8 min
Today’s fitness entrepreneurs face a brutal paradox: it’s never been easier to start a brand — but also never been harder to build one that lasts.
In a market flooded with white-label supplements, hype-driven marketing, and constant discounting, most businesses chase short-term wins. Very few play the long game.
In this FitNation episode, René van der Zel, founder of XXL Nutrition , shares how he built one of the Netherlands’ strongest supplement brands — not by moving fast and breaking things, but by doing the opposite: staying focused, saying no, and putting product over promotion.
What started as a garage operation to solve his own digestive issues grew into a business supplying more than 1,500 gyms, hospitals, and elite athletes. But XXL’s success didn’t come from luck — it came from a series of bold decisions that most founders wouldn’t dare to make:
→ Walking away from €1.5M in revenue to protect brand identity
→ Refusing to follow the protein hype
→ Building long-term partnerships instead of chasing customers
René’s story is a masterclass in long-term thinking, brand integrity, and execution-first entrepreneurship.
This blog breaks down what fitness professionals and founders can learn from René’s approach:
- Why your brand becomes stronger every time you say no to short-term gains
- How one garage, a broken BMW, and €5,000 launched a 22-year brand
- Why the best partnerships aren’t just B2B deals — they’re shared visions
- What happens when you stop planning and start acting
For anyone tired of following trends and ready to build something real — this is your blueprint.
From Shop to Brand: Why René Walked Away from €1.5M Revenue
Most entrepreneurs dream of hitting seven figures. René van der Zel gave up over €1.5 million in revenue — overnight. Why? Because it didn’t fit the vision.
In the early days of XXL Nutrition, René sold other popular supplement brands alongside his own. It made sense financially. Margins were good. Demand was high. “We actually made more profit on some of those imported brands than on our own products,” he admits. But something didn’t sit right.
“I didn’t want to be a shop. I wanted to be a brand,” René explains. That distinction may sound subtle — but it shaped everything that followed.
Selling other people’s products blurred XXL’s identity. It made them look like a house brand, not a standalone name. And René saw the future coming: sooner or later, big-box retailers and supermarkets would jump on the supplement wave. If XXL didn’t stand for something unique, it would disappear into the noise.
So, on a Monday morning, he walked into the office and said: we’re done.
No transition plan. No slow phase-out. Just a clean cut. The team was stunned — and understandably nervous. “But I knew it was the right move,” he says. “If we wanted people to choose XXL in the future, they needed to see us as a brand with integrity. Not just another seller.”
The short-term dip was real. Some customers left. Some products didn’t have clear substitutes. But René doubled down: clear messaging, better in-house product development, and a sharper promise to the customer.
Today, XXL is seen as a market leader — not because it sells everything, but because it stands for something specific. That’s the power of saying no.
👉 For gym owners, PTs, and entrepreneurs trying to do it all: this is the reminder.
More products ≠ more clarity. More choice ≠ more trust.
Sometimes, cutting what doesn’t align is the only way to build something that lasts.
🚀 Want to hear René explain this turning point himself?
In the full FitNation episode, he breaks down the exact decision to cut €1.5M in revenue — and why it paid off in the long run.
From B2C to One-Stop-Shop: How XXL Became a Gym Essential
XXL Nutrition didn’t start with gyms in mind. The business was originally built for consumers — athletes ordering through a basic webshop, with René personally dropping off parcels at the post office during his lunch breaks.
That was the world he knew. B2B wasn’t even on the radar.
Until gym owners started calling.
“I’d get calls from people I knew from the gym scene — they’d say, ‘René, I don’t sell anything anymore, all my members walk around with your shaker and your shirts,’” he recalls. “At some point, it just made sense to open up a business portal.”
But René didn’t just slap a B2B label on the site and hope for the best. He saw a structural opportunity: most gyms had suppliers who operated like middlemen with vans, dropping off stock every couple of weeks.
There was no service. No branding. No end-to-end offering.
So XXL flipped the model.
They didn’t just offer supplements. They went all-in on becoming the go-to supplier for gyms, with:
- Protein shakes, bars, and ready-to-drinks
- Branded fridges, vending machines, and shake machines
- Custom gym signage, mats, bins, clocks, banners — all carrying XXL’s visual identity
The goal wasn’t just to sell more product. It was to create visibility, build trust, and make XXL Nutrition part of the gym experience.
Today, XXL supplies more than 1,500 gyms — and counting. And for many of those facilities, XXL isn’t just a vendor. It’s a partner that improves the member experience, boosts retail revenue, and strengthens brand cohesion.
It’s a classic René move:
→ Listen to the customer
→ Spot the gap
→ Build something better
→ Execute with focus
No flashy campaigns. No overpromises. Just solid delivery, built on the belief that real growth happens when you make yourself indispensable.
Action Over Plans: Why Execution Built the Brand
Ask René van der Zel about long-term strategy, and he’ll probably shrug. He didn’t build XXL Nutrition with a master plan — he built it by doing.
“I never thought about where I wanted to be in five years,” he says. “I was too busy improving what we did yesterday.”
For René, growth has always been a side effect — not the goal. That mindset shaped how he works, hires, and develops products. Every six months, he expects the business to look different. Better. Sharper. More useful to the people it serves.
That’s not just talk. XXL has launched hits, pulled duds, and completely reworked products based on real customer feedback.
Take the infamous matcha shake, for example. “We put in three grams of matcha per serving,” René says. “It was intense. So bitter, it was basically a pre-workout.” Customers hated it. Instead of doubling down, XXL reformulated, relaunched, and turned it into a success.
That willingness to move fast, listen faster, and act without ego runs through the company. XXL doesn’t do rigid five-year roadmaps. It does action. Iteration. Course correction. “I’d rather have a half-finished project in motion than a perfect plan in a drawer,” René says.
His point is simple: You don’t need to know the whole route. You just need to start moving — and keep improving.
👉 For founders stuck in analysis mode or coaches waiting for the perfect offer: René’s advice is clear. Get in the game. Talk to customers. Build, test, fix, repeat.
Growth comes from action — not alignment meetings.
Conclusion: What Every Fitness Entrepreneur Can Learn from XXL Nutrition
René van der Zel didn’t chase trends. He built XXL Nutrition by staying clear on who the brand was — and who it wasn’t. That clarity helped him say no to distractions, resist the hype, and make decisions most founders would avoid.
No shortcuts. No endless pivots. Just consistency, quality, and relentless execution.
That mindset isn’t just for supplement companies. It’s a blueprint for anyone building something real in the fitness industry — from PTs to studio owners to tech founders.
Here are the key takeaways from René’s story:
- Solve a real problem, not a theoretical one. René built XXL because the market didn’t offer what he needed. That clarity gave him a head start most brands never find.
- Your brand gets stronger every time you say no. Cutting €1.5M in revenue to protect the XXL identity wasn’t easy — but it paid off. Clear beats clever.
- Focus beats features. XXL doesn’t try to do everything. It tries to do the right things, for the right people, in the right way.
- Execution > planning. You don’t need a five-year plan. You need momentum. Action creates clarity. Movement creates opportunity.
- Partnerships are earned, not pitched. XXL grew by becoming valuable to gyms — not by selling to them, but by helping them sell better.
👉 Whether you’re launching a product, scaling a service, or coaching 1:1 — the path is the same: stay focused, keep improving, and make sure every decision strengthens the brand you’re trying to build.
That’s the XXL way. And it works.
💡 Want more than just the blog? Dive into the full episode with René.
From real numbers to unfiltered advice, this conversation is packed with lessons for anyone building a fitness brand, product, or community.
