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Hey-Hey Newsletter supporters!
This newsletter is a doozy, and a little different than the norm. Usually, I’m giving you a quick recap of the latest website posts and YouTube videos, but you can see the thumbnails below of what Ray’s posted lately. I’ve got a lot to get through today, so I’m gonna occupy both the above and below the folds this time!
The top half of this newsletter will still be of the recap sort, but it will be from my perspective of the DC Rainmaker Summer Open House. For the second half of the newsletter, “In-Depth Thoughts of the Girl”, I will be filling you in on my big job I’ve been working on all spring! This is something I’m super proud of and stand behind, and we really hope is of interest to you as well. So please be sure to keep scrollin’ to the bottom.
So, first up, the DCR summer event. Getting the DC Rainmaker Open House up and running usually takes about a month or two of slow-burn organization, plus a dead sprint at the end to pull it all off. As with any event, there are many balls to keep in the air, and inevitably some of those balls fall down and break, and some balls just get swapped for new ones. Somehow, each time we host these events I find myself as the ring leader in the middle of all the action, so I thought it might be fun for you to hear it from my side.
As this is Open House #8 now, I feel like I am pretty good at getting this show up and running. The first thing on my list this go around was knocking on the door of the companies we have created partnerships with. One thing we like to do at the open houses is to give out prizes to the supporters who have managed to make the migration to our office for the parties. This event might have had our biggest giveaway yet.
Huge props and thank you to CIOVITA, Precision Fuel & Hydration, and Ass Magic for coming in big for us this summer event. With well over €3000 in prizes and goody bags given out, everyone left happy!
As with each DCR Open House weekend, we always kick off with an activity. It’s always fun for out-of-towners to get a small tour of the city. We decided on a group run again this year, and started out from our favorite running store here in Amsterdam, All4Running. Our awesome contact there, Herman and the team, helped us host another great morning 10km run! Huge thank you to them for hosting us now for the 5th time!
Next up was the food and drinks. I can’t call myself a successful hostess if our guests leave hungry! This summer we paired up again with a local brewmaster, who also happens to be a good friend, Pete. Pete runs a community-supported brewery, Brouwerij Beetje, and he created a custom Wheat beer for us this summer, “Sweet Baby Ray”- it was perfecto!
Staying within the beer vein, we were doing our part to cut down on single-use products and had our DC Rainmaker beer glasses available again this year! Next time you can come too and pick up your custom glass!
As with any successful event, I can’t completely do this as a one-lady show. Over the past 8 open houses, I’ve slowly learned that accepting help is an okay thing to do! And so many of you show up, come straight to the back (the Gondola Bar is in the back!), and say “What can I do?”. Often people are given small tasks like “Can you find Ray and tell him to check his phone!”, or “Can you just check if the chicken wings need a refill?”
This year I reached out to some of our closest friends and took them up on the offers to help in advance! While I had Pete running the kegs for me this summer, I still needed another bar back. So one of my best friends here in Europe stepped right up to the role, thanks B! Not to be forgotten her other half, Julio, who received a late-night iMessage with just this picture accompanied by a message of “I’m only buying this if you’re game”…
His response was akin to “If you can get me a better knife this time, I’m your man”. It was just that easy.
While I’m usually running the show in the back of the cave, I need a trusty hand at the door! Tom here, another bestie of ours here in AMS stepped up and was happy to have great weather and tasty beer. Tom was the greeter at the door, signed guests in, AND was in charge of the very coveted raffle tickets upon entry! I'm not sure we've ever had a friendlier face to welcome our guests!
We also had Shane of GPLama and his better half, Von, running around in general keeping an eye on things and chatting it up with all the guests! Shane would later pop up on stage with Ray for the annual Q&A!
Usually, the night starts to wrap after everyone’s had their chance to toss out questions to Ray and Shane, and we’ve given out the final giveaways. If you weren’t so lucky as to have a lucky ticket this year, you still didn’t go home empty-handed! We had goody bags for every guest, sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration & Ass Magic, as well CIOVITA had cycling socks plus a really cool discount code for everyone… which I’ll talk a little bit more about down below!
I would be amiss if I didn’t give my oldest little Peanut a shout-out here as well. She saw that I was assembling 180+ goody bags after school one day, and she really wanted to help. So, I can no longer take all the credit for the goody bags, as I did have a little helper this go around and she was actually really quite efficient at it too!
So, I hope that gives you a little insight into what goes into pulling off the DCR Open Houses. I’m sure I’ve skipped a few steps, but I thought you might find these ones interesting. Surely Ray will put out more nuanced piece about the evening, so stay tuned for that.
Now, keep on scrollin’ for the big news of what I’ve been working away on all spring! |
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In-Depth Thoughts of the Girl:
It’s been a long time coming since we revamped the DC Rainmaker Kits and apparel! But this wasn’t something we wanted to rush, and we wanted to find just the right partner to make it happen. As you all know, with Ray, he’s not going to put his name on something he’s not 100% happy with. And while we don’t, and never will, review clothing and apparel, you have to imagine this brand, CIOVITA has our stamp of approval.
Early on in 2024, we were approached by CIOVITA, a South African brand with Italian quality and style, about a potential partnership. To be honest, we hadn’t heard of them before, so we did some digging (and turns out, Ray actually had a cycling jerseys from various companies made by CIOVITA). We came to understand how embedded in their community they were, focusing all of their manufacturing right there in Cape Town, and supporting major cycling events like Cape Epic. Basically, from the conception of a product to the final stitch, the work is done locally. As well, something that Ray and I found really interesting and important was their focus on sustainable shipping and packaging. The final win for us was just how invested they seemed in supporting us, and working together with us to make great products for the people who support DC Rainmaker. This company was checking a lot of boxes that we liked.
So after a little research period, we decided to give it a go, and at least get some of their product in hand for real-world use! All winter long, with several different Jersey and Bib styles in the wardrobe, Ray and I were putting their gear through its paces. CIOVITA even sent me up a triathlon racing suit to give a whirl this spring in my races.
We are about 8 months into wearing exclusively CIOVITA cycling gear, and even the tech running tee and still, there isn’t a complaint to be made… except maybe I just spend too much time on their website online shopping! The quality of the materials they use is just SO nice, we couldn’t be happier with both the summer weather gear. Of course, because this is the Netherlands… we also wear long sleeves in the summer and their cool spring weather lineup didn’t disappoint.
Now the time has come to officially let you guys in on our big announcement. We have our own “Collections page" on the CIOVITA website and you can head there right now and support the website by buying any of the kit that you like! No more Google forms / pre-orders, and wait 8 weeks for your stuff. This is a continuously refilled line of cycling apparel, that is shipped to your door straight away – anywhere in the world!
As we start to see what you folks like and want, we will expand the line. We can add winter gear, and even make some more color schemes as the year goes on. So keep an eye out for social media posts as we might “poll the audience” for colors or new gear to add. I would imagine we will even have a kit giveaway or two and other fun things as the year goes on!
So I really hope you like this first run of kits, you can probably tell that we surely do! It's definitely the most stylish coffee ride kit I've ever had!
Thanks so much for making it this far, and as always for being a DC Rainmaker Newsletter subscriber.
Cheers, Bobbie (& Ray) |
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