Holiday Gift Ideas for the Athlete in Your Life

Egg Nogg Lattes are back in Starbucks now, so as far as I'm concerned its now that time of year.  I pretty much buy all the coolest gear I can get my hands on, so I've decided I should impart some of that knowledge with you folks, so here I've put together my first annual Athlete's Holiday Gift Guide!

Stocking Stuffers (Under $25)


Toasterz Reusable Heat Pack ($6.75 available at MEC.ca)- These are very cool... er... warm.  For runners, skiiers, and boarders who spend lots of time outside through the winter this is a reusable chemical (not the dangerous kind) heat pack.  You simply click the disk and it creates some sort of chemical reaction that provides warmth for when the cold starts to get to you. Once its cooled down, just boil it and its ready to go for next time.

The Stick ($20-$40 available at most running shops)- This pretty simple little tool is a must have for anyone who puts serious mileage in but doesn't want to pay for a massage every few weeks.  It works similar to a foam roller but is smaller and harder.  Great on smaller muscles like your calves, but can definitely tackle larger tissue areas like your IT band.

Gifts for someone you like a bit more (Under $100)

Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf- ($48 at Lululemon)- Gentlemen, if you're not sure what size pants or shirt to buy you lady friend, or you don't trust your own judgement in color/design and don't want to ask the friendly staff at Lululemon for help, then a scarf is the perfect gift.  The Vinyasa scarf is a tres versatile gift that can be worn on the way from the gym, on the way to work, or on a cozy drive out to the chalet in Kimberley.

Lululemon Beach Coast Hoodie ($98 at Lululemon)- This is a safe bet for the guy in your life and is a pretty tried and true gift idea .  Its street enough that if he's one of those guys who's still holding out from wearing Lulu based on some misguided principal, he might be willing to convert.  If your guy already wears Lulu stuff, then you can bet he wants one of these.  These always have cool designs and the thick cotton is good to keep you warm on the drive back from the ski slopes, so this one is a staple in my coat closet.

CEP Compression Socks ($60 at most run/tri/ski/snowboard shops)- My mom always used to get me socks for Christmas.  I probably would have appreciated it a bit more if they were CEP Compression socks.  I've always strongly encouraged boarders/skiiers to wear the appropriate socks for their boots when they hit the hills.  As a runner though I wasn't a convert to compression until recently.  I've got a couple pairs of CEP running socks and use them for recovery or travelling and don't go to a race without them.

Nike+ Sportband ($69 at most running stores)- This is a very sweet piece of equipment.  Using the Nike+ sensor you put in your shoe, which is basically an accelerometer, this device tracks your time, speed, pace, distance.  The cool thing is that its not GPS based, so you can use them indoors or on the treadmill and its a fraction of the price of a more expensive GPS watch.

Louise Card/ Sunshine Card ($85/$99) at respective websites or local ski/snowboard shop)- Free ski days, and discounts the other day? Yes please.  If you ski or snowboard but not enough to warrant a season pass, these are for you.  They pay for themselves basically after about 2 uses so you can't go wrong.  Plus with direct to lift you can skip the ridiculous lines at the ski hills when you get there.

Who Needs a Bonus Anyways? (under $500)


Rudy Project Sun Glasses ($150-$300 at www.e-rudy.com)- There's shades for the sun, and there's shades for the snow.  Heading into winter now a lot of people generally wear the same sunglasses that they use in the summer.  Even if they're sport glasses though its important to realize there are different lenses for different lighting.  There are plenty of times I've been outside where I needed shades to deal with blowing snow, or glare from the ground, but my dark Oakley shades made it difficult to judge contrast.  This impairs depth perception and results in things like skiing off cliffs... okay thats never happened, but who doesn't want a new pair of shades.

Olympus TG-610 ($249 at Bestbuy)- If you've got an athlete in your life, or are one yourself, you know that the need for a camera 15 feet below water is pretty likely, and that when its freezing cold outside is precisely when you'll want that perfect shot, and after you're done all this you'll just drop you camera on the pavement.  Well with this cool little camera has got it all. Another feature I like is its "tap control" which allows you to tap the camera from different sides to control operation, ideal for underwater use or when you're on the hills wearing ski gloves.

Garmin Forerunner 910xt ($390 at outdoor stores and bike shops this December)- Yeah so this is awesome. Bear with me while I have a geek-gasm here. The Garmin 910xt takes your standard GPS watch functionality and adds ANT+ compatibility to read power from devices like a CycleOps Powertap, Quarq, or the upcoming Garmin Vector.  Beyond that, it offers extensive swimming metrics such as distance, stroke count, stroke type, and efficiency. Whats cool about that is that its accelerometer based, not GPS based, so you can actually use it in a pool.  Its a bit expensive, but its the last computer your triathlete friend will ever need.

