Recently, we had company strategy meeting and spent time discussing what we stood for as a company. We’ve tried to be fairly vocal about our desire to encourage people to live a lifestyle of health and fitness and we think we talk and blog about it a lot (hopefully, we’re not over doing it). However, I assure you that we spend an exceptional amount of time obsessing over the designs we create, the quality of the gear and working with our retail partners and our customers.
I emphasize that fact because we don’t want people to think we’re taking our eye off the ball, so to speak even though we also, love and support the Challenged Athlete’s Foundation, advocate for professional triathletes and are big believers in Conscious Capitalism. We know that to be able to support our mission and these great organizations, we have to, first and foremost, create great gear, then strive for amazing customer service and keep developing new and innovative products.
Now, with all of that as context, we do want to share some details on another organization we have recently reached out to and have started supporting. It’s called the Women’s Cycling Association (“WCA”) and we love their mission.
The idea for the WCA began to take root in mid-2013 at the USA National Road Championships in Tennessee. Pro Cyclist, Coach and Bike Shop Owner (wow..what doesn’t she do?) Robin Farina met with fellow pros/super achievers Kelly Benefit and Janel Holcomb to discuss the idea of building an organization to support professional female cyclists. They wanted to grow the sport and ensure that women were treated fairly now and in the future. Uhhm...yes please!
Specifically, they wanted to find a way to create equality through increased media exposure, equal prize purses, and a compensation structure that would allow women to pursue cycling as a full time profession.
As you might expect with a team of motivated and driven individuals, they aren’t aiming small. They want to examine the way cycling is presented and compare that to what could (and should) be happening.
There’s no question that women are entering endurance sports (including cycling) at an incredible rate and there is also no question that they have immense economic power. We saw how exciting women’s cycling is at La Course (which was a one-day race in Paris held during the Tour de France), so it stands to reason that there should be no question that women should have the same opportunities in the sport as their male counterparts.
So, Coeur has signed on as a sponsor (small now but hopefully bigger in the future) of the Women’s Cycling Association and we’re going to be speaking with Robin and team to find out how else we can help support their mission.
We’ll share the details of our meeting and hopefully, we’ll be able to make a positive impact.
Until then, we’d encourage you to check out their site and follow Robin on Twitter at @robin_farina.
Happy Training & Racing and for those of you in the Northeast, stay warm and safe!
Your friends at Coeur.