Take Flight

Today we are going into our 4^th consecutive Fan Wednesday! Over the course of the last three weeks we’ve learned some things, and because of that learning we are now modifying our weekly contest. Here is the new setup and how you can enter and win.

Before…
The Fan Wednesday contest prior to this week was a unique post placed on our Facebook page that was separate from Fan Wednesday posts and entries.

Now…
The Fan Wednesday Contest will be done THROUGHOUT the day, and the winner will simply be the best fan post that day.

Here is how it works:

1. Post your Fan Wednesday posts on our Facebook page. Photo, video, artwork, poem, etc.
2. We will evaluate all the fan posts for creativity, artistry, quality, initial impression, and relevance.
3. The Fan Wednesday post we like the most will win the t-shirt of their choice (winner will be announced on Thursday).

All entries qualify the enterer to win, and multiple entries are accepted. All Parkour and Take Flight related entries are accepted, but specifically we are looking for Take Flight centered content including Take Flight art, photos of you in Take Flight gear, and videos of you in Take Flight gear.

So without future ado, let’s kick off Fan Wednesday. Thank you for your posts and good luck to everyone!

This was a fan entry from De’Andre Liggans. It would have definitely been in the running for the Fan Wednesday Prize. Just a note, the photo says “Parkour” but this would be freerunning :-)

Being a warrior is so much harder than most people think or understand. It’s not just training really hard or testing your limits with a big jump. It’s facing true challenge and true fear, and overcoming the circumstance.

Think of it this way: is the warrior someone how has trained their whole life in the art of fencing? Or is the warrior someone who goes out to the battlefield and comes back victorious?

Take Flight pro Stefan Hinkelmann from Germany is someone we consider to be a true warrior. Here is one story from him. Be inspired by this, but please don’t ever, ever, ever attempt what you are about to read.

The key is to have feelings and recognize them but still control them and control yourself. In that way you can overcome your inner-panic. And if you can breathe it away, that’s the moment of truth…that is the moment you “really” feel!! I once climbed up the Eiger Nothface. It’s one of the most dangerous walls in the world. I decided to do it alone, in the wintertime, and without a rope. I was a professional climber at the time and had trained for years, but it was still a crazy, crazy thing to do! I almost died because of my fear. I had panic-attacks, my body was shaking, and I was at the point countless times of giving up emotionally and mentally, and if I had given up even for a second I would have fallen and that would have been the end. But I controlled my fear and feelings and I pushed though. And then as I made it to the top I can not explain it… it was the most amazing feeling of my life! It was pure freedom like nothing I can put into words. Adrenalin helps you to overcome everything, but to get there is the pure hell. And if I hadn’t been able to control my feelings then I would have never made it. -Stefan Hinkelmann

We hope this story has inspired you NOT to go do something crazy or risk your life to prove yourself, but rather to search within and find your true spirit and nature and uncover what you are truly capable of.

Take Flight.

Click this image to connect with Stefan vis his Facebook page.

We have a new concept. It’s call the Take Flight Billboard.

It’s really simple. See that large timeline photo on our Facebook? Most companies use static pictures to advertise products. Us? Nah, we’re going to use it to promote messages and ideas. And get this; in billboard fashion it will always be changing.

Below are three of our billboards which you have already seen. You can expect a lot more of these as this will be updated frequently (we expect 2-3 times a week). Best of all, now you know where to go for the immediate Take Flight news and message. Checking out the billboard is now the must do for all Take Flight friends and followers.

Parkour is a non competitive training discipline that involves its practitioners (called Traceurs) moving as quickly and efficiently as possible through their surrounding environment. By maintaining as much momentum as they can, Traceurs negotiate obstacles in their path, by running, climbing, jumping, vaulting and rolling, depending on which method of movement may be the most suitable at any given time. Its purpose is to develop both physical and mental agility and strength, and in a similar fashion to some martial arts, there is an accompanying philosophy. This philosophy is one of self-improvement, overcoming limits, strength, altruism and community.

The founder of Parkour, David Belle, in Lisses, France.

Parkour is a relatively new discipline, and its origins can be traced back to its French founder David Belle. As a schoolboy, David grew up hearing stories about his father (Raymond Belle) about his father’s heroic exploits as a fire fighter in Paris. David also learned that his father, as the age of seven, had been sent to a military orphanage camp. In order to survive and avoid becoming a victim, Raymond trained longer and harder than everyone else, also devising his own courses from using the trees and areas around the camp. This period gave Raymond Belle an inner strength, determination and fearlessness which he took with him through life.

