Why You Should NOT Buy the Rogue Monster Velocidor (and what to buy instead)
Rogue Fitness was my go-to equipment manufacturer for years. I spent nearly $2,000 on my initial gym set-up with them with bands, bars, rack, and other odds and ends. Rogue was the affordable American Made option for home gym enthusiasts. Over the years they even fought the good fight against the likes of the copy-cat companies and continued to put out quality equipment, new innovations, and more. Then something changed, they seemed to get too big and lose sight on what got them to where they were. You know my thoughts on their 1000lb Club Challenge as a perfect example. But recently they announced their Rogue Monster Velocidor dip attachment. This is a rack attached dip attachment with 3 adjustable handle angles, knurled removable handles, and a built in storage mode.
If this sounds familiar, you are correct. This thing bares a striking resemblance to the Mutant Metals UDA. As I’ve worked with Chris at Mutant Metals for years, I even had a hand in helping source ideas for the UDA, I feel a need to express my concerns with what Rogue has done here. This will be short, but let’s dig into why I think you should skip the Rogue Monster Velocidor and buy the Mutant Metals UDA instead.
Morals & Ethics
People will argue that this happens all the time in the fitness industry. But this one hits me different. When the big guys push each other around, it doesn’t feel as wrong. I’m not saying it is right, but a multi million dollar organization stealing from another one, no one intervenes cause its a fair fight. But the BIGGEST equipment manufacturing company in the world (or very close to it), stealing an idea from a dude who makes equipment out of his garage, is just pitiful. It is so far from a fair fight, its insane. And that is EXACTLY why Rogue did it. Cause they knew they could. They are the playground bully picking on the little kid because they know they’ll win.
The Rogue Monster Velocidor is them taking the food off of the table of an American family run business. When they go after the little guy, there is something morally and ethically wrong there. Rogue has a bigger R&D budget than Mutant Metals has in total assets. They could have engineered a completely new design and still created something unique with a dip attachment. But they didn’t. The ONLY fundamentally different aspect from the Rogue Monster Velocidor and the Mutant Metals UDA, is the ability to adjust the angle of the handles up and down. I’m not even positive that this is a feature that anyone wants, but we know why they did it. Their lawyers deemed it enough of a change to be different, and to avoid a potential lawsuit as well as allow them to patent it. Bull. Shit.
Custom Options
One of the BEST pieces to the puzzle with the UDA, is the customization options. You can get different powder coat finishes, different handle finishes, they will even do plastic end caps or completely welded ends. He has made different sized handles and gone completely custom in a number of ways over the years. Your UDA will be made to your specifics to match every part of your gym. It even is available for different sized racks including metric and imperial, 2×3 and 3×3, and 5/8″ and 1″ holes.
The Rogue Monster Velocidor comes in black, and fits 3×3 1″ Monster Racks. You can choose smooth or knurled handles. End. Of. List.
Supporting The Innovator – Why It Matters
I mentioned in the opening paragraph that Rogue USED to make new stuff. In reality, they weren’t really making new things as much as their lineup was fairly small and they were expanding into new territories. Making reverse hypers, GHDs, bigger racks, competition plates, you name it. This stuff all existed, they were just offering their own version.
This becomes a problem at a certain point. They run out of things to rebrand. Eventually, to continue to grow at the front of the pack, you have to have an R&D team that pushes you into new realms. Places that others haven’t been before.
What we see from Rogue, is that they are REALLY bad at this. Their rack attached cable systems get bad reviews, compared to companies like Rep who seem to have NAILED the Athena and Ares. Their specialty bars are almost across the board touted as a waste of money, and the few newer options they’ve dropped in recent years had IMMEDIATE V2s or outcries from the community on having to make alterations to them to make it work.
So we see them fail, with a seemingly endless R&D budget and abilities. So what do they do? They go after the people doing the actual innovating and gobble them up. They either outright buy them, or in our instance today, attempt to steal their design to get them out of operation.
The Problem
You might say, that’s just how business works. The problem, my dear home gym enthusiast, is that if you like cool new stuff for your gym, this model isn’t going to produce that. If innovation is only coming from the little guys, and the little guys can’t survive, innovation dies. Rogue’s ability to copy and rebrand disappears, and we have less options fill our garages. So supporting Rogue and others in taking ideas away from the innovators is a bad move. If Rogue works WITH the innovators and supports them, helps them innovate further, improve their manufacturing abilities, and brings them in as a partner, now we are talking about a COMPLETELY different approach. One that myself, the innovators, and the community, would likely all encourage and support.
Wrap Up
The high end dip game isn’t for everyone. No harm, no foul there. But if you are looking for something in the premium category, the Mutant Metals UDA should be on your list, NOT the Rogue Monster Velocidor.
Quick note, Mutant Metals has no influence on this article, or my opinions portrayed here. This is all me and the Garage Gym Competition.
Grab your UDA here, and check out my experiences with it in this video review.
Update
The community came out in droves to support Mutant Metals. Rogue took a step back and reached out directly to Chris to chat. After some back and forth, a visit to Rogue HQ, and some behind the scenes legal stuff, we now have the Mutant Metals UDA, produced by Rogue Fitness.
You can hear about Chris’ entire side of the story in the podcast episode below with Jake at Garage Gym Experiment.
Chris finishes the interview by saying more or less, that buying your UDA from Rogue is a great way to support Mutant Metals. It gives them funds, requires them to do nothing, allows them to get caught up on their custom orders, and likely gives you a product in a faster time line.
So… I’m taking Chris’s words and saying… if you want custom colors and build outs, buy direct from Mutant Metals. If you want black and a quick turn around, grab the UDA from Rogue.
