Final days (of Free Yourself tees)....then something new

First off, I want to thank everyone for all the comments over the last couple of months.  I honestly didn't expect so many.  The support, advice, friendship, and camaraderie has been awesome.  Because of you guys, I have not been in bed before 1AM in months.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

64 Classic rocking the tee...

Anyway, I'm running low on tees.  I'd like to make good on all winners who have not yet claimed their shirt.  The most up-to-date list is here.  But on July 15h, I'm going to bring the offer to an end, at least in terms of counting comments.  I'll post the final results that day.

However, I will be announcing a new project sometime next week - I'm just working on the final details over the next couple of days.  As many of you know (or have gleaned from my semi-threats of same in certain posts), I've been itching to try to create a business in and around endurance sports.  I've been a bit of a serial entrepreneur most of my life.  There's nothing like the early days of a new project.  And though my score card isn't perfect with respect to success, I need to have another go.

The details will be forthcoming next week, but I will say that the venture's success will be dependent on creating a community of everyday athletes who participate in endurance sports because they love it, and nothing more.  And this community will be vital to the creation of our products.

We will be launching with a set of basic product ideas, a blog, and Twitter/Facebook pages.  That's it, because we want to start creating a community from the first day.  We don't want to spend months behind closed doors designing product based on us trying to guess what you want.  We'd rather just ask up front.

We're excited to make this a two way street.  Nothing would make us happier than to create a strong team of early brand influencers from the community.  And as I've read all your blogs over the last few months, you guys are the people to listen to.  We're not focusing on getting our products on impossibly fit elite athletes - If we do, we do.  We are more interested in the age groupers.  If you come in first, awesome.  But if you come in last, well we all know that a majority of the population didn't make it "off the couch" on your race day.  That's worth a lot.

With your help, the products are going to be good.  They are going to be of high quality.  And they are going to work well.  I promise.

I hope you will all join me on the new adventure just like you have with "The Road".  I'm really excited about opening the doors from day one, whether or not it succeeds or sinks.  It's all about the journey, anyway.  Please stay tuned....