A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDERS
Dear Friends of Castore
There has been a lot of communications from brands in recent weeks and neither of us are the types to speak unnecessarily. We have no desire to add to the glut of people looking to advise, guide or educate others through what is an unprecedented time and where the reality is, nobody quite knows how things are going to play out. That said, we know many people will be going through uncertainty whilst adjusting to a new normal and we did want to share what was on our minds - more importantly though, we want to thank all of you who continue to support Castore. We’ve said it before but the loyalty and passion of our customers genuinely amazes us and we honestly could not be more grateful. The most important thing all of us can do right now is stay safe.
There is clearly a huge amount of uncertainty in the world at the moment and in all likelihood things will get worse before they get better. As hard as it seems at the moment though, any entrepreneur is a natural optimist and despite the challenges ahead we are already focussing on the time when things improve and the world is back to its usual self and filled with opportunity. There are plenty of people standing ready to tell us all things have irreversibly changed for the worse – those people always revel in collective fear and misery and quite simply they are wrong.
As overused as the parallel has become – it is completely true that running a business is not unlike competing as an athlete.
You learn never to get too comfortable. As soon as you feel like things are under control, something inevitably brings you back to earth – COVID-19 is a bigger than average challenge but at Castore the mindset remains exactly the same as it always has. Work harder than our competitors, be more creative and approach every obstacle with optimism and a sense of opportunity. We always see tough times as a chance to succeed where others are not able to. Old fashioned maybe but its worked pretty well for us so far and we’re yet to find something better.
The best businesses, like the best athletes – are adaptable. And we want to make Castore a great business so we will adapt.
Our business has undoubtedly been hit – people have less need for high quality training kit if they can’t go to the gym and are confined to their homes. What is equally true however, is that training remains for many of us an imperative part of our new daily routines. Those who are competitive by nature (seemingly most of Castore’s customers) and who naturally love to train will not stop and do nothing – they are currently setting their own personal challenges and will be working with great intensity towards achieving and exceeding these in the coming weeks. It is for these individuals that we will keep Castore running as smoothly as possible for however long the current situation lasts.
Sometimes in life you get a sense that you’re part of something bigger than yourself and this feels like one such moment. As entrepreneurs entirely obsessed and engulfed in our own business, this has been a somewhat sobering reality – though not in the negative way you might expect. We all go through life and try and learn as much as we can along the way whilst remaining true to our core values. This situation will undoubtedly test us all but we will come out the other side of it and be better people for the experience.
Resilience, intelligence, creativity.
These are the attributes we have lived by since we started Castore and will continue to live by in lockdown and beyond. The Castore culture survives all and will survive this.
Until then, stay safe – and thank you for your ongoing support of Castore.
Better Never Stops
Tom & Phil Beahon
Castore co-founders