How Aussie entrepreneur sold his product to the Pentagon within two years of starting business

Anthony Richardson, 29, plans to roll out his AUSFIT Torsion Bars around the globe in the near future. Photo / Supplied

Anthony Richardson is the man behind one of the most successful fitness businesses in Australian history.

And it's all thanks to his simple solution to one very annoying problem.

The Sydney man was in the navy for eight years before taking a gap year in late 2012.

In that time, he started up his own boot camp, AUSFIT Outdoor Fitness, and incorporated two of his old torsion bars from his navy days into his circuits.

For the uninitiated, torsion bars are lifting devices used in fitness routines that work in a similar way to barbells or pump weights.

However, the old bars had one serious drawback — they weren't weatherproof, meaning they rusted easily, which was far from ideal for outdoor workouts.

They also weren't available for sale in the commercial fitness market, which meant he couldn't replace his naval bars once they rusted.

The 29-year-old decided to make his own rustproof version, and quickly realised they could also be useful in the military.

He also put square end cuts on his new bars, which stopped them rolling around — a feature that's especially important on ships.

In August 2015, he began to trial the bars on Royal Australian Navy vessels.

They were an almost instant success, and today Richardson's AUSFIT Torsion Bars are used by the Australian and New Zealand navy.

But Richardson had his sights set on the US market.

Late last year, he was invited to host a workout using his bars at the Pentagon Athletic Club at the Pentagon and Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia in the US.

The Norfolk navy base is the largest in the world with more than 100,000 personnel.

His workout was a hit, and the Pentagon placed a big order.

Last year, the company's earnings were just more than A$500,000 ($528,400) — but the forecast for 2018 is more than A$9 million.

At the moment, Richardson is selling anywhere between 500 and several thousand bars each month, and it seems likely they will be rolled out to an international market in the near future.

Richardson said his business was succeeding as it offered a simple solution to an annoying, costly flaw.

"They have been using torsion bars in the military for years and years, but they used the same equipment that was designed for gyms — they weren't naval-specific, they weren't designed for those conditions," he explained.

Richardson is selling thousands of his bars each month. Photo / Supplied

"In the navy they only last for six months, or 12 at most.

"Thousands of dollars were going into the bin when the bars rusted after a few months."

He said his company really started to take off after the Australian navy agreed to trial the bars on a deployment.

"A ship was leaving for Bahrain for nine months and they bought 30 bars for the trial," Richardson said.

"At that stage, it took me about a month to make three bars, and then I had 10 days to make 30.

"I left the meeting saying 'yeah, no worries, too easy' and then I thought 'sh*t, how am I going to do this?' But it all worked great."

Richardson said he was like a "kid in a candy shop" when he visited the Pentagon in the US for his first demonstration.

"I figured, lets go to America, because it's a much bigger market ... I went through a pretty crazy vetting process at the Pentagon navy base, but they loved it," he said.

"I guess on paper going to the Pentagon is huge, it's a massive step — but I wouldn't say it was daunting, I was just very excited going in there — the level of security was ridiculous."

Richardson said he wasn't a natural salesman, but that the bars only needed a workout demonstration and not a slick sales pitch.

"My pitch is handing over the bar to someone and saying 'there you go'," he said.

Richardson, who grew up in rural NSW, recently attended a leading trade show in the US where his bars were again a tearaway success.

"I was hoping for the best but preparing for the worst — I was hoping I would get one distributor," he said.

"But on the first day we secured 30 distributors."

Despite the massive growth of his company in just a couple of years, Richardson said he took each day as it comes.

"I don't think about it that much — I don't think of it being substantial and story-worthy until I do sit back and reflect and think, 'holy sh*t, we have done a lot in a short period of time'," he said.

Richardson said his goal for the business moving forward was to eliminate the use of plastic packaging to reduce the company's environmental footprint, and to be able to walk into any random gym and spot his torsion bars being used.