Take Flight

Just in time for Spring, the newest PK Thermal has been added to the Take Flight apparel line. Keeping with tradition, the simple yet bold design, of the “PK” and the Take Flight Flight Man combined into one, remains. Obviously, we could not keep the gray print for the gray shirt, so instead we have a strong black print that really stands out on the gray thermals.

Our PK Thermals are not just a long sleeve tee, they are a specially woven 100% cotton fabric, providing a contoured fit that will keep you warm yet being breathable and not constricting movement. They are durable enough for any form of training, but comfortable enough to be your favorite pajamas. A thermal is a perfect addition to any Tacueur’s wardrobe.

-We are on the verge of announcing our newest editions to the Take Flight team of sponsored Traceurs (the Take Flight Street Team). The decisions that have been made were difficult, and as such Adam wanted to personally address the entire Parkour community regarding them.-

At Take Flight we have always been focused on spreading Parkour by David Belle and on making everyone new and old to the discipline feel welcomed and encouraged to train and pursue their dreams within Parkour and beyond. Building the Take Flight Street Team is one of the methods we have implemented to further this pursuit via supporting a select group of international Traceurs who both represent Parkour and David’s vision for the discipline through their training, outlook and personal endeavors. Unfortunately the downside to selecting a team is having passionate and skilled Traceurs apply for the team who are not selected. This is the part that burdens me, which is why I have decided to publicly address it.

This year we had hundreds of applicants to the Take Flight Street Team and we will only be extending a handful of invitations. Each new TF team member that receives an invite was selected for unique reasons, and each has his own personality, skill set, and personal story that we feel represents Parkour and Take Flight in a very special way. For this reason, we do not have a specific “Why not?” for every Traceur that was not given an invitation. However, I can confidentially say that the Traceurs who were not invited were all extremely heartfelt, skillful, hardworking, and inspiring, and I could not be prouder of how far Parkour has come in the last few years to see such a strong contingent of passionate Traceurs around the globe.

No one talks about Parkour quite like David, and I’d like to emphasize one of my favorite quotes from him. It not only speaks volumes about who he is, but it also speaks volumes about Parkour. David says:

There is no stronger or weaker. You are strong in the moment that you go right to the end for the cause you are defending.

Parkour isn’t about winning. It’s not about being better than someone else. It’s not about one-uping others, or being cool, or being recognized. Parkour is, as it has always been for me and David, a personal pursuit that is focused and routed in self-improvement. The Take Flight Street Team epitomizes those that have found this path for themselves by allowing them to join directly with us in spreading the discipline around the world. But all of us in the community are a part of this larger goal, and we become stronger when we are all together.

The true purpose of the Take Flight Street Team is to bring the worldwide Parkour community together and point us in a common direction – that being to spread Parkour worldwide. Regardless of who is given an invitation to the team I hope that we can realize this vision and work towards it as a community of Traceurs striving for something bigger. The Take Flight Street Team is just a small part of the Parkour world and what we do at Take Flight. So if we can think beyond this, and strive for or bigger common goal then we will really have something. And you don’t have to be a Take Flight sponsored athlete to do that.

I look forward to the journey we all have in front of us in the Parkour community and beyond. Thank you again to everyone that applied to the team, and I look forward to working with you all to continue to expand and grow Parkour around the world.

Sincerely,

Adam Dunlap
Take Flight Founder & CEO

We are extremely excited to announce the newest member of the Take Flight Pro Team – Australian Traceur Shaun Wood.

If you don’t know Shaun Wood you probably haven’t been a part of the Parkour community very long. Shaun Wood has been one of the most well known and influential Traceurs in the world for several years. In addition to an impressive resume and undeniable ability, Shaun is a strong member of Sydney Parkour and he has performed for K-Swiss and traveled the globe for other Parkour events, meet-ups, and other gatherings.

Here is a video starring Shaun compiled from his recent trip to Thailand:

We are ecstatic to make Shuan a part of the Take Flight Pro Team, and look forward to supporting him through his career. You can learn more about Shaun by visiting his profile on Take Flight.

The 10,000 Facebook fan mark has been reached! We repeat, the 10,000 Facebook fan mark has been reached!

In less than a year 10,000 Traceurs from around the world have become fans of Take Flight on Facebook. We see this as a monumental achievement for Parkour globally and we couldn’t be happier to be bringing authentic Parkour wear to so many people around the world.

In return for your efforts, loyalty, excitement, and spreading the word about the page around Facebook we are having a huge sale as promised. The sale will be a no limits 25% OFF weekend event when everything in the TF store will be discounted by one quarter of its price. This will bring the price of Original Parkour Tees down to only $11, the price of Parkour Wings Tees and Vault Man Tees down to only $16, the Take Flight Gold Tee will be only $18.75, Original Parkour Pants will be only $24, and posters, DVDs, and other products down to similarly unbelievable and previously unseen prices!

We hope you take this time to celebrate with us and the momentum this time of milestone brings to worldwide Parkour. The details of the sale will be released right here on the Take Flight blog and also on our Facebook page so keep your ears open so you don’t miss out!

We have just launched two new t-shirts for female Traceurs! The two shirts are both versions of the Original Parkour Tee. One is the Pink Women’s Original Parkour Tee and the other is the Women’s Original Parkour Tee in white.

