Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Launch of Endurance Athlete Project

Dear fellow endurance athletes,

Welcome to the launch of Endurance Athlete Project!

As you can read in our Mission Statement, we are a new company that will manufacture technical apparel for endurance athletes. However, we are not going to sit around and try to guess what our customers want. Instead, we are opening the doors from the very beginning and asking for input. We want to make you part of the design process. This process starts today.

Our initial "release board" is as follows (all in men's and women's):

- one piece triathlon suits

- two piece triathlon suits

- training/running tops and bottoms

- cycling jerseys

- cycling bibs/shorts

- swim suits/jammers

- performance accessories

- casual wear

click image for a larger view


As some of you may know, apparel design starts with visual illustrations using templates similar to the ones pictured above. Concurrently, we create patterns, scale them for sizing, and start sourcing potential fabrics and trims.

Once the design and sourcing phases are complete, we'll start making samples and then put them through some very serious performance testing. Once we are satisfied with the samples, we'll go into production

We 110% want and welcome your input with respect to our products - fit, fabrics, color ways/prints, and fit. Yes, we mentioned “fit” twice on purpose. We recognize that endurance athletes come in all shapes and sizes, and we are going to work very hard to accommodate bodies of all types.

If you would like to participate in the "brainstorming", please click here to read how we would like to get communication from you. We expect the design phase to run through September.

We will also be looking for product testers. If you are interested in working with us testing our products, please e-mail us.

We are aiming for a Spring 2011 ship date, though we do have a few pieces in mind for a fall release. We've been lucky enough to line up a few retailers to carry the line, but we also intend to focus heavily on online sales.

So we've got quite a bit of work to do. In the meantime, keep coming back to our blog as we'll be posting as much cool stuff as we can think of. Also, please "like" of us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. With respect to Facebook, the first thing we'd like everyone to do is upload one of your race photos and tell us the story about how you where feeling when the photo was taken. We've put up a couple of examples.

We'd really appreciate your help in spreading the word. If you could mention us in your blogs, that would be amazing. If you'd like to show the "love", there are some logos located here for your use.

Thanks in advance for your support. In all honesty, we're going to need it. But we are convinced that with your input we can create a new paradigm in performance athletic wear. And then everyone will win.

Thanks and speak to you soon,

Riley & Patrick

Founders - Endurance Athlete Project

10 comments:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS! You guys are going to rock it - let me know how and when you need any assistance at all.

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  2. The way you started is so promising!!!!!

    Few or maybe none of the classic companies take into consideration athletes like you intend to do.

    I'm glad to contribute to your success!

    Cheers!

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  3. Hey! Just heard about this from Kovas. The is awesome. You guys should come on the TriTopics show to talk about it.

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  4. What an exciting thing to do! Let me know if I can help in any way! Cheers!

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  5. Hi, good luck starting out and a couple quick thoughts to mull over:

    I'm excited about the double mention of "fit". I don't qualify Athena anymore, but I'm much closer to Athena than what seems to be the ideal multisport athlete with a BMI of 15 or something - I feel like much of the clothing is built for them and not me. (Why else would my tri-team uniform have a zipper that stops at a perfect place to chafe right under the bra line?)

    The other thing I'd be interested to see is some sense style that doesn't look like I'm on the US olympic gymnastic team. I'd love to see something that, while keeping in the necessary fabrics, looks like a style that I wouldn't be embarassed to wear getting a beer after a training ride or stopping for food after a race. I'd think a company like SkirtSports would have understood this, but they equally pick patterns that look like the seats on a greyhound bus or hospital wallpaper. This has always baffled me.

    Anyway, glad you're listening - there's much to be improved in this area!

    Good luck!

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  6. Very exciting for you guys! Patrick, would be more than happy to help out.

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  7. Great times to be had, I can smell it!

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  8. Absolutely awesome guys. If and when you need me, just give me a holler. I look forward to also possibly being a product tester.

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  9. I agree with Mina about the whole "fit" issue. I would like to be able to wear performance clothing that's built for ME, not for a pro cyclist. I'm just a normal person who wants my cycling clothes to work FOR me, not against me. I am very happy to help you guys get the word out and would LOVE to be a product tester for you!

    I will list you on my blog as well as my Facebook and try to help as much as I can.

    Congrats and best of luck!

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