The Story of Our Brand & Vision

The Story of Our Rebrand: DOMINATE

It’s been about 12 years since our last rebrand, and as we continue to grow, we wanted a symbol that embodies what we do, who we are, and why we do the things we do.

The original name was Laylor Performance Systems (2000’s) to LPS Athletic (2015), and now (2019).  The very first logo (I don’t have the graphic anymore) was with a running man holding in one hand a briefcase, and the other a dumbbell with LAYLOR PERFORMANCE SYSTEM in a circle written around it.  Then by 2015 when we were LPS Athletic, we changed to the logo below:

LPS logo from 2015

In 2019, we set out on a journey to redefine and redesign what our brand represents.  Our new logo has a deep meaning of what we do, a hidden message (can you spot it?), an emotion attached (Dominate), and what we represent (The Pro Maker) and an origin story shared below.

We’re very excited to share this with you, with a line of apparel with the wolf on it.

Below, I am going to share with you the entire process, and the story behind the brand.

The Research

We’ve spent countless hours doing research. Here are the steps & consideration in producing a powerful brand, and these include:

Understanding what our brand represents. It’s not easy to ask around the room of your team why do we do the things we do. We ask ourselves, “What are we about?” & “Where are we going?” — these two fundamental questions help drive why we exist.

Does it reflect the nature of our business? We wanted a symbol that embodies the elements of what we produce out of the facility which are dominant athletes.  After all, we’re The Pro Maker.

What is the first impression when they see this? We must have a clean design, something that is timeless.

What colors should we use? Will it work in black and white (for all mediums)? Researching so many brands and other gyms, most of them are very busy in their design, most of them don’t work with just one color. We wanted something that was simple, can be easily done in one color.  This was important because the biggest and most notable brands in the world can be reflected in one colour, so our design must be able to stand the test of times with just one colour.

What font sends the right signal to our audience? Not too bold, not too high class. We respect the work here, not the talent. No fancy stuff, just real work, real results for real underdog athletes who have a dream.

Deciding if we want a logo-type (ie. Coca-Cola, IBM), or a symbol (Nike, Adidas)? We ended up with a symbol and a logo-type. I’ve found that many people try to create something too quickly. Before Nike was a recognizable swoosh, it had NIKE written under it, everywhere. It wasn’t till it hit a global brand, that it dropped the word Nike, and we all just recognize the brand with just the swoosh.

How do we make it simple so that it’s recognizable but embodies a depth of meaning? This was our toughest challenge. We had to capture a lot of stories, think deep about where we came from, how did we get here, what do we represent, and list all things our members have said over the years about what we do, and the results they got from training with us.

The Concept

We did a ton of word marks and a ton of symbols.

We researched some of the most popular gyms & apparel brands in the world.

We drew ideas on a board, on paper, in the showers.

We scoured the web for possibly copycats, duplicates.

We had ideas like shields, monsters, barbells, dumbbells, plates, etc.. but the perfect thing we landed on, was the symbolisation of a wolf (aka “Monsta”)

And what will the characters in L P S mean?  It is our core values that we live by:

L for Leadership
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
P for Performance
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
S for Savage

The Inspirations

Our wolf (“Monsta”) wasn’t something born out of nowhere. It was a collective of past experience that Coach Clance and our coaching team has encountered.

From attending world competitions of weightlifting, training Olympic athletes, building an international certification, deep practical application, and constant revision of his system.

We’ve collected over 30+ years of messages, the quotes, the things our athletes will say, such as:

“Hard work becomes easy work.” – Mark Friedman

“Hunt or Be Hunted.”

“This system is like a pressure cooker and over time the pressure creates diamonds.” – Drew Paris & Kari Pinnock

“Everyone wants to be a monster until they see what real monsters do.” – Wayne Moore

“Legs feed the wolf.” – LPS Athletic

“If you want to be a lion, you must run with lions.” – Carlson Gracie

“Become so good, they can’t ignore you.” – Jeremy Choi

“Being average takes weeks, being good takes months, being great takes years, being extraordinary takes decades.” – Jeremy Choi

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi

“Wolves eat then go right back to hunting.” – Bud Charniga

“The lion might be the king of the jungle, but you will never see a WOLF perform in a circus”

We’ve been victims of the gimmicks and the false information proliferating the fitness and strength and conditioning industry. I really do feel for the parents and the gullible strength coaches.

