Our Story

Darrel Schoolfield (founder), with a passion for weightlifting and experience as a welder began building equipment in his garage in the early 80s. Forced by demand to move out of the garage, he rented a larger location in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, hired help, and officially went into business then called DC Bodybuilding Equipment. Again, demand increased so he moved the business to Tulsa in 1988 and changed the name to Fitness Factory. In 1995 Fitness Factory began Access Fitness a coed 24/7 facility that was created essentially by accident as an attempt to have a fully stocked commercial equipment showroom. With the fitness center showing success and ease of manageability, proceeded to open two more locations over the next three years. Pioneer Strength Equipment was formed in 2002 to isolate the manufacturing from the gyms. Recognizing a growing demand for women’s fitness and insufficiencies that were offered FIT For Her was started in 2003.