Skirt Culture

Skirt Story

Welcome to SkirtSports, home of the original fitness skirt, created by women for women.

Run in a Skirt. Ride in a Skirt. Play tennis, golf, rollerblade, ice-skate, shop or go on a blind date in a Skirt. Cross the finish line of your 100th (or first!) triathlon in a Skirt. You really can do anything in our Skirts. Try it today - make the transition and Convert to Skirt!

SkirtSports, a smart, sassy, and edgy company begun by professional triathlete, Nicole DeBoom, encourages fun and fitness and feeling good about living. Nicole began the company with an idea that would allow women to never have to sacrifice femininity for performance in their workout clothes. But, little did Nicole know that what she envisioned in late 2003 would change how women look, feel, and view themselves.

Meet Head Skirt, Nicole DeBoom

Nicole DeBoom grew up in the Chicago suburbs and started swimming competitively at the ripe-ol' age of 5. By high school Nicole was running and swimming in national competitions. She qualified for the 1988 Olympic Swimming Trials in the 100m breaststroke, and shortly after, headed to Yale, where she swam varsity and wrote her senior thesis in sociology on problems women have with body imaging.

Always one to put passion ahead of parental pressure, Nicole parlayed her expensive Ivy League diploma into a career as a swim coach, instilling on others what she had learned through her athletic experiences, and meanwhile dabbling in triathlons. In November 1995, she met her husband, Tim DeBoom (2001 & 2002 Hawaii Ironman World Champion) on an airplane en route to her first World Championship as an amateur.

Nicole's triathlon career was a remarkable and quick climb to the upper echelon of elite racers. She made her pro triathlon debut in 1999 by competing in the US Triathlon Series. In 2000, she competed in her first Ironman distance event (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.3 mile marathon run), finishing third in the California Ironman and 12th at the Hawaii Ironman World Championship.

Since 2002, Nicole focused mainly on short distance triathlon racing, including first-place wins in major events in Boulder, Colo., Memphis, Tenn., and Chicago.

How It All Began

On a training run in December 2003, Nicole jogged along, desperately wishing for a little inspiration to help her through what felt like her millionth workout of her triathlon career. As she glanced at her reflection in a store window, she realized something was missing. It wasn't the performance in her apparel. It was the attitude. Her apparel had no sass! When she got home, she immediately scribbled the word "Pretty!" on a piece of scratch paper, hereby taking the historic first step toward what is now the culture of SkirtSports, a company that lives by the idea that fun and fitness is a lifestyle choice that nurtures confidence and happiness.

Just nine months later, in September 2004, Nicole had taken her idea and run with it. She made a return to Ironman racing and won Ironman Wisconsin, wearing the first-ever prototype of her next great passion; a home-sewn tamale-red running Skirt. Her sole reaction to her top career performance was, "I finally feel like myself."

As women clamored for their own fitness Skirts, it was obvious that it was time to change the face of women's fitness apparel once and for all.

The Skirt Revolution

In 2005, SkirtSports, Inc was founded, and Skirts flew off the shelves, selling out by mid-season, to runners, cyclists, triathletes, tennis players, and fashionistas, and the Skirt buzz grew. In two short years, 50,000 women around the world have Converted their bodies and minds to Skirt. Further, SkirtSports has made national and international headlines, grown from an online catalog to include national and international retail sales and large-scale events, and gained the respect and admiration of women from all walks (or runs) of life.

Nicole's desire to create a world where women feel good about themselves derived from a lifelong passion for coaching and sharing the life tools she had learned through fitness, and also realizing the all-around enrichment that comes from looking good and feeling good about one's body image. But Nicole never could have imaged that the Skirt Revolution would inspire women around the world and touch so many lives in the way it has. Skirt fans, Skirt Ambassadors, the Skirt Entourage, and general Skirt Converts are all part of the Skirt culture that has changed the way women look and feel, not only when they workout, but in their all-around lives.

Notes like, "My Skirt changed the way I choose to live my life. It gave me the confidence to exercise and to be myself, and in-turn transformed me into a better person" give Nicole and the SkirtSports team the support and confidence used to grow the company and culture, taking Skirt to new heights with each season, and spreading the Skirt word so that more and more women discover the power that comes from Skirt.