If you’ve ever played Ultimate Frisbee, you know that community is a huge part of the sport. It’s what pushed me to pick up a disc for the first time in high school and to play passionately through college and on into adulthood. 

It may surprise you to learn that that spirit of the game doesn’t just exist between players and teams — it’s also present between many of the companies that have made it their mission to serve the Ultimate community. Over the years, I’ve made connections with the owners of companies that are Savage’s direct competitors. We greet each other warmly at tournaments; we have each other’s numbers in our phones. Their company’s gain sometimes means Savage’s loss — and vice versa — but we recognize that it’s all for the greater good of our beloved sport.

This is why the idea of bringing together two of Ultimate’s biggest brands — and biggest competitors — seemed like the most natural move in the world. I’m thrilled to officially announce that Savage Apparel Co. and Five Ultimate, along with ARIA Discs, are now joined under the umbrella of XII Brands.

I’ve been a fan of Five since before Savage even existed — they’re one of Ultimate’s o.g. brands. I’ve worn their gear and admired their company culture. I’ve also gotten to know the five siblings that founded the company — Zahlen, Xtehn, Vehro, Rohre, and Qxhna. So when I reached out to them with an idea that would bring our businesses together, the conversation was open and productive from day one.

Let me assure you: Savage will always be Savage. Five will always be Five. And ARIA will always be ARIA. All of the current owners of Savage, Five, and ARIA remain key stakeholders in XII Brands. The key difference is, we are now working together as a team. We’re sharing resources, sharing ideas, and growing together for the betterment of our community.

I and the rest of the Savage crew will continue working out of our headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, serving the Ultimate community along with the other sports we’ve added to our roster in recent years, from disc golf and dodgeball to Spikeball, soccer, quidditch, and baseball. We will continue being a full-service company, designing and creating all of our products in-house, with a growing emphasis on our GreenLine of fabric made from 100% recycled bottles. I, along with Dan Lee and my brother Dan Curran, are the co-owners of Savage as well as co-owners of XII Brands.

Five is still based in Seattle, with the same sales/marketing team and designers you know and love. Their focus is and will always be Ultimate Frisbee. The Five siblings are still actively involved as well — and notably, they’re all part owners of XII Brands. We are all invested in the success of this venture.

The biggest change for Five is our goal to produce all U.S. orders domestically and with recycled fabric — at the XII headquarters in Richmond, Virginia — as opposed to overseas. This means a drastically reduced carbon footprint for all domestic orders. Five and Savage are both working with partners in Canada, France, and the Philippines to produce international orders, which will further reduce our collective carbon footprint. 

And let’s not forget ARIA, which brings a disc company under the XII fold. Created by Five’s founders in 2015, ARIA specializes in discs specifically formulated for playing Ultimate. ARIA operations will now be shared between Seattle and Richmond. With our newly expanded resources, we can proudly say that our goal is to take over the Ultimate disc market. If you haven’t been converted, you’ll be hearing from us soon.

The creation of XII Brands has been quietly in the works for over a year, and I’ll admit that it feels cathartic to finally share it with you. I’m sure you’ll have questions (check out the FAQs at XIIBrands.com for starters), and we’ll all work together to answer those in the coming weeks. But for now, I hope you’ll share in my excitement for this new partnership that I feel confident will bring good things for the communities we’ve made it our mission to serve. We can’t wait to show you what’s in store for the future.

Your Ultimate partner, 

Todd Curran, CEO of XII Brands

The first pull of the 2020 American Ultimate Disc League season is fast approaching, and we honestly can’t wait for April 4 to get here. Some major developments took place during the off-season, so we put together a quick breakdown of all the important news you might have missed out on while hibernating and/or frolicking in the snow. Be sure to check out our AUDL Partner Store, and keep reading to find out what’s new, what’s changed, and why 2020 is gearing up to be the best year ever for the AUDL. 

The AUDL is Getting New Uniforms and Going Green With Savage

In a groundbreaking partnership, Savage signed a three-year deal to become the official on-field apparel company of the AUDL, as well as the official apparel merchandise partner for the 2020-2022 seasons. 

