The Flex Founded Project: Where Fitness Meets Fashion

Corey Menzinger attracts attention wherever he goes for two reasons: his physique and his fashion sense. As an avid bodybuilder, Mr. Menzinger has to upgrade his attire regularly-- depending upon his weight at the time. Due to his need for "flexibility," he created a business founded upon that concept: The Flex Founded Project.  

In a recent interview, Mr. Menzinger answered a few questions about the history of The Flex Founded Project and why he and his team will never compromise their morals to make money.   

When was Flex Founded Project founded? Why?

Flex Founded Project was officially established as a business in November 2013, though the idea had been in works for months before. I had always had a dream of turning pro and creating a clothing brand to represent myself and what I stood for, a hard-working and destroy everything kind of attitude. I did not care what others had to say and who I needed to step on to get to where I needed to be. 

(left to right: Luc Noens & Corey Menzinger)

Eventually, my mind-set had changed after opening my eyes to see what the current fitness-industry was truly about; the same ideas that I had was what I eventually realized I hated about the current industry. My ideas changed. My goals changed. My job became to inspire and help others realize their true strength and potential. Once I partnered with my best-friend and current business partner, Luc Noens, our plans went into action. "Flex Founded" is a term we created to share with the world how fitness (bodybuilding) had changed our lives and made us who we are today. Without the everlasting teachings of long hours in the gym accompanied by the blood, sweat and tears, we would not have the same work-ethic, confidence or passion that we do today. Flex Founded Project is here to make an impact on the fitness industry in a good way. 

The apparel industry is so competitive. What makes your brand stand out?

 

Yes, the apparel industry is extremely competitive and we realized this as we made our first few prints. The industry is currently over-run with big brand names with great sponsored athletes and quirky, catchy, meme-type designs which are mass produced by various companies. We took into consideration that we needed to make clothing that people would be interested in buying at first without knowing who we were, as we had no following. However, we did not resort to using the typical and over-used meme type designs. 

 

Making a quick buck would be great, but that is not what we stand for. Any article of clothing with our brand name on it is hand-designed and printed by us, and we want it to represent our ideas 100%. What I believe sets us apart, is the motivational factor behind our clothing. As I stated earlier, a big portion of the current fitness-apparel industry is the funny meme shirts. Our goal is to have people wear our clothing and represent the type of lifestyle that they live, while at the same time inspiring and motivating others to do the same. We do not put our name on anything that we do not believe in, period. 

 

Does the Flex Founded Project offer customized messages for special orders?

We do! Apart from our own clothing line, we do prints on the side for other vendors to help us raise money to fund our brand. As I stated earlier, all articles of clothing are designed and hand-printed by us so customization is 100% do-able. However, as I stated earlier, if we do not believe in the idea then we will not print our name on it. 

 

Do you prefer the online market or would you like to branch out to stores?

Online market for sure. Stores are great to pick up some brand-name clothing, but for us to do this it would be much too expensive for our customers. It would be a great way to gain more exposure for sure, however I do not want people browsing through different t-shirts and picking ours because it has the coolest design. We take pride in our work and we want our customers to take pride in our brand when they wear it, not just because they stumbled across it on a clearance rack. While we can manage to handle operations online on our own, at the chance of rapid growth and expansion we are not completely close-minded to any ideas.

What is your greatest goal for 2014?

Our greatest goal for 2014 would be to become more recognized. I admit we jumped the gun a bit when we first started; pumping out designs and t-shirts while not having an audience of potential buyers. We would really love to team with an anti-bullying campaign and donate proceeds to a great cause. We would also love to sponsor our first athlete and really start spreading our name and ideas throughout the fitness industry. Realistically speaking, if we can continue to inspire others and be lucky enough that they are willing purchase a t-shirt or two and represent our brand, then that's a win in my book. 

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For more information, visit Flex Founded Project's website.