We recently had the privilege of speaking with Daniel van der Merwe, CEO of AnotherTri.com—a new marketplace for buying and selling new and used swim/bike/run equipment. We’d like to provide you with an exclusive sneak peek into this company’s innovative online retail concept.

Based out of Philadelphia, AnotherTri.com is being spearheaded by a group of five, including van der Merwe. About a month out from launching, the company’s primary goal is to not only change the way athletes buy and sell multisport equipment on the Internet, but to also help make the sport of triathlon more affordable for athletes of all ages and levels.

After spending some time learning about the company, we at AG can’t wait to see AnotherTri.com come to fruition.

Lowering the cost of entry for young triathletes

For years, triathlon’s demographic has been shifting. No longer is the sport limited to the wealthy c-level crowd. Today USAT demographics illustrate the demand for triathlon at the youth level (under 16). In fact, young people represent one of triathlon’s fastest-growing demographics. Additionally, 25% of USAT members are age 19 or younger, with another 36% under the age of 39. It is this younger demographic that AnotherTri.com hopes to capture with their unique sales platform.

AnotherTri.com basics

AnotherTri.com aims to connect its athlete buyers and sellers in an online environment similar to an eBay-type model. To clarify, AnotherTri.com will serve solely as a marketplace for transactions—not an individual retailer.

For buyers, the company also plans to offer a shopping rewards program that will provide cash or gift cards to spend on items for an athlete’s next race, such as apparel, equipment, or even race entry fees. While the shopping rewards program will not be available immediately upon the site’s launch, we’re very excited to begin taking advantage of perks like these in the future!

In addition to buyer rewards, we also liked AnotherTri.com’s intuitive shopping structure, which will allow athletes to sort and find products that match their specific experience levels and goals. The company also plans to offer complete triathlon packages similar to those available through Nitro and All3Sports.com to help entry-level triathletes get set up with the basics. These features will no doubt make the purchasing process a bit less intimidating for triathlon newbies.

According to van der Merwe, AnotherTri.com also plans to offer a seller pedigree and basic buyer protection structure similar to what you’re used to seeing on sites like eBay.

For sellers—both retailers and individuals alike—AnotherTri.com will provide free listings and will only charge a fixed 7% final value fee on items sold. Sellers are responsible for shipping all products, and currently all payments for sales will be solely credit card driven.

AnotherTri.com will also offer a partner network for retailers, which will direct customers by zip code to local, recommended shops for services like bike fittings. We think this will be a great way to support local businesses and help them connect with new customers.

And just like the shopping rewards program, AnotherTri.com also plans to offers special rewards for sellers. According to the company’s brochure, when your items sells, you will automatically entered in a monthly drawing for new gear giveaways, including bikes, helmets, apparel, and more. Who wouldn’t like that?

AnotherTri.com connects athletes with experts

We feel that one of the company’s biggest differentiators will be its ability to connect athletes of all levels to experts. According to van der Merwe, AnotherTri.com will provide its members with free professional advice and recommendations tailored to the specific athlete customer’s goals. This could include anything from professional training or coaching to advice on a bike fitting or other professional service. For us at AG, this is an especially appealing feature of AnotherTri.com. After all, no matter what level you are today, we all started as beginners. And when you’re new to the sport, quality advice can be worth more than gold.

Final takeaways

Overall, the AG crew genuinely loved AnotherTri.com’s online retail concept and can especially get behind the company’s goal to make the sport more affordable for the younger athlete. We can’t wait to take a spin around AnotherTri.com’s completed site soon, and of course we’ll be providing additional updates once it’s up and running.

In the meantime, we recommend heading over to AnotherTri.com for a chance to win a new bike. Just sign up to join their email list before April 30^th and you’ll be automatically entered to win. You can also find AnotherTri on Facebook and Twitter.