CycleOps Fluid2 Trainer ($389+ online and at your local bike shop)- Its winter, and if you're SO has a sweet road bike, and no trainer, then the CyclOps Fluid2 trainer is exactly what you should buy him/her.  Secure your bike to the trainer with the straightforward latch system of the Fluid2, get on your bike, put on a movie, and you're ready to go.  I prefer fluid trainers to magnetic and wind trainers since they're comparatively quiet, and you can put down a lot more power and still have realistic road feel.  If you're buying one for a petite lady friend who rarely puts out over 250 watts, the Magneto or Mag+ isn't a bad bet either, and its a bit cheaper at the mid-$200's.

Playstation 3 Uncharter 3 Bundle ($299 at Futureshop)- Yeah thats right. I just added a video game console to the Athlete's Gift Guide.  They're athletes, the goal during the off season should be to get them OFF the trainer and ON the couch.  Hot games this season include; Batman Arkham City, Assassin's Creed   Revelations, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Uncharted 3.  You won't thank me later.

Dream On (You're not going to get this)

Santa would deliver presents far faster with this

Specialized Venge ($8000 for the frame)- What does a bike frame that costs as much as a Kia look like? It looks like this.  The Specialized Venge is the brainchild of bike manufacturer Specialized, and Formula 1 race team Mclaren.  Let me say that again, the Venge literally is the baby of a wicked fast bicycle, the S-Works Venge, and a McLaren Formula 1 car.  Differences in how the carbon is cut, and how the frame is molded mean the bike is lighter, stiffer, and more aerodynamic than every other bike on the road.

Well thats all for now folks.  Maybe if the mood strikes me I'll write up another gift guide before the holiday season really gets into swing.  I'll keep you posted (pun).

Cheers,

Raf

Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports- Part II: Know Your Audience

The key to any good marketing campaign or well established brand is the ability to understand and know your audience. For an athlete of any skill level looking for sponsorship it is important to realize that you are the brand, and in your quest for sponsorship, the businesses you target are your audience. So ultimately, to earn that golden ticket of sports sponsorship, you need to have a strong appreciation for what drives the decision making process for businesses allocating marketing/sponsor dollars.

There are several key factors that advertisers and marketing managers use to determine whether an athlete(s) is/are a good fit for sponsorship. Here's a quick overview of them;

Communications objectives and fit- All businesses should have a specific objective for how marketing and communications dollars are spent (or they should anyways). These objectives may be as simple as establishing their presence in the community and building brand recognition, or more commonly trying to actively to drive sales. Its key that you give some thought to what their objective(s) may be and how you can appeal to that. Example; A new health food store opens up in your town, building a relationship with them may make sense for both parties. In exchange for logo placement on your jersey they may be able to provide you with nutrition, vitamins, supplements, etc.

Who is Your Target Market's Target Market?- Lets face it Viagra isn't going to sponsor you if you're a fertile young man in his 20's (or female for that matter). This is another thing you have to think about when you choose who you're going to approach for sponsorship, do you and your audience's target market have a natural fit? In the Viagra example perhaps not, but if a marketer recognizes that you're age group happens to be their exact target demographic, then thats one more point in the pros column for you. This is a no brainer if you look at any pro-triathlete's race kit, but sometimes at the local level you might have to look at other ways your brand appeal can work with a sponsor's, and matching demographics are one important way.

Personality- There are good personalities that you want to be spokespeople for your brand, and there are not so good personalities that have been spokespeople for brands. It goes without saying that a socially active individual in their community presents more opportunity for exposure than a recluse who doesn't know what Facebook is. So its important to have a sincere, positive, and high level of interaction with those in your real world and online community. Essentially, the way sponsors see it, the more people who like you, the more people who may have a receptive response towards their brand.

On the flip side of that coin, is how important it is to realize that the more exposure you and your brand develop, the more important it is that you reflect positively on your sponsors. The only reason Nike didn't dump Tiger Woods when he failed to keep it in his pants was because they had invested far too much in building his brand to simply write him off. Sure you won't ever be subject to the level of public scrutiny as Tiger is, but in a world where social media can make everyone a star in their own little corner, you have to be careful with how you represent yourself and your sponsors.

Your Track Record and Your Story- You don't have to win every race to get brand sponsorship, but results help. Consistent podiums even within your age group should start to turn some heads and will get you noticed even when the sponsorship application consists of an online form through a medium such as Promotive.com . But if you're a team of like minded individuals getting into the sport, or an age grouper with a story to tell, or just a dedicated and hard working triathlete, that counts for something too. The Team in Training athletes rarely win races (sorry guys), but they've got Nike, Powerbar, and Runner's Mag as some of their top sponsors. What is key here is that something sets you aside, it can be race results, it can be a story of overcoming individual adversity, or it can be the fact that you've motivated 50 people in your community to race their first tri, but its got to be something and its got to be good.

