Lair o' the Bear Archives

Nigel Anderson

Nigel Anderson has more than thirty years of experience in the specialty fitness industry – including product testing and home and facility design. Raised in New York, he was living in New Jersey when a friend told him that Fitness Gallery in Colorado was looking to expand their sales team. He met Fitness Gallery owner, Donnie Salum, in April 2021 and knew right away this was the right place for him; he made the move to Colorado to join the Fitness Gallery team shortly thereafter.

As a product tester, Nigel got to test fitness equipment prototypes for a number of fitness equipment companies – ensuring the equipment met the quality standards needed to be brought to market. He got to test units like the original Curve treadmill, numerous Whole Body Vibration plates, customized strength pieces and many things that never made it to market. He even got to try a prototype of the Cybex Arc trainer at their facilities in Boston.

For 25 years beforehand, he was a commercial and residential facility designer, putting together floor plans for clients in homes, training facilities and developers.

As he gets settled into Colorado and finds some free time, he’s excited to explore more of the state on his motorcycle.

Ron Rhodes

Ron Rhodes, our Vice President of Commercial Sales, has over 30 years of Commercial Fitness Equipment sales and facility design experience. Ron oversees all commercial sales operations for Fitness Gallery and manages numerous national accounts in multi family, student housing and active adult living.

In 1990, Ron graduated from Drake University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While in high school, Ron was an athlete and he participated in football and wrestling and from this background his passion for fitness was born.

Ron has a tremendous work ethic and dedication to excellence that clearly shows through in every project. Using CAD and 3D design tools, coupled with extensive product knowledge Ron helps our valued commercial customers and team members create a world class fitness facilities.

If you’re developing or planning a new fitness facility please reach out Ron for assistance, he is eager to put his experience to work for you!

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Anthony Shaw

Anthony was born in Seattle and spent time growing up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Tulsa, Oklahoma before settling in Parker, Colorado where he attended Regis Jesuit High School. He then went off to Washington State University where he walked onto the school’s football team. After suffering an injury that halted his sports career, he moved back to Denver. Anthony transferred up to CU Boulder in 2016 where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication with a minor in Marketing. During his rehab he became fascinated by wellness and injury preventative exercise and is passionate about helping people better their quality of life through health and fitness. Anthony began working at Fitness Gallery in 2021 and enjoys working for a company that aligns with his background and passion.

Corey Hash

Corey Hash is a proud husband and father of three. He’s also a Colorado native, and grew up in the Denver Metro area. He attended Colorado State University, and graduated with a degree in Business Management.

Corey started working at Fitness Gallery in Jan 2021. He has 20 years of management experience with 10 years in the fitness industry between club management and equipment sales. He took 10 years off from fitness to work in the bulk electric power marketing sector, helping to “keep the lights on”.

Regardless of industry or position, Corey is committed to providing great service and value to my clients. In my experience as a manager, I have learned to engage with my teammates in an affirmative manner to foster a fun and productive organizational environment.

Away from the office, he is a youth baseball and softball coach. In sports, as in business, he believes in identifying the strengths of individuals and building upon them to achieve positive results for the team.

Connor Duey

Connor Duey, our Boulder Store Manager and Training Executive, has been with Fitness Gallery since 2019. He started as a member of the Delivery team and has worked his way up in the company. His knowledge of health and fitness far exceeds this time frame.

Connor is a local to Colorado. He went to Regis Jesuit High school where he played Soccer and swam all four years. He then continued his education at the University of Northern Colorado. After a few years, Connor realized something was missing in his life and that was the competitive and demanding physical nature soccer had provided him for years. He pursued his dream of becoming a Professional Soccer player and succeeded. He played in Huston, Des Moines, and Los Angeles. Connor still plays today but has shifted his knowledge and drive to helping others become the best versions of themselves with Fitness Gallery.

John Arreola

John Arreola joined the Fitness Gallery team in 2021 and has enjoyed being in the fitness equipment industry for over a decade.

