Hi there! I’m new to the forum and have been on TR for about 7-8 months. I’m currently a Skratch Labs ambassador and I love representing a brand I trust and support. I was wondering if there’s ever been talk of a TrainerRoad ambassador team? @Nate_Pearson or @chad ? I’d love to sing your praises here in Oregon!
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I think you become an ambassador for TR by default?
There is no need for them to go looking and wasting their money when everyone is a fan of the TR brand.
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One option is to use the referrals you earn, and share them with locals or online friends, so they can try TR free for 30 days.
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I don’t think of it that way, but I get your point. However, I only know 2-3 people in my sphere who use it. At least in my town, another platform is king. I’d love to spread the word (unpaid), and a coordinated ambassador program could help. 
Thanks Chad. I have so many zwift friends that seem uninterested in leaving their game. But maybe I can bring a few to the dark side. 
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Im already an unrepentant TR shill to most of the people I ride with XD Would love to have some other way to rep them though whatever that might be.
Basically I just want them to bring back the TR kit from Jakroo.
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Amen! Haha. I’d totally buy the kit undiscounted. I <3 TR.
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I believe Nate mentioned on a podcast episode that they had tried some work with influencers early on with TR, and he left the experience with a really bad taste in his mouth. Although not the same as an ambassador, they’re similar enough that I would suspect his response would echo the notion of that experience.
That said, I would 100% buy some TR kit to rep on the road, but I don’t think they’ll do it again because everybody said they’d buy it the last time and nobody bought the kit when it was available. They discussed this on the podcast recently too about how they’d want to control the quality of the kit, and that selling hard goods is very different than software from a logistics standpoint (warehouse space, inventory management, distribution, shipping, etc.).
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Quite a few high quality kit suppliers who can handle all that for you. E.g. NoPinz and Jakroo offer a club store where people order their kit directly on an on demand basis so you’re not having to deal with coordinating minimum orders, having stock sitting around, etc. Would assume that this could include an extra margin for TR to either cover their costs and/or donate to their favourite charity. Could be other reasons for not wanting to go down this route of course. But there have been huge improvements in the last few years in terms of the quality and consistency of custom kit and the slickness of ordering it.
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Will TR stipulate a minimum w/kg to buy the kit so we’re not a bad advert? 
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I’m not into the idea of TR merch, it’s not a lifestyle brand like many others that push ambassadors and merch. There is something nice about the get faster, get on with your life approach.
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I don’t want my friends to get faster so I keep trainerroad a secret. 
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I am a brand ambassador as well with other brands. However, I would also consider myself brand ambassador with TR by default. I’ve convinced several cyclists of all disciplines to join without the benefit of any discounted rates or free merch. Early on, Nate did have one of the crew send me a care package, but it sounds like those merch perks are only being offered at events now (totally get that). As the company has developed and grown in the last few years, the leadership team has tried to stay true to mission. As Nate once said, “Focus on the main thing.” (or something of the sort). I personally would approve of bringing back the TR kit (I bought the speed suit), however, I also do not fault the team for making these merch and kit decisions if it clearly did not fit within their overall goals for company.
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Without getting paid being given free stuff what is it you’d be after as an official brand ambassador?
I’ll echo the comment above on the whole “influencer” thing, and an ambassador program would be somewhat similar, I’m sure there would have to agreements on conditions to be an ambassador and then they’d have to dedicate someone to oversight, I’m sure the return on such things isn’t all that great.
The club I race with actually had TR on our kits as a sponsor in a prior year and I think we’d get a free month code in the past. I’m not deeply involved with sponsorship stuff so I don’t know if the club didn’t pursue more sponsorship or TR isn’t doing it anymore, but based on the number of people I see actually using TR from my club, I wouldn’t say that TR was getting a ton out of that sponsorship. I think that’s the general thing in cycling: sponsorships/influencing/ambassadors/whatever don’t really have a great return on investment
Thanks all for your feedback! Obviously I wasn’t around during the kit days etc. I just wondered if such a thing existed. I hadn’t thought of the overhead involved; that makes sense for sure.
As for the watts/kg minimum, that would rule me out immediately anyway.
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One could argue that very much makes it a “lifestyle brand”.
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I totally get the ambivalence from the TR crew on an ambassador team.
But, i’d love to buy just a bit of merch: Baseball hat, Tshirt, bottles, etc.
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When I pass people on steep climbs or when I drop people I often yell TrainerRoad MFers or a few other choice words. But TRAINERROAD is always mentioned. It is kind of a form of ambassadorship. Not sure it is one TR wants…
Yes, I know, it is so little of me. Yet, I enjoy it every year!
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Pactimo also offers a “team store.” Team DIRT on Zwift opens it up every couple of months. I haven’t bought anything through it yet but people seem to be pleased.
Anyway, there might be several options whereby TR doesn’t have to directly handle orders, storage, shipping, etc, which I recall was one of the chief complaints from the original team kit. I personally don’t have the time to coordinate something like that but @Nate_Pearson might be willing to consider it if someone approach him with all of the details worked out. I think he’d be supportive if it resulted in minimal “non-core work” for the TR staff but allowed users to get a quality kit to represent.
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