Take Flight

We are extremely excited to announce that our international shipping rates have officially been reduced! Actually, they have not only been reduced, they have been more than cut in half! This is something we have been working towards for months and we so happy to finally be able to offer these lower shipping rates to international Traceurs.

With our new international shipping rates now in effect Traceurs can buy Parkour clothing regardless of their global location without having to pay steep shipping costs. In fact, these changes (done in partnership with the United States Postal Service) are so good that on an order placed from England for two medium PK t-shirts, the shipping cost is about the same as that same order placed from California! The trick is that we actually loose money on the shipping costs on most international orders. Meaning: what you, as a non-U.S. based customer, will pay for shipping when you checkout with your order is actually less than what we’ll pay for the direct shipping cost to send it to you.

Ultimately, we believe and stand behind this change even with the added effort and cost on our end. We received countless emails from Traceurs in England and around the world regarding the standard USPS shipping rates, and we made it a point to work with them to get the rates reduced for the benefit of the international Parkour community.

*The one thing that the shipping cost does not cover is tax. If your home government decided to put a VAT (value added tax) on your import, this will not be covered.

The All Over Parkour Tee is the last of 6 features we are doing on the six brand new tees in our 2010 Parkour clothing line. Different from anything we’ve ever made (or seen for that matter) this Parkour tee is one of a kind.

The All Over Parkour Tee was created to fill one gaping hole in the world of Parkour clothing: the all over Parkour print. Every shirt ever made for Parkour up until now, even going back as far to the those produced by La Releve, were made with designs only covering part of the shirt. For reasons both obvious and inexplicable we wanted to expand the precedent by producing the first ever Parkour design to cover the entire shirt. The result is the All Over Parkour Tee.

With Parkour written in quite literally every corner of the front of this shirt, the All Over Parkour Tee is in a class all its own. No other shirt says Parkour so fully. The added design component behind this tee was another input directly from Take Flight  founder Adam Dunlap. To raise curiosity and make the shirt that much more noticeable, we replaced the first “r” in “Parkour” with the Take Flight Flight Man. The result is the immediately recognizable world known “Parkour” with an added edge and twist that makes it that much more iconic.

We are extremely proud to have the All Over Parkour Tee in our 2010 line, both for its significance in the world of Parkour clothing and for its authenticity and classic clean urban touch. As such we have released it in more colors than any other tee in the launch – that is 5 to be exact and those colors are Royal Blue, Red, Purple, Yellow and Orange. In spite of the added considerable cost to produce an all over shirt, we are holding the line at only $19.95 for this tee which you can pick up in the Take Flight store now. We will also be giving one of these away later today, so stay connected to our Facebook page for all the details.

Day 5 of 6 is here, and as promised we are continuing our in depth look at the design of the Take Flight 2010 Parkour Clothing Line. Today we are looking at, and giving away, the Lisses France Tee.

The Lisses France Tee is a design that takes us and the entire international Parkour community back to the roots of Parkour. Every Traceur knows the images of Lisses that so prominently populate David Belle’s videos and have since become the most sought after Parkour location for training in the world. With such a reverence for the small Parisian suburb from where Parkour was founded, we decided to dedicate an entire design to the location.

The result of our Lisses France quest is the Lisses France Tee. Boldly showcasing the location of the establishment of Parkour in a clean urban design, this tee could quite arguably be named The Original Parkour Tee in and of itself for its dedication to Parkour and historic authenticity.

Encapsulated by an outline of France herself, and with Take Flight written below the shirts prominent text, this tee combines the roots of Parkour with the worldwide following of its official clothing company Take Flight. The inspirational Flight Man placed at the bottom adds the movement edge and drives home the tone and focus of Parkour as not just a philosophy, ideal, or a discipline from which are created cool videos, but rather a movement based discipline that ever challenges practitioners to improve themselves and become strong.

There has never been a Parkour shirt with quite so much historic connection and reverence for Parkour than the Lisses France Tee. Two versions of the shirt are now available on our site (seen here), and we have another color combo in store for release here in September. Whether you choose to wait to see all three inaugural color schemes or pick one up now, this tee will surely be one that makes you proud to be a Traceur.

Today is day 4 of our feature highlighting of the Parkour shirts of the 2010 line! In addition to highlighting the Roof Jump Tee, we are giving one of them to a lucky fan. Read this blog and you’ll find out how!

