’t you say that that’s enough for it to exist?

David TaoDavid Tao

He’s a controversial figure. I’m not sure Thomas Jefferson is in my heart.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

True. You do got a point there.

David TaoDavid Tao

Maybe I should have…Who’s a less polarizing Founding Father? Ben Franklin. That would have been the…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I don’t know if he is either, though. I’m not sure.

David TaoDavid Tao

Don’t name lifts or clubs or don’t idolize the founding fathers at this point. It’s the thing. A lot of them are…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I totally get what you’re saying, but we can all find fun in the Jefferson deadlift. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

You know what? There’s a rumor. I heard a rumor. It’s not named after Thomas Jefferson.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

That’s what rumors are, though, no one really knows that they’re true or not.

David TaoDavid Tao

I heard it was named after Jefferson spaceship.

 

Or Jefferson Starship. What does…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

That is definitely a more modern theory. I think only time will tell whether that’s correct or not.

David TaoDavid Tao

They were getting a workout in on the road.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I’ve also heard it could have been Jefferson Airplane too, though, so you never really know.

David TaoDavid Tao

Jefferson… [laughs] Is that the name of the band? What is the name of the band?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

They were Jefferson Airplane, in the ’60s and they change to Jefferson Starship in the ’70s. You have to evolve with time.

David TaoDavid Tao

I got it. I just got it completely wrong.

 

The other thing I want to talk about, so we’re going to cut that out of the podcast.

 

David says something stupid, we’d never put that in. Let’s talk about is it Southwest, Northeast…

 

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

That’s easy here. You start like the nine o’clock on the clock. That’s Western and you make your way around, so Western, North, East, South Dakota. That’s where we’re at.

David TaoDavid Tao

Western, North, East, South Dakota. Are you all the first people to make this an actual region?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

The region here is called Northeast South Dakota. We are in the Northeast region of South Dakota.

David TaoDavid Tao

South Dakota is so big.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

It is relatively large. If you’re on opposite ends of the state, it’ll take you probably close to eight hours to get across it if you’re doing the drive. It is a relatively large state. Where I grew up, it was Northeast South Dakota. The conference you played in in high school was Northeast South Dakota. Tons of things were named Northeast South Dakota.

 

When I moved a 100 miles west to where I am in Aberdeen now, everyone still said Northeast South Dakota. I said, “We’re a 100 miles west of where I was. This seems like a large region to be Northeast South Dakota still.” Then, we decided you know what, we’re on the western edge of Northeast South Dakota. That’s where Western Northeast South Dakota came from.

David TaoDavid Tao

That’s some strange sports gerrymandering doing, is what I know.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] You want to be specific when you’re talking directions. You don’t want people to ever be confused where you’re located geographically. We don’t want to leave any…we don’t [inaudible 18:44] any confusion there.

David TaoDavid Tao

You all have completely eliminated any concerns of that and I appreciate the continued Civics lesson. OK, podcast. Let’s talk about the podcast. I will say the Massenomics podcast, it’s a great listen for anyone who hasn’t listened to it.

 

When you all purchased advertising on a billboard in Western Northeast South Dakota, at BarBend we’re obviously following every move when we said, “Well, we have to purchase a billboard.” If you were to get one in New York City, it’s a little bit more cost-prohibitive but…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

What, really?

David TaoDavid Tao

We’re not the Hub City.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] You’re not the Hub City yet.

David TaoDavid Tao

We’re the city that never sleeps, so no one cares about us.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Exactly.

David TaoDavid Tao

Talk about the origins of the podcast, because I’m sure you all…Here’s my guess, I want to know how correct or incorrect I am.

 

My guess is that you all were sitting around in one version of the Massenomics gym, having conversations, and you all went, and a few drinks or pre-workouts may have been involved, and you’ll go, “We’re pretty funny. I bet other people want to listen to us have these exact conversations.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I hate to say it, but you could not be more wrong in this scenario.

David TaoDavid Tao

Oh, my goodness.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Actually, when Massenomics first started, when we first started getting going with this thing, trying to figure out what it was. There was also another member, his name was Tyler Stone. Tyler was big into podcasting at the time. I shouldn’t say he was big at it, he was very interested in podcasting at the time.

 

He said, “Hey, guys.” He came to us out of nowhere and said, “Hey, I’m also interested in strength sports. I love what you’re doing with Massenomics. Let’s start a Massenomics podcast.

 

I’ll take care of the hosting, the editing all that. You guys just show up, we can talk about our stuff, do our thing, whatever. We said, “OK.” I remember talking to Tanner, ” Eh, Is this a good idea? I don’t really think we’re that fun to listen to or entertaining. This could crash and burn hard.”

