RSport – a new conversation for the Athena athlete

Every once in a while, when you least expect it, you’ll cross paths with someone who you are truly happy to meet. This lovely moment happened to me at the Colfax Marathon expo in May. My friend and I had made the trek out there to scope out running things and as we wound our way through the booths, we admired this cute running shirt hanging in one of the booths.

Now, most of the time at these things, I ignore clothes on display because I know they won’t fit me. Just prior to seeing the adorable shirt, I had asked the lady from one of the local running stores if they had a FlipBelt in pink or aqua in an XL. Nope, only black. Because only smaller women might want fun colors…….

But I digress.

As I started to turn away to look at the next booth, my friend said, “Wait! Clothing for size 10 and up???”

Now this booth had my attention.

Turns out, we had stumbled on RSport – a new company targeting the Athena athlete. If you don’t know what this means, it is the classification for “bigger” female athletes. In the tri world, an Athena is a woman over 150 lbs. (“Larger” men are clydesdales) and while this is a growing segment of the athletic world, performance gear for the “larger” women is a market that is being greatly ignored by most of the well known brands or passively addressed by making a size 4 bigger. That’s not really an effective way to create performance wear in a range of sizes. It’s the easy way, but it’s a poor way to develop something that fits well on various body types.

After a few moments of feeling fabrics, admiring features, and checking out patterns of the garments, we were introduced to CJ. This dynamo of a woman not only made me an instant fan of her, but also her brand and the idea behind it. In all honesty, I wanted to chat with her all day. Her energy and passion for what she is doing pours out of every fiber of her being.

Not gonna lie, I’m a wee bit smitten.

She gave us an overview of the line, told us about some of the history of the startup, and what she hopes to achieve with her brand. She graciously agreed to chat with me some more about the line.

RSport’s philosophy is about starting a new conversation. It’s reflected in their logo, which is an upside down paragraph symbol (CJ’s mom was an English teacher and any of us who’ve had a paper graded with the evil red pen have experienced this one!) The conversation CJ wants to really start is that the Athena athlete, the woman who may not neatly fit into the typical athletic demographic, is much bigger than she thinks she is. Not physically in size, but in who she represents.

Woman – and men – of all sizes are gearing up and taking to the streets whether they are walking, running, biking, or hiking. It is a huge demographic that needs to make their voice heard.

Well, my friends, CJ is listening.

After many years in design, tech design, outdoor materials, and trims for companies like Solomon, Pearl Izumi, Belk, and Abercrombie, she not only gained the invaluable experience on garment design and testing, but also insight into how those companies target customers and who they think their customers are. Many of these companies see their customer as a pro or semi pro athlete. To me, this is more an aspirational customer, not necessarily a realistic one. They tailor fit to those body types, not realizing that rather than kitting up Paula Radcliffe, the English distance runner, they are actually being worn by Paula Radcliffe, mom of 3 from Ohio completing her first half marathon.

While both Radcliffes may be female, a professional athlete most likely has a very different body type than the average runner.

When she spoke to executives at these companies, she was often frustrated at the lack of attention being paid to this demographic. While she respects that they have the market they want to cater to, she also realized that this was an often ignored and very underserved customer.

At trade shows and via direct customer communications, women were asking why these companies didn’t make clothing to fit them. Not just women who may be a bit heavier, but also women who were taller. Being a size 10 or over doesn’t immediately mean you are overweight. This was money being left on the table and a group that was crying for product.

With this in mind, RSport was born.

From the beginning, she spoke with people, took measurements, found out what worked and didn’t work in existing clothing options. She tested and improved designs, listening to her beta users as they put the first garments through the ringer.

She added in little touches like drawstrings in the waist of the leggings, leg that flared at the calf to take into account broader lower limbs. There are pockets in many of the garments, and high-quality performance fabrics expertly sewn together. Rather than start with a size 4 pattern, she starts with a 12-14 and adjusts up and down from there.

