Love Ya
Amy B. and Julie
In December Amy and I announced the difficult news that we would be ending our decade long business partnership and shutting WHOOHA down. We were sadden to see the community we helped create and the business that we put our sweat and hearts into close down but, we knew it was time to continue our journey in other directions. We reached out to you, our community, to see if anyone might be interested in purchasing the business and carrying on Whooha Gear. We are so happy to announce that Whooha Gear has been sold to a wonderful, enthusiastic and like minded woman. The Whooha Community will live on through her!!! Below we have a message from the new owner Amy F. (another Amy, great sign right!!??) We are excited to see what her new energy will bring to the future of WHOOHA. We know you will love her as much as we do! We want to thank you all again for being with us for the past 10 plus years and for the abundance of inspiration that you have brought into our lives. We wouldn't have changed it for the world!!! Love Ya Amy B. and Julie
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As many of you know, Amy and I started Whooha Gear over 10 years ago in order to fill the need for women's specific apparel in the sports we love. Our goal was to empower other women to take control of their health and perhaps, inspire them to participate in these activities as well. While we believe we have done our share of inspiring, the inspiration we have received from the amazing people we met along the way, has been staggering. It has been a beautiful journey of success, struggle, growth and accomplishment. We are proud of what we have created with Whooha and will be forever grateful for the experience it has provided.
However, as you know a lot can happen in 10 years! Kids, careers, location changes, goals, priorities... As you can guess, Amy and my journey has brought some major changes over the years. Several children later, and living in separate states (to name a few changes!) has made it challenging to run Whooha in a way that the community we have created deserves. After much deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to shut the business down. We have created a great community and are reluctant to see it go. So, we are open to selling our company to that special someone who shares our goals and is as passionate about inspiring women as we are. If Women Having Optimistic Objectives & Healthy Attitudes resonates with you, if you have dreamed of owning a business that you are passionate about and, you don't mind folding a few t-shirts, we would love to talk to you!!! Please feel free to email me personally with any inquiries at [email protected] We couldn't have done it without you and we will be forever grateful to all of you and the community we have created together! As always: Play Hard...Take Chances...Keep Smilin' Much Gratitude, Julie (& Amy, too) Make sure you get your share of WHOOHA! Our 50% off SALE has been continued through January 31, 2018. Go to: http://www.whoohagear.com for this amazing discount! If you are interested in learning more about owning WHOOHAGEAR please contact Julie at [email protected] We are so excited to feature another one of our WHOOHA Favorites!!! We first met Amanda years ago through her blog tootallfritz.com. Over time she has been one of our biggest supporters and, we have can't help but love her feisty personality and positive attitude. Her post below shares a lesson that we all need to be reminded of at times.... Embrace the chaos and take the time to do what you love!!!! For Sure!!! We hope you enjoy Amanda's story as much as we do!!! We recommend you check her and her blog, www.tootallfritz.com out, for further inspiration! I’ve always been a runner. I was a sprinter and high jumper when I was young. I considered distance running to be everything over the 200m dash. Coaches always tried to force me toward the 400m distance and I resisted. Too far. I’m sprinter. Not a distance runner. Fast forward 25 years and where am I now? Yeah, I’m a distance runner. A marathoner. A long course triathlete, specializing in the half iron distance. I have aspirations toward a {gasp} full ironman. Wow. How did that happen? Well, I matured. It takes a lot of maturity to run long. I honestly envy the kids who learn to suffer; I mean run long, at an early age. It takes a lot of dedication. It hurts. It doesn’t get easier; you just get faster, right? For me, I was married with child before I laced up and headed out the door for a “long run”. It was February 1, 2005. I was out of shape. Overweight. And I had, just the day previous, committed to hiking the Grand Canyon with a friend for her 40th birthday. At that point, I had 4 months to figure out how to haul myself thru the Canyon. I was scared, but anxious to get started in finding my fitness. And finding my fitness, I did. I’m below, far left, with my Grand Canyon hiking group in June 2005. The Canyon was the beginning. That’s the point when I knew that I could do