Human movement of every kind is athletic. Everyone, regardless of their ability, is an athlete underneath their clothes. The level of an individual’s athleticism has more to do with commitment, practice and effort than talent.
Underneath my clothes, I am an athlete. My name is Tyler Lussi. My brothers, Hunter and Morgan and I, have grown up in what many of our athletic and non-athletic family and friends call “an athletic family.” Actually, we have grown up with varying degrees of physical and learning disabilities like most family members, but our family created a Culture of ExcellenceTM that did not leave time to dwell on our shortcomings and failures. We were taught to see shortcomings and failures as the second step to success after the first step to success of trying. Through it all, being called and being known as an athlete was the single biggest self-confidence booster each day and inspired us to work hard, participate in athletic and non-athletic activities, gain and maintain self-confidence and enjoy life.
We wanted to create a clothing line that does more than just help you perform better during exercise and athletic events. We wanted to create a clothing line that inspires everyone, regardless of your size, shape, ability and physical condition to recognize that you are an athlete underneath your clothes, underneath your busy schedule, underneath your excuses and underneath your non-athletic habits.
We chose the name “Athlete UnderneathTM” so that our brand, worn on your body, waiting in your closet, stuffed in your travel or gym bag and/or worn by your friends and family members can become your personal 24/7 coach, reminder and “pride-instilling-shout-out” that gives you the self-confidence and self-respecting nudge to try to exercise and eat properly to some degree every day. Yes you will fail almost every time you try which is great because that means you have accomplished the first two steps toward success every day – trying (Step 1) and failing (Step 2). Eventually, if you keep trying and failing you will succeed because your failures are almost successes and by trying and failing you are making your body stronger and stronger. You are only failing because you have set the bar so high – no, don’t lower your expectations (Step 3) – just remember if you start to get discouraged, my over weight brother, Hunter, failed every day for 7 years to exercise enough to lose weight and on one day during the 7th year when he again failed to exercise enough to look and be as skinny as we were, he succeeded in becoming the World’s Youngest Ironman at 13 years old! Hunter was still chubby when he broke the world record, but that failure would take him another 7 years of trying to figure out how to be skinnier – that’s 14 years of failing! For Hunter looking skinny is an every day choice to be willing to change his eating habits because he certainly does enough exercise. Avoiding exercise and not eating properly has become a way of life for many Americans. Even if you were athletic when you were younger and now you seem to gain weight if someone near you eats, we want you to choose to be reminded and inspired everyday to be the athlete you are underneath your clothes and all of your valid and justifiable excuses.
Maybe you are like Hunter, who is now a world record holding professional triathlete, and who was an overweight child and teen. Even though he was bullied in school for being overweight, Hunter kept exercising and trying to eat properly, because around our house, Hunter was labeled an athlete.
About a third of American’s regularly use health clubs, gyms, fitness equipment and wearable technology to keep fit and exercise. These Americans see themselves as athletes. Their friends and families see them as athletic. Something inspires them daily to exercise enough to realize the long-term mental, physical and emotional benefits. In our house, we have each other providing daily positive peer pressure so we continue exercising and eating properly and studying and or working at our jobs.
We cannot follow you to school and to work and remind you that an athlete would walk instead of ride and take the stairs (just walking down the stairs at first) rather than the elevator whenever possible. We cannot be there at the end of a long work or school day, when you are tired or feel that you maybe too out of shape to go to the gym or too concerned to walk around your block after dinner when it gets dark because it may not be safe.
You can look online and easily find hundreds of exercises to burn thousands of calories while watching TV or catching up on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram without leaving your home. These exercises include leg lunges, let down pushups, let down pull-ups, crunches, leg raises, burpees and hundreds more.
What we can do is request that you not buy any of our clothing line unless you look at our brand as a reminder of the commitment you made when you read the warning label and agreed to the condition of purchase.
Warning: By wearing this article of clothing, you are telling the world and reminding yourself that underneath, you are an athlete.
We do not want nor expect you to enjoy every moment wearing these clothes because there is hard work to be done, self respect to be earned and pride to be realized with your commitment. We hope our clothing line will be there to remind you of the athlete you are and inspire you to try and fail thousands of times and eventually succeed a few times while everyone around you applauds your progress and successes and asks you, “How do you do so much?” Wearing our clothes is a bold statement that your Athlete UnderneathTM has been awakened, is self-confident and working hard to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.
Thank you for your courageous purchase, belief in and commitment to your Athlete UnderneathTM!
Tyler, Hunter and Morgan
Co-Founders
Athlete Underneath, LLC
