Evan Centopani, Easton Drake & Jason Budsock at The Cage on Animal's Next Chapter | Episode #210

Evan Centopani, Easton Drake, and Jason Budsock join PricePlow live at the Arnold Sports Festival 2026 for Episode #210 of the PricePlow Podcast, covering Animal's landmark Smarties creatine chew collaboration, the newest Animal athletes, and the creatine market's explosive expansion into new demographics.

Episode #210 of the PricePlow Podcast lands live from the expo floor of the Arnold Sports Festival 2026 in Columbus, Ohio, with three back-to-back conversations that cover 40-plus years of supplement history, a landmark creatine collab, and a glimpse at where the whole category is headed next.

Spencer and Ben sit down first with Evan Centopani, a 20-year Animal athlete and competitive bodybuilder who now runs a financial planning practice in New Jersey. Next up is Easton Drake, just 90 days into his role as Animal's Athlete Manager after stints at Bodybuilding.com (BBCOM) and Applied Nutrition.

The third conversation brings back Jason Budsock, an OG in Animal's brand and marketing history who has been on the podcast before. The through-line across all three: the Smarties creatine chew collaboration (Animal's first-ever licensed flavor collab and the first of its kind in a chewable creatine tablet), the newly signed athlete Billy Love, and how creatine is pulling in audiences far beyond the meathead demographic -- including women, the elderly, and yes, even kids.

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https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/animal-evan-centopani-210

Video: Animal at Arnold 2026 with Evan Centopani, Easton Drake, and Jason Budsock

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:33 — 46.2MB)

Detailed Show Notes: Animal at Arnold 2026 with Evan Centopani, Easton Drake, and Jason Budsock

• 0:00 - Introductions: Evan's 20 Years at the Arnold

  Table of Contents

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  Spencer opens on the Arnold 2026 expo floor with Evan Centopani, and the first number that sets the tone is 20. Walking through the doors this year, Evan does the math and realizes his first Arnold with Animal was 2006 -- this year is a milestone he didn't plan to announce but couldn't avoid calculating. Spencer and Evan reflect on how Animal has evolved across two decades of shows: the tattoo years, the merch drops, the Cage returning in full force, and this year's mainstream young-culture moment. The throughline is always hardcore training. Evan points to Sam Sulek as living proof that raw, basement-level bodybuilding still captivates audiences across every generation -- because when someone benches 315, it's the same 315 everybody benches. The Cage's 20-year history gives those numbers their proper context.

• 2:45 - Animal as a Legacy Brand

  Evan drops some history many newer fans don't know: Universal Nutrition was founded in 1977, and Animal Pak came to market in 1983 or 1984, making Animal the longest-standing brand in the sport supplement arena. Drawing comparisons to Levi's and Harley-Davidson, Evan argues that truly great legacy brands don't pivot away from what made them great -- they evolve at the edges while protecting the core. The temptation to chase the next brand's playbook is real, but undermining your identity is the one thing great brands can't recover from. Products get better, flavors improve, collabs happen. The steak stays the same.

• 5:00 - The Steak, Not the Sizzle

  When Spencer brings up the Smarties creatine collaboration, Evan frames it almost philosophically: if you've built the right foundation, you can experiment with the outer 5 or 10 percent. Somebody high up at Animal said it years ago, and Evan recalls it directly: "We want the steak, not the sizzle." The line captures Animal's approach better than any marketing brief could. The brand has manufactured its own products since day one, with quality control that most companies can only claim in press releases -- yet Animal never made that a talking point, because leading with the lifestyle was always the better bet. A good flavor collab is fine. It's just not the thing. Animal Creatine Chews are a good example of Animal doing the thing right: a format built on decades of manufacturing know-how, now getting a flavor upgrade it earned.

• 7:00 - Brian Boss, Iconic Imagery, and the First Lifestyle Brand

  

  Animal covers every creatine need with 4 distinct products: convenient chews with glycogen support, synergistic HMB+ combinations, pure micronized powder for loading, and travel-ready capsules. Each targets specific goals from muscle growth to cognitive enhancement.

  Spencer brings up the famous basement photo shoot that produced some of the most recognizable imagery in supplement history. Brian Boss was a true artist, Evan says: not documenting a workout but trying to capture a feeling. The result was marketing people hung on their dorm walls, bedroom walls, and gym walls, which Animal, to Evan's knowledge, is the only supplement company ever to pull off. That authenticity is what made Animal, in his view, the first genuine lifestyle brand in the space. Not lifestyle as a buzzword, but as a philosophy built around the gym, the community, and the athlete as a whole person. When Spencer calls it out, Evan agrees and adds context: brands like Twin Lab and EAS built great companies, but none of them were communicating a way of life the way Animal was.

