Coeur is much more than a women's triathlon, cycling, and run clothing brand.

Hi everyone. We hope your summer is off to a fantastic start.  Before you know it, the days will get shorter and the temperature will drop. While we love summer, we do look forward to the end of the year. That’s because we’ll open our annual “Call For Athletes” in mid-September. To be clear, it’s not open yet, but it will be very soon soon. We’ll post on social media and via our website www.coeursports.com.

Making the Heart Symbol While Racing Isn't Mandatory

For the past couple of years we’ve been sharing some detail prior to the opening of the call for athletes on why we have the team, what we hope to accomplish, and what we look for in athletes. There’s a bit of nuance to our vision, so we'll continue this tradition and hope that this all makes sense.

One of the questions we get frequently pertains to cost. Specifically, what does it cost to be a Coeur ambassador? That one is easy. Nothing. Zero. Zippo. Zilch. There is no cost and you are not required to make any purchases and you do get free clothing. We have a bunch of reasons for making this a free program and one of the key ones is that making people pay dramatically changes the nature of the relationship. Now, we have absolutely nothing against pay to play clubs, but that’s not what we’re shooting for here.

Another frequent question relates to physical ability. Specifically, how fast do I need to be? Before we answer that, we have to be clear. Speed is awesome. I mean, (to quote Ricky Bobby) “America is all about speed. Some of the ladies on the Coeur team are absolutely greased-lighting fast and they practically have permanent residence on the top steps of the podium.

Team Speed

But…my friend, speed alone is not what got them on the team. Rather it was alignment with our values that sealed the deal. More about that in a moment.

The third most frequent question is related to sports. Specifically, which sports are covered by the program. The answer is anything that can be construed as an endurance sport.  We know that is a tiny bit vague, but Running, Cycling, Swimming, and Triathlon are included. To be clear, you don't have to be a triathlete to be an ambassador. If you happen to be involved in Iditarod, we may have to think twice, but hey, we'll never say never.

Another frequent question relates to social media reach. Specifically, will having a big social media following guarantee a spot on the team? The answer there is a resounding…”not necessarily”. While we do appreciate a big following and we acknowledge that having a broad reach helps us share our message, there’s a distinction in our mind between advertising and promoting our desire to encourage women to live a lifestyle of health and fitness.

To put a finer point on this topic, we have tested paying bloggers to profile our gear. That’s advertising. It was moderately successful and we might consider doing it again. So, if you’re goal is to be a professional blogger and get paid for the social media following you’ve created, we say…”that’s great”! Let us connect you with our advertising team and maybe we can work together. But, (again), we have a very nuanced view on what we hope to accomplish with the ambassador team and it’s not just about having a group of people with a ginormous reach who act as an extension of our ad agency.

So, at this point, you may be saying, thanks for the information, but what specifically are you looking for? The answer to that is really part of the answer to the question of why we started the company in the first place. So, here goes:

There’s no doubt, one reason Coeur was born was because we wanted to create beautiful and incredibly functional women’s endurance sports clothing. Now, we can talk endlessly about how the triathlon, cycling, run and swim gear has been tested in the lava fields of Kona and the trails of the Leadville 100, but that’s something we think is just a given and only part of our raison d'être.

Our ambassadors like Monica put our gear to the test

The other reason we formed Coeur was to have a vehicle for creating a community of women to support each other as they endeavored to live lifestyles of health and fitness. We are very aware that this statement and mission can border on sounding sappy, but the truth is that we truly love endurance sports. As of today, everyone one of the seven ladies who run Coeur (yep we’re still small) has done at least one Ironman. Three of the seven have raced Kona and one is on a 600 plus day run streak. Now, we promise, we don’t say this to brag. Rather, it’s to (hopefully) show, that when it comes to endurance sports, we’re “all in”.

In our heart of hearts, we want to grow women’s cycling, triathlon, running, and swimming and from first-hand experience we know that a woman’s first foray into one of these activities can be a truly pivotal moment. If she gets a smile from the woman next to her in transition or a friendly hello at the start line of her first organized bike ride, there’s a legitimate chance that she’ll stick around long enough to realize that endurance sports and the lifestyle can be absolutely, game changing amazing.

Of course, if her reception is more of the “stare them up and down and offer a cold shoulder” variety, then she is likely to fall into the “one and done” category. If that happens, then she’ll mark something off her bucket list and we’ve missed an amazing opportunity to literally change her life.

Now, this isn’t all 100% altruistic. After all, we are a "for profit" enterprise. We also know that creating a welcoming environment will help grow the sport and these new entrants will have to buy bikes, why hello Argon …you sexy thing, sunglasses (have you seen these Smiths) and..yes…clothes somewhere.

So, with all of that as context, we’ll respectfully ask that if you apply to be an ambassador that you be prepared to:

• Encourage others to get up and move, even if it’s just a walk or an easy spin around the neighborhood
• Offer that smile or hello in transition or at the start of your run or ride
• Race to the absolute best of your ability on that day but, congratulate others even when it things don't go according to plan

And finally,

• Laugh…a lot. It is contagious.

To say it a different way, we ask that you, first and foremost, be ambassadors for endurance sports.

In return, you’ll be associated with a like-minded group of encouraging and inspiring women and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you may have made a difference in someone else’s life.

We'd love for you to join the Coeur team 

Oh..and of of course, you’ll get some great free gear and a whopper discount along with some great team sponsor benefits.

So, stay tuned. We’ll be opening our application process on September 12th and we’d love for you to apply.

Happy Training & Racing!

Your Friends at Coeur