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 :-)

]]> http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/fan-wednesday-contest-heres-how-to-win-free-take-flight-gear/feed/ 0 http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/a-warriors-story-by-stefan-hinkelmann/ http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/a-warriors-story-by-stefan-hinkelmann/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 16:02:32 +0000 Take Flight http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/?p=5568 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.

]]> http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/a-warriors-story-by-stefan-hinkelmann/feed/ 5 http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/parkour-pants-now-in-youth-sizes/ http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/parkour-pants-now-in-youth-sizes/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 14:59:10 +0000 Take Flight http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/?p=5560 You guys have been asking us for literally years and the wait is now over. We’ve officially launched our pants in youth sizes :-)

Our three most popular pants are the Original Parkour Pants, the Take Flight Parkour Pants, and the Run Free Pants. We have just released all three in youth sizes, Small, Medium, and Large. That corresponds to sizes 6-8, 10-12, and 14-16, and we also have a nice new size chart which displays the dimensions as well (see below)

All of these pants are now available in youth sizes! And they are as low as $21. You can’t beat that :-)

Not only are our youth pants as comfortable and functional as our adult pants but we have one other added benefit as well. We have them on reduced pricing. Kids pants are discounted to as low as $21!!

If you’ve been waiting for our youth size clothing, the wait is now over. At least for pants. T-shirts will be on the way soon…. we hope :-) Supply is limited on the youth sizes, so get yours while they are in stock!

Take Flight.

Click for a larger size so you can see the details. This chart is also available on all our pants pages.

]]> http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/parkour-pants-now-in-youth-sizes/feed/ 0 http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/thetake-flight-billboard/ http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/thetake-flight-billboard/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 15:38:28 +0000 Take Flight http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/?p=5550 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.

In celebration of Mr. Belle’s very special birthday day we are doing two things:

#1. All day long we are posting rare David Belle photos, videos, and content through our Facebook page. Stay tuned for that!

#2. We are going to have a one day 40% OFF sale. Seems fitting, right? So here you go:

• Coupon code: Belle40
• Discount: 40% on select tees including… all David Belle Line Tees, Simply Traceur Tee, Parkour DNA Tee, Parkour Limitless Tee, Roof Jump Tee, PK Jumper Tee, and the Trace Your Path Tee.
• Dates: April 29, 2013 (ONE DAY ONLY)

It’s the least we can do for the founder of Parkour. We hope our postings and sale adds a little bit of joy to your Monday and helps you remember how special this day is :-)

Take Flight.

Happy 40th Birthday to the founder of Parkour – David Belle.

These items are on discounted pre-sale until Friday! If you love the design then pick it up before then when the price jumps 25%.

Our newest creation. On sale now for $16 get it before Friday when the price jumps to $20.

Our newest creation as well. Get these on sale for $29 before Friday when the price will jump to $35!

]]> http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/run-free-tee-and-pants/feed/ 0 http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-parkour-for-the-uninitiated/ http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-parkour-for-the-uninitiated/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:25:31 +0000 Take Flight http://www.takeflightapparel.com/blog/?p=5520 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.

One of the great attractions about Parkour is that there is no need for specialist clothing or equipment. All that is really required are a pair of comfortable trainers and some slightly loose fitting clothing. Being relatively fit is also going to be an asset, as is being slightly adventurous. Even so, it is recommended that new comers to the discipline join a local group in order to acquire some basic skills such as learning to break a fall before trying anything too difficult.

As with any sport or discipline, there are some common misconceptions that are best cleared up. The main one of these is that Parkour is the same as Freerunning. Keen proponents of both disciplines will passionately deny that it is the same thing, although Freerunning is an offshoot of Parkour. The main differences between the two are that Traceurs (as practitioners of Parkour are known) have a focus on moving forwards and avoid moving backwards, as well as incorporating efficiency and practicality. Freerunners on the other hand happily move both forwards and backwards, and have an emphasis on flair and style.

Another misconception is that Parkour is purely an urban sport. Whilst it is true that most people who practice the discipline will do so in gyms, parks or abandoned buildings, this is only the case because most people are based in cities. Parkour was developed in the outdoors and forest environments as much as it was in urban city areas.

As a discipline, Parkour is growing in popularity thanks to a number of documentaries and films featuring it. Perhaps the most famous documentaries to feature Parkour are Jump London and Jump Britain which featured Sebastien Foucan and Jerome Ben Aoues. These two DVD’s should definitely be seen by anybody intending to take it up. After the documentaries were released, a series of films also then featured elements of Parkour in them such as Casino Royale and the Prince of Persia. David Belle himself acted as choreographer for the Parkour scenes in the latter.

Parkour may not be the most popular discipline in the world, but its practitioners are devoted, eager, keen and focused. It offers a great sense of community, and like-minded people around the world are discovering that it is a means to both physical and mental self-improvement, that has applications far beyond the running and jumping itself.

______________________

Richard McMunn is a writer for How2become; a leading career and recruitment specialist for public sector careers. For the last 8 years How2become has helped numerous people prepare for and pass tough recruitment processes and assessment centres in order to secure their dream job. You can also connect with How2become on Google Plus.

#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!

Here is how you can get featured on our page:

1. Post your Parkour photo or video on our Facebook wall. Make sure to specify it’s for Fan day so we know :-)
2. We will repost the photo or video with a shout out to you

The only requirement for your photo or video to be posted by us is that Take Flight must be featured in some way.

• If it’s a photo then you can either take a photo of you in Take Flight clothing OR you can edit in the Take Flight logo, Flight Man, or just the words “Jump. Fly. Dream” or “Take Flight.”
• If it’s a video then you either need to be wearing Take Flight at some point in the video or you have to have the Take Flight intro/outro on the video.

Below are a few examples.

Michael Young posted this on our wall. He’s wearing the Simply Movement Tee. That qualifies so we’ll repost it.

Bob Reese made us this photo. He isn’t wearing clothing from Take Flight, but he edited in the verbage and that is good enough for us. Consider this posted!

 Aleksey Savin made this video BEFORE he was sponsored by us. Forget how awesome the video is – the fact that it has the intro and outro makes this something we would post.

As this tradition grows we may add new rules, but for now it’s pretty simple. Post your photos or videos showing you taking flight in Take Flight and we’ll post them up and give you a shout out. We call it spreading the love Take Flight style.

P.S. Our first rule modification. We are going to end every Fan Day Wednesday with a giveaway. It seems like the right way to end it.

**If you’ve made it this far, leave us a comment! We love hearing from you and we’ll reply back :-)**

• Comfortable. You’ll figure this out the first time you put them on.
• Roomy. Lots of room in these. Especially at size Large and larger.
• Mobile/Flexible. In short, they won’t restrict your movement. Clearly this is super important so we made sure we have it.
• Durable. They won’t tear and they will last for more washes than you probably care to count.
• Big pockets. Our old pants had small pockets. We improved them and now they are just the right size.
• And best of all, they are on sale at only $29-$34, they won’t break your pocket book
• We like to say, “Everything a Traceur needs, nothing they don’t.”
  

  Click this image to pick up your Parkour Pants for as low as $29. Don’t ask us how we make them for such a great value. We don’t even know. It probably has to do with our “Stand for Parkour” and not-for-profit mindset. But don’t tell Uncle Sam that.

We’re so convinced you’ll like our pants, that if you buy them and you don’t think they were worth the price, then we’ll give you a 100% refund including shipping costs. It’s all part of our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.

Throw up your Flight Man post. Or just Take Flight.

*Please leave us a comment! Especially if you already have a pair of our pants, we’d love to hear your feedback :-)*