anything, if I set the goal and worked toward it. Since that day I’ve ran 32 marathons, participated in countless triathlons and somehow balanced work, family and fitness. I can’t say I’ve always done it well, but I keep juggling. One step at a time. One mile at a time. One goal at a time. I really want other women to juggle too! I want them to believe in themselves and take chances. I want them to know that life isn’t easy and things aren’t perfect. Please let the chaos reign! You can go for a run when the house is messy and dishes are in the sink. Nobody is going to go naked if you don’t have all the laundry done. Eat the Birthday Cake cuz it only comes around once a year! Play with the kids in the rain, even though you know they might get sick. Play hooky and go to the zoo on a school day. Realize that your boss will not delete all his contacts on his iPhone just because you take a day off. Okay, maybe he will but you can restore them, right? Know that you can still finish a marathon even if you had to skip a few runs cuz the kids were sick. Know that you can tackle a triathlon and still manage home cooked meals. You can DO anything you want. So what do YOU want to do? Bottom line, what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? I want to leave crazy stories & laughter. I want my kids to know & truly believe that they can do anything. If I don’t go forward, each & every day, trying new things and chasing my dreams, how can they possibly believe that they can chase their own? So I chase dreams. I will regret nothing. I will “Play Hard, Take Chances & Keep Smilin’”. And I wish the very same for you. I believe in YOU. Look for me at the following events: Cutting Edge Half Classic 70.3 – Effingham, IL – June 12th Ironman 70.3 Muncie – Muncie, IN – July 9th Rock N Roll Chicago – July 17th Tri Lakes Olympic Triathlon – Columbia City, IN – July 23rd Ironman 70.3 Steelhead – Benton Harbor, MI – August 14th Rev3 70.3 Cedar Point – Sandusky, OH – September 11th Fort4Fitness Marathon – Ft Wayne, IN - October 1st MCM Marathon – Virginia – October 30th Rock N Roll Vegas – November 13th Rock N Roll San Antonio – December 3rd Huff 50K – Albion, IN – December 16th We want to introduce you to one of our favorite WHOOHA ladies! We first met Jann when she won one of our giveaway contests. We instantly loved her enthusiasm and positive energy. She has been a frequent contributor to the WHOOHA community ever since. While we haven't had the pleasure of meeting her personally (Someday we hope!!!), we love the WHOOHA spirit that she portrays! Read her story below as a reminder to challenge yourself and never say never!!! I got into running back in August of 2010 when one of my best friends asked me to run a relay race with her because "It will be fun!" I had never been a runner before in my life and truth be told had actually never enjoyed running, even in the slightest! I told her I didn't think it would be something I would continue doing, but for her (because we were friends and she needed a teammate) I would consider running the relay race. I started training for the race in September of that year and ran my first 5k in November. That felt SO tough, I wondered how in the world I would survive running a total of 15+ miles in the relay. Well, April 2011 rolled around, I ran the relay and had an absolute BLAST!! From that point on, I became hooked on running. My husband affectionately calls me his "Crazy Runner Girl." I know how proud he is of me, and I am very proud of myself, too! Since that relay race, I have run 12 more relays, 13 half marathons, 3 10k's, and a HUGE handful of 5k races. I have inspired many of my friends, who, like me, thought they could never be runners, to take up the sport. I love encouraging people to get out of their comfort zones, take a chance, and see if maybe they might actually enjoy it. Also, I believe in never saying never. I believed I would NEVER run... NEVER complete a 5k... NEVER run a relay... and NEVER run a half marathon. In just over 5 years, I have accomplished so much, smashing all those "NEVERS," amazing myself, inspiring others, and am SO very proud to call myself a RUNNER! I love my awesome, crazy, enthusiastic, and WHOOHA life!! :D <3 Okay its truth time, just writing that title has made me teary eyed!!! I have struggled up to this point to even say this in my head. Writing it may be more about therapy for me than anything else. So be it! Who knows, maybe it will strike a chord for someone else on a similar journey?!