After almost 15 years in business, we recently did something new here at Coeur. We launched a men’s line! This is a big deal to us and we spent a lot of time thinking about it before we eventually made the decision to move forward.
Since we have spent years building a women’s brand and nurturing a community of compassionate, like-minded women who share a love of endurance sports, we want to make sure we don't do anything to negatively impact those very important relationships.
We also know that there are a lot of other very good men's brands out there, so we were very thoughtful about what we could do differently with the products and the branding of the new line. The end result of the work is called VFF and we're excited to tell you the brand story.
As you might expect, we started with the gear. We took everything we learned about producing premium endurance apparel and poured that knowledge and experience into the design and construction of each piece.
We gave samples to some serious dudes and asked them to wring them out. And boy did they! From local races all the way to a ride on a stage of the Tour de France course, our product testers pushed, pulled and stressed the gear and provided an enormous amount of feedback that made its way into the line.
The end result is some legit performance gear that makes you fast and keeps you comfortable.
Next, we spent time thinking about the men we know who race and asked "who is the perfect VFF customer?" To answer that question, we decided to first decide who we didn't want as a customer.
The answer to that is...Anyone who cheats. Anyone who is a jerk. Anyone who is just a bit too full of himself. Anyone who doesn't have a sense of humor!
And, of course, this guy:
After we whittled away the negatives, we were left with our ideal VFF man and we'd like to describe him to you.
First, he takes his training and racing seriously. He may make it to the podium or he may not, but ultimately that's not his main goal. Instead, he just wants to improve and be a little better each day. Better as an athlete. Better as a friend. Better as a human.
He also loves to laugh. He can laugh about the absurdity of voluntarily waking up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a master’s class. About spending more money on his bike than his first car. And even about that time that “nature called” when there was no bathroom in sight.
In other words, the perfect VFF Man has a Great Sense of Humor and that's why the VFF brand does as well.
Sometimes the laughs are hidden and subtle and sometimes they are a bit more obvious, but rest assured that if you buy some VFF gear, somewhere along the way, we'll put a smile on your face!
Another thing you might notice about a VFF man is that he doesn’t try to be the center of attention. Despite that, don't be surprised to see that he’s got a big circle of friends and they love him.
Finally, he’s the first guy to congratulate someone after a race and the last guy to talk about his own results. Even when he’s on the top step of the podium.
And that is who we built VFF for.
So, if you are or know the guy who rides hard, races clean and then laughs with friends, please tell him about VFF.
We think he'll find a community of like-minded men here!