Especially with social media, it’s easy to show highlights of cool stuff to trap and sell the uneducated masses.

But the wolf has a deep meaning to us because the path or the journey in the strength game has been lots of trial and error. Lots of pain, happiness, wins, and losses, but we continued to learn and adapt to be the best in the game.

“Legs feed the wolf” is one of our gym mantras because we train legs every day. To get through the toughest days when the legs are sore, members will yell “legs feed the wolf!” And that stuck with us since.

“Wolves eat and go right back to hunting” is don’t rest on your laurels, don’t get too high after a great win, day or and an amazing performance you had in a game. Don’t get too low from poor performance like a bad game or match. Just get back on the grind. One of our athletes Maya Laylor (6th in the World) had one of the best performances in her life at the 2018 Canadian Nationals in Montreal. When she got off that plane, she went right back to the gym and started training. She didn’t rest for a week, she got right back to work because if you ain’t hunting, there will be no food.

“Hunt or be Hunted.” We tend to attract the not-as-talented or not-as-physically-gifted athletes because they are hungrier! The underdogs, the ones people doubt.  It’s the hunt or be hunted mindset. If they are not training or working on their craft, they will be on the chopping block. They are so hungry to be so good, they can’t be ignored. They change the game, and they redefine the position they play. They become the prototype that others model against.

Adapt or die is one of the most misunderstood concepts of training. If you expose an organism to an environment, the organism will adapt or die, period. Our job as coaches is not to babysit these athletes… it is to make them better! The best way to do that is by exposing the athlete to an environment that promotes systematic progress. That’s where our 30+ years of research into developing this results-proven system, just works if you take on the challenge.

Push the Pace is when an athlete works at high intensity 80%+ of their one-rep max all the time. If you possess that ability, you will be hard to deal with. This is probably the toughest part of our Athlete Activation System. It’s both a mental and physical stress, and only very few athletes can keep the TRUE intensity and focus on training days week in and week out. The athletes who adhere to this principle fully are achy, irritable, tired and sore. If you don’t show any of these symptoms, you are cutting corners somewhere. That’s a fact!

One athlete after years in my system looked me in the eye and asked “Do I really have to work this hard?” My response was, “If you want to dominate and redefine the game you do!” and after years, this was proven to be true.

Pressure Creates Diamonds. If you want true high performance, one must apply pressure. You need to be a strong coach to make this work. Because if you are truly applying pressure you will get push back in different forms. Apply pressure, then hug ’em and hold ’em, then repeat! One athlete, big strong or he thought he was strong, was getting his as kicked by the system. By the younger and smaller athletes, as well as ladies. Not funny to him! He couldn’t figure it out, he wanted to quit, but I kept at him, talking and convincing him to keep pushing, eventually, he took off and started to crush the weights and sprints. One day he looked at me and said: “Your gym is like a pressure cooker, the pressure is so intense that you can’t help BUT to create diamonds.”

We’re in the business to make professional athletes, so if there is one word that sums it all up, it is: Dominate.

The Alter Ego

Instinctively, we’ve always had an alter ego but it wasn’t apparent and really spelled out until my good friend Todd showed me a process to do so.

If you haven’t read The Alter Ego by Todd Herman, you’re missing out.

To over-simplify it: We have developed a wolf as our Alter Ego. Not just any wolf. This wolf represents the permission to be the superhero with the superpowers we already possess within and go live it each and every moment we put on a LPS gear.

Here are other things you may not know about wolves, but are quite important to our decision factors:

Wolves are loyal.
Wolves take care of their own.
Wolves take care of the weak and old.
Wolves hunt together.
Wolves support one another.

Unlike lions, you’ll never see a wolf in a circus.

The Guiding Values

When we set out to become unstoppable in our pursuit of developing the best athletes in the world, we meant it. We are The Pro Makers. How do we achieve it? Fundamentally, we need to have guiding core values that our team and our members fully embrace, and these are:

L for Leadership

We believe that great leaders are made, not born. Foster a culture and environment that provides opportunities to be a better leader. Set the standards. Be a part of a wolf pack that will have your back and not be afraid to tell you what you need to hear. For the strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf. We are and will continue to be leaders.

