Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Salmon.
Steven, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2004 I started as a shelf stocker in a vitamin retail store in North Dallas and after some time ended up managing a store. A few years later in 2007, I departed and opened my store with a business partner. We spent 5 years growing it into a successful nutrition store & tanning salon in Addison.
Then unexpectedly my business partner and best friend passed. I was the minority owner here and his siblings swiftly stepped in to boot me out of the business. My daughter; Stafford was born a month later. I was jobless and a college dropout that had no idea what I was going to do. I had just lost everything I worked so hard for. My wife Katie and I put our savings together and took a big risk. We purchased M.A.N. Sports (M.A.N. stands for Metabolic Augmenting Nutrition) from a friend in Denver, Colorado that had too much on his plate at the time to focus on the brand.
We started rebranding, rebuilding and growing M.A.N. Sports into what it has become today. My friends came quickly to help us keep up with the growth. My friend (and now business partner) from Milwaukee, WI packed up everything and moved to Dallas to help me run the business. Our CFO was my old Operations Manager from the previous brand and our Warehouse Manager was my middle school best friend. From 16+ hour days in the office to travelling around the world to expanding markets & events. We’ve all spent countless hours doing every job imaginable to bring this dream to life.
We’ve done so much in the past few years and while I’m proud, we’ve barely scratched the surface. I still wake up rushing to work because I can’t wait to chase my dreams at M.A.N. Sports.
Over the past few years, we’ve grown a powerful international brand. We even went on to acquire another Dallas brand; Nutritox Vitamins. We’ve been lucky enough to help hundreds of thousands of people transform their physiques and hopefully shine a little brighter.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been hard as hell. While I may have lost my best friend and mentor, he taught me many powerful lessons including that of how to run a dietary supplement brand. What I love most about the retail store was helping our community transform their physiques with either weight loss or health goals. Through those transformations, I was able to see people from all walks of life smile more and have a bit more stride in their step from confidence. Helping people achieve their goals so that their light can shine a little brighter was my motivation. We decided to chase the dream of a dietary supplement company that we could help not only our community but people anywhere.
More importantly, I re-discovered the sense of community and true friendships. A local business that knew me from my previous role quickly supported our brand and efforts.
I always joke the biggest company I’ve ever worked for is the one I own. We are constantly tripping forward and figuring it out as we go. For us, it has always been managing inventory. Since we have so many unique flavors that will have different seasonal trends, it can be very volatile. Beyond that it’s been where to fit all the inventory. We were constantly shoving inventory into our offices and the hallways to fit everything into our space. We recently acquired a much larger warehouse that we have plenty of room in for now, but we are taking that as challenge to grow beyond it!
Please tell us about your business.
We manufacturer the highest quality & best tasting dietary supplements. We focus on these four major goals: weight loss, muscle gain, health + wellness, and endurance + recovery. M.A.N. Sports is a cutting-edge brand. We are constantly innovating either through new safe, effective state of the art ingredients or through the customer experience via flavoring and customer service.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Keep Growing! We have some huge product rollouts coming in 2020. We have yet to leak any information on them yet! Beyond that, we are focused on more local and global retail expansion to make our products more accessible everywhere. We have recently opened a pop-up shop in East Dallas and HQ Gym that the community can shop at and tour the facility. We welcome everyone to pop in and say hi!
Contact Info:
- Address: 12150 Shiloh Rd Ste 120 Dallas TX 75228
- Website: MANSports.com
- Phone: +1 (866) 343-7680
- Email: steven@mansports.com
- Instagram: @MANSports
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MANSportsInc/
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