Made-to-Order Supplements?

by Matt Weik

MTO’s are the craze it seems. People drive to their local Sheetz (if you have them where you live) and put together their made-to-order sandwich, burger, wrap, breakfast burrito, frozen beverage, hot beverage, whatever. Now you can do that very same thing with your supplements?

MTO supplements on the go!

You’re busy, you don’t have time to look everywhere for a product that meets your individual wants and needs. You end up buying something that is the craze, only to be left down and disappointed that it isn’t what you truly wanted. You go out and repeat the process until you realize you’re spending money on a bunch of stuff you don’t need. If only there was a way for you to create your own line of supplements, but your bank account won’t allow for that to happen. Well, there’s a solution. It’s called Custom Suppz and they are out of New Zealand.

You literally pick everything—well, kinda. They have two different products available for customization at the time of writing this article. You can choose from a protein or a pre-workout (which makes sense since they are the hottest categories in the industry right now).

Personally, I love this idea—but it comes at a cost. Obviously, creating a “one-off” product and making it specific to your wants, isn’t as cost effective as getting a product off the shelf or online that is mass produced and the costs are therefore much lower. So, for customization of your protein or pre-workout is going to come with a hefty price tag.

For a 2.2lb container of protein, you’re looking at a price starting at $45 for a whey concentrate—which is already very expensive for such a small amount of protein and a concentrate none the less (mind you, pricing is in New Zealand currency since they only ship to New Zealand and Australia at the moment). If you wanted to upgrade to whey isolate, you’re looking at another $20 on top, bringing your 2.2lb container of protein to $65 (insane). Want a fat burner in your protein? That’s an extra $10. Maybe some oat flour as a carbohydrate source? That’ll be another $20. Glutamine and creatine can actually be added for free (both giving you 5g per serving respectively). So, if you wanted a high-quality MTO protein source with all the amenities offered by this company, you’re looking at spending $95 on a 2.2lb container in either vanilla or chocolate flavors. Let me be the first to say “F that.”

The pre-workout powder they have is actually pretty cool with all the options you can choose from, but again, you’re going to kill your wallet. The custom pre-workout starts at $25. I’m not going to give you a run-down of all the costs for the extras as this article would be insanely long, but let’s just say this MTO pre-workout is going to get pricey. In fact, if you add all of the extras available (caffeine, energy, creatine monohydrate, beta alanine, l-citrulline, l-tyrosine, BCAAs, and maltodextrin), you’re looking at $98. I’m not sure if it was the wind or seeing that price that made my butthole pucker up. Do they at least take you out to dinner first? The pre-workout comes in a raspberry cola flavor as well as a blueberry yum yum. Both sound interesting, but at the price they are selling this for, I’ll never know how they taste unless they want to send me samples.

While I like the concept behind this brand and their positioning, the costs are ridiculous and I can’t imagine they will be in business for longer than 12 months. Those costs on top of the cost to ship will have you paying well over $100 for either product you choose. In my opinion, it’s simply not worth it.

Does this show what we should expect in the future?

If you read my other articles, you’ll know that I wrote about 3D printed supplements that are made based on an individual’s deficiencies in certain vitamins/minerals. Add that into the mix with customizable powders and I think we have a really cool outlook on the future of the industry. The real question now becomes, who can build this technology and have it at a reasonable price where people aren’t going to need to donate their hair and sperm every other week just to make some money for supplements?

Is this technology something I feel people want? I believe so. Who wouldn’t want to be able to pick and choose what ingredients are in the products they are buying? Now it becomes a rat race as to who can launch it first and expand the product line before everyone else tries to do something similar? That actually wouldn’t be a bad thing for you or I. The increase in competition within the space will drive down the costs. However, I don’t see many people diving into this anytime soon. I think the costs right now are prohibitive and not many brands are going to be willing to risk the investment—and I don’t blame them.

Overall, I think the idea is awesome. I hope this is something we can look forward to down the road (with better pricing). I, for one, will definitely be a customer if someone releases this technology in the United States at a reasonable price where I don’t need to sell my business just to buy a tub of pre-workout.

What do you think? Is this something you would purchase and try or are you happy with what’s currently on the market? Let us know in the comments!

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