Her products are continually tested and improved upon thanks to wonderful communication with her customers. When someone orders something and provides feedback, it is taken into account. A woman wearing a size 5x will have the same attention to fit as the woman who is a size 10.

If you ever have the pleasure of chatting with CJ, you’ll know immediately that she truly cares about her customer. She has flat-out asked executives about creating sub-brands to meet the needs of this market, only to be told there aren’t many women over a certain size that participate in athletic endeavors. One afternoon cheering at local 5ks, 10ks, halfs, and full marathons, you can see for yourself this isn’t true.

Conventional buying methods used by corporations tell them to go by the history of how something has sold in order to predict trends for upcoming seasons, this is all well and good unless you are dealing with a market that doesn’t have any product made for them currently. No product for them to buy, there is no history of it being bought, so it must not be needed….. Correct?

Uhm.. no.

As part of her campaign to get these companies to listen to her, CJ focused on Athena athletes for her Masters thesis, putting together data showing the scope of this market and how worldwide, people are growing. The average woman in the US is now a size 16, in Germany a 12/14. Large scale campaigns are waged to encourage people to become more fit and active in order to combat the adverse affects weight can have on overall health – yet companies who manufacturer performance gear, for the most part, refuse to create product to give these larger athletes clothing to workout in. Women are often left with large, boxy t-shirts and bottoms that don’t fit properly because they were created from a much smaller pattern and paid no attention to the difference in proportions. Or, like I often did, they must head to the men’s section for something that would be wearable, but wouldn’t fit well at all.

RSport is aiming to change all that. They are not the first clothing line hitting this market by any means, a few here and there are finally waking up, though it seems that CJ’s focus is on truly analyzing the Athena bodies and designing accordingly.

They just launched their first tri kits and plan to expand their offerings of leggings, tops, and fleece. The line is currently 6 pieces, available in various fabrics, and is soon expanding to 9. Her aim is to become THE Athena apparel brand for outdoor needs. She has some great plans in the works, but wants to make sure that each addition to the product line is done properly, not hurried out just to fill up a catalog.

The resulting pieces of this attention are made from quality fabrics, trims, and expert touches designed with specific purpose. RSport is not the cheapest option for athletic apparel, but as one realizes when you compare a piece from their line with one that you might find for half the price, there IS a difference. A huge difference.

These pieces will last. They are going to hold up to the rigors of training for an event – and well after when you are prepping for your next one. If you are anything like me, I’ve worried a few times that the seams in some of my bargain leggings might not be happy with the abuse I am putting them through. From what I have seen of the RSport construction, the garment will look at what you have planned, smile, and say “Bring it.”

I’m going to admit I’ve become quite the fangirl of the line. While I liked what I saw at the expo (and have experienced so far wearing it) CJ is what turned me into somewhat of an evangelist of the brand. Her passion for what she is doing shows in everything aspect of the conversation.

I asked her if she was going to expand her distribution channels in order to make the product more readily available for purchase (right now you can catch her at expos and order through the RSport website) her answer was she is looking for the right partners. It’s not just about getting the product in stores, but she wants to be sure she is partnering with distributors that have the same vision and care for the Athena athlete that she does.

Even in her business plan, she doesn’t want to compete with others in the space, but rather work with them to collaborate in order to meet market need. There is a strength in working together, especially for a market that has been so generally overlooked.

This company – and CJ – are special.

Now for some more nitty gritty info in case you haven’t already popped over to check them out: if you are wanting to purchase an item and aren’t quite sure about what size to order, give them a call. The RSport team knows their product and how it fits. They know what things to consider when picking a size (I mentioned my loose belly and how it often causes me issues with some of my clothing because loose skin and running will test pretty much any design, she said to take my waist measurement into account and go with option that best fits that over my hips. Also: there is a drawstring to help prevent anything from shifting downward when in motion. For this I am particularly grateful. 🙂 )

I’d like to thank CJ for her time, for doing what she’s doing, and I hope that if I am up in her area, she will have time to hit happy hour so I can fangirl over her in person a bit more. (not in a creepy way, I swear!)