What’s so great about that? For the first time in history, every team and every player in the AUDL will step onto the field wearing eco-friendly uniforms made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. Using Savage’s proprietary GreenLine fabric is just another big step in the AUDL’s commitment to being eco-conscious and reducing their carbon footprint. Other recent environmental efforts include the 50K Tree Planting Challenge, where the AUDL partnered with ForestPlanet to plant 20 trees for every fan through the gate during Championship Weekend, totaling 50,000 new trees planted. 

We’re thrilled to be working together toward reducing the environmental impact of Ultimate and bringing our new GreenLine fabric to the players and fans. The fabric is lightweight, sweat-wicking, antimicrobial, comfortable, and sublimation-friendly — plus it’s rated UPF 50+, the highest level of UV protection you can get from clothing. 

Switching over to GreenLine fabric is just part of why we’re so hyped about the uniforms this season. A whopping 14 teams will be debuting new and updated jersey designs this April. Montreal Royal, Austin Sol, NY Empire, Philadelphia Phoenix, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, DC Breeze, San Jose Spiders, Atlanta Hustle, Minnesota Windchill, Dallas Roughnecks, Tampa Bay Cannons, San Diego Growlers, Indianapolis AlleyCats, and Boston Glory will all be taking the field in brand-new jerseys, with the rest of the teams following suit in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. 

Savage’s design staff spent a great many hours working with these teams on the designs for their new kits, and we can’t wait to see them in action. Fans can purchase authentic replica team jerseys now on sale in our brand-new Savage AUDL Partner Store. Order by March 12 to have your gear on game day.

Be sure to follow Savage on Facebook and Instagram, because we’ll have even more AUDL products rolling out throughout the season in the Savage AUDL Partner Store.

Boston Glory Joins the AUDL

This year marks the first major expansion of the league since 2016, with the recent addition of Boston Glory, who will be joining the newly reconfigured East Division alongside the Montreal Royal, New York Empire, Ottawa Outlaws, and Toronto Rush. Boston is a city known for its passionate fans, top-tier athletes, and heated rivalries with NY teams, and we’re certain Glory will be no exception. 

The city has long been home to one of the best Ultimate communities in the world, and the Glory roster certainly includes some of Boston’s best, with plenty of handpicked locals who earned their spots through rigorous tryouts in the middle of a blizzard. Glory also scooped up some talented out-of-town players with early announcements last month that they had secured commitments from Tannor Johnson, Tyler Chan, and Henry Babcock.

While the bulk of the team is comprised of players making their first appearance in pro Ultimate, the Glory roster also includes four seasoned AUDL players: Maxwell Rick, Rusty Ingold-Smith, Davis Whitehead, and Brendan McCann, who played an incredibly impressive 2019 season with Minnesota Wind Chill, scoring the second-most points per game and showing off his effective D-line handling.

It’ll be interesting to see how all this amazing talent comes together and how the team matches up with the rest of the division, especially NY Empire. Boston-New York rivalries have long been notorious in the sports world, so we’re sure to see some major heat, intense gameplay, and certainly some smacktalk go down this season. On May 2, Empire and Glory will face off for the first time in history and we’ve already got our popcorn ready. Keep an eye on the Savage Blog for more on Boston Glory and why we’re so stoked to watch them play their first season.

We’ll See A New Division Structure and Welcome the New Atlantic Division

Not only are we welcoming a new team this season, but we’re also welcoming the new Atlantic Division. With Boston joining the league, there’s been some major reshuffling of division alignment and an entire new Atlantic Division has been formed. The South has been dissolved and Austin and Dallas have been shipped out West. The Dallas Roughnecks have made it to Championship Weekend every season since the team first joined the league in 2016, so they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with, and we’re curious to see if they can continue this streak and claim their spot as the best of the West. 

Raleigh, Atlanta, and Tampa have moved over to the new Atlantic, where they will be joined by Pittsburgh from the Midwest, DC and Philadelphia from the East, and Tampa from the South. These new divisions should make for some memorable games this season.

AUDL Signs Fox Sports 2 Deal

The AUDL recently announced that they’ve partnered up with Fox Sports 2 (FS2) for the next two years. This means that Fox will broadcast every AUDL Game of the Week throughout the 2020 and 2021 seasons — and that more people will be able to watch AUDL games than ever before. 