A native Californian, John began at a Sears Flagship Fitness store and was the department lead for nearly six years. In 2016, he joined Busy Body Home Fitness and was quickly promoted to store manager at their Pasadena location. Later in 2018, John was recruited to California Home Fitness as manager of their Sherman Oaks store (one of their largest locations and a top 2 store for the company).

John believes that the right fitness equipment and strategy can have a very positive impact on your health and well-being. He loves meeting people from all walks of life and looks forward to supporting you with his great knowledge of quality equipment, room design, and service.

Tim Salamin

Tim Salamin, Retail Sales Executive, has been with Fitness Gallery since October 2020. Having started in the delivery and installation division, Tim learned the ins-and-outs of the entire line of products from TuffStuff and True. His firsthand experience building and installing Fitness Gallery’s premium equipment gave him an invaluable edge when it comes to product knowledge and helping customers make the right choice for their home gyms.

Billy Salum

Billy Salum cofounded Fitness Gallery with his brother, Donnie, in 1997.

He grew up an athlete, in grade school he played football, wrestled, and ran track. He later became an All-State athlete, lettering eleven times in high school before going on to play football in college.

His first fitness job was delivering fitness equipment in 1990. He soon began working on the retail floor and found he had a knack for sales: in two months he became the top salesman. In that same year he broke the store record for sales each month, and the year after that he even surpassed his previous year’s records. He became the store manager at Exercise Equipment of Arizona.

He later moved to Colorado where he and his brother, Donnie, opened Fitness Gallery. And now 25 years later, he’s still working to grow the business by his brother’s side. In his free time he enjoys playing golf and spending time in the mountains and with his grandkids.

Ryan Greer

Ryan Greer was born in a small town in upstate South Carolina called Anderson. He grew up playing sports in high school such as football, basketball, soccer and baseball.

He joined the US Army in 2014 and served until 2018. He was stationed in Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and completed many training events throughout the country during that time. The Army taught him valuable lessons in life that are still in use every day.

From high school to the US Army and currently, fitness has always been a passion! Which has led him to be passionate and more comfortable than ever being a part of the wonderful Fitness Gallery team.

Allison Colwell

Allison Colwell has been an athlete since she was young. Through high school she played field hockey, soccer and lacrosse and took up rock climbing in college, which has been a passion ever since. For Allison, fitness and health are at the forefront of her personal life.

She received a Bachelors of Science at the University of Vermont and moved to Colorado in 2013. She has been a web developer, graphic designer and digital marketer since 2015, and has helped lots of businesses improve their online presence and gain traction in the digital world.

Chase Rohlfs

Chase Rohlfs, Director of Commercial Sales, is a former personal trainer with nearly a decade of experience in helping clients achieve their fitness goals alongside promoting proper body mechanics and injury prevention.

Chase was born and raised in Missouri, spending his summers playing competitive traveling baseball and his winters snowboarding. Upon graduating high school he moved to Phoenix, Arizona to study Kinesiology at Arizona State University and graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 2012. During his senior year of college, Chase began personal training for a local gym and eventually grew his clientele base to a point that allowed him to start his own business.

In May of 2019, Chase moved to Denver to work as a Commercial Sales Representative for Fitness Gallery. His love of fitness, the mountains, and expanding his knowledge in an industry he was dedicated to, presented an opportunity that was too great to pass up.

Chase has been with Fitness Gallery since 2019. He’s had the pleasure to help outfit facilities for the Colorado Rockies, Denver PD, and Denver SWAT, among many others. With more exciting projects on the horizon, Chase and Fitness Gallery will continue to expand their book of business and look forward to growing the commercial fitness division of Fitness Gallery!

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Kyle VanFrank

Kyle VanFrank, Sales Manager, has been working at Fitness Gallery since 2020.

Hewas born in a small town north of Cincinnati, Ohio called Oxford Ohio. He grew up playing sports most of his life but focused on Ice Hockey.

He attended Ohio University from 2006-2009 and received a bachelors degree in Health Sciences. During this time he started working in the Fitness Industry as a maintenance rep for all fitness equipment at both the faculty and student gyms on campus.

In 2010 he joined the United States Army as a life long goal and dream. He completed combat deployments to Afghanistan. While serving time in Hawaii he traveled for training missions to Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

He is passionate about sales, mentorship, leading, and most importantly health and fitness.