In one short week the Roof Jump Tee has already distinguished itself as a Parkour classic. As incredible as anything we’ve ever seen, the admiration and desire for this tee has already been endless. And although one can speculate why, we don’t think it needs much explanation why. The tee itself is in the same conceptual style as the Vault Man Tee, and depicts a Traceur in action performing a breathtaking roof jump between two old houses in a village in France. The detail, the texture, and the word “Parkour” conspicuously placed near the bottom of the tee culminates in an inspirational masterpiece that melds style and pure art.

Although we want to make it very clear that we do not condone or encourage jumping from rooftops, the point stands that jumping from rooftops can be a part of Parkour and has been demonstrated in countless amateur and professional Parkour videos. What we created with this shirt was not something to say, “Go be like this Traceur and jump from a roof of a building.” Rather we created a shirt that depicts Parkour at an elite level and capture the beauty of the discipline at its finest. We couldn’t be happier with the result, and we are so happy Traceurs around the world feel the same.

You can pick up a Roof Jump Tee now via our online store for only $19.95. We currently have the tee in a blue on black color scheme and a black on silver color scheme, and we will be releasing a new color combo in about a week. If you want a chance to win one of these for free though, simply visit the Take Flight Facebook page. Later today we will be posting a chance for you to win, and when we do all you have to do is read the post and follow the simple directions and you will be entered to win.

Check out the transcript from the David Belle interview “I Jump from Rooftop to Rooftop,” by clicking here.

Day three of our highlight of the 2010 Parkour Clothing line is here, and today we are focusing on the PK Splat Tee!

The PK Splat Tee has already distinguished itself as one of the favorite designs from the new launch both because of its design and its color combos. The tee is simple and yet bold, highlighting Parkour with its underground initials. The tee features a giant “PK” written across the chest in a textureized and urban roman font, and has an additional design component made up of subtle splotches that bring added effects and urban feel to the tee.

We don’t have much to say about this tee in terms of the conceptual design or the developmental process. The concept design for this tee and the inaugural color schemes actually came directly from Take Flight founder Adam Dunlap who had a very specific idea for the shirt from the beginning. Suffice to say, that given the origins of the tee’s design, the final result is a true and authentic Parkour tee that every Traceur can be proud to wear.

We are giving one of these PK Splat Tees away today on our Facebook page. If you’d like a chance to win all you’ll have to do is comment on the contest post we make! If you don’t win, you can also pick one up from our store for only $19.95.

We are spending six days this week highlighting a tee from our new line and giving them away too! Today we are highlighting The Original Parkour Tee II.

One of the most exciting designs we have released in our 2010 launch is The Original Parkour Tee II. Simple, eloquent, and urban, this tee was designed to provide new twist on the classic and wildly popular original, Original Parkour Tee.

The design process was complicated although focused. To start we knew we wanted to stay with the original, but broad, right aligned “Parkour” concept as we created for the original Original Parkour Tee. But we also knew we needed to add a new edge and flare to the design. The result was the decision to divide “Parkour” into three parts. “Par” being the first syllable of “Parkour” provided the obvious first break, and for artistic and visual appeal we decided to break the discipline 3 letters after leaving the second line of “KOU.” That left us one letter (“R”) for the third, and to finish off the design we added the Take Flight Flight Man as the punctuation to reflect how movement that punctuates the discipline.

What we love about this tee is it simple and yet not simple. It’s not a complex piece of art such as the Roof Jump Tee, but in its seeming simplicity it is quite complex. In its design it reflects the essence of Parkour simplicity and usefulness, but the depth behind the tee created by the coordination of the letters and the logo gives it a much deeper meaning than 7 letters could under other circumstances represent. Traceurs see this shirt and say, “Parkour!”, but other people see the shirt and question. The letters are intriguing. They invite people in to ask what the shirt is and what it means.

Ultimately The Original Parkour Tee II is Parkour is every sense; simple, urban, and captivating. There is enough style in this tee that you will be noticed wherever you go, but enough clean urban edge that you won’t be out of place anywhere. The added benefit of looking this good, will be lots of curiosity and lots of opportunities to share Parkour.

We have released four versions of this tee, and we are saving a fifth we are saving for release sometime next week. Up until then you can get the four released colors at a promotional sale price of only $14.95! And if you want to win this shirt for free, stay clued in to our Facebook page where we’ll be giving one away to a lucky fan later today.

We will be spending each of the next 6 days highlighting a tee from our new line! Each day we highlight a tee, we’ll be giving one of them away as well, via the Take Flight Facebook page. Today we are highlighting the Take Flight JFD Tee.

