“I couldn’t help but show my support for PJ and Aaron,” he says. One of the fanboys is a 24-year-old named Brett, who drove four hours to attend the event. They pose for photos and hype their cars, a Corvette and a Ferrari, both black and parked prominently out front. MORE: Venice Beach, Gold's Gym, and the Dawn of Huge Read articleīut among this crowd, Braun and Singerman are the real stars. Today is the grand opening of their second location, and devotees have shown up for discounted supplements and to meet a handful of celebrity bodybuilders flown in for the occasion, including Kai Greene, the most famous weightlifter since Arnold Schwarzenegger. They opened the first store seven months ago in West Boca. The sleek space, with shelves full of oversize bottles and racks of workout gear, is like a Whole Foods for gym rats. “I want to be the biggest company in the world.”īoca Nutrition & Smoothie Bar is their newest venture, a retail store that serves up various protein-packed shakes and sells Blackstone’s full line of supplements. “I am not even fucking close to satisfied with Blackstone Labs,” Braun boasted in a video posted to Facebook last year. And Braun and Singerman are far from done. magazine’s list of 500 fastest-growing companies. Its sales now top $20 million annually, and it’s featured in Inc. As soon as we have any direction from the FDA on an issue it has not spoken on before, for better or worse, we respect its statement and adjust our products accordingly.”) Blackstone has grown by 100 percent every year since opening shop five years ago. (Braun calls this a mischaracterization: “We have always tried to produce nothing but cutting-edge and compliant products. It’s a legally dubious but common practice - and an easy way to make a killing while giving people the results they want. For the most part, their over-the-counter powders do exactly what they claim to do, in part because they sometimes include compounds not approved or even banned by the FDA. Since then the company has hawked tens of millions of dollars’ worth of products promising to make men stronger, bigger, last longer in the sack, and even gain a mental edge. In addition to Boca Nutrition, the pair owns the supplements manufacturer Blackstone Labs, which they started in 2012. Stretch marks scar his arms.ĪLSO: The Truth About Herbal Supplements Read article Braun, 35, who has black hair gelled into short spikes, is shorter and bulkier. He has a goatee and narrow-rimmed glasses, and his bulky frame fills out his blue T-shirt like an overstuffed bag. Singerman, 36, is 6-foot-2 with slicked-back brown hair. Inside the store, Boca Nutrition & Smoothie Bar, are pills and powders that claim to do everything from boost sex drive to increase muscle mass and dissolve fat.īoca Nutrition’s owners, PJ Braun and Aaron Singerman, are greeting customers like old friends, with bear hugs and handshakes. Exactly how it does this isn’t a question anyone seems to be asking. “It’s a preworkout,” she says, “and it’s $35 inside.” By “preworkout” she means it’s designed to give you a jolt of energy before the gym. Most of the guys grab one and toss it back, no questions asked. Working the line is a bouncy brunette pouring plastic shot glasses full of Windex-blue liquid. An older, balding man next to him says he just wants to feel younger. He has short brown hair, hairless arms, and a T-shirt that reads, I may look alone, but really I’m just that far ahead. “I want to get really vascular,” says a guy in his thirties, referencing the pipelike veins coursing beneath the skin of pro bodybuilders. Roughly 300 people - mostly men, from high-school jocks to potbellied dads - know just what they’re here for: more muscle, more energy, more libido. At the far end of a palm-lined strip mall in Boca Raton, Florida, a crowd waits in line for a miracle.
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