Best of Valley: Triple Sports

When you work in retail, you get a lot of phone calls. Where are you located? What are your hours? How much worth is in a baseball glove signed by Whitey Ford? Yes, we get those questions. But we also get a ton - an absolute ton - of sales calls. So, we were a little leery when Kelly Carr, a local business reporter, called a couple of weeks back about a write-up she was doing for the "Best of the Valley" issue of Phoenix Magazine. We had been awarded top honors as the best place to buy workout clothes, she said. As it turns out, it was no sales call.




Phoenix Magazine began hitting newsstands this week and Triple Sports, in deed, has been named the "Best Athletic Apparel Shop." Here's what she had to say:

"Former newspaper reporters Brian and Kara Anderson traded in their notebooks in 2005 to build a business around their hobby - triathlons. Now inside Triple Sports, the couple's ironman numbers drape from a water cooler. The shop carries everything a triathlete craves, from a variety of sneakers and bathing suits to coolmesh socks and lightweight gear fro running, walking, biking or swimming. One wall is covered in supplements, the other in several brands of wetsuits. Packed with hundreds of items to accessorize a workout regimen, the shop prides itself on its welcoming vibe, allowing novice athletes to browse for gear and ask questions without feeling intimidated. Once you've loaded up on the essentials, grab one of the cute tanks that boast messages like "Running Diva" from the front table. Guys will have a hard time passing up the shop's "Art of Tri" lifestyle shirt."

Needless to say, but we were pleased as punch. We even got invited to a "Best of ..." launch party at the swanky Mondrian. It truly is an honor.



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Triathlon: XXL Needs in a XXS World

It's no secret that triathlon is a growing sport. Eight years after it debuted at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, USA Triathlon annual membership has grown about 400 percent to include 100,000 people. And that's just one measure. At Triple Sports, we see new people coming to the sport everyday. They represent both genders, of course, and all shapes and sizes. This last notion came into play last week as we had two special requests.

The first came from a regular customer. He started in triathlon only about a year ago a little while after running a marathon. Like many people, he was looking for the next challenge. Concerned about triathlon's reputation as an activity only for hard bodies, he was leery of the sport and, in particular, the clothing. He wondered aloud whether clothes even were made for bigger guys. The short answer was yes, sort of.

Traditionally, triathlon apparel makers have been building their lines around the Southern California physique. Do little more than try on a pair of Zoot shorts and you'll get the message. Nevertheless, boxier options offered some relief on top. De Soto also came to the rescue with a XXL tri short that was pretty much good for folks weighing 235 pounds or more. Other manufacturers have since followed suit. But the sport's apparel suppliers still seem to lag behind mass market clothing makers, who have eagerly changed their size charts over the years. To better understand these shifts, consider that I - 6-feet, 1-inch tall, weighing 177 pounds - am most properly sized in a small shirt from Old Navy. Or that blue jean giant Levi's sells pants up to size 44. In triathlon, more work needs to be done. For example, Tyr and Speedo - the world's two largest swimwear manufacturers - sell swim jammers only up to a waist size of 38. Ironically, it is Zoot that was able to offer some help to our customer with a XXL jammer for waist sizes of 38-40. The good news is that work creating additional size options seems to continue every year, with the latest example coming in the wetsuit category.

For years, Quintana Roo had a lock on wetsuit sizing. They had more sizes than just about any other swimming or triathlon wetsuit manufacturer. As the creator of swim-specific suits, it is expected that the company takes the lead. But even their largest size was not enough to accommodate a new customer who came calling last week, at least on paper. The upper end of QR's size chart offers a fit for folks weighing up to 253 pounds. The challenge was that our customer is 300 pounds and, as he put it, gives new meaning to the word Clydesdale. He was frustrated in trying to locate a wetsuit large enough for his frame. But we might have found it in QR's Superfull, with a very stretchy 40-cell Yamamoto rubber that could extend the top range of the XXL enough to do the trick. We'll know more later this week. In this effort, though, we learned again that their is a market for outfitting larger triathletes. Zoot continues to get the message and plans on offering a XXL wetsuit in 2009 that extends their largest size by 10 pounds or so. Yet, the 300-pound triathlete - admittedly a small number of folks - will still have to figure out other options. It is encouraging, though.

The world of triathlon is changing. Triathlon equipment suppliers are changing, too. But that change may be coming a bit too slow for some.

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A Woman Named Armstrong

If you haven't heard, someone named Armstrong has once again risen to the top of the podium. No, 7-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong didn't kick the celebrity habit and return to cycling. Rather it was Kristin Armstrong, a 35-year-old from Boise, Idaho, who pounded her way to the top of the heap in the Olympic women's cycling time trial. But before we get ahead of ourselves talking about how Armstrong is the new face of women's cycling and representative of an emerging movement, it must be noted that she has been around the block a few times.