In 2018 and 2019, the AUDL’s Game of the Week partner was Stadium, and this new deal certainly is a major step up. FS2 reaches around 57 million homes each month compared to Stadium reaching around 25 million homes. Teaming up with a major sports network with a massive online following is a huge win, and hopefully, this expanded exposure will lead to an increase in people getting excited about and involved with this sport that we love so much. 

The AUDL Game of the Week program will air on Wednesday nights on FS2 throughout the 2020 season. The Game of the Week will also be streamed live on audl.tv and on the brand new AUDL Roku app that’s also slated to launch before the season starts. 

A new team, a new division, a new major broadcasting deal, and new eco-friendly uniforms featuring our exclusive eco-friendly GreenLine fabric are all huge changes for the 2020 AUDL season, and we couldn’t be more stoked for April 4. Stay tuned to the Savage Blog throughout the season for more AUDL coverage including interviews with Beau Kittredge, Khalif El-Salaam, Goose Helton, and more. 

Visit the AUDL Partner Store and get those orders in by March 12 to have your gear in time for game day!

When you’ve been in the custom team apparel game as long as we have, you start to get the same customer questions over and over… and over again. And we don’t mind answering them! Ordering custom jerseys for yourself or your team can feel like a big undertaking, and it’s bound to come with some uncertainty. But to keep things simple, and to give our sales reps a handy little landing page for directing ordering-related FAQs, we’ve put together this post with answers to their most common queries. (Be sure to check out our main FAQ page for even more answers.) We hope it’s helpful.

1. How long will it take to get my gear?

Well, that depends on what you’ve ordered. Here’s the basic breakdown.

• Regular online store items should ship out from our fulfillment center within 7-10 days. This includes Mystery Gear.
• Team Marketplace items will take longer to ship out according to the details provided in each item’s description. You can find this listed right at the top of every Team Marketplace page, along with the ordering deadlines.
• Other items that are produced on demand will also list a delivery timeline within the product description. 
• Custom orders take 4-6 weeks — and that begins after you’ve made your payment and finalized your design. We repeat: We can’t start on your order until we’ve been paid and have all of the necessary art files. This blog post explains why our production process for custom gear takes as long as it does.

2. How does the design process work?

Every custom order that you place with Savage comes with three free hours of design time with one of our staff artists. In most cases, this is enough time to help your vision come to life and create a design that you’re excited about. Here are the stages of the design process at Savage:

• Talk with your sales rep about what you want. Maybe it’s a fully sublimated jersey with a rainbow background and unicorns leaping above your team’s name.
• Ideally, you’ll provide some high-quality art files for us to use, if you want something specific (maybe you’ve already drawn the unicorn). Or some solid examples if you don’t have specific images you want to use.
• Your sales rep will relay your needs to the art team, who will put together a mock-up (or mock-ups) using any provided art files. 
• Your sales rep will send the mock-up back to you for approval. At this point, there may be some back-and-forth if you want to make any tweaks to the design. Like make the unicorns bigger or change their color. 
• Once your jersey is perfect, you’ll sign off on the mock-up and invoice, pay for your order, and production officially begins.

In most cases, we can’t print random images that you found online. First of all, there are copyright issues, which we discuss in-depth in this post. There’s also the question of quality — we need high-resolution files in order to produce high-quality prints for your gear. That said, you can show us any type of image to use as an example of what you’re looking for, but when our artists have to recreate a low-quality image, it can add significantly to your design time and may put you over your three-hour quota. High-res Illustrator files are our favorite.

4. How long does the design process take?

Again, custom orders get three hours of free design time with one of our staff artists, but the design process usually takes a week or two altogether. This varies based on how clear your vision is, the quality of the images you provide, and how quickly you get back to us when we ask you questions. Here are a few tips for reducing art time so we can lock down your order and send it into production ASAP.

5. How does VII gear fit? 

This post takes a closer look at the sizing of our fully sublimated jerseys, and we’re working on adding photos to all of our product listings that will show our gear on different body types. We also have size charts with exact measurements on most of our gear. Still confused? Never hesitate to reach out to your sales rep if you’re unsure about what size to order. 