Return on Investment- What you ask a sponsor to invest is going to have a lot of weight on whether or not you're going to receive a sponsorship. If you go ask your local bike shop for $10 000 cash to fund your travel expenses to the Abu Dabi tri as an AGer, they'll tell you to get lost because its $10 000 invested that won't turn into a single sale. CycleOps provides introductory levels of sponsorship through discounts on merchandise, which works for them because they forgo a little margin on product in return for guaranteed sales, and marketable individuals using their brand.

What works best is that you find opportunities for sponsors to help you through in-kind contributions. For instance, all triathletes need nutrition, shoes, clothes, bikes, hotel rooms, travel to races, etc, and these are all things that sponsors are more forthcoming with than cash outright. On the other hand if its cash that you need for coaching, etc, build a relationship with your local businesses and eventually present them with your sponsorship proposal with differing levels of commitment, and they may be willing to work with you on that basis.

Think about these key things before you approach sponsors, and with them in mind cater your proposal and approach to your target audience. Do that, and you'll be well on your way to standing out from the masses.

Stay tuned for my next blog in the series on Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports.

Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports- Part I: The Importance of a Brand

This will be the first in a four part series on the important of personal branding for athletes from amateur to elite. My focus over the next four posts will be to highlight to Age Grouper and Elite Triathletes alike how the field of branding and marketing can help elevate your level of exposure and ultimately sponsor attractiveness. For the record, I hold a Commerce degree in Marketing and work as a consultant in that field, in addition to my experience in Business Planning and Development (incase you were wondering whether I'm qualified to write this).

We're all familiar with marquis brands built up from individuals such as Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and David Beckham. Of course at that level we can see the obvious benefits towards properly managing that brand. With that level of exposure comes the associated sponsorship dollars, individual recognition, and opportunity to further your development as an athlete by having the means to focus more greatly on your sport. But by no means does sponsorship and the importance of having a personal brand need to be limited to professional sports, nor does the benefits.

The challenge for age groupers, amateurs, and emerging elites in many sports is to determine how or if you can have access to a small piece of that sponsorship and recognition pie. In this first blog post I'm not going to cut too deep into the details but I'll summarize what the next few posts will discuss and I'll try to convey one important point; that winning races can help, but sponsorship opportunities is all about knowing your audience and developing a strong and consistent personal brand.

Obviously winning races is a huge plus that will really get you recognized but its not as important as having a personal brand that will positively reflect on potential sponsors and appeal to the target market of the sponsors. Athletes of all levels who are trustworthy, have a positive outlook, are highly interactive with the community (online and real world), have strong reach and influence, and who can speak well about a product, are considered to be the safest bets which will yield the greatest return on investment for the budgeted sponsorship dollars.

Take for instance the sponsorship opportunities available through sites such as Promotive whose brands include Adidas, Helly Hansen, Suunto, and CycleOps. The mandate of Promotive is to sponsorship opportunities to athletes who have significant influence in their personal and professional communities. With over 150,000 members, to M.O. isn't to dole out sponsorships to the select few who win the prize money, but to connect sponsors with individuals who will use their product and can share information on its benefits within their social circles.

In the next few blog posts I'll cut more in depth into specifics, with the general topics as follows;

• Part II- Know Your Audience
• Part III- BYOB, Be Your Own Brand
• Part IV- The Basics of Social Media
• Part V- Putting it All Together

If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments.

Cheers,

Raf

A Constant State of Motion

The amazing thing about training for an event as big as an Ironman is that it starts to feel like you are in a constant state of motion. Day in and day out the committed triathlete will move themself from one point to another either in the pool, on the bike, or on the run and in the course of a year will spend literally hundreds of hours logging the same distances that some people will put on their car in that same timespan.

Its been a little over a year since I signed up for my first triathlon, the Calgary 70.3 Half Ironman, and it was probably a year ago that I signed up for a Half Marathon in prep for the Half IM. In that time I've learned a lot and had the opportunity to meet a lot of incredible people who I'll no doubt mention in this blog. One of the things that drew me to the sport is the incredible spirit and discipline you must have to race. Whether you're the first or the last across the line, the journey there is never an easy one, but rarely is there a more rewarding experience than finishing a race well done.

So now I'm training for the big one, Ironman Canada with my coach Todd Malcolm of No Limits Triathlon Coaching and the support of Tri-It Multisport, CycleOps Power, my friends at the TriCommitment Team, and my wonderful girlfriend Shirley Blundell (find her on Twitter, @littleredlime). Its a long way to go until IMC but I have no doubt that the weeks and miles will fly by so I thought it would be prudent to capture that long road through a blog.

I'll be talking about my training, races, the Western Canadian triathlon community, gear and equipment (I'm pretty into the toys of the sport), and whatever else comes to mind over the next 8 months. My hope is that you'll find at least a couple entries interesting and helpful and that maybe you'll want to come for a run, bike, or swim with me in the meantime.