We are BeaverFit — a defense contractor, and the largest supplier of fitness equipment to the U.S. Armed Forces. We create custom expeditionary fitness and readiness equipment for every mission essential task: from portable container gyms to special operations subterranean trainers. We then adapt our patented solutions for the commercial sector, because everyone has a mission that matters.
Veteran owned and operated, our work is a continuation of our duty to country. Our products are made in the USA and designed to perform in the toughest training environments. We seek out innovative materials and techniques, and integrate them into our patented designs, supporting an entire ecosystem of American manufacturers in the process.
BeaverFit has it’s roots in steel fabrication and manufacturing, beginning in the UK with R.S. Beaver LTD in 1947 and continuing with Beaver Bridges, founded in 2000 by Jim Beaver. This family background in fabrication and manufacturing laid the foundation for BeaverFit’s founding in the UK.
Tom Beaver, future founder of BeaverFit, builds his first outdoor training rig while preparing for the grueling Enduroman Arch to Arc, an 87 mile run from London to the English Channel, a swim across the Channel and a 180 mile bike ride to Paris. Meanwhile, Alex Roodhouse and Mike Taylor, future co-founders of BeaverFit North America, meet when they both patrolled the Euphrates river in Iraq with the Navy’s Riverine Squadron One, the first brown-water Navy unit since Vietnam.
Mike and Alex complete their active duty military service and both take jobs in the private sector selling fitness equipment back to the U.S. military.
The Special Air Service teams from Hereford—just a stone’s throw away from the Beaver family farm in Shropshire—spend a day with Tom training on his unique outdoor rig, and immediately ask him to build them one.
Alex meets Tom in the UK while they were both presenting equipment solutions to the UK Ministry of Defense. They immediately hit it off and recognize the enormous potential in creating unique fitness solutions for militaries worldwide.
BeaverFit UK had been supplying the British Army with outdoor training rigs when the Army was tasked to secure London ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the midst of moving fitness equipment throughout the city in real time, the BeaverFit team leans one of their wall-mounted rigs against a shipping container. And just like that, the BeaverFit Container Gym is born.
Efficient, cost saving, and customizable, the container gym is in demand as sales continue to climb. The BeaverFit team creates variations on the original design to meet the range of military needs.
February, 2014 – Alex and Mike officially join forces with Tom and found BeaverFit North America. The U.S. Marine Corps places a large order for container gyms to support their HITT Program, and overnight, BeaverFit becomes one of the largest providers of fitness equipment to the U.S. military.
Word of the unique and customizable equipment BeaverFit creates makes its way from the military to the private sector, and BeaverFit is commissioned to create a unique training solution for Google’s research group, GoogleX. It is the beginning of a productive partnership. Today BeaverFit supplies dozens of Google campuses worldwide, and partners with numerous other Fortune 100 companies to include Intel, YouTube, Chevron, American Express and more.
With BeaverFit North America growing rapidly, Alex and Mike decide to end their reliance on steel imports from the UK. As of this moment, the Performance Locker and all training rigs are made entirely in the United States.
Recognizing that American fitness equipment companies were sourcing their products almost entirely overseas, BeaverFit started Grey Man Gear, a 100% American-made, equipment brand, designed specifically for harsh climates and heavy outdoor use.
BeaverFit officially becomes the largest provider of human performance equipment to the U.S military. And, thanks to its support of all NATO militaries, BeaverFit is the world’s largest provider of fitness equipment to all military forces, bar none.
After passing DCMA and TACOM’s rigorous vetting of its American-made supply chain, BeaverFit is chosen to manufacture, kit, and deliver the equipment for the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) that all Soldiers must pass twice a year. It is the largest single acquisition of fitness equipment ever made by the U.S. military. BeaverFit delivers over 18,000 kits of hex bars, bumper plates, kettlebells, jump ropes and associated equipment, 100% made in America, in just 180 days.
After delivering more than 3,000 container gyms and tens of thousands of individual pieces of fitness equipment to the U.S. and NATO militaries, BeaverFit has taken up the mantle as the leading defense contractor supporting the Human Weapon System. We are a keystone in the American fitness manufacturing ecosystem, integrating the best domestic products and materials into fully customized facilities and solutions. And we are always innovating, designing the gyms of the future that include everything from cognitive scans to recovery areas.