 6. My order is wrong. Where is my refund?

If you feel you’ve received an incorrect order, reach out to your sales rep right away so we can figure out what went wrong. If you’ve ordered from our online store, we should be able to quickly determine how or why you were sent the wrong item and get it remedied quickly. If it’s a custom order, we’ll need to go back through the design and production process to find where the error occurred. We will always try to find the best resolution for everyone, whether that means a refund, exchange, or reprint. 

 7. Can I get a better discount? 

It never hurts to ask, although we are limited to how much we can discount custom gear because of the high costs of production. We have some discount options available, with the highest being 30% off. Keep in mind that discounts can’t be combined. If teams have financial limitations, they should ask their sales rep about how we can help. Savage’s Greenbackr program is a great way to crowdfund your team’s uniforms and other financial needs.

8. Will you sponsor me? 

In most situations, we will reach out to a person or team if we are interested in sponsoring them. At this time, we do not sponsor individuals outside of our Savage Squad. If you are an individual with a significant following who would like to work with us, or a team interested in a sponsorship, you’re always welcome to contact sales@savageultimate.com. Please be as detailed as possible when you reach out.

9. Why does my item not match the image online perfectly?

In most cases, the images you see in our online store are not photographs — they are digitized 3-D renderings of our designs created using computer software. We work hard to make them look as much like real life as possible.

10. Where can I give feedback?

We love feedback — both positive and negative! Share your thoughts with your sales rep or fill out this survey and they'll pass it along to the right people. Also look for a comment card included in your order.

11. How much will my order cost?

We offer a range of options for a range of budgets, including screen printed jerseys, spot sublimated jerseys, and fully sublimated jerseys. From there, costs vary based on quantity and design. You can find all of the details of our pricing for full subs here and other gear here. Custom disc prices are here.

12. Can you contact USPS/UPS/FedEx for me to find my package? 

Unfortunately, once we ship out your order, it’s the responsibility of the carrier. In most cases, they will not disclose a package’s location to us — only the customer, so it’s better for you to inquire first. Because of this, we can’t be held responsible for third party delays, lost packages, duty fees, etc.

Ever wondered what really goes into making a custom Savage jersey? Or why the process takes 4-6 weeks? Unlike some of our competitors, we’re proud to handle every step of the process in-house, from design to production to shipping it to your doorstep. If you order custom Ultimate jerseys, disc golf gear, quidditch jerseys, or any other custom athletic apparel from Savage, this is what it takes for it to go from an idea in your head to a piece of apparel you can wear on the field.

Step 1: The Custom Jersey Ordering Process 

You’ll start by reaching out to sales@savageultimate.com with an idea for custom jerseys for you or your team. Our sales coordinator connects you with a member of our sales staff who will be your liaison for the entire ordering process. You’ll talk budget, timeline, and general needs, and we’ll officially get the ball rolling on your order.

Step 2: The Custom Jersey Design Process 

Every customer gets three free hours of design time included in their order, which is usually more than enough time to finalize your designs. This includes Team Marketplace orders. Having a good idea of the design you want, and quality art files, will speed up this stage of the process significantly. You’ll share your ideas and art files with your sales rep, who will communicate what you need to the Savage design team. There will be some back and forth to settle on the final design for your gear, which typically takes one to two weeks to reach final approval. This blog post has some tips for getting through the design stage as efficiently as possible.

Step 3: The Custom Apparel Production Process 

Once you’ve officially signed off on the design mock-ups for your gear, we pass the order over to our production department. While screen printed and spot sublimated orders are printed onto existing jersey and T-shirts, all fully sublimated gear is printed on our GreenLine fabric (made from 100% recycled bottles), then cut out and sewn up. After that, we pack up your order and send it on its merry way. 

In honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Feb. 5, Savage is highlighting some of our favorite female athletes in some of our favorite sports throughout the week. Next up: Quidditch player Amanda Dallas.

Amanda Dallas, simply called Dallas by those who know her, has been playing quidditch for nearly a decade. She's the co-commissioner for Major League Quidditch, a board member with US Quidditch, and coordinator for the US National Quidditch Team (USNT). When she's not in quidditch mode, the North Jersey resident works in NYC as a technical project manager for IT and security at Better.com. Take it away, Dallas!

