Reflections on our Brutal and Beautiful Year

Dear Customers, Partners and Friends (aka the Community in The Athletic Community),

2025 has been a brutal and beautiful year. A year that highlights how important community is.

The Athletic is a small business run by just two people: myself (Vanessa) and Jess. Jess is the heart and soul of The Athletic. The vibe, love and warmth you feel? That’s all Jess. She guides us, this business. She points north, and we follow. Jess is a new breed of business owner, one who believes a rising tide lifts all boats, that you can pay artists well, that you can make a product that lasts, that there’s no need for a winner-take-all mentality. Jess also runs everything: she works the shop, collaborates with our collections designers and orders products for manufacturing. She is truly a Jane of all trades - and a damn good one at that. 

Then suddenly on July 24, Jess - our heart - was struck by a car while on a shop ride. 

It’s every cyclist’s, and their partner’s, family’s, friends’, worst nightmare. I don’t remember much of those first 24 hours, but what I do remember is letting Ayleen, our social media strategist, know that the shop would be closed the following day. I didn’t know when we’d reopen again. 

Within days of the accident something incredible happened: our dear friend Jillian gathered names, made plans and organized a spreadsheet to help keep the shop open. Within hours, two weeks of shifts were completely covered. Meals showed up every day at my door. Friends and family made sure I ate (sometimes literally in front of them). They ran errands, kept me company at the ICU on my “night shift”, they came to an inventory party and labeled every single item in the retail store. 

Then, even more incredible things happened. Two design powerhouses, and dear friends, came to my aid. 

First, artist Lisa Congdon, designed a special sock for Team Jess, you might know it as the “HELL YEAH!” sock on our website. It’s been a hit.

Then late August arrived. Jess was still in the ICU, and I found myself nervously staring down Holiday 2025 while running this business on my own and also working a full-time job. That’s when artist Brett Stenson and Young Jerks stepped in to create a capsule collection for Jess.

The Friday before I was set to return to my job, I was working at my kitchen table when a text came through from Marley Blonsky. Jess and I met Marley for the second time right before her accident, and the three of us hit it off. Marley was texting me from her home in Bentonville, Arkansas to say, “What do you need right now?” I jokingly shot back, “A clone”, and the next sentence from Marley was, “I can be on a flight tomorrow morning and work the shop for a month.”

I stared at that text for what felt like an eternity. I can’t accept this. This is too much. But something in me wrote back, “Let’s do it” and the next day, Marley was in Portland and became Employee Number One - literally our first employee - at The Athletic.

Since that day, we have grown to a team of 4 (really 5 because Ayleen, as a contracted service, counts in my book).

Like I said, a brutal yet beautiful year. 

I’m still in awe of this community. They have given me the biggest gift of all: their time. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.

Our girl Jess is still fighting her way back from this injury. She’s suffered a severe TBI and has a long road back to recovery. Jess is a warm, loving and kind person, but she is also a stubborn bull, not one to give up, ever. She’s battled back from every single injury, every single obstacle she has ever faced. I know with every fiber of my being that before we know it, she will be running this business full steam ahead. I’m just keeping the seat warm for her.

You might not realize it, but your support of this business truly means the world to me. Every order makes a difference. It tells me you believe in us. That you like what we are about. And this holiday season, it showcases that you want to share it with the people you love. To me, that is utterly beautiful.

Thank you for your support of our dream. 

Don't forget to tell your people you love them. Make it weird. Like, really really really, weird. Like so weird they tell you to stop, then you’ll know, they know how much you love them.

With love,

The Athletic Community

Vanessa, Jess, Marley, Chloe, Nicole and Ayleen

 

ps: if you want to follow Jess' recovery, you may do so by clicking on this link