John Conti

John Conti, VP of Training, is a Fitness Industry and sales veteran.

He brings to Fitness Gallery a proven track record of performance and more than 28 years in fitness industry experience both on the retail and manufacturing side of the business (and a total of more than 40 years of sales and marketing/management experience).

He’s trained thousands of sales people and written several sales training programs; he’s co-written and directed “True Professional Sales Course” with The Friedman Group and wrote and authored The Conti Effect” Sales Training Program.

John is a highly motivated and dedicated achiever which has earned him industry-wide respect as a sales trainer, motivator and communicator. With such an extensive background and passionate drive, he is the perfect professional to not only train and motivate the Fitness Gallery sales team, but help continue to bolster the company as a driving force in the Industry.

Wes Bryant

Wes Bryant has been working at Fitness Gallery since 2020.

West is from southern Kentucky and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in Hospitality Management/Nutrition Food Science and Business. He has spent most of his early career in the food and beverage industry as a traveling director for large scale venues. He transitioned into food brokerage and logistical sales but was cut short due to the shut down of COVID.

Having always carried a long standing passion for health and exercise, he decided to try his hand within the fitness & equipment sales industry. Needless to say, Wes has excelled within the fitness industry during his first year.

He enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, 4-wheeling, hunting, and most other outdoor activities- and thoroughly enjoys spending time with his family in the mountains.

Jonathan Mattison

Jonathan Mattison, Logistics and Operations Manager, has been with Fitness Gallery since February 2021.

Jonathan has an expansive education starting at McCook Community College where he earned two associates degrees while playing NJCAA Division I baseball. After a shoulder injury, Jonathan continued his education at the University of Wyoming where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management and then continued through school to receive a Masters’ in Business Administration.

Jonathan supports the culture at Fitness Gallery by putting his health and fitness activities as a priority in his life. He is active in the gym and enjoys all the perks Colorado has to offer: snowboarding, biking, wakeboarding, fishing, and backpacking.

Dylan Muse

The fitness industry has always been a big part of Dylan Muse’s life.

His dad is an ex-professional soccer player and as such, he played numerous sports growing up and was a two-sport athlete in high school in Dallas, Texas. His pursuit with fitness continued in college. While attending Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Dylan focused his studies on Finance with a double minor in Sports Management and Communication Management. This skillset has allowed him to maintain client relationships with a focus on the financial and physical benefits in the fitness industry.

As a hands-on individual, he began working in the industry around 2015 with his jobs including but not limited to delivery, installation, design, layout, and client communications. In 2019 he started working for Fitness Gallery and has been a very valuable addition to the team. Dylan can complete the full term of the transaction to product knowledge, sales, design, delivery, installation, and follow up.

Donald "Donnie" G. Salum

Donnie Salum, our President and Founder, is an entrepreneur and former professional football player with more than two decades of experience in the Fitness Equipment Industry.

A Colorado native, Donnie grew up playing football at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs. Unrecruited yet undeterred, he became a walk-on linebacker to the University of Arizona’s football team in 1986. With unmatched tenacity, Donnie earned a scholarship, led the team in tackles in 1989, and was selected the Wildcats’ co-player of the year along with cornerback Darryll Lewis.

Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1990, Donnie had an injury-ridden NFL stint and retired after his third season. Off the field, he participated in numerous charitable functions, spoke to and mentored students at 50 Tucson and Atlanta-based high schools, and regularly volunteered at Eggleston’s Children’s Hospital.

Donnie founded Fitness Gallery in 1997 and grew the business to be one of the largest in the country; Fitness Gallery became the #1 distributor of TuffStuff Fitness and the #2 distributor of TRUE Fitness products in less than three years. In 2001 and 2002, Donnie was recognized as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year for the state of Arizona.

A close friend and mentor to many NFL superstars including Tedy Bruschi, Lance Briggs, and Scooby Wright; Donnie was introduced to Robert “Rob” Gronkowski while he was in middle school, and is credited with persuading Rob to attend his alma mater, The University of Arizona.