The Take Flight JFD Tee was one of the most highly requested design concepts we received after we launched out 2009 International line and we were more than eager to oblige. People have loved the Take Flight Logo Tees since their launch years ago, but what we never had was a tee that said “Jump Fly Dream,” on it. With the hole in the line we received specific requests for it, and the Take Flight JFD Tee is the culmination of us listening to the requests of Traceurs worldwide. Surprising even to us, the tee turned out to be one of the best looking tees in the 2010 line.

With a name and slogan based print, the Take Flight JFD Tee was intended to be both urban and inspirational. Anyone can put words on a shirt, but we wanted the words to jump off the tee in an eye catching fashion. But this wasn’t easy. We also wanted to make sure we did it right because our slogan “Jump. Fly. Dream.” is something we and Traceurs around the globe live by. Not only does the phrase represent Parkour in every sense of the physical performance, mental training, and philosophy, it is furthermore a call to action that people identify with in every language. It’s not a superficial “Why not?” catchphrase, or a simple and subsequently shallow “Move” motto, it’s a deep routed encouraging mantra that catches the ear and inspires the spirit.

Once the design concept was approved, we moved on the designing stage. Firstly, we wanted the design to be big to show the magnitude of the slogan and motivational force behind the words. Secondly, we knew the placement had to be right to achieve the impact we wanted. After working with different designs, the chest crossing location was chosen and with it the design size. We then worked with effects to achieve our urban flare. Lastly, for the finishing touches we chose the inaugural colors of this tee to be deep colors to reflect “strong mind – strong spirit” including charcoal, cardinal, and purple. The effect is that the black semi sinks into the tee and the white pops off the shirt brilliantly providing an eye catching and captivating effect.

This tee looks brilliant on our site, but it’s even better in person. And to celebrate our 2010 line and this new addition to our selection of Take Flight Logo Tees, the Take Flight JFD shirt is on sale for only $14.95 (regularly $19.95). If you’d like a chance to win one for free, you can also head over to our Facebook page for the opportunity which we will be posting later today!

Nothing says Parkour like the Parkour Wings Tee, and you could win it this week!

Our fans our amazing! Week 31 just wrapped with a total of 1,185 Interactions!

With 1,000+ interactions we are, as routine, giving away more clothing! This week we are giving away an Army Parkour Wings Tee. With that said we have a question for everyone: Do you think we should continue the 1,000 Interaction Challenge?

This is the 8^th week in a row that we’re accomplished 1,000 Interactions. At this point it is become a routine. Our thoughts are to raise the interaction total to 2,000. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

This week’s Take Flight #1 Fan is Stephen Laster!

Stephen Laster was a shoe-in for our fan of the week! He is dedicated Traceur from Denton, Texas, and he has been a Take Flight fan since the beginning sporting Parkour clothing at countless meet-ups and training events. Stephen has been doing Parkour for years and is an active member of Take Flight partner community Texas Parkour, and a team member off budding Parkour performance team PK O.U.T. Below are a few pictures of Stephen in action in his Take Flight clothing.

Stephen Laster in his Original Parkour Tee.

Stephen Laster in his Vault Man Tee.

If you’d like to become the Take Flight Fan of the Week read more about how to be considered by clicking here!

It is here! It is here! It is here! We honestly aren’t sure who’s more excited, you or us, but suffice to say that more than just a little buzz has been created over our most recent Facebook announcement: this coming Thursday, August 26, 2010, we will be launching the Take Flight 2010 Parkour clothing line!

The new line has been in the works for more than 6 months, and we are finally ready to release in globally. Designed specifically for Traceurs we have worked hard to make sure this line does more than a few things five of which are listed below:

#1. Provide a durable, comfortable, and breathable clothing line for Traceurs to train in.
#2. Provide bold and fashionable designs that are Parkour authentic which Traceurs are proud to wear while training and during casual wear.
#3. Provide a diverse look of clothing that appeals to Traceurs of all heights, skills, and styles.
#4. Stay true to Parkour.
#5. Keep Take Flight and point our fans and our customers to the roots of Parkour.

The new line will have 6 completely new designs with more color options than have ever been seen for Parkour clothing including a few other surprises such as an all over print, a roof jump design, and a very prominent reference to Parkour’s birthplace.

The one word we can use to describe this line is… well you may have guess it: Parkour! But this is even truer in this new line than in our previous ones. And as vague as that may seem right now, you’ll know exactly what we mean when the line drops in a week. In the meantime you can follow the build up by RSVPing the official Facebook Take Flight 2010 Parkour Clothing Launch event by clicking here. We’ll be giving away all sorts of prizes including clothing and posters in the days leading up to and the days following the launch so don’t miss out.