# TRX: Randy Hetrick

- Show: [How I Built This](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this)
- Published: 2017-06-26
- Length: 43m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick

## Summary

Randy Hetrick, founder of TRX, explains how he invented suspension training using a jujitsu belt during a 1997 Navy SEAL deployment and later refined the product at Stanford Business School. He details the early scaling challenges, including a critical manufacturing failure where handles cracked like potato chips due to a hidden sub-contractor, and the subsequent pivot to in-house assembly. Hetrick also describes the severe impact of Chinese counterfeiters, which led to a costly three-year legal battle that ultimately established a precedent to clean up the marketplace and validate TRX's intellectual property.

## Chapters

- [1:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=61) Introduction: Randy Hetrick and TRX
- [3:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=194) Inventing TRX: The Jujitsu Belt and Warehouse Origin
- [6:54](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=414) Stanford Business School and Prototyping
- [12:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=742) Early Sales, Manufacturing Failures, and In-House Assembly
- [20:54](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=1254) The Counterfeit Crisis and Legal Battle
- [32:25](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick#t=1945) Business Model Pivot: Gear to Education and Digital Content

## Topics

- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)
- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- TRX (product)
- Navy SEALs (other)
- Stanford Business School (other)
- Amazon (other)
- Sports Illustrated (other)
- Drew Brees (other)
- SproutFit (product)
- Whitney Sokol (other)

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- [Against All Odds: Overcoming Huge Setbacks to Sell 5 Million Worldwide](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/its-only-a-prototype/2025-05-15-against-all-odds-overcoming-huge-setbacks-to-sell-5-million-worldwide) (It's Only a Prototype)
- [002: Prototyping, Manufacturing & Selling a Men's Shirt Accessory](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2016-03-09-002-prototyping-manufacturing-selling-a-mens-shirt-accessory) (Product Startup)
- [#035 - How a hardware startup’s product goes viral, with Christian Smith of TrackR, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-08-16-035-how-a-hardware-startups-product-goes-viral-with-christian-smith-of-trackr-us) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [Introducing: It's only a Prototype Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/its-only-a-prototype/2025-04-09-introducing-its-only-a-prototype-podcast) (It's Only a Prototype)
- [Bootstrapped to 800,000 Units Sold Worldwide: The Story Behind Rockit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/its-only-a-prototype/2025-04-17-bootstrapped-to-800-000-units-sold-worldwide-the-story-behind-rockit) (It's Only a Prototype)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2017-06-26-trx-randy-hetrick. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to How I Built This.