_ If anyone is still with me, you may know that in the past I have shared how biking, running, triathlons etc. helped me through the sudden loss of my husband. CLICK HERE How I found inspiration through these activities to co-create WHOOHA (Women Having Optimistic Objectives and Healthy Attitudes), an inspirational apparel company for women. This grew into a wonderful community of women that inspired each other through their accomplishments. What I haven’t said is that these same activities that have been such a positive influence in my life have also made me unhealthy. I can remember about 2 years after my husband died thinking “Wow, I am exhausted”. I reflected on the marathons, half marathons, half Ironman’s, centuries, endurance mountain bike races and everything else that I jumped into during those 2 years and thought “no wonder…, maybe it is time to slow down”. If I had listened to myself at this point and took a break, slowed down, allowed some stillness in my life, who knows, maybe I would still be competing on some level in the sports I love. Instead, to make a long story short, I continued to say yes to everything that came my way. Each event, I grew a little more tired and my times got a little slower. Eventually I reached the point where I am now, no racing and little energy to do my favorite sports…even at a recreational level. I am no longer an endurance athlete!!! Why am I telling you this? Woo is me, I want you to feel sorry for me?!! NO!!! To warn you about the evils of endurance sports?!! NO!!! I realize that there are a lot worse struggles that I could be dealing with and…endurance sports are the “bomb” if they are done for the right reason and with a positive attitude. I am sharing this because I recently realized how much I was struggling with letting go of this lifestyle. In some ways I was feeling like I had lost my identity. My relationships, my social life, even my career revolves around endurance sports. WHOOHA was started because of our love of these sports. I am supposed to be a role model for these inspirational activities and yet I haven’t felt the urge to race for a very long time!!! I have to admit that I had even thought about giving up on WHOOHA Gear. Letting it go, closing the doors on this great community that has been created by us and all of you inspiring women. If I am no longer an athlete, no longer an inspiration, what’s the point??!! The point, and an important lesson that I believe we all may need to be reminded of, is that I/we are so much more than our sports!!! The people that love me don’t love me because I qualified for Boston or rode the Leadville 100. They could care less! They love me for who I am as a person. Warts and all!!! Of all the 1000’s of inspirational women that I have met in these past years, very few inspire me with their athletic feats alone. I am inspired by their hard work, their optimistic outlook, their love of life, their beautiful souls… and so much more. Inspiration comes in so many forms. All I have to do is look as far as my business partner Amy. Endurance events are the last thing on her mind these days. Instead she focuses much of her time on being the best mother she can be to her 3 children. She is as much an inspiration to me these days as she was when she was piling up race medals!!! One of the benefits of slowing down is that I am finding the time for self-reflection. I have been having what I like to think of as the year (or maybe 2 years) of “finding Julie” (more on this later!!). Even though I had already mentally come to the above conclusions some time ago, it hit me hard that I was still struggling in my heart with letting go of my past life of endurance at a recent seminar I attended. I had the honor of meeting and sharing my struggles at this seminar with Jenny Lablaw, one of the most real and inspirational women I know (and quite possible my new girl crush!!!) If you haven’t heard of her you need to check her out here: http://labawlife.com/ ). She taught me that even strong people cry :), to accept what I am no longer and reminded me that I am so much more than my sports. With this gentle nudging, I have been inspired to share this part of my journey with you. My wish is that you all know that you are “so much more”, that you can be inspiring to those around you in many different ways. If not, let my story be a reminder that this is so. If you find yourself forgetting this, stop what you are doing, find a pen and write down all the things that you are!!! Really, just do it!!! Here is a part of my ongoing list: I am a daughter, a wife, a friend, a canine mother, a chicken farmer (as of 2 months), a superb marshmallow toaster, a massage therapist and lifestyle coach, a darn good hiker, a terrified of heights rock climber, an experimenter and cook, a gardener, a student, an adventurer, an aspiring practitioner of meditation, a healthy person, a business owner, a lover of life, and yes still and always in some way an athlete…… That was fun and refreshing (and a little corny!) I would love it if you shared your lists too!!! Will I ever compete again? Who knows?! I won’t rule it out. These days I am focusing on being the healthiest person I can be. I don’t know if that will ever again mean training for an endurance event. As always there is an upside! Time away has given me a renewed love for my favorite sports. I now have a much greater appreciation of biking/running when I do have the pleasure of hitting the trails. I hope to continue sharing my journey in future blogs as well as those of the many inspirational