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About Us
We are pleased to interview Nicolas Chase, professional triathlete and founder of Real Tri Squad, an innovative organization that supports and finances triathletes to help them reach their full potential. Over the years, RTS has grown to become an influential player in the North American triathlon scene, and around the world. Today, RTS is taking a new step with a promising collaboration with Cadomotus. Together, they aim to revolutionize the triathlete experience.
What is Real Tri Squad?
Real Tri Squad started roughly 5 years ago as a passion project, with myself and a couple other professional triathletes. I wanted to take the bull by the horns and create a structure that could support and pay a select group of athletes: If we can net zero their cost for racing with product, travel, bonuses, and a salary, then we’re giving these athletes opportunity to be the best they can. I think that's something a lot of us really need if we're going to make a mark.
We train just as hard as anybody, we live this lifestyle thoroughly, we promote it, we love it, we try to grow it… And every year, as pro athletes, we either have to go back with our agent or revalidate a one or two-year agreement. So, I was thinking: what if I built a community, an organization with a turn-key package, which collaborates with big partners offering marketing opportunities of all levels?
We started the project during COVID as just a podcast. Now this podcast has hundreds of thousands of downloads a year, we have influencers with over a million followers who are part of the RTS community, and we're capturing a lot of our racing, our behind-the-scenes on YouTube, to share what it's like to be real, to be really vulnerable, really authentic, and really live this lifestyle with all the ups and downs.
Challenge Championship Vlog with Pro Triathletes Marc & Nick
IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder Race Pro Athlete Race VLOG
We have a team of 8 funded pro athletes, and we have RTS X, which is like RTS expansion, with pro triathletes who started later in life and still have a full-time job, or rookie pro athletes who are trying to make a name for themselves.
And we've also branched out: I've coached athletes for 13 years or so, and started EndureAll Coaching, which is kind of a partnership under the Real Tri Squad umbrella. We now have this massive community, with thousands of people around the world, and a lot of partners who have come on board, and given us funding with which we can pay professional athletes for bonuses and travel.
Our main goal is to make sure we can provide a growth opportunity that is measurable for pro athletes. Right now, you can just decide to become a pro athlete based on your country’s regulatory licensing, and then you're thrown to the wolves. You either have to have good social media, or really good results, or both. You've got to have a little flair, just like any professional sport. So, if we can help athletes develop, give them skills, tax advice, business prowess, and then a platform to market themselves and grow, then I think that's what this sport needs.
That's the inception, and why we are who we are, and we're still figuring out a lot of things. We’re a pro athlete owned company that I own and manage. We have investors, social media, we've got a lot of teamwork behind us, but the hardest part is still maintaining funding to generate our own income. That's the next phase of this whole project.
What influence does Real Tri Squad have on the U.S. market?
Through the podcast, YouTube, and mostly our pro athletes, we do have a really strong voice within the sport. We spread a message of growth and progression throughout the North American market (Canada and the USA), and we have our coached athletes who spread it around the world too.
The last two years, we were also heavily involved with Super League. Most race organizations know who we are. We usually have athletes on most major podiums, and I think that's really why we have credibility.
We try to put ourselves in a position where we’re relevant, so that we can provide top-notch service, advice, and information. We would not promote a brand, a product, or a relationship that we weren't actually absolutely fanatic about, and seen returns and growth. We're very choosy!
We have performance and we have fun, we have the best knowledge and networking, and we represent brands who are of the best caliber.
How do you select your partners?
I typically end up having at least some level of relationship with the CEO, marketing manager or otherwise, over the course of months or a year, before we make these partnerships concrete, mainly because I want to make sure most of these companies are innovating.
I try to avoid partnerships that are not based on factual market data. I try to make sure that our athletes, which are some of the best athletes in the world, have the best aerodynamics, the best clothing, the best nutrition products, the best bikes…
So, when we do pick a partner, it's because they've specialized in the field of highest level of quality and performance, and there's nothing in between. Like Cadomotus, who is making shoes designed specifically for triathletes—while most other shoe companies tend to put that on the back burner because the market is quite small, and they’d rather focus on the general public, who just need shoes for their spin class or their commuter bike.
What Cadomotus is doing, it’s the aerodynamic design, it's the longevity of the product, it's the constant innovation of an engineer who saw a problem and wanted to fix it. And that's exactly what I'm doing too: if I see a hole in the market or in the industry, and if I can do something to fix it, then that's what I'm all about.
So I want to support companies like Codomotus, Enve, Precision Hydration, Zoot and Bisaddle, who make the highest-end products that you find on world champion bodies, and who support them year round.
Nicolas gets his shoes custom fit at Challenge Roth
What made you reach out to Cadomotus?
The main reason was because I had seen a similar shoe product with another company, that didn’t turn out to be very easy to work with, costumer service wise, and they didn’t seem to be boosting their e-commerce much or developing further products to make other innovations. Cadomotus on the other hand, has luggage and helmets and 30 years of speed skating experience—an impressive background! So, when I see a company who's advertising, putting their shoes on world champions, and making sure that their products shine, I'm like “All right, this must be a good opportunity to get to know these folks.” I wanted to get to know Cadomotus to begin with, because it seems that the quality of their website, their products, the athletes riding them all shined in my eyes as products that we should look into.
What were your thoughts after meeting Diederik at Challenge Roth, in early July?
With Diederik, we made plans to meet in Roth for him to fit me himself, so we had a good shoe to take home. Then I mentioned to him that I would like to try to help with the US distribution, and that I might have an opportunity with one of our other partners, that might be interested in selling additional products. We’re investigating possibilities!
What is your feedback on the Cadomotus shoes?
I took two weeks off, so I didn't have the opportunity to try them until a week ago, when I started to train on my triathlon bike again. And the comfort was absolutely what I was hoping for. The heat molding process made zero points of annoying contact, and, really, once you have a shoe that fits that well, all you want to do is just keep it looking really pretty. That's the hardest thing! I was like “I may need to have a training pair and a race pair, because they look so good, they fit so well.” It was really impressive that they just are like a glove on your foot.
How do you see the future of your collaboration with Cadomotus?
It's not a really viable opportunity for Diederik, if all we're doing is wearing the product, and Cadomotus can't build the brand outside of just their internals. If I can help impact sales and get Cadomotus in front of more people with me being a distributor in the US, that's massive for the brand. Hopefully, it works out. We're waiting to hear what the products are, the buys, the resale points. I think we can start small, and hopefully Cadomotus shoes can be soon distributed on the US market.
In conclusion, this new collaboration between Real Tri Squad and Cadomotus marks a promising turning point for both partners. Together, they share the same vision: to push back the limits of performance while remaining true to their values of quality and innovation. This partnership represents much more than just a tactical alliance - it's a true synergy to make triathlon shine on the international stage!