Through direct conversations with his father David was inspired and realized that he too wanted to begin training in this way, and so he did. Although David originally started training on his own, soon like-minded people began to be drawn in, and it slowly transformed from a personal journey to a fully-fledged discipline of its own with many followers. During this time, David changed the name from parcours to Parkour.

(continue reading…)

Today marks the second week of our Fan Wednesday – a day that we dedicate entirely to you guys, or fans and followers on Facebook! We learned some things about last week and we have some amendments. Here they are:

#1. Post your Parkour photo or video on our Facebook wall! Make sure to specify it’s for Fan day and we’ll repost it with a shout out to you!
#2. The only requirements to get reposted are:

• For photos, there are no requirements :-) BUT we encourage you to either be wearing Take Flight or to have Take Flight edited into the photo somehow. If you are not wearing Take Flight and if Take Flight is also not edited into the photo then we reserve the right to help you out and we’ll edit it in for you :-)
• For videos, we encourage you to be wearing Take Flight in them. If you are not wearing Take Flight then we ask you to put the Take Flight website link in the video description and mention something about us. The proper link that needs to be there is http://www.takeflightapparel.com with the “http://” that way it is actually a link.

#4.  We reserve the right to NOT repost your content. If it’s not “Parkour” or “Take Flight” focused then we probably won’t. Sorry, after all, that’s kind of the point :\ And most likely we also will not make more than one repost per person.  There are just too many of you!
#5. We are going to end every Fan Wednesday with a giveaway on our page so stay tuned for that!

With all that said, welcome to our second Fan Wednesday! It’s the 2^nd in many to come, so if you don’t have a photo or video for us to share today then send us something next week :-)

We are kicking off Fan Wedensday #2 with this photo from Callum Lewin!

One thing you should know about Take Flight: we are leading the way in professionalism in the Parkour world. In addition to amazing customer service, a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, and a great product that ships and arrives fast, we’ve recently redesigned our packaging to help take all that to next level. Two words: Custom Boxes.

From now on a large percentage of orders will be shipped in our “made for Take Flight” custom packaging. Here is a picture of what those boxes look like.

It depends on what you order, but from now on there is a very good chance that your Parkour clothing arrives at your doorstep looking like this.

Please note that our claim in ‘leading professionalism in the Parkour world’ is not to say that there aren’t other organization out there that are doing a great job. In fact, in general, we’ve found that most PK organizations do a fantastic job at being professional! What we’re saying is that we are setting an example for how a “pure to Parkour” organization, can also be a successful entity that brings Parkour into a context that makes it acceptable by the business world. We’ve been doing it for more than four years and we keep leading the way and finding new ways to innovate.

How does that help the Parkour world, you ask? It’s simple. It provides a sophisticated business/commercial entity which helps legitimize the movement. On a community level this may not seem important, but on the grander scale it’s vital. And maybe not today, but definitely at the latest in the next few years you will see the worldwide political and cultural influence that Take Flight has had on Parkour that will have helped the entire Parkour world and Traceurs everywhere. Our custom boxes are one more step in that direction. A small step for sure, but another step none the less. And isn’t that what Parkour is all about? Continual improvement? We think so :-)

All larger explanation aside, if nothing else and if we may say so ourselves, these boxes look pretty darn cool.

Time for the battle cry: Take Flight.

We are extremely pleased to announce the newest addition to the Take Flight team of athletes. This Traceur hails from our home town of Portland, Oregon, and she will be the first female to join our ranks as a permanent part of the Take Flight athlete team. Her name is Lisa Gytri.

Lisa Gytri wearing TF in front of Mt. Hood.

Lisa is a go getter that exemplifies all the qualities we look for in a Take Flight representative and athlete. She is hard working, passionate, and above all a positive and outgoing person. She is also amazingly talented and can do Parkour with the best of them :-)

Lisa Gytri is the first female Traceur to join Take Flight team, but she won’t be the last. We see Lisa as an inspiration to female practitioners everywhere and the first member in ushering in a new era and TF team which we plan to be filled with a very strong contingent of  female Traceurs helping us to spread the message of Parkour worldwide.

