News Release
April 1, 2005
Contact: Nicole DeBoom, pro triathlete, owner,
SkirtSports, Inc., 970.749.0692, nicole@skirtsports.com

Skirts for workouts? Girly sports apparel line offers female jocks a pretty fit alternative

Professional triathlete Nicole DeBoom was having a crummy day. “So I did what I usually do,” she recalls. “I went running.” The run was restoring sanity to DeBoom’s day – until she caught sight of her reflection in a store window. “Damn, I look like a boy again,” she growled, followed by one of her almost daily laments. “Why can’t I look sexy when I work out? Why can’t I feel like an athlete and a woman?”

That reflection was the springboard for a fashion inspiration. DeBoom, winner of the 2004 Ironman Wisconsin and a former Yale swimmer, envisioned a skirt – for running, workouts, and beyond.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to give girls and women the chance to have very functional and performance-driven sportswear that’s still sexy, sporty and fun? No matter what level of athlete you are, we all want to look good while we’re working at looking and feeling better. I hear that all the time!”

This revelation spawned the TRIKS clothing line, launched this spring. TRIKS (skirt spelled backwards) styles include five skirts with matching tanks and tees – ranging from the more technical MarathonGirl with “spankies” sewn underneath, to the fun, casual PartyGirl. There are five styles in all:

1. The TransitionGirl, a mesh skirt for competition
2. The MarathonGirl, a running skirt with “spankies” sewn inside
3. The GymGirl, with mesh “shorties” sewn inside
4. The SchoolGirl, a plaid pleated skirt for fashionistas
5. The PartyGirl, a skirt that can go from beach to nightclub

(NOTE: Product details, including fabrics and colors, are described on attached Product Description Sheets)

TRIKS apparel debuts in April 2005 online and at stores across the country. Skirt prices will range from $40–$70; the tees and tanks from $25–$40.

In creating the TRIKS line, DeBoom was looking for an alternative to bun-hugger tights, “Which if you ask me, promote eating disorders and terrible body image problems,” DeBoom said. As a senior at Yale, DeBoom wrote her thesis on female athletes and body image disorders. Now, even as a buff triathlete, DeBoom still finds herself cruelly at odds with her behind (too big, she frets) and her upper thighs (way too big, she worries). The war with her body is only made worse by the apparel on the market. Skirts, on the other hand, make every woman look beautiful. “Believe me,” DeBoom said. “I've studied this and lived it all. It's definitely close to my heart.”

DeBoom drew from her background in professional sports and called upon her friends, both elite athletes and weekend warriors, for product testing, ultimately creating a line of fitness skirts and founding her company, SkirtSports, Inc.

DeBoom has long been a fan of a poly/lycra blend, wearing only this combo in her daily training and frequent competitions. She knew what lines would flatter, how to position seams and if and where to put pockets. The result: An ultra versatile, high performance, feminine balance that is nowhere else to be found in the glutted sports apparel market. TRIKS clothing can be worn in marathons, triathlons, during gym workouts, etc. They can be worn from gym to grocery store, beach to barbecue.

DeBoom, 33, is a native of Chicago who now lives and trains in Lyons, Colo. She breezed across the 2004 Ironman Wisconsin finish line wearing a TRIKS transition skirt, and used the first-place prize purse to launch SkirtSports, Inc.

“The goal of SkirtSports is to promote fun in fitness,” says DeBoom, “TRIKS apparel is the first endeavor under the SkirtSports umbrella. I hope to inspire women to include fitness in their lives everyday, by helping them feel beautiful while they are exercising, not only when they are finished.”

So who will wear TRIKS apparel? A Skirt woman, DeBoom says, “is someone who does it all. She’s in control of her life. She decides her destiny. She’s empowered. She’s strong. She’s smart. She’s sexy from inside. She’s not afraid to be noticed. She’s confident, but not cocky. She’s a superhero, an everyday superhero.”