Rich Gaspari has been on a roller coaster over the past few years. Simultaneously dealing with his supplement company, Gaspari Nutrition, going bankrupt and a divorce. After decades of success in the bodybuilding industry, Gaspari was facing some of the hardest struggles of his life.
But now things seem to be looking up. Rich Gaspari was able to buy back his company and is in the process of changing directions to make Gaspari Nutrition work in the new era of bodybuilding. We decided to sit down for a lengthy chat and discuss the transition into the new era of Gaspari Nutrition and also touch upon some of the trending topics in the industry today.
Rich Gaspari dives right in describing how his new vision for Gaspari Nutrition is to focus on direct to consumer. Sticking with the web rather than brick and mortar stores. Of course, he still doesn’t want to phase out stores completely. Instead, he’s going to leverage his primary service (direct to consumer) to build demand for physical store locations.
Gaspari also goes into detail about the crisis the supplement industry is currently facing. With so much saturation and thousands of brands – each company has to measure success with less profits than companies made back in the day. Gaspari thinks that a reckoning is coming for some of the last remaining massive brands like GNC. It’s either adapt or die. Gaspari knows this too well from his own recent experiences.
Rich Gaspari also touches base on the current hot topics in bodybuilding – including the recent criticism of Brandon Curry as the 2019 Olympia champion. Gaspari agrees with the likes of Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates. He thinks that Curry can’t hold up to the level of physiques from the late 90s/early 2000s era. He goes on to say that he thinks current bodybuilders don’t train as hard. Not because they don’t have the dedication – but because they have too many distractions. He calls modern workouts basically “photoshoots” because of social media.
Gaspari also believes that bodybuilding has “lost its soul” after AMI purchased the Olympia from the Weiders. He’s hopeful that the recent sale to Jake Wood will garner in a new era of bodybuilding like it used to be. Ran by bodybuilders for bodybuilders.
You can watch the full uncut interview with Rich Gaspari discussing these topics and many more in our latest GI Exclusive above!
