Yesterday morning, I drove to Kerrie‘s house bright and early to drive together to Reebok headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts for an all-day focus group followed by a CrossFit workout.
On our drive to Canton, we took a quick pit stop at Marylou’s (obviously). I went with a decaf Peanut Butter Wonderful with milk, no sugar, and light on the mocha. I sound so high-maintenance typing that and, of course, saying it in person when I order it, but it’s the BEST way to enjoy a Peanut Butter Wonderful!
At Reebok, we started the day with a welcome breakfast and a brief overview of the brand. After that, we spent about an hour learning about the new line of Reebok footwear for spring and fall 2014 and providing our feedback on it. We talked about everything from style, color, and design to price and where you’d mostly likely shop for specific shoes, workouts you’d wear them for and even the positioning of the Reebok logo on some of the shoes. It was really cool being part of this process!
The next focus group session was a shopping experience in the Reebok FitHub inside headquarters. (The store is an exact replica minus the registers and actually being able to buy things there. It’s only for internal use.) Each of us had the opportunity to shop the store and pick out an outfit. Once everyone made their decisions, we each explained why we picked what we did while providing feedback to the Reebok folks. This was really fun, and I enjoyed sharing my opinions about the new Reebok gear.
After the morning sessions, we ate lunch and then participated in a competitor and Reebok favorite outfits exercise. Reebok asked everyone to bring (or wear) their favorite Reebok outfit as well as their favorite outfit from a competitor brand. I thought it was really great that Reebok wanted us to share this type of information with them, and I could tell they took what we said into serious consideration””there was a lot of note-taking!
After the focus group sessions, we headed to Reebok CrossFit ONE for a workout! Yay!
Our workout started with a warm-up on the Reebok Spartan Race obstacle course. Hello!
We completed all sorts of fun obstacles in order to warm up our bodies””climbing across walls, up and over huge barriers, and along various logs using our balance the best we could.
credit: Kelly Olexa
credit: Kelly Olexa
And then it was time for the workout, which was “Jackie,” a CrossFit benchmark workout.
“Jackie”
1000 meter row
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
30 pull-ups
Our coaches for the day demonstrated how to perform each of the exercises (rowing, Thrusters, pull-ups) as well as their modifications and then we had a chance to practice them before we started the workout.
We had a 10-minute time cap on “Jackie,” so I didn’t finish, but I came close! Even still, it was a fun way to end the day!
The group!
Quick pic with Gina before we said goodbye! It was so nice to see her!
Speaking of CrossFit, here’s one of the videos I made with Sarah last week. I’m awkward and say a bunch of weird things, but Murphy totally makes the video with a number of appearances! Haha!
Cook Smarts Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who entered the Cook Smarts giveaway! Here’s your winner:
Katy
Time! As in I don’t have enough! I’m a teacher and leave the house by 6:15, I always stay after to get stuff done and when I get home we usually have an hour before I take my kids to one of their 7 million activities! I need meal planning help because with my lack of time I need to be efficient when I get back home!
Congrats, Katy! Please email me at tina@carrotsncake.com to claim your prize.
Question of the Day
Have you ever participated in a focus group? What was it for?
P.S. Check out my Pumpkin Recipe Roundup over on the Wayfair blog!
