Earlier this year, McCollister’s was engaged to deploy Nike Strength equipment at the Arthur M. Blank US Soccer National Training Center (NTC) in Fayetteville, Georgia. The facility is the first dedicated training center ever designed for US national soccer teams, a 200-acre campus with over 400,000 square feet that serves as home for all 27 US National Teams. Nike is a Founding Partner, and their Nike Strength equipment line is the centerpiece of the high-performance training environment.
The project was significant by any measure, and one of the most instructive in our team’s collective experience. It tested every capability McCollister’s has simultaneously and reinforced what separates preparation from improvisation when the stakes are real.
Six Months Before Installation Day
The facility was still under construction when McCollister’s began planning the Nike Strength deployment. Starting these conversations months before equipment ships is standard practice for projects of this scale, and the scope of the installation demanded an especially thorough approach.
Our team sourced assembly manuals directly from the manufacturer, documented every serial number across the full inventory, mapped the facility layout against the equipment sequence, and trained on the product in advance of its arrival. All of the groundwork was staged out of the McCollister’s Suwanee warehouse, approximately 45 minutes from the Fayetteville site.
By the time the Nike Strength equipment arrived at Suwanee, the team had done everything short of the installation itself. When the moment came, McCollister’s was executing against a plan that had been months in the making.
That level of preparation gave the team the versatility to execute confidently from day one while remaining flexible throughout the deployment. With the product requirements, delivery sequence, and site conditions aligned in advance, McCollister’s could adapt as needed without sacrificing pace, precision, or the client experience.
A Coordinated Installation
When the equipment arrived at Suwanee, the McCollister’s crew verified every piece against the manifest and staged it for sequenced delivery to the facility. Nike’s team was on site throughout, and the coordination between their product expertise and McCollister’s deployment capabilities allowed the project to move efficiently from the first piece of equipment to the last.
The depth of knowledge McCollister’s brings to commercial fitness installations was essential to the project’s pace. Each manufacturer’s equipment has its own specifications, tolerances, and assembly requirements, and the team paired product-specific preparation with experience gained across hundreds of commercial fitness deployments. Working closely with Nike’s team, McCollister’s was able to execute confidently from the start and complete this complex installation project in only two days.
When the Plan Changed on Site
What rarely makes it into a project write-up is what happens after the installation is technically complete.
US Soccer walked the space and requested changes to the layout. Equipment that had been placed according to the approved floor plan needed to move. For many providers, that conversation ends with an explanation of why it cannot happen right away. The crew has already left, they were contracted from out of state, there is no local team to call back, and the job is technically finished.
For McCollister’s, it meant a phone call. The Suwanee warehouse is 45 minutes from the site, and because McCollister’s operates with our own local infrastructure and employs installers rather than contracted labor, the crew was able to quickly return to the facility, make the adjustments, and deliver exactly what the client asked for.
The ability to come back on day three when the plan changed, without anyone having to justify why that should be possible, is what separates McCollister’s from providers who define the job as finished the moment the last bolt is tightened.
What Premium Fitness Deployment Requires
The US Soccer National Training Center project reinforced something McCollister’s sees on every deployment at scale. Premium brands and new product launches demand more than installation crews. They demand nationwide infrastructure, technical expertise, scalability, and consistent execution across every site.
McCollister’s has invested continuously in Learning Management System (LMS) training for installation crews, operational infrastructure across the network, and the development of what we believe is the strongest fitness deployment vertical in the industry. From first mile to final install, from a single location to a nationwide rollout, the standard is the same.
Every serious fitness deployment carries variables: active construction conditions, compressed timelines, sequencing changes, and final layout adjustments once stakeholders see the completed space. The question is not whether a project will require flexibility. The question is whether the team on site is prepared to respond without compromising the result.
Preparation is a choice made months before installation day. The projects that go well, the ones that open on time, on budget, and leave the client confident, are almost always the ones where the preparation started early and was carried out deliberately.