Perplexed? Intrigued? Curious? Maybe the answers to these frequently asked questions can make some sense of it all!
<h3>What is Believe I Am?</h3>
It's a business that is really more like a project: a work in progress that brings sports psychology concepts and pro athlete experience to other female athletes.
<h3>What is the role of Lauren Fleshman and Ro McGettigan in the Believe I Am project? Do they endorse it? Who runs the thing?</h3>
We, Lauren and Roisin, (AKA Lo and Ro) create and run Believe I Am. Well I guess we endorse it to, but what I mean is this is our baby. We've worked together over the phone from opposite ends of the country (OR and RI) for the past year, first brainstorming ideas, then trading artwork designs, refining and scrapping things and rehashing them and perfecting them. We sit in on screen printing and "women in business" lectures. We search far and wide for the best quality ethically made and flattering shirts, find local screen printers to work with, fumble through accounting software, hand wrap training journals and stick on shipping labels...its a small operation.
<h3>Who made the website?</h3>
Ann Gaffigan, a friend of ours from the track world (a USA Champion) runs her own web design company. She created a platform we could run with. Leave it to a kick butt business woman to empower other business women! Since then, design elements have been created by the ever-generous-with-his-time Myles Dumas, Ro's husband. He is also responsible for all the photography, and for digitizing all our designs so we can put them on stuff!
<h3>Who makes the designs?</h3>
We do! Lauren Fleshman and Ro McGettigan (Lo and Ro).
<h3>Are you ladies still competing?</h3>
Most definitely! We are in our athletic prime! Ro took a year off from competition to have a baby September 18th, 2011 and is going to make a comeback for the 2012 Irish Olympic Trials in the 3k Steeple chase. Lauren just finished 7th at the World Championships for the USA in September 2011 with six talented Kenyans and Ethiopians ahead of her, and has her sights set on London 2012 Olympics as well!
<h3>How do you come up with your designs?</h3>
We start by using our past and current athletic experiences to identify powerful words and statements that help our performance and confidence. Then we look to nature for inspiration to represent these words just right. In a lengthy process, we collaborate with cross-continental sketch sharing until we are SUPER pumped about the physical and emotional representation for the word. Then we re-work it until its perfect.
<h3>You're out of my size in my favorite design! What the heck?!</h3>
We operate more like an art gallery than a clothing company. We like to print our designs on ethically made, sustainable threads which means we work with small companies that have limited product availability. The result is a series of limited edition shirts that unfortunately run out!

But don't despair! We are no-doubt in the process of making the next edition of that same visual cue you desire. You can send an email to either lo@believeiam.com or ro@believeiam.com if you are dying to have something that we've run out of, and we'll let you know what's coming up next! Alternatively, you can follow us on facebook and twitter for new designs, join our email list or just stalk the website.
<h3>Lauren, why don't you print on Nike shirts (since you are sponsored by them)?</h3>
What we are doing at Believe I Am is pretty specific, and its unlike anything being done by any performance apparel company. Our t-shirts are really more like "tools" and are designed to improve performance of the mind (rather than focus on the body). I wear Nike for all my athletic wear, and have approached Nike about collaborating, but it didn't fit in with what they were doing at the time. Since they do have <a href="http://www.nikebiz.com/media/pr/2010/02/25_TeamKits.html" target="_blank">environmentally conscious</a> products, it might be a good fit in the future!
<h3>How do you decide where to buy your materials?</h3>
Ethically, we prioritize sustainability and the environment before buying any raw materials or making any products. When we do this, we pay more, but all of us get a product we can feel really good about and cherish for a long time. Quality over quantity is how we approach everything (from our running to how we do business).