A former triathlete, Armstrong ditched the pool and pavement pounding for cycling a few years ago. She's a time trial specialist, winning the Pan American Championship in 2005 and taking first at the World Time Trial Championship in 2006. Four years ago at the Olympics in Athens, Armstrong placed 8th in the road racing event. She came in a disappointing 25th in Beijing on what was a challenging, rain-soaked day of riding. When not riding for the stars and stripes, Armstrong is a member of Team Cervélo-Lifeforce. So, that leaves us with a 35-year-old from Boise who wins gold in one of the most challenging Olympic endurance events.



Yes, now let's talk about how she is an inspiration to girls and women and all of us. Let's talk about how she should be a role model or the spark that ignites women's cycling in our country. Let's point out that she along with Christine Thorburn, who placed fifth in the women's time trial, and the terrifically named Sarah Hammer, who will race the individual pursuit prelims today at the Laoshan Velodrome, are free of the ego and arrogance that often mar professional cycling. Let's talk about how much we would rather see posters of these women than of Britney or Paris on the walls of the rooms of our daughters. Let's hope that these games and these events and these women will become as known and respected and honored as that other Armstrong of cycling.


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Sissies in Tight Pants

We were just talking about the subject the other day at the store. What is it, exactly, about a bicycle that makes people in cars and trucks lose their minds? They yell or spit or obscenely gesture, these aggressive drivers. In some cases, they swerve in mock rundown. Nice. To be sure, many drivers are considerate, giving enough room to cyclists or at least slowing down a tad when passing by. And there are cyclists who ignore laws and invite confrontation. But establishing a culture of fear only takes a few knuckleheads who enjoy making sport out of possible death sentences for those of us who enjoy riding on American roadways. Close the car door along with your mind, perhaps. Tom Vanderbilt, author of “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do”, said as much in an interview with Amazon.com.

The world “is filled with people who think that roads belong only to them — it’s "MySpace" — that being inside the car absolves them from any obligation to anyone else,” Vanderbilt was quoted as saying.

People who study such things point out that modern America is in hyperdrive, New York Times reporter Jan Hoffman wrote in a story published Sunday. We try to cram 30 hours of work, fun and life into 24 hour days with disastrous results. Drivers try to make up time on the road, a mostly unsuccessful prospect if you really stop to think about the method. Beyond that, obvious meatheads see cyclists - especially men in tight-fitting clothes - as sissies. Never mind the fact that they love watching 300 pound behemoths in snappy and snug white pants wrestle with one another and pat each other’s behinds every Sunday in autumn. Along those lines, a researcher from England discovered that drivers will actually give properly outfitted cyclists less leeway on the roads.

“We know from research that many drivers see cyclists as a separate subculture, to which they don’t belong,” said the University of Bath’s Ian Walker. “As a result they hold stereotyped ideas about cyclists, often judging all riders by the yardstick of the Lycra-clad street-warrior.”



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Globalized Triathlon

Of the words zipping through our world these days, globalization is one that seems to come up with some regularity. Increasingly, we are a more global society. That is, our outlook and our make-up in the United States is more worldly than ever before. Many of the things we buy are produced overseas - largely in Asia. Critics contend that this leads to American job loss as manufacturers look oversea for cheap labor. Proponents say globalization is little more than free-market economics that drives lower prices for the seemingly ever-squeezed consumer. But for retail stores such as Triple Sports, globalization (in part) seems to have actually harmed inventory supplies.

This year has certainly been challenging on the supply side of retailing. Manufacturers are running out of product quicker and restocking more slowly. We can blame a couple of things. Demand, for one, has pummeled store supply. More people getting into triathlon and cycling means more people need the equipment to participate. We prepare for such things, but have continued to watch as we run out of certain items time and again. Secondly, manufacturers are resupplying more slowly than in the past. Additionally, $4 a gallon gas has made triathletes and cyclists compete for bikes with folks who would rather ride than drive to save a few bucks. Wayne Gray, of Southern California distributor KHS, told the industry magazine Bicycle Retailer that hybrids and low-end road bikes are in short supply. But commuters aren't the only ones in a pinch over high fuel prices.

A story printed in the New York Times stated that shipping companies have slowed the top speed of container ships by 20 percent to save fuel. That means supplies produced in Asia take longer to get to North America and down and down the line it goes. That means the wetsuit or bike you've been eyeballing might not be available when you head out to finally take the plunge. All of this is leading to more talk of producing products closer to home. Interesting, isn't it?


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