women we have met along the way. Stay tuned for a wide variety of inspiration and possibly a little bit about chicken farming (just kidding…Maybe :)) Until Next Time! -Julie I often joke that I have met the most important people in my life on my mountain bike! I guess I am only half joking because in many ways it is true. About a year out of college I made the crazy decision to move to Las Vegas. As a small town east coast girl who only knew one person in LV (a college friend) this was a dramatic move. Though I somehow found the gumption to do this, I really did not have a lot of confidence in myself and I struggled to feel like I belonged in the bright lights and fast city of LV. This all changed as soon as I started biking. I have always enjoyed the outdoors and had brought a barely used mountain bike with me on my move. I talked my one friend into going with me to the mountain bike trailhead that we had heard about. It was the toughest most exhausting thing that I had ever done but, I felt excited and energized from it. Next thing I knew I was riding every chance I could get. Every time I went out I would meet another awesome and inspiring group of people. Before long I had a wonderful community of friends and a new appreciation of the unique desert environment that I had moved to. I had found a home. One day on a group ride I met a very charming man. Something told me he was special so I took the chance and gave him my number. We were inseparable after that. We road together constantly and through his encouragement, I began to participate in races. I was always an athlete but never a great one. With biking, for the first time I felt like I had found something that I was good at. My new found confidence on the bike flowed over into other areas of my life. Looking back I can see that this was the point in my life when I started figuring out who I really was. This was crucial in helping me to grow into the more confident woman that I am today. Anyway back to the boy! For the first time in my life I was in love. I knew I had found someone that I could spend my life with. We eventually married and started our “happy ever after” life. Through our many cycling adventures, I was also fortunate to meet some of the most inspiring and fun women I know. I didn’t know quite how fortunate I was to have such a wonderful community of friends until the day life threw me a major curveball. My wonderful healthy husband of 6 and a half years was suddenly gone. He keeled over during a dirt bike race and died for reasons still unknown to this day. As you can imagine, I was devastated. Our community of cycling friends came through in ways I could never imagine they would. I am forever grateful to the love and friendship they showed me as I found a way through this terrible loss. Amy, whom I had met, you guessed it, mountain biking, had become my dearest friend over the past several years. From the day my husband died she was there for me every step of the way. When I asked her how I was going to go on she simply replied “one minute, one hour, one day at a time”. And that is how we got through it. Amy and I had often talked about starting our own company, making women’s apparel for the sports that we loved. We decided that this was the time. I needed to find a way to bring some positive focus into my life and she was looking for something to supplement her job as a full time Mom. So we created Whooha Gear, inspirational apparel for Women. Our name stands for Women Having Optimistic Objectives and Healthy Attitudes. This company brought inspiration into my life when I needed it the most and I can only hope that through our products I can share this inspiration with others. I couldn’t bike for a little while after my husband died. I finally made myself set a date to get back out on the trails. I put it off half the day and finally went when I hoped no one would be around. I put on his IPod and bawled my eyes out the entire ride. But, I felt him with me that day and every day since. Finding something that I truly love doing, has been undeniably helpful to me in finding the person within myself that I can love. I am not great with words but, I can say that in many small ways cycling as well as the many other activities I have taken up since, has helped to bring me: a healthy lifestyle, some of the best friends I have ever known, the confidence to love, the strength to face loss and the courage to love again. Yes back to the boy again! I remarried again 3years ago. Whoever says true love only happens once doesn’t know what they are talking about (at least in my case). I bet by now you can guess where we first met!!!! I hope by sharing my story I can encourage other women to find positive things in their life that will make them truly happy and help them through the ups and downs that are part of our lives. Take that leap in to the unknown, try something new. Yes it’s scary but, I don’t believe you will regret taking that chance. -Julie J Julie's Bachlorette Party... On a bike of course!!!
