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Newsmakers

Who's Laughing Now?

Randy Hetrick

Randy Hetrick's simple tool for keeping fit while on the go has brought him $20 million in sales.

 

"This thing has become so much more than I ever envisioned," Randy Hetrick, MBA '03, told the San Francisco Chronicle. The "thing" is the TRX Suspension Trainer, an invention born of necessity 10 years ago when Hetrick was a Navy SEALs squadron commander who needed a portable training device to help keep his team in top shape wherever it was deployed.

Business School Dean Garth Saloner couldn't envision it either. Back when he was teaching a course in new ventures and Hetrick was his student, Saloner saw Hetrick's prototype bodyweight-suspension belt. "I thought he was nuts, to be completely honest," Saloner told the newspaper, laughing. "It looked like an old belt with stirrups."

Randy Hetrick

The TRX Suspension Trainer was conceived a decade ago when Hetrick, MBA ’03, was a Navy SEAL commander and needed a portable training device to keep his team in shape.

So who's laughing now? Hetrick's San Francisco-based company, Fitness Anywhere, has sold $20 million worth of the suspension trainers over the past four years, mainly to the military but also to professional trainers,athletes, and others who are looking for a fitness fix.