P for Performance

We always stake our reputation of results above profits. Never settle for the status quo. Leave the ego at the door. Continuously be open-minded, and willing to learn. Measure the numbers. Earn respect through effort. Demand more and never let others set your expectations. Pressure creates diamonds.

S for Savage

Everybody wants to be a Monsta until they see what real Monstas do. A savage is an individual who defies the odds, outworks their competitors, and who, when knocked down, will always get back up. Their character will not be defined by success or failures, but by their purpose, kindness, work ethic, and perseverance. A savage is all-in on the DOMINATE lifestyle.

The Golden Ratio

Designing a logo or word-mark in my mind is not about just finding some fonts and throwing a motif of a wolf. It’s also about creating balance (in life, in sports, in relationships).

That is why it was important to me that our symbol encompasses the golden ratio.

Commonly found in nature, the golden ratio is a mathematical ratio. A fibonacci sequence. This fine detail is more often found to be used by big brands to achieve beauty, balance, and harmony in art, design, and photography.

Scientific studies have shown that we perceive things that contain the Golden Ratio as beautiful, harmonious, and bordering perfection, even when we are unaware of it.

That’s why it’s important for us to lay over these elements in our brand. The human body to us has the ability to generate balance & harmony if given the proper training & coaching.

We stand to combat the noise that plaques the strength & conditioning industry that are ruining athletes from all around the world.

It’s one of the big reasons we created the Athlete Activation System to teach other coaches around the world the proper ways to train athletes. We can’t do it all in our facility, nor do we want to.

We don’t desire to make billions, we desire to push the boundaries of ethical human performance.

That to us just feels right. That keeps us waking up early in the morning and leaving late at night.

And this is why we exist.

The Diamond

One of our athletes once said, “This system is like a pressure cooker and over time the pressure creates diamonds.”

We believe to be successful in sports and in life, you must be both physically and mentally strong.

You need to apply the right types of pressure.

You MUST battle through that pressure and come out on the other side a diamond.

Sent to us by Drew Paris, Former Professional Hockey Player

That’s why we’re not a fancy posh gym. We don’t buy into the next new cool thing without doing extensive research and reasoning. We don’t put away your weights, and we don’t make shakes for you. We’re not a gym with butlers.

The athletes we have trained (whether that be in sports, or in the boardroom) that get through our training & atmosphere of a pressure cooker = Dominate

You must learn to be self-sustainable, self-motivated at times, and driven. You’re not always going to have a coach around.

That’s why our system is built to be high-performance coaching, not personal training.

So what’s the hidden message? Can you see it?

There is a diamond cut out in the middle separating down the middle of our wolf.

There are also a few more hidden messages, but we can’t share those as it is a reminder internally on our team, our core purpose.

But that obvious diamond is a reminder for our members and our team: No pressure = No diamond.

“Everybody wants to be a monsta, until they see what real monstas do” – Wayne Moore, CFL

If you want to be a Monsta (An LPS Alpha Wolf), and embody the powers that this system will unlock in you, then embrace and challenge that pressure to come out the other side, a diamond!

Vision: Where We’re Going

We are The Pro Maker. Our athletes become world-class versions of themselves on the ice, on the field, on the court, or in the boardroom.

We are committed to relentlessly creating unfair advantages for our members so that they are unstoppable in the pursuit of their dreams.

We Remap Athletes to Dominate™ – Become So Good, They Can’t Ignore You.  We’ve even written the Amazon International #1 Best-Seller in Sports Training, Exercise & Fitness.

We’re creating wolves, but not just any kind of wolves, the ones that are leaders (alphas).

For the past decade, we’ve been building world-class athletes and named in the media as the secret weapon to Olympic and professional athletes like P.K. Subban.

Created several #1 athletes in their respective categories, and train over 100+ athletes with over $150M in professional contracts.

We can’t wait to show you what we have in the oven for the upcoming years.

We’re excited to be sharing this journey with you as we become the real game-changer (pun intended).

We’re not here to participate, we’re here to dominate.