• 14:00 - Financial Planning and the Creator Economy

  Evan's day job surprises a lot of people: he now works in financial planning in New Jersey, helping athletes and entrepreneurs navigate a side of the fitness business the industry almost never discusses openly. His message is direct -- time moves fast, income windows close, and too many guys in this space aren't building anything that will outlast their athletic prime. The shift from magazine contracts to coupon codes and TikTok Shop has created real upside (some influencers now earn hundreds of thousands per month) but also income gaps that come without safety nets. Evan recommends a hybrid model: a base salary plus performance incentives. He also names Layne Norton as a case study for why open platforms can be a net positive, giving credibility to genuinely knowledgeable voices who were previously locked out by the lack of competitive titles.

• 20:45 - Meet Easton Drake: 90 Days at Animal

  

  Kyle Kirvay just made ABS history. The newly signed Animal athlete became the first to break 1100kg in San Diego with a massive 1125kg total (2480 lbs). Posted a 631 Wilks score and 290kg bench press, both ABS platform records. Former IFBB Pro turned powerlifting monster.

  The second conversation brings in Easton Drake, who is exactly 90 days into his role as Animal's Athlete Manager at the time of recording. He came up through Bodybuilding.com before moving to Applied Nutrition, and he and Spencer have known each other for three or four years. What strikes Easton most immediately at Animal is athlete longevity. Evan's 20 years is extraordinary in a space where athletes hop brands every year or two. Spencer reports from the Animal Barbell Club event the night before: he expected a room of 40-year-old Animal guys and found 19- and 20-year-olds everywhere. For Easton, that's the signal Animal needs -- the next generation of enthusiasts is already finding its way to the brand.

• 24:00 - Announcing Billy Love as Animal's Newest Athlete

  The headline from Easton: Billy Love is the newest Animal athlete, and his profile is intentionally different from the brand's traditional powerlifter-and-bodybuilder lineup. Billy isn't heading to the Olympia or chasing world records, but he's physically imposing ("yoked", in Easton's word) and his TikTok presence pulls a younger demographic than legacy athletes like Evan can reach on their own. Easton is careful to frame this as expansion, not a pivot. Animal's hardcore identity isn't going anywhere -- a new lane is opening alongside it. He contrasts Billy with Kyle Kirvay (who joined the Animal roster earlier) as an example of how different athlete profiles can coexist within the same brand ecosystem, each reaching a different corner of the audience.

• 27:45 - Character Over Credentials

  

  Women respond differently to creatine, and research shows it works exceptionally well. Benefits span muscle growth, bone density, brain health, and mood across every life stage. No bloating or unwanted weight gain. Animal breaks down the science and provides options for every goal.

  Easton lays out Animal's athlete philosophy plainly: character matters above all else because athletes carry the brand in everything they do. Records and follower counts are secondary. He invokes the standard that someone like Frank McGrath embodied -- the bar is always set above an athlete's most famous physical attribute -- and points to Maddie Forbes as a current example. Maddie, a powerlifter, bodybuilder, and wellness competitor, told Easton at the Cage event the night before that this was the biggest stage she'd ever stood on, right before hitting 350 for five. Kennedy (Animal's up-and-coming bodybuilder -- last name unconfirmed, flag for verification before publishing) is being paired with Evan in future content to pass along first-hand knowledge of what it means to represent Animal for the long haul.

• 32:30 - Animal's Strategic Content Philosophy

  Easton admits some surprise when he arrived at Animal: the brand doesn't post every day. For companies that default to daily output, that reads as passive. For Animal, it's intentional. Quality over frequency is the rule, and whatever goes out has to match a specific style and standard. Easton credits Animal's long institutional history with that process orientation and compares it favorably to the looser, faster-moving brands he's worked with before. Animal knows who it is and what it wants -- and it doesn't compromise either to fill a calendar. The Smarties launch is a good example: athletes and ambassadors received the product, engaged organically, and the response on social was exceptional. First 90 days, and Easton already came in with collab experience. The activation reflected it.

• 36:15 - Welcome Back, Jason Budsock

  

  Animal brings THE CAGE Back to The Arnold Expo, and Mike and Ben record a podcast with Jason Budsock and Rudy Checo to celebrate the start of the weekend.

  The third conversation of the episode brings back Jason Budsock, an Animal OG who has appeared on the podcast twice before: first in Episode #080 and again for the Arnold 2024 Cage return in Episode #128. Jason opens by crediting the event team, and especially Stephanie on the marketing side, for pulling off what both agree is Animal's biggest Arnold yet. The size, the crowd, the production -- the grandeur of it is hard to overstate for anyone who's tracked the Cage across its 20-year run. For Jason, the formula is a blend of two things: putting the right athletes in the Cage for experiences that feel real and earned, and leaning in on the product side with collabs that make authentic sense for what Animal actually is.