Savage: How did you get into playing quidditch? What drew you to the sport? 

Amanda Dallas: I’m not your average quidditch player. There’s no strong connection to Harry Potter here — I didn’t even read all the books. A friend of mine in college co-founded the NYU team and recruited me to play. I was very much against it in the early stages and thought it was way too weird — and to think, I didn’t even start playing during the capes era! The people on the NYU team, however, won me over, so I stuck around longer than intended. Ultimately, I ended up enjoying how fast-paced, physical and unique quidditch is. I was drawn into volunteering by Alex Benepe, one of the sport’s founders, noticed the potential for growth and now here I am!

Savage: What's unique about being a woman in the world of quidditch? How do you think being female in this sport compares to other sports? 

AD: It’s an entirely different experience sharing the field with all genders and not just your own. Sure, you can do so in rec, intramural and pickup leagues. But those are nowhere near as competitive and certainly not as physical. Inclusivity is literally built into this sport’s DNA and, you can be not only one of the best females at a position, but one of the best of any gender. Unfortunately, it’s rare to get that opportunity in sports. 

Savage: Are there any challenges to being a woman in quidditch? 

AD: There are numerous challenges, as I’m sure you can imagine. The most prevalent being the frequency of which you’re underestimated solely for being a woman playing a full-contact sport with men. It becomes even more challenging when you’re a female coach in a sport where, like most others, the primary gender of coaches is male. In some of the early years I was overlooked. Now that more people are familiar with me and what I’ve done, I’m underestimated a lot less, but there were times when I would raise an issue to referee and they’d look to my male teammate for confirmation or dismiss me entirely. There are still hiccups here and there; even after nine years I don’t always get credit for what I do. Just last year an opponent came up to me at USQ Cup to praise our male head coach (on The Warriors) for how well he trained the beaters — for which the primary training responsibilities fall to me.

At all levels, but particularly the collegiate level, there are still women and other genders outside the binary that aren’t being treated the same as their male counterparts. I ran a fantasy tournament last summer where only women and those outside of the gender binary were permitted to attend. As part of the tournament, we hosted workshops to go over basic skills: cutting, tackling, throwing, etc. The number of players that showed up to the throwing workshop, specifically, was horrifying. Some of the players had been on notable, high-level teams for well over a year and yet no one took the time to just explain basic throwing dynamics to them.  

There is no quick fix to this, but there are small changes individuals can make. Male coaches need to spend just as much time with females and those outside of the gender binary. They’ll spend hours fostering a male chaser’s skill set but then disregard that their female chaser — who goes to the right spot, can score if she gets the ball but struggles to catch a pass — could be an absolute game-changer if they just practice catching for a few more minutes each practice. I’ve been so fortunate to work with some of the most talented women in this sport on both The Warriors and the USNT, and I can tell you, they didn’t all walk onto the field as the stars that they are today. They worked for it and someone worked with them. 

Savage: Thoughts on bringing more women into quidditch?  

AD: MLQ is currently working on some new youth and gender initiatives to implement in the future. As for what currently exists, last season we introduced the Coleman Clause. Named after Lisle Coleman — a queer non-binary individual who has really pushed quidditch, as a whole, to make strides toward equality for all genders — the Coleman Clause is a coach hiring policy requiring each MLQ franchise to fulfill at least one of the following requirements in their coach hiring process. A team must:

1. Have at least one applicant for Head Coach or Assistant Coach that is a gender-minority player; OR

2. Hire at least one gender-minority individual as a Head Coach or Assistant Coach; OR
3. Have a pre-existing Head Coach or Assistant Coach that is a gender-minority player

for the upcoming season.

In our first season with this policy we added four female coaches and retained one from the season prior. Fortunately, we did not have to penalize any teams, thus, all met the requirement. 

In addition to the Coleman Clause, we also introduced a new requirement for all MLQ managers and coaches. All MLQ managers, assistant managers, head coaches and assistant coaches are required to complete Athlete Ally’s Champions of Inclusion, a free comprehensive online curriculum for coaches on LGBTQ+ respect and inclusion within athletics.