 

He goes, “Ah, Tyler really wants to do it.” In my mind it was, “You know what, if we get 20 episodes in. We did our thing. That’s great.” Here we are. Last night we recorded episode 269. We’ve been going at it for a while now, over five years. It’s been a lot [laughs] of podcasting.

 

The podcast itself. Yeah, it was really…We just gave it. I should say, if you listen to the first few episodes, which we reminisced on a little bit ago. They’re pretty bad. We didn’t really have our voice set. We were just trying things out, but that’s what you do with podcasts.

 

It takes some time to figure out if you have any gimmicks or segments or what your voice is. It took some time, but we got that figured out and we have a lot of fun with it now.

David TaoDavid Tao

Who is your most memorable guest so far?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Most memorable guests. That is a good question because we’ve had…The guests train’s been rolling pretty hard lately. Actually just, we finished up in the last few weeks. We’ve had Dave Tate, Eddie Cone. It is hard to not be really excited for Ed Cone. He’s just such an icon of strength sports.

 

That is one of the most exciting ones. That is one that really sticks out to me, when I think about what we’ve done lately.

David TaoDavid Tao

That makes a ton of sense. Who’s your dream guest? Who you haven’t had on?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We have a list of people that we would love to get on. Through where we’re at right now, different industries they’re hard to get. I’d love to have Action Bronson on some time. I think he’d be an awesome guest. He’s a pretty big guy so I imagine he’s tough to get. We’ve talked about for a while now we’d like to get Jujimufu on.

 

I think that’s probably doable pretty soon here. He’s one of those guys that has…He’s kind of transcended just strength. A lot of people recognize him from so many videos going viral. We have talked about some other different YouTube personalities not directly in the strength realm.

 

People that we think would be funny to have some Midwest jokes that you might run across people online. We have a few people that we’ve set our sights on. We’ll keep working on them, see what we can do.

David TaoDavid Tao

Have you ever turned anyone down, who’s reached out to you about being on the podcast?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I don’t think we honestly have…To be honest we don’t get a ton of requests like, “Hey, be on my podcast.” Everyone that’s asked, I think we’ve been on their podcasts. We figured out a way to make it work.

David TaoDavid Tao

Oh no. I mean, people who want to be on your podcast.

 

Do you get countless PR pitches that…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We don’t get a ton, to be honest. We’ve had a few people make suggestions that aren’t really in our sphere, you could say. It’s like, “Ah, I don’t know. We don’t really know much about you. We’re not super interested in what you have going on. I don’t think you honestly know a whole lot about us.”

 

It’s like one of those things that I feel like maybe someone suggested. It doesn’t happen a ton, but there’s been a few suggestions where we said, “Maybe that’s not the best fit right now.” At some point down the road, it could happen. We usually try to stick to people that we’re interested in, and also that we think our audience would be interested in too.

David TaoDavid Tao

I love that answer. It’s such a friendly Midwestern answer. It says, “You know, maybe down the road when we’ve gone through literally every other person on Earth.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Once we’ve exhausted all our resources, you could be a great option someday

David TaoDavid Tao

As we approached the gradual heat death of our solar system.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] That’s what it takes for Massenomics to end.

David TaoDavid Tao

You’re the bug that just can’t be killed. I’m absolutely joking, I’m not…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We have said we are the cockroaches of the podcast industry. We’ll just outlast everyone. The number of podcasts we’ve seen come and go, since we’ve even started. It’s pretty hard to keep track of. We figure if we can outlast everyone by default, we have to be the best, right?

David TaoDavid Tao

Yes. I can’t even come up with anything snarky enough to correctly argue with that. I think it works out OK. Let’s talk about going to events. You’ve had a presence at the Arnold. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a wrench in a lot of live events. In pre-pandemic times, you did have a booth at the Arnold which is not cheap.

 

I want to be clear here. That is a commitment. It’s a very difficult thing to get together. If you are going to the Arnold as a vendor, it is a lot of work. What was the deciding factor in you all basically being like, “OK. Yeah, we’re going to put the money in. We’re going to put the time in. We’re going to take off time from our normal productive lives where we contribute to society. We’re going to go do this”?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We had actually gone to the Arnold two or three times…The two or three years prior just as, “We’re Massenomics, the media company.” We’ll go and get some on-the-fly interviews with people, make some connections. It was a lot of fun. I’d never been to anything…The Arnold is a thing of its own. Nothing really compares.

 

That was cool that…I always say, the Arnold is real-life Instagram. You walked down the hall and everyone you follow is right there, chilling like a normal person. It’s a weird situation.