• 37:30 - Animal x Smarties: Two Industry Firsts

  Jason lays out what makes the Animal Creatine Chews x Smarties collaboration historically notable: it's Animal's first-ever licensed flavor collaboration, and it's also the first authentic licensed flavor collab in a chewable creatine tablet anywhere in the market. Two firsts in a single launch. The New Jersey connection gives the partnership extra resonance: Universal Nutrition is a New Jersey-based, family-owned company, and Smarties is a family-owned New Jersey candy company with over 70 years in business. Shared identity made it feel obvious in hindsight. Spencer asks about texture, and Jason explains that the Smarties chews have a distinct melt quality when bitten that makes them more faithful to the actual candy experience than Animal's earlier chew flavors. Spencer agrees: it's like biting into a big Smarties.

• 40:00 - Chews vs. Gummies and the Smarties Flavor Line

  

  Animal x Smarties is official. Three products get the classic candy flavor treatment -- Creatine HMB+, Pump Non-Stim, and Creatine Chews -- and these are permanent additions, not a flash drop. Same formulas, serious nostalgia.

  Spencer raises the format debate directly: creatine gummies are everywhere, and the industry knows they have problems. Gummies expose creatine to water and heat during manufacturing, which creates real questions about whether products hit label claim by the time consumers open them. Chewable tablet technology sidesteps that entirely -- no water exposure, no heat, no degradation to worry about. The case against creatine gummies is now well-documented, and Animal's tablet heritage (they've been making chewable tablets since the 1990s) positions the format as a genuinely superior solution. On the flavor extension side: when the Smarties profile tested well in the creatine chew base, it also performed in the powder formats. Jason and the team extended it to the full creatine lineup, adding the Smarties flavor to Animal Creatine HMB+ and the Animal Pump non-stim pre-workout as well.

• 44:00 - Creatine's Booming New Demographics

  Jason and Spencer reflect on how dramatically the creatine market has expanded. Scott Dicker of SPINS (who tracks market data and recently presented on this) has been calling creatine's trajectory for years, and the numbers have caught up with the conviction. The biggest driver is demographic expansion: women are getting into creatine in meaningful numbers, opening a segment that barely existed at scale a few years back. The conversation goes further: recent research points to real cognitive benefits for the elderly, opening yet another demographic. Spencer mentions giving his daughter creatine for track and cross country recovery and including a small daily amount for his 2.5-year-old son -- and Jason backs the sentiment with the safety data. With Animal's creatine-for-women push gaining momentum and distribution expanding into GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger, the brand is right where the market is heading.

Where to Follow and Learn More

Connect with Evan Centopani, Easton Drake, Jason Budsock, and Animal

Evan Centopani

• Evan Centopani on YouTube - educational content, basement training, kitchen meal breakdowns
• Evan Centopani on Instagram
• Easton Drake on LinkedIn
• Jason Budsock on LinkedIn
• Animal Website
• Instagram: @animalpak
• Animal on PricePlow — sign up for news and price alerts

Resources Mentioned

• The CAGE Turns 20: Animal at the 2025 Arnold
• Jason Budsock – Animal at Universal Nutrition | Episode #080
• Animal Brings the CAGE Back: Jason Budsock & Rudy Checo | Episode #128
• Kyle "Tiger" Kirvay Joins Team Animal

The Smarties Collab and Animal Creatine

• Animal Creatine Chews: The Best New Way to Take Creatine
• Creatine Gummies vs. Creatine Chews: Animal Takes a Stance
• Animal's Spring 2025 Flavor Explosion: 5 New Releases
• Animal's Complete Creatine Lineup: Finding Your Perfect Match
• Animal Creatine HMB+: Advanced Muscle Growth & Strength Formula
• Creatine for Women: Animal's Science-Backed Guide

Thanks to Evan Centopani, Easton Drake, and Jason Budsock for taking time out of a packed Arnold floor to sit down with us. Three separate conversations, one consistent message: a brand with four-plus decades of history that keeps finding new ways to grow without ever losing what it actually is. The creatine category is at an inflection point, and Animal is sitting squarely at the center of it.

A big thank you to our 2026 podcast sponsor, Perfect Shaker. Pick up a custom metal-engraved shaker (like the Animal x PricePlow version Spencer handed Evan at the end of the episode) at PerfectShaker.com or browse the full lineup at PricePlow.com/perfect-shaker.

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