Want to know a little more about the inspiration behind WHOOHA and what makes us tick? Check out our answers to these questions and more below. The questions were put to us by one of our 2014 ambassadors’ Josie. She featured us for her blog http://josiebikelife.blogspot.com Her questions really made us reflect on our purpose and reminded us of why we do what we do! I (Julie) answered the questions below in black print and Amy piped in with her 2 cents (or 3 cents!) where needed in the purple print. What inspired you to create Whooha Gear? Amy and I designed a women's t-shirt for a fundraiser to benefit the women's cycling team we belonged to. The shirt was such a success that we joked that we should go into business together. There were no women's specific shirts at the time for the sports that we loved so we could really see a need for them. Our busy lives got in the way so we did start Whooha Gear until several years later. Life threw me a curveball with the sudden death of my husband. I needed something positive to focus on and Amy was looking for something she could do part time while raising her children. We decided the timing was right and so we started Whooha Gear. What made you choose the athletics associated with Whooha Gear? Like I stated above, it started out of our love for cycling. As we evolved personally into other sports, running, triathlons etc... the company naturally followed us there. We also have gotten a lot of feedback from our customers over the years. We have listened to this and have been able to use it to steer the company towards what our customers are looking for. What is your favorite event that you've attended?
Hard to pick, we have done so many fun events and travelled to some great places. Maybe Wildflower Triathlon Festival, Amy and I have done this event for years and have each participated in the races several times. It has this wonderful family/grass roots feel but they do a first rate job of putting it on. Beautiful location, challenging events and wonderful people. Although I have truly enjoyed traveling and meeting so many inspirational people throughout the country, I would have to agree...Wildflower! Not only did we get to meet some great people, camp out and do the events but we got to eat S'MORES! In fact, after the long weekend, we would have so many great stories to talk about on the way home that many of our new designs were conceptualized during the car ride. What inspires you to inspire other women? I would say that we are inspired more so by other women, all the amazing women that we meet. We hear their stories and watch them achieve things that they never thought possible. I think that our designs have shifted more towards inspirational designs rather than sport specific because of this. We hear an inspirational story - meet amazing women, we try to find a way to share this spirit through our shirts. In addition, we try to help women to inspire themselves as well. If they could only see what others see in them and in what they do! What are your hopes for your business? To continue to spread a positive message to women. To continue to grow the company that we have developed through hard work and love. I also would like to utilize the business in order to educate my children so that they may understand 1.) that inspiration can be contagious and 2.) that hard work and love can build great opportunities. What is the biggest thing or most important thing you've learned? That running a business is a lot of hard work!!! You have no idea when you begin what starting a business entails. Because of this, you have to really have your heart for what you are doing. And that.....INSPIRATION IS CONTAGIOUS! What do you like best about being a female-based business? The sense of community that we get from our customers and the other female-based business owners is incredible. It’s hard to beat the positive energy you soak up from being around so many beautiful and inspiring people! What is one thing that you would like everyone to know about Whooha Gear? Amy and I started WHOOHA Gear as best friends. In spite - or maybe because - of all these years and challenges of being in business together, we still remain best friends!!! Amen. :) WHOOHA It’s only fitting that we introduce our blog by explaining how in the “heck” we came up with our name! Here is the “clean cut” version of developing the WHOOHA name (we will save the less clean version for another post…or maybe just leave it to your imagination!!!) So you might ask..."What is in a Name?" We at WHOOHA Gear would have to say A LOT!
Let us begin at the beginning... WHOOHA started in the deserts of Las Vegas when two women, Amy and Julie, met while doing what they love, mountain biking. They soon became fast friends and through encouragement and coaxing (or should we say peer pressure) began pursuing many other activities like running, road biking, triathlons. Over the years, while spending time with their families and surviving the twists on the road of life, they continued to try new activities and adventures. They became an inspiration to each other and to themselves and learned that this inspiration greatly affected their outlook on life. This outlook included having optimistic objectives and a healthy attitude. It became apparent that it was one of the most important attributes to a happy life. Julie and Amy worked together to create WHOOHA Gear in order to share this message and now WHOOHA strives to inspire women to inspire themselves. Afterall, it is this inspiration that helps to create... Women Having Optimistic Objectives & Healthy Attitudes And that my friends is "What is in OUR Name!" PLAY HARD - TAKE CHANCES - KEEP SMILIN' Until Next Time, WHOOHA |
WHOOHA GearWe are two women who have been friends for many years. Over these years - through relationships, loss, raising families (canine and/or human), sports, activities and more - we have become an inspiration to each other as well as to ourselves. We have learned that this inspiration greatly affects our outlook on life. This outlook includes having optimistic objectives and a healthy attitude and it quickly became apparent to us that it is one of the most important attributes to a happy life. Archives
June 2016
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