Specialty Bar Check-In (September 2022)

Introduction

This week was a deep dive into specialty bars. In addition to the standard “level of interest question,” we also wanted to see the level of interest in the camber on multi-grip bars, if the open trap bar is more popular than the “closed option,” and which 2022 REP Specialty Bar interests most.

(0:40) Level of Interest with Comparisons to Last Time

With 43% voting “high interest,” the SSB was easily the one that had the most “high interest.”

Specialty Bar	High	Medium	Low	IDK What That Is
Safety Squat Bar	43.25%	28.00%	27.00%	1.75%
Multi-Grip Bar	33.79%	39.91%	25.53%	0.77%
Hex/Trap Bar	33.88%	36.61%	29.17%	0.33%
Curl Bar	31.45%	36.26%	31.61%	0.68%
Deadlift Bar	28.37%	26.59%	44.37%	0.68%
Squat Bar	19.10%	28.56%	51.66%	0.68%
Camber Bar	17.72%	25.74%	50.72%	5.82%
Buffalo/Duffalo Bar	16.69%	24.87%	51.85%	6.58%
Bamboo/Tsunami Bars	13.42%	21.96%	55.67%	8.95%
Axle Bar	11.68%	21.43%	61.63%	5.25%
Log Bar	8.76%	12.59%	73.14%	5.50%

There wasn’t a ton of movement from February (as you’d expect), but the Multi-Grip Bar Jumped from the 4th most interesting specialty bar to #2.

Specialty Bar	February Rank	September Rank	Change
Safety Squat Bar	1	1	0
Multi-Grip Bar	4	2	2
Hex/Trap Bar	2	3	-1
Curl Bar	3	4	-1
Deadlift Bar	5	5	0
Squat Bar	6	6	0
Camber Bar	8	7	1
Buffalo/Duffalo Bar	7	8	-1
Bamboo/Tsunami Bars			0
Axle Bar	9	9	0
Log Bar	10	10	0

(4:23) Is the Camber Worth Additional $$ for Multi-Grip Bars

Responses for this one were split relatively evenly, but “Yes” did receive the most with about 38% of the votes.

(6:12) Which REP Bar Release Interests You Most?

In somewhat of a surprise, the Open Trap Bar was the easy winner with 44% of the votes. The SSB received a little less than a third and the MGB was just under 1/4th.

This was a question we asked about before these products were actually released (only teased) back in January. While the Open Trap Bar did win back in January, it increased in popularity after all were released.

Specialty Bar	January 2022	September 2022
Safety Squat Bar	35.00%	32.13%	-2.87%
Open Trap	36.40%	43.50%	7.10%
Multi-Grip Bar	28.60%	24.37%	-4.23%

(8:51) Which Trap Bar Style Interests You Most?

With about 3.5x more votes than traditional hex, the more modern Open Trap Bar is easily the more popular option when it comes to a better trap bar option for most.