About Us

The idea for Athletic Bean came on a rainy Saturday standing on a farm in Napier during a cross country running race. I was talking with one of the mothers about how her son had qualified for the World Triathlon Sprint Championship in Townsville, Australia.

I could see she was immensely proud of him but there was an issue with funding the travel involved for her son to chase his dream. Being farmers themselves she told me about the struggles for him finding pocket money jobs as he had no drivers license and they lived so remotely.  

We spoke about funding ideas like firewood, eggs from the farm (which I already purchase from them), washing cars etc etc. Nothing seem to stick.

Knowing her son and how much talent he has I found it frustrating that there wasn't support for him to go and test himself against the best in the world.

For me it felt like a 'sliding door' moment where he either gets on that train (a plane in this case), or stays back in the hope to catch the next one. What would he miss? How many other would-be-athletes were in this same situation where perhaps their flame went out too early without them getting to take their big shot?

In the coming days my brain was worked in over time when suddenly it occurred to me. It was 5:30am and I was doing my usual ritual of grinding a coffee while trying desperately not to wake the kids! In that moment of watching that deep dark roasted black goodness filter into my cup, I remember reading that 70% of Kiwi's drink at least one coffee a day with 23% consuming 3 or more...

If we could just take a fraction of profit from each cup of coffee we could fuel the lives of so many aspiring athletes to achieve their dreams. We could give them the vision and support and take their 'shot' while the flame was still bright. A coffee with vision.