Lastly, MLQ currently has a volunteer opening for an MLQ Diversity and Inclusion Manager. We created this role in the hopes of finding someone passionate about and knowledgeable in the development and execution of strategic initiatives and programs related to diversity and inclusion. It’s our hope that having someone specifically dedicated to this role will increase the participation of LGBTQ+ athletes and athletes that are both female and identify outside of the gender binary. 

Savage: Who are some of your favorite female quidditch players? 

AD: Hallie Pace of the USNT and Texas Hill Country Heat is easily one of the most inspiring — not just women — but athletes in quidditch. She’s small in stature but is an absolute beast on the field. It’s uncommon nowadays to see two women in a beater set together on pitch, but if Pace is on a team, it’s just an expectation that a double female set is somewhere in that arsenal.

Second to Pace in my book is my Warriors teammate and USNT chaser Lindsay Marella. Marella is a natural-born athlete and just transforms any quaffle line she plays on. She can tackle anyone, cut and has a cannon of an arm. Marella truly is one of the elite athletes in this sport, regardless of gender. But even with the accolades she has achieved, she continues to work harder every day to improve, stays humble and advocates for other genders outside of the binary.

Savage: What are your hopes for the future of the sport? 

AD: I truly hope the sport continues to grow its gender and diversity inclusion and become more accessible to all. There are still many issues we have yet to solve and many minds we have to change, but nothing is impossible. Quidditch has grown at an incredible pace and as long as volunteers and athletes continue to push the limits of innovation and take risks, there’s a bright future ahead of us.

In honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Feb. 5, Savage is highlighting some of our favorite female athletes [like Ultimate player Jenny Fey, Spikeballer Tori Farlow, and disc golfer Hannah McBeth] in some of our favorite sports throughout the week. Next up: Dodgeball player Shauna Roe.

Shauna Roe has been playing dodgeball competitively for around 8 years, playing on the Canadian National Team for 6 years. When she's not hurling balls, the 28-year-old is a full-time advertising copywriter living in Toronto, Canada. Take it away, Shauna!

Savage: How did you get into playing dodgeball? What drew you to the sport? 

Shauna Roe: My first experience with dodgeball, as with most people, started in elementary and high school. In college, I was asked to play on the extramural dodgeball team, who desperately needed girls that year. I actually said no at first! The idea of competitive dodgeball seemed outlandish to me, and I’d never really played a throwing sport before, so I figured there’d be no role for me. At my first practice, I realized there were in fact many roles to be played on the court, beyond knowing how to throw, including catching, calling plays, and drawing in balls.

What drew me to dodgeball was ultimately the persistence of Humber coach, Victor Gravili, who is now the coach of the national program and a good friend of mine. 

Savage: What's unique about being a woman in the world of dodgeball? 

SR: The power of underestimation. I love dodgeball because the game can change in an instant. A catch can bring a 4v2 to a 3v3. Sometimes you’ll see a single player eliminate five opponents to win the game. You really never know what could happen. 

A lot of these moments I see happen with women. In co-ed, we’re often underestimated. A team will leave a female player for last, only to have her make a huge catch. Or a woman you’ve never seen before turns out to have a softball background and therefore has a canon for an arm. 

Savage: How do you think being female in this sport compares to other sports? 

SR: Dodgeball is very much still in its infancy as a sport. In my mind, this gives women an opportunity to define how women play it. I love this article’s POV on why men are, the vast majority of the time, better than women at sports. In short: Sports, especially those well-established, were designed by men, for men*. The rules, the court sizes, the skills involved, and so on. When women enter these sports, they’re playing an adjusted version of a “men’s game,” versus a game designed by women, for women. 

As an increasing number of women have entered competitive dodgeball, I’ve personally noticed differences created between how men play and how women play. The strategies can be different. The play calls can be different. I would even argue the players valued most excel in different skills that are perhaps less valued in a men’s game. 

All this to say, compared to other sports, women in dodgeball can influence the sport to work around them, not the other way around. 

Savage: Are there any challenges to being a woman in dodgeball?