 

After going there a few times, we got a feel for how the whole thing works. Tanner being the numbers guy said…He called me, he’s like, “What do you think of doing booth at the Arnold?” I’m like, “Serious?” He’s like, “Dude, I did the numbers. I think we could make it work. I don’t think it’s totally crazy.” I’m like, “Hey, man, you do the numbers and if you think we can make it work.”

 

Tanner’s usually not the world’s biggest risk taker. If he thinks it makes sense, I’m like, “Hey, dude, yeah, let’s do it.” We did. I think booth was it like 2,400 bucks. It’s not cheap, but for us another big factor is how far away Columbus, Ohio is from Aberdeen, South Dakota. It’s like 14-, 15-hour drive, something like that.

 

It takes some time to get there, too. When you have a booth full of apparel you need to bring, there are some logistical challenges, getting everything put together and figuring out how it works. The only Arnold we’ve actually got to be a vendor at was 2019, with 2020 being canceled.

 

It was a huge success for us. We loved it. It was the first time we got to meet a lot of people after they were familiar with what Massenomics actually was. We are pumped to be back in 2022. We’re looking forward to it.

 

David TaoDavid Tao

That’s awesome. By the way, I know you obviously have to get all of the stuff for the booth to the Arnold. It’s not just bringing yourselves with a suitcase of T-shirts, although some people have done that before. There’s the very Midwestern answer. It should be like, “Oh, just a 14-, 15-hour drive.” Like, “Yeah, it’s fine.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Yeah. We got a Suburban, took all the seats out, loaded it up as absolute leap, as full as possible. When Tanner picked me up, it was like, “Hey, man, don’t mind all the tubes going by your head. That’s just the booth.” We hopped in the vehicle and went on a road trip. Just a couple of guys looking for some fun.

David TaoDavid Tao

Did you sell a lot of T-shirts?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We didn’t sell out of everything because we brought a lot of stuff. There was the common sizes — large, extra large — and most T-shirts did sell out.

David TaoDavid Tao

Those are the common sizes at the Arnold. The large, extra large. Has anyone surprised you by being a Massenomics podcast listener or fan? Someone that you found out they listen to you or follow you, and you’re like, “Wait a minute, I had no idea. This person was a fan of the brand.”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

There’s just people that come up every once in a while that will leave comments on Instagram that they’re in on the joke, whether it’s the lift-shorts joke, or the Jefferson deadlift or something else.

 

It’s like, “That person’s paying attention to what we’re doing? Really? We have those eyes on us.” There’s scenarios like that. The first real time, I had to take a step back, it was the first year we went to the Arnold.

 

I had a photographer’s pass, so I was going to go right up front for all the Strongman activities and get these front-row photos, and just being a fan. It’s like, “Dude, the guys are right there, I could almost reach out and touch him,” and it was so cool.

 

They didn’t really provide very good guidelines on how the photographer pass works and all that. I just made my way up there. First round, I take photos, it’s all good. It’s awesome.

 

The next session, it’s crowded. I’m trying to push my way to the front. I get up there, and there’s this lady standing there. She’s like, “Oh, sorry, this is a reserved area.” I said, “Well, I got the photo pass here. I need to get in. I’m a photographer.”

 

She goes, “No, I’m sorry. Your row was a few back here. You can’t be here.” “Like, seriously, come on.” She goes, “Well, I will say this. I’m a fan of the podcast, so I’m going to let you go through.” It’s like, “Whoa,” because at this point, we only had…I don’t know, 20 or 30 episodes. It wasn’t a thing that hardly anyone knew about.

 

I thought she was messing with me. I’m like, “Like, really? You listen to the podcast?” She’s like, “Oh yeah. Tyler, Tommy Tanner. Yeah, I listened to guys. You guys are great.” I could not believe that that was a thing. That was crazy. That was definitely the first time that it really shocked me that someone else is aware that this exists.

David TaoDavid Tao

I can’t believe I forgot about another running joke. The Lift shorts. Now you all sell apparel. You sell shorts that are financially inaccessible to all, but the very…

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

 …of the world.

David TaoDavid Tao

The very wealthy few. I hear he’s looking to get a second pair, but he has to liquidate some more Amazon stock. How did that come about?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

The Lift shorts that was…We sell some T-shirts. The next logical jump is we need to sell shorts, or sweatpants of some kind. You look through what options you have for blanks, and you see, “All right, black champion mesh shorts. Yep, sure, let’s get these. Their pockets even great.”

