The SFT Origin Story
My name is Samuel Vree, and I am the founder and head trainer at Strength For Today. I started SFT in November of 2024 because it combines the two things I am most passionate about - fitness, and helping other people.
I grew up in Lansing, Illinois and developed a love for all things sports from a very young age. While in high school at Illiana Christian, I went to a facility called Next Level Athletic Performance in Harvey, IL. It was here that I fell in love with the weight room. The sound of the metal clanging, the scene of athletes pushing themselves through sheer determination, the pulse in your chest delivered via a speak blasting music - it was all so intriguing. The biggest draw, however, was the idea that in this place, it didn’t matter what you’ve accomplished before - all that matters is the work you’re willing to put in week-by-week, month-by-month to get better. This ignited a spark in my brain and at the age of 15 I decided it would be awesome to start a gym.
After graduating High School, I attended Hope College with that singular goal floating around my young, naive brain. I studied exercise science and business while also playing four years of varsity basketball. All four years, I never swayed from the plan and never thought about doing anything else with my life. When graduation rolled around, I had one goal in mind: I wanted to start a gym. It’s not always that easy, however, as I would quickly come to find out.
In the fitness industry, I realized, you have to pay your dues. I had this dream that felt so far away, yet it still very clear and defined. After college, I decided to stay in Michigan, where I took an internship for a company called Powerstrength. I ended up staying there for approximately 2 years. Starting as an intern, I worked a bartending job on the side to pay rent and the other bills I found out about living on my own for the first time. Eventually, through a lot of work and determination, I became a full time coach there finally made my way up to an athlete coordinator position. It was at PowerStrength that I learned the ropes of the fitness industry. I trained clients of all ages, from 5th grade all the way up to the senior population and every age in between. I started to learn the back end of the business. I learned from the established trainers who were quick to share their knowledge. I boosted my abilities as a trainer through certifications. I did all these different things, none of it ever felt truly right. The whole time, somewhere deep in my brain, I had a little voice that would chime in once every couple days - do it on my own. I decided to quit my job with no backup plan and my life fell into a period of limbo (surprise, surprise). I accepted a job selling windows and got fired three weeks later. I drove for Uber, tried my hand at online coaching, donated plasma - I did whatever I had to do in order to make ends meet for the time being. I thought the dream was over. I was out of the fitness industry for 6 months and figured it was time to get a real job to make a decent living.
Then, in the summer of 2023, I received a call from my father with news that would shake up my whole world - he wanted to be my business partner in a new gym. This was it. My dad, the man who has already done so much for me, was going to help me achieve my dream. After hanging up, I ran back into my local Grand Rapids Starbucks, grabbed my overpriced coffee and ideas started flooding my brain - What would we name it? What does the model look like? Where do I even start? There were so many questions to be answered, and again I felt the passion in my stomach that I felt the first time I walked into Next Level Athletic Performance when I was 15. It was then that I decided to move home and chase this dream that had felt so far off in the distance my entire life. I was finally going to do it - everything seemed so clear.
Following my move home, I started working a job at Amazon to have an income while in the planning stage of this whole process. I did this for about a year and, on several different occasions, I wanted to give up and just find a comfortable job to spend my days. Being so close, yet feeling so far away was a tough pill to swallow for a while. Delivering for Amazon was driving me insane, and I couldn’t see an end in sight. Another bump in the road. I tried to convince myself to just follow the crowds and find a stable career, but God had other plans the whole time. I felt like I had done all the planning possible, and now it was just the lack of a physical location standing in the way.
Finally, after many long days staring at my computer, a lot of prayer, and too many cups of coffee, I came across 874 Madison St and knew it was perfect. We applied, signed a lease and my busy life as a small business owner began.