SR: I think the challenges women face in dodgeball are similar to all sports — less popularized, less viewership, a perceived slower or less intense game, to name a few. 

Dodgeball is far from perfect in this regard, but I do see a lot being done to address the challenges, whether it’s putting the women’s final last on the schedule (often men’s is last as a ‘grand finale’), or ensuring an equal amount of men’s and women’s games appear on the live stream. I think little things like that go a long way. 

Savage: Thoughts on bringing more women into dodgeball? Youth initiatives? 

SR: Dodgeball Canada has YMCA youth nights for girls and boys that are run by volunteers and Team Canada players. They’ve also started a Dodge In Schools program, aimed to re-introduce dodgeball into schools as a sport that’s inclusive and skill-building.

After working on a project at work a few years ago relating to indigenous women, I developed a relationship with the Native Women’s Resource Centre in Toronto. Knowing the positive and empowering experience dodgeball has given me, I’ve always wanted to introduce an indigenous women’s team to our leagues, hoping it’s a similar experience for them. 

Savage: What are your hopes for the future of the sport?

SR: I would love to see dodgeball move into a more legitimized space. I would love to see more high-performing athletes migrate to the sport (especially women). I would love to do an interview without the Ben Stiller movie being referenced. I would love to tell people I play dodgeball without having to follow with “yes, I’m serious.” 

I believe dodgeball has the potential to be more universally viewed as a sport (not a game) that requires skill and athleticism, and comes with major entertainment value. Hello, TSN!

Savage: Who are some of your favorite female dodgeball players?

SR: There are many. But today, as I write this, these three come to mind:

• Hwei Xian, Team Malaysia — Because she never quits, has the quickness on court that I wish I had, and makes really smart decisions at important moments. 
• Jiji Fayad, Team Australia —Because she’s really fun to watch, makes clutch plays all the time, and has a great amped-up face.
• Shadae Berkley, Team Canada — Because her work ethic inspires mine daily, she’s a caring teammate who’s always reminding me to keep my chin up, and most importantly, she drives me to practice (I owe her so much gas money, it’s nuts). 

Psst: Shop the Women's Mystery Sale here.

In honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Feb. 5, Savage is highlighting some of our favorite female athletes [like Ultimate player Jenny Fey] in some of our favorite sports throughout the week.

Today we're talking with pro Spikeball player Tori Farlow of High Point, N.C. She started playing as a student at UNC Wilmington, where she graduated with a degree in Exercise Science. When she's not dominating tournaments with her partner Olivia Jenkins as team Boboddy, Tori works as a personal trainer and soccer coach. Take it away, Tori.

Savage: How did you get into playing Spikeball?

Tori Farlow: I first saw Spikeball back in 2016 on my college campus. As someone who is highly competitive and has a passion for sports, I immediately felt the need to play. So, my friend group and I started playing and then created a club on campus as well as held our very first tournament. After discovering that there were nationally sanctioned tournaments we decided to use them as a fun way to hang out with friends on the weekends, but I never thought it would become such a large part of my current life.

My partner at the time was my friend Charissa Wright (Veinte Hamburguesas) and we had never played another women's team until we went to nationals in D.C. and played in the women's division. We surprisingly came in third place and quickly realized it was something that we were fairly good at and wanted to pursue.

Due to personal reasons, after the 2017 season together Charissa resigned from playing and I played one year with Jordi Vigna (Razzmatazz) and now starting my second season with Olivia Jenkins as team Boboddy for the 2020 Roundnet season. We are excited to compete at the top level and to hopefully be a part of the first teams to ever go to a Spikeball World Championship in Belgium.

Savage: What's unique about being a female Spikebal player?

TF: The unique thing about being a woman in Roundnet is that we are the elite of the few so it also means that we get the opportunity to be the original trailblazers of the sport. We get to put our view on rules as well as discuss new ones, and when you really think about it, we are shaping the new way and style of how people will play in the future.

Something about being a female playing Roundnet is that since we are so hard to come by it can sadly be difficult to create a women's division at every tournament, but this also creates a fun opportunity. When there aren’t enough teams to create a women's division at a tournament, we just play in advanced with a ton of talented men, which allows Olivia and I to do one of our favorite things: beat guys at a sport.