The pink and white versions of the Original Parkour Tee and made using our girls classic tee. They feature “Parkour” written down the right side of the shirt and are incredibly versatile and stylish tops for female Traceurs. What’s exceedingly special about these shirts is the color combos are “For Women Only” so to speak. We currently do not have a white or pink Original Parkour Tee for guys. It took us added effort to produce the new colors, but it was well worth it.

By way of our personal commitment and goal we are continuing to expand our Parkour clothing options for female Traceurs. Even though the number of male Traceurs far outnumber the number of female ones, the philosophy behind Parkour is that it is for everyone. And to us that means that whether there are 100,000 male Traceurs or just 100 female Traceurs, we are unwavering in our dedication to bringing all of them Parkour specific products to fit their needs. These two new shirts for girls are what it’s all about.

Week 20 and 21 closed and we’re still tracking the interaction totals on the Take Flight Facebook Fan page. The totals for these past two weeks were 496 and 573 interactions respectively.

The conquest for 1,000 interactions in a single week continues. With some new posting content to provide to the Parkour community, new Parkour apparel to be released this week, and a fan page that has recently exploded, we have high expectations that this week (#22) may be the one where we break through the roof and start giving away all that free Parkour clothing that our fans have been seeking for so long. Join our cause this week, and let’s see if we can make it!

This tee is up for grabs! Let's get 1,000 interactions so we can give it away!

Week 19 of the 1,000 Interaction Challenge has closed with 630 total interactions. Overall this is a lot of interactions but not enough for the 1,000 mark needed for us to give our free Parkour clothing to our fans.

Ferrari 630

Even though the Take Flight Facebook page has grown steadily over the past 4 months the interaction rate through our page hasn’t. Analysis of this trend had us looking for an explanation. To bring the problem into light, for example in week 8 we had 3,100 fans and experienced 864 interactions. Now in week 19 we have over 6,300 fans but only 630 interactions in the week.

Week 8 was an exceptional week when we had all the fans really working for the 1,000 mark which explains the high interaction total. But it’s still confusing to see a smaller total when we have more than twice the number of fans this week. Unfortunately this isn’t a consequence of fewer posts by us, it’s the cause of a Facebook control which limits how many times our posts show up in feeds! Even though we have 6,300 fans, our posts don’t appear to any more people than when we had 3,100 fans.

Even with more Take Flight fans Facebook controls the impressions and our posts are still seen by relatively the same amount of people. This is discouraging because it doesn’t allow us to share Parkour news, videos, and articles with as many people as we hoped. However we are working on new ways to share and bring this information and inspiration to people through Facebook so stay tuned. And in the meantime we are going to continue our commitment to bringing free Parkour clothing to Traceurs around the world through the 1,000 Interaction Challenge. Sooner or later we’ll make it, so keep interacting and keep spreading the Parkour news through Facebook and beyond!

Unisex for Men and Women!

Did you know we have Parkour Thermals for women?! We do! We released the original PK Thermal a month and a half ago in a unisex white and black version. We originally only put this item on the All Apparel page, but have recently expanded the same product to the Just for Women page as well to emphasize the thermal’s fit versatility and style for men and women.

With the PK Thermals now offered for women, the Take Flight Women’s clothing line is the most comprehensive in the world! In addition to the long sleeve thermals we also have tee shirts, sweatshirts, training pants, and yoga pants just for women. We have more clothing for women on the way too including a slew of more shirts, so stay updated to the Take Flight blog and the Take Flight Facebook Fan Page for all the details.

National Geographic Issue #608

The 1,000 Interaction Challenge continues as does our pursuit of 1,000 “Likes”, comments, and wall posts on our Facebook wall in a single week. We are super excited to reach this because when we do we are going to give away free Parkour clothing! This week completes the fourth month that this contest has been going on, and we officially logged 608 interactions this week.

What makes the 1,000 Interaction Challenge so great is that there is nothing you have to do to enter except be our fans and interact with the content we post through Facebook. Whether we reach the 1,000 interaction mark tomorrow, in one week, or in 3 months, the free PK apparel will be there when we do. Keep the interactions coming and keep spreading the word about Parkour through Facebook!

The 1,000 Interaction Challenge has been a very interesting promotion since day 1. In our quest to give away free Parkour clothing we’ve seen interaction totals on our Facebook page that were high and low. The past three weeks have demonstrated this fluctuation rather well with some of the largest varying interaction totals to date. Below are the totals for weeks 13, 14, and 15.

• Week 13: 609
• Week 14: 451
• Week 15: 276

What we have learned over the past 15 weeks is that some content we share lends itself better to actual interactions (“Likes” and comments) compared to other content. With that in mind we’ve also learned that our weekly interaction total is an inaccurate estimation of the influence our posts have had on our fans. It turns out that even though only 276 interactions took place in week 15, we had more than 1,500 people visit to our page in that time! The contrast is shown: what seemed like a small number of interactions in week 15 was actually a very successful week because of how many people were shown, introduced, and learned about Parkour through the Take Flight Facebook page.

As the Take Flight Facebook page continues to grow we’ll continue to provide Parkour videos, content, news, and inspirational quotes for all of our fans and followers. With thousands of people watching the videos we post every month, and reading about Parkour because of the content we share, we couldn’t be prouder than to have such interactions totals, even if they vary widely from week to week.