About AP LABS
Why We Exist
Most supplement companies aren't hiding anything — they're just not telling you everything. Proprietary blends, artificial sweeteners and flavors, synthetic caffeine, dyes. It's all legal. It's all common. And it's all cutting corners at the expense of your well-being.
Here's something most people don't know: a significant number of synthetic ingredients in mainstream supplements are petroleum-derived. The same base material used in fuel and plastics. When Nathan and Mitch started digging into what was actually in the products lining supplement store shelves, that's what they found. Your body isn't a motor vehicle. It shouldn't be fueled like one.
AP LABS exists because we got tired of it. Clean, research-backed supplements shouldn't be a niche category. They should be the standard. We're here to make that case — one formula at a time.
How It Started
Nathan Mattingly had already built a company on a simple premise: natural ingredients only, no exceptions. Alpha Hemp Solutions, launched in 2022, was his first proof that you didn't need synthetic shortcuts to build a product that worked.
Mitchell Kepler was working as a personal trainer at the time. Clients asked him constantly for supplement recommendations. He'd give them — but something always nagged at him. He had the Exercise Science degree. The CSCS. The Fitness Nutrition Specialist certification. And he still couldn't tell you with confidence what half the ingredients on those labels actually were, or why they were there.
The two had been friends since high school — teammates on the track and field team at Westminster High School. Nathan had the operational experience and the all-natural conviction already proven at Alpha Hemp. Mitch had the credentials and the front-row frustration. The conversation was inevitable.
AP LABS started as a decision to stop recommending products they didn't fully believe in — and build one they did.
Mitch (left) and Nathan (right) in 2023, prototype products.
The Hard Part
Formulating clean supplements isn't complicated in theory. In practice, it nearly broke us.
Our Nootropic Pre-Workout includes functional mushrooms like Lion's Mane and Cordyceps, and adaptogens like Ashwagandha and Maca Root. They're backed by real research. They also taste notoriously bad. Every flavor profile we tested was a reminder of why most brands just reach for sucralose and artificial flavoring and call it a day.
It took the better part of a year — dozens of iterations, a lot of bad batches — before we had a flavor profile we'd actually put our name on. We almost convinced ourselves it couldn't be done without going artificial. We didn't go artificial. It was worth it.
What We Stand For
Every ingredient, every dose, on the label. Always.
No sucralose. No Ace-K. No synthetic caffeine. No dyes. Not even the "clean" brands hold this line. We do.
Performance and health aren't in conflict. We're not here to give you a buzz. We're here to give you fuel.
Clinical doses. Transparent sourcing. No ingredient is in here because it sounds good on a label.
The Formula
Every ingredient in our Nootropic Pre-Workout was selected by Mitchell Kepler — B.S. Exercise Science, CSCS, Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Corrective Exercise Specialist — based on one criteria: what does the research actually say, at what dose, and why.
No ingredient is in here because it sounds impressive on a label. No dose is hidden behind a proprietary blend. No artificial anything — not because it's trendy, but because that was the whole point from day one.