 

One of our logos at the time was this Lift logo. We put the Lift logo on it, and we sell the shorts. At the time, one of the very first comments we get when we put it on Instagram as someone goes, “Oh, you added a logo to it and charged more. Nah, I’m good with the plain ones.”

 

It was like, “Damn, are we messing up here? Are we doing this wrong?” Then it’s like, “Well, but what he just described is the apparel industry in general. You take an item, you screen printed, and you charge more than the plain one.” That’s literally how that business works.

 

We had a few jokes about it on the podcast, and we were ranting a little bit about it, and people latched on to that of the, “Nah, I’m good with the plain ones.”

 

Then there was the whole running thing of “Oh, they’re charging more money for it. They’re trying to make money. These dirty capitalists, they’re trying to make a profit here.” Then it turned into these are the world’s most expensive shorts.

 

It just kept going and going and probably it’s like beating a dead horse. We’ve probably made way too many memes about it, but people never really get tired of it. That was another one, the very first year we had a booth at the Arnold.

 

There was multiple times where people came up dead serious and they go, “Are you the guys that sell those really expensive shorts?” They’d give us a serious look, and then they’d smile start laughing. It’s like, “OK, you’re in on the joke too. All right, yeah.”

 

It’s one of those inside jokes that people love to be a part of, and we have no problem taking it and running with it.

David TaoDavid Tao

What did your pricing sheet look like at your booth? Did it have all the prices for the other stuff in the charts? It was like, “If you have to ask…”

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Honestly, if we did the thing again, the next time we go to the Arnold that’s probably how it will be but at the time we thought, “Well, this is only…” Again, one of those jokes that 10 people on the Internet get, and then once you get to the Arnold you realize ,”Oh no, this is a joke that a lot of people have, they’re in on it.”

 

We always say the next time we’re going to have a glass case with armed security guards around it to protect the Lift shorts because they’re so valuable, but we’ll see what happens.

David TaoDavid Tao

Have you all thought about the selling blanks, but charging more at this point?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] In our crazy, dumb marketing ideas. That is an idea. We talked about selling the plain ones. We haven’t done that yet. I don’t know, maybe we will. We also talked about trying to…Our deal on Black Friday for several years as we mark them down one penny, just to give people a little easier chance to get them.

 

We’ve also looked into options to see if we can have a coupon code that actually makes them cost more, but our online cart won’t let us do that. Currently, we do have them on sale. They’re normally at $100. We have them marked down to $29.99 at the moment, just trying to help people out here.

 

David TaoDavid Tao

 My recommendation would be to sell blanks, but no discount.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

[laughs] We will revisit that conversation after this. I’ll tell Tanner, there’s some renewed interest in blanks.

David TaoDavid Tao

 

I’m not the apparel mastermind, but if you sell one pair at that price range. Wow, would I be impressed?

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

We would absolutely sell one pair because someone would want to be in on the joke. Two, I don’t know, maybe two is possible. One for sure, though.

David TaoDavid Tao

There’s never more than one pair of Lift shorts available for sale at a time.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Exactly. Yeah. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

 

The raw materials for that. It’s like unobtainium.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

It is. It’s just like that.

David TaoDavid Tao

I’m almost afraid to ask because there are a lot. This is a big question. If folks want to follow along with Massenomics, where do they find you? How do they find you? All that good stuff.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

I would say, first of all, got to get on Instagram, follow us at Massenomics. That’s where lots of stuff being pushed every day. You’ll find all types of fun things there, you’ll start to get in on some of the jokes, see what it’s about. That’d be the first spot.

 

Next spot, check out the website, you can find links to the…We do the podcast in video form, too, so you can find it on YouTube, but on the website, we have apparel. We have some older articles on there when we used to do that back in the day. That’s pretty much where we’re at, online website, YouTube, Instagram.

David TaoDavid Tao

xcellent. Thanks so much for joining us. I’m glad we got to get to the history of some of the jokes that I personally find…I think it’s some of the best strength-meme content out there, so if you’re looking for a good laugh, make sure to follow along with Massenomics.

 

The thing is, you all get better over time, because as you learned some of the inside jokes, you call it beating a dead horse, but they hit a little bit better, if you’re a little more familiar.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

There is a strong community there, so we invite you to become part of the community and you’ll have a lot of fun. Trust me.

David TaoDavid Tao

Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us.

Tommy DeFeaTommy DeFea

Thanks a lot, David.

About David Tao

BarBend's Co-Founder and CEO, David is a veteran of the health & fitness industry, with nearly a decade of experience building and running editorial teams in the space. He also serves as a color commentator for both National and International weightlifting competitions, many through USA Weightlifting.

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