Originally published at: Team Zoot Has One Major Rule: Be Cool. - Slowtwitch News
These days, it seems like every age group triathlete is an “ambassador” for some product or brand, from nutrition to apparel.
And this is a good thing: it fosters connection between athletes and niche endurance sports companies.
But it seems like some ambassador teams come and go, making a big splash for a year or two before fading into the ether.
Not Team Zoot.
Since 2008, Team Zoot has been hard to miss at triathlons across the nation and the globe. Their flashy kits and cacophony of cheers for each other make quite the statement at both local and IRONMAN-branded races.
Now, with more than 5,000 members globally, Zoot Marketing Director Mark Goddard walks us through what makes Team Zoot so enduring and so special.
Get to Know Team Zoot
ST: What is the background of Team Zoot? How did it come to be?
MG: So the team was actually started in 2008, and it was an elite team. It was called the Zoot Ultra Team, and it was for age groupers who were trying to go pro – at one point we even sponsored Beth McKenzie.
But eventually we knew we wanted to expand the team to be more of an ambassador team for all levels, and that’s when I took over team management duties in 2014. At that time, we had about 300 age groupers under the Team Zoot umbrella.
Today, we operate as one team, but we have about 20 team captains spread around the U.S. who help on a local level with the team and organize group rides and meetups and events.
As we started growing the team, we’re really thinking about how the best part of being on an ambassador team, especially from a brand ambassador team, is the built in support on race day.
And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to expand the team in a major way. Just like any business, we keep needing new people to get this triathlon foot in order for us to survive and grow, white at the same time wanting to provide a supportive space for age groupers to connect and train and race together. The goal of our team and why we want it so big is so that people can connect organically with each other within the same team and become friends, training partners, all that kind of stuff.
Today, we have 5,000 team members in the U.S. and about 1,000 members across Europe.
ST: Who is the “typical” athlete on Team Zoot?
MG: We’re not one thing. We’re not a team trying to dominate in Kona every year, we’re not a team just for women or just for men. We’re truly for everybody. We launched a para division of our team this past year, too.
We do have a lot of fast people on the team, but we also have a lot of people who are doing triathlon just for fun without concern for time or placement. But that’s the thing – everyone on the team has to be here for the fun.
We only have two real rules on the team: be cool and don’t be a prick, and wear the team kit for racing.
ST: What are some of the perks of being on Team Zoot?
MG: First, I think there are a lot of misconceptions about Team Zoot. Many people think this is just a money-making opportunity for Zoot. And yeah, of course it is to some extent. We are indeed a business.
However, we don’t charge a membership fee to be on Team Zoot. We own our own factory, which means we own our supply chain. This means we can offer a 40% discount on all our Zoot apparel to our team members, and we have some great partnerships with brands like Quintana Roo, Rudy Project, Garmin, and Hed Wheels.
We don’t require our team members to buy products from our team partners. You can use the equipment you want to use. We do pass everything down to the team member – Zoot does not make any money when a Team Zoot member purchases from a team sponsor.
And because we are such a big team, we often get free IRONMAN-branded race entries to give out to team members throughout the season, too.
ST: Anything else we should know about Team Zoot?
MG: My favorite thing about the team is the people and the friendships that I’ve made from people that I meet once at a team event and then see them again the next year. As big as Team Zoot is, it can be as personal as you want it to be.
We don’t ask people to be on social media. There is no requirement to post a certain number of times a month. If you think something about the team is cool, post about it and share it with friends. But we want that to happen organically, not because we’ve required you to post about it.
Truly, the two rules of Team Zoot are: be cool and race in the Team Zoot kit.
ST: How can people apply to be on 2025 Team Zoot?
MG: Applications are open from September 7 through September 22 on the Team Zoot website.