Featured Articles The Gloves Are Off!
It often seems that “wishing” to be the bigger man in a situation, can at times fail to exceed the opportunity to make a point of significance. A point that hopefully by merit, surpasses the hubris it may appear to be. In this instance, you will have to be the judge. For me and for ALR Industries, it means the gloves just came off. No more enduring the theft of our designs or, far more importantly, allowing those who have no clue to attempt to get it right (You will get the reason for being pissed off in a moment. It hurts us and it can hurt you…I will validate the latter in a moment). As a leader, it is always a prime and honorable goal to lead by example.
“For me and for ALR Industries, it means the gloves just came off. No more enduring the theft of our designs or, far more importantly, allowing those who have no clue to attempt to get it right…”
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At the end of 2007 or near the beginning of 2008, in one lot we discovered a contaminant in one of our discontinued products called “Venom” Hyperdrive™. Yeah, I know, there are lots of contaminated products brought to light in the supplement industry, but nothing compared to those ignored in the food industry. Not that this makes ours ANY less important. Out of 171 lots (runs) of “Venom” Hyperdrive™ we “eventually” discovered 3 consecutive lots that were contaminated with a drug called sibutramine. The source was a raw contaminated compound we imported from a company we normally do not do business with. The error was failure on both our part and the independent test lab we used for testing at that time, but the blame sits entirely upon our shoulders. Mine first of course. In short, we needed to immediately do a better job and use a better lab. Our fault no matter how it is said, obviously.
We immediately initiated a voluntary recall and then worked with the FDA for ALL “Venom” Hyperdrive™ to be recalled. We are talking about not just the one lot we were sure had been contaminated at that time, we immediately recalled ALL “Venom” Hyperdrive™ before any further test results came in. Why ALL? Testing products and compounds takes a great deal of time and it just seemed to be a matter of personal integrity to not take any risks while we waited for the test results. If there was any public endangerment, waiting due to not knowing which lot(s) or even amount of contaminant was not an option. I would hope others would do the same.
During the FDA recall, we faced an audit of course, and one of the questions that arose was if we were aware of a product called VenEVol and second, if we are the manufacturer. After seeing that the label not only used a very similar name to our discontinued “Venom” (Thankfully we had just taken the word Venom out of our “Venom” Hyperdrive™ labels so they only say Hyperdrive 3.0+® now), and noting their sales slogan was, “Like The Original Venom” I can see why. Then another knock-off called Viper appeared on the market. Again the use of a similar name and almost identical ingredient list as well as directions panels—a cross between “Venom” Hyperdrive™ and Hyperdrive®. Even more odd was that the same bottle, label design, pill design and ingredient/direction panels noted on VenEVol. Naturally, we were insulted but certainly not shocked. Knock-off s are part of our industry and kind of like the porn industry: Someone is getting screwed and often by more than one person. The difference is that the porn industry is a little more honest about it. Geez, there is even another namesake called Vyper out as well produced by a supposed friend of mine. I wonder if Viper will sue Vyper for the name?
The reason there are supplement knock-offs is simple and for the same one reason the top companies all use a “proprietary blend/formula/matrix” listed on their labels. Research and Development for any innovative compound or for any new product is very expensive, time consuming and it requires a great deal of knowledge in many areas to get it right. These areas include chemistry, physiology, action/reaction factors, endocrinology and others. We would like to at least make our expenses back before someone else makes a living sitting back while we do all the real work and take all the losses. So the bottom-line here is that knock-offs are far cheaper to make and far less time consuming but usually way off on actual correct ingredients or proper production of the ingredients. This is partly due to top companies using proprietary blends rather than exact milligram breakdowns or giving directional correct manufacturing info. (We spend years on R&D for any compound or product we wish to bring to the market. Only a small percentage we start with will ever make it to the market due to many things often look great on paper…but failing in the real world).
(And They Are Quite Correct… on Price At Least)
We have been testing other knock-offs of our products for a couple years but kept the results in house. It just seemed too much like being some kind of bitch-rat action publishing the results. Now I realize, we have just been doing a disservice to those who favor our products by not keeping them in the know while allowing the knock-off companies to flourish.
Below are the independent lab test results for Viper and VenEVol just to make the facts known to our loyal customers who tell us they are being baited and switched to the knock-offs in some stores and by some web sites. We are re-testing for contaminants now and intend to keep our consumers updated.
I can go on about the errors on these labels for pages like Yohimbe HCL (No such thing…it is called Yohimbine HCI, Yohimbe is tree bark) and that the place it holds on the supplement facts panels means there is somewhere between 5-100mg per cap (The later would kill you if true). I now believe the point is now up for you to digest.
Wow, Interesting! Almost identical supplement panels for VeneVol and Viper. Same bottle, same label size and design, same claims, same missing compounds. I wonder if both are made/produced by the same company for themselves and another? Now that would be just sad. More importantly, how do YOU feel about knock-offs now? For me, when we are talking about bad knock-offs, it means the gloves just came off.
It’s a matter of integrity that any company offers its customers effective high quality products. For me, it is an additional matter of personal integrity to offer ALR Industries products and my personal best to each and every customer. My name is on every bottle we produce of each and every product and I am always test subject #1! I meet and talk with thousands of customers yearly at shows, stores and gyms. I meet them at restaurants, in grocery stores and even when out at clubs or when just seeing a movie. It’s personal to me and every member of the ALR Industries team feels the same way. I am not hiding behind photo-shop pics with fake arms. I am a real athlete that cares about other athletes. If the owner of a company does not inspire you with his/her appearance and knowledge, why would you use his/ her products and risk looking like them? What most do not know is that I design products for me that work, I THEN share them with our fellow obsessive performance enhancement brother and sisterhood. I meet our customers in person so they can get answers to their questions and put a face and physique to the name on the bottle. It’s a matter of keeping it real and integrity rather than simply playing the marketing game. It matters to me. I could make more money doing a couple other things I am qualified for but the performance enhancement industry is my passion. Never accept mediocrity!
Going forward we intend to expose any and all copycats for what they are be it a perfect knock-off or more of the trash like shown prior. My integrity and name is on the damn bottle for God’s sake.
Author L. Rea
CEO, ALR Industries
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