Over the last two decades Fitness Gallery has remained actively involved, supporting events like the Colfax Marathon and the Colorado Governor’s Council for Physical Fitness; and has received numerous awards and remained a Top 5 Distributor of TRUE Fitness and TuffStuff Fitness products worldwide.

Donnie currently resides in Highlands Ranch with his wife Missy, and their three elementary-aged children, Abbie, Izzy, and Donnie Jr.

Whether you’ve questions, would like to try it in person, or are ready to order, please fill out the form below and one of our product experts will contact you shortly.

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Scott Compton

Scott Compton, our Commercial Account Manager, has more than 10 years of experience in the Fitness Equipment Industry.

Scott first entered the fitness industry in 1997 as a Commercial Sales Representative for G&G Fitness. During his 10-year tenure with G&G Fitness, Scott assisted the design, product selection, and installation of hundreds of commercial fitness facilities, from small corporate rooms to complete fitness centers.

Earlier this year Scott relocated to Aurora, Colorado to join Fitness Gallery’s expansion efforts; while partial to his home state, New York, he has identified Colorado as the most beautiful state in the country!

Bret Clifton

Bret Clifton, our Highlands Ranch Store Manager, has over 15 years of experience in the Fitness Equipment Industry.

A graduate of Kennesaw State University with a degree in Sports Marketing, Bret entered the fitness industry in 1992 as a certified personal trainer at Australian Body Works in Georgia. Over the next seven years, he developed a reputation for consistently helping clients define and achieve their fitness goals.

In 1999, Bret joined Fitness Gallery in Arizona as a retail sales manager. During his 7 year tenure, he consistently out-performed and exceeded customers’ expectations.

Bret was promoted to Fitness Gallery’s Store Manager in 2016. In this capacity, he oversees all operations at Fitness Gallery’s Highlands Ranch location. An avid fitness enthusiast with a holistic understanding of Fitness Gallery’s products and how to most effectively use them, Bret is one of Fitness Gallery’s best resources if you’re thinking about building a home gym.

John Conti

John Conti, our Director of Commercial Sales and Sales Trainer, has more than 28 years of experience in the Fitness Equipment Industry, and has held executive positions on both the manufacturing and retail sides of the business.

John first entered the fitness industry in 1989 as a Sales Manager for Priority Fitness. In 1993 he took over all store operations and inventory management at HEST Fitness. After two years, he joined fitness manufacturing leader TRUE Fitness as Regional Sales Manager.

During his 10-year tenure at TRUE Fitness, John oversaw a 17 state territory on the East Coast, was promoted to National Sales Manager and directly trained hundreds of dealers, and partnered with Friedman Group to co-author a comprehensive sales training program for the Fitness Industry.

In 2006, John joined Body Guard Fitness as National Sales Manager prior to founding his own consulting firm in 2009. He reunited with HEST Fitness in 2011 as a commercial sales consultant and joined BH North America Corporation to oversee sales to 24 states in 2014. In 2017, close friend and Fitness Gallery President, Donnie Salum hired John to lead expansion efforts and turn Fitness Gallery’s Colorado headquarters into an industry leader.

Carlos Aviles

Carlos Aviles, our Colorado Retail Sales Manager, has more than 22 years of experience in the Fitness Equipment Industry.

Carlos first entered the fitness industry in 1995 as Operational Manager at All About Fitness. In 1999 he became the General Manager of Fitness Gallery, responsible for overseeing a team of 25 at three separate locations. During his 7-year tenure, Carlos developed and successfully executed an expansion plan to grow Fitness Gallery’s product offerings and market share in Colorado.

In 2006, Carlos joined Avanti Fitness as National Sales Manager, and established new distribution outlets including Amazon.com, Costco, Motion Fitness and the Rush Health Clubs. In 2009, Carlos joined H.A.R.D Nutrition as director of Health and Fitness Sales, before rejoining Fitness Gallery in 2011.

With more than 10 years of experience at Fitness Gallery, Carlos has an in-depth understanding of all product and service offerings. His genuine interest in customers’ happiness has enabled him to build strong relationships and consistently exceed expectations.

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