Sunday, May 23, 2010

Oh..By The Way...We Launched

SweetTri.com went live last week! We launched the site with nine shirts between the marathoner and triathletes section and went live with Facebook, Twitter and of course, this blog.

We have tons more shirt ideas coming including ones for the spectators and zen racing sections. We will also be working on other types of apparel, race gear and whatever else comes to mind.

Most of all, we are just trying to have some fun with this thing because for now...they're just t-shirts. It was very inspiring to get all the laughs and comments on the shirts at our first race last weekend.


We have been filling up the race calendar with a mix of Marathons and Tri's around the Pacific Northwest this summer and fall and hope if you see us out there you come and say hi!


There is also a new shirt launching this week targeted at the half-marathoners so stay tuned for the details on that!

And don't forget the most important thing...buy some shirts...buy lots and lots of SweetTri shirts...

Thanks

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Capital City Marathon

SweetTri made it's official debut of sorts last weekend at the Capital City Marathon in Olympia Washington. I say "of sorts" because it was quite the learning experience, but we got out there and had a blast showing off the new shirts and hangin with all the athletes.



Let's see, we didn't have any cards or fliers or stickers, we couldn't take credit or debit cards and we had no table covers or chairs amongst other things. As you can imagine we are ready to get back out there and keep slangin!


We appreciate everyone that came by and bought shirts...our very first customers...woop! Also, thanks to the people that came by just for a laugh and to share some racing stories.

We will have more shirts soon as well as some sweet swag for future events. We may even go all out and be able to process credit cards...impressive I know.

Congratulations to all the finishers and we'll see ya at the next event coming soon...stay tuned.

Monday, May 17, 2010

You Race...Therefore You Laugh

I don't know how you can not laugh at all the funny, quirky things that take place in endurance sports.  After an Ironman, a boatload of 70.3's, olympics and sprints combined with a handful of marathons, a plethora of half-marathons and a lifetime of 5k's I have lived a lifestyle that that I love being a part of....and seen some of the funniest things imaginable.

So why not start a t-shirt company to poke fun at the many things that make you remember why these sports are fun?  Why not try to bring a smile to the many struggling or insanely intense athletes out there trying to accomplish feats they once thought impossible and now are conquering.

That's what I thought...and that's what I did.  I noticed a progression in these sports as you elevate from one level to the next that the intensity, ego and price tag continually rises to the point where you finish something like a full Ironman and take yourself so seriously you feel the entire world should bow down to you.

That is the point I came to when I remembered I love to race.  It's my thing.  It brings me joy, thought, peace and fitness that provides balance in my life.  Why does everyone else have to suck because of that?

My solution was to race, party and always have fun doing it.  I noticed that once you let one level of your intensity down you start to notice fun things and people in your races that you never noticed before.  I also started to increase my thought process and creativity where I was being more mentally productive out training than sitting in the office.

All the while, still shaving my legs, chugging goo's on long training days, peeing on the side of some farm road, and launching snot rockets going 20mph on my bike....and that's when it hit me.  Relax...have some fun...and make some fun out of all this stuff.

After nine months, you have a beautiful baby website.  I named it SweetTri.com to poke fun at all those overly intense people you see at the races that haven't hit their "racing zen" yet as if to say "sweet try dude and good luck."  People that need to wear their bike jersey's out to go grocery shopping, or slip on their tri-shorts to walk around the mall.  All this fun stuff is the inspiration around the start of Sweet Tri and what I hope to develop into the future of Sweet Tri.

I call it Attitude Apparel.  I want to make apparel that recognizes athletes for the great feats they have accomplished as well as having some fun and bringing smiles to faces of nervous, highly trained "night before the big race" athletes.

I'm starting small with some fun t-shirts for triathletes and runners and plan to expand into more shirts for spectators (who often times work as hard as the athletes for one glimpse of their person).  I aim to produce stuff for men and women and expand to more types and brands of apparel.

But for now....buy our t-shirts.  Where them everywhere, proudly.  You are an athlete with attitude.

Give it a sweet tri.