*Leave us a comment below and welcome Lisa to our team!*

We had our fun and we’re here to set the record straight. The logo change we announced yesterday? It was an April Fools joke. The logo has NOT been changed. We’re staying true to what we have and how far it has brought us.

That being said, one thing that was not a joke was the reference to the Take Flight shoes. Those are in the last stages of development and we hope to have them out this year.

In Parkour we always advance. The Flight Man faces that direction as a testament to that vision. We hope the change made you smile, because we don’t see that changing any time soon.

The true and original logo is back. Click it to join forces with the Flight Man.

We’ve thought long and hard about what the next evolution is at Take Flight, and we’ve decided to start from the ground up by switching up our logo. But not a lot. We’ve decided simply to inverse it.

The person behind the decision is Take Flight founder Adam Dunlap. When asked about the move his response was this:

I’ve been thinking about it for a long time now, and I felt something just wasn’t quite right. Then I saw the photo of Yann Masia in Abu Dhabi. He was doing a Flight Man pose but he was facing the other way. That’s when I knew that’s what we needed to do.

Yann Masia – The Tracuer behind the inspiration to change the Take Flight logo

At this point we have no plans to recall or redesign/reinvent our current designs. But rest assured that this new logo will be implemented on all new products including our new Take Flight shoes set to release later this year.

The Next Evolution of The Flight Man

We hope you love the new logo mod as much as we do! We’re looking forward to all that it stands for – as we call it, The Next Evolution.

**Please comment and let us know your thoughts about the logo change!**

Deciding what Take Flight shirt, pant, or hoodie to choose can be difficult. We have so many items that the choice can be overwhelming! Something that can make it even harder is deciding what size to get. So in order to make your purchasing experience and decision a little easier, we’ve decided to provide some really good sizing recommendations from three of the guys that wear Take Flight the most. Here it goes.

Name: Joey Adrian
Height: 5’4″ (163m)
Weight: 140 lbs (64kg)
Shirt Size: Medium fits me perfectly! Not tight, and not too baggy. I love training in this shirt size.
Pant Size: Again Medium is my size of choice. They fit very well around my waist. They are baggy enough to be comfortable and flowy without being too big to the point that they drag under my heels. Even if you have shorter legs a slight fold at the bottom works great to insure there is no drag.
Hoodie Size: Same as the others, I rock the Medium here as well! If you like the baggy look I would go a size higher. I haven’t tried the large out yet since the medium has felt great so far! Unlike many other hoodies I can actually train in these. Most others I feel held back by the bulk of them and have to take it off before training lol.

Joey Adrian with a biiiiiig precision. Sporting the Original Parkour Pants.

Name: Adam Dunlap
Height: 5′ 10″ (1.78m)
Weight: 155 lbs (70kg)
Shirt size: Medium is the best best fit for me, no doubt. Not baggy at all, and not too tight. I just make sure to hang dry them because if I dry it and the shirt shrink then it’s just slightly too small for me. But if that happens I wear it anyway. The Medium is the best either way.
Pants Size: I prefer Large but Medium is great as well. The Large is a little baggier which I like, but quite honestly I barely notice the difference between the two. Both sizes give me ample room to move and the drawstring tightens well, so even with a larger waist on the Large pants I barely notice the difference between them.
Hoodie Size: I like the Large hoodie! I originally thought I was a medium, but I tried one and it was too tight for me. I don’t like baggy hoodies, but I don’t want them to restrict my movement or my style. The large is perfect no doubt.

Adam Dunlap with a big jump and landing. Dunlap is wearing a Take Flight Hoodie and Tee. Photo credit goes to Raphael Estorga.

Name: Nathan Jones
Height: 6′ 0″ (1.83m)
Weight: 180 lbs (82kg)
Shirt size: I prefer large because it’s not too tight nor too baggy. It provides comfort and the image of flow which is ideal for any Traceur.
Pants Size: I like Large / Extra Large I prefer the baggy look! The pants work well for all seasons. They look good, feel good and are Parkour specific. What more could you ask for?
Hoodie Size: Extra Large is the perfect size for me. Great for all seasons and looks good when training or in videos. It gives a very underground vibe which personally suits me best.

Nathan Jones flips for Take Flight. Sporting a Parkour Hoodie.

**We hope this article has helped you :-) If you are here, please leave us a comment and give us any and all feedback. Thank you!**