Savage: What's the hardest part about being a woman in Spikeball?

TF: The biggest challenge that we come up against is just finding athletic women who are also willing to travel.

Savage: Do you have any ideas for bringing more women to the sport?

TF: There have been many suggestions on how to grow the women’s side of the sport, and realistically I don’t think it will ever become equal to the number of men that play — which for me isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it's just how it is and it’s something to embrace. I think a better way to get more women involved is just raising the awareness of the game in a sports environment. I think introducing roundnet in colleges with intramurals or clubs and using it in high schools as a way to warm up for a different sport will yield more results for participants because these women will be athletes who are more likely to understand and enjoy it rather than introducing it to women who don’t have an athletic background.

Savage: What are your hopes for the future of Spikeball?

TF: I would love to see the sport continue to grow, but for that to happen I think there needs to be a couple of changes to the game to make it more of a spectator sport. I don’t think any sport flourishes without viewers. Right now, elite roundnet is almost so impressive that it isn’t fun to watch. There are minimal rallies and less room to see the big, fun athletic plays that people love to watch. The game has been so perfected at the top level, especially for men, that the game has been extremely shortened.

Savage: Who are some of your favorite female Spikeball players? 

TF: My favorite females in the sport include my awesome partner Olivia Jenkins, my friend Jordi Vigna, and the beast of a beauty Sarah Zook. These women are some of the most athletic girls I have ever met and have such great hearts.

Psst: Be sure to check out Savage's Women's Mystery Sale, running this week only. Also peep Savage's Spikeball Showcase featuring replica Spikeball jerseys and fan jerseys here.

If you play Ultimate, you've probably noticed a tattoo or two that has made you look twice. You suspect there's a story behind the ink, one that may inspirational, tragic, or downright hilarious — like the infamous player who had a rat in a chicken costume tattooed on his butt after losing 1 in 10 odds. Liz Clark, an Ultimate player and biologist based in Connecticut, felt compelled to search out and share these stories, and that's how Ultimate Ink was born. Check out Ultimate Ink on Instagram  and consider supporting the Ultimate Ink project with a donation through Greenbackr.

Savage: Tell us about yourself.

Liz Clark: I started playing ultimate in high school in Pittsburgh and was on USA U-19 in 2008. I played in college in North Carolina and now I live in Connecticut. I’ve been on a number of mixed and womxns club teams over the years, and I currently play for Metro North. I’m also a biologist! I build 3D digital models to figure out how different structures in animals and plants function. My specialty is on illuminating the biomechanics of unusual strategies for movement and locomotion found in nature. I work with engineers in Japan to design robots resilient to damage based on the animals I study.

Savage: Where did the initial idea for Ultimate Ink come from? 

LC: We all love ultimate because of the community, but having to secure a place in a social network based on our athletic ability can be a recipe for isolation and insecurity. I think we can do better to support our friends who are experiencing some kind of upheaval with ultimate, like getting injured, getting cut from a team, moving, taking a break or deciding to retire. I think it’s also important to consider how the things going on in our lives outside ultimate impact who we are on the field. I also wanted to hear more about the experiences of members of typically underrepresented groups in our sport as well.

I started Ultimate Ink to celebrate the connections we share with this sport, and to build a space where we can better support each other in what we’re going through by sharing our personal experiences with one another. Tattoos are incredibly intimate, and they provide a gateway for people to open up about their feelings, their histories and what they’ve experienced with an appealing visual draw.

Savage: Tell us about some of the stories you've heard so far in this project.

LC: One of the first stories we got was from Toby Sznaj who described how her journey with ultimate intersected with her experiences with bipolar disorder. I thought that story was incredibly inspiring, and I think it set a powerful tone for the project. I think the most touching story so far has been from Sean Stasiak, who got a matching tattoo with his best friend and teammate Topher Kazanski who tragically passed away. Alix Robbins’ story is super badass — she describes getting her college program to nationals and making it to the pros while raising a child.

Savage: What about your own tattoos? What are your favorites and what are the stories behind them? 

LC: I have two. I have a sun on my back that was inspired by the design of one of the first discs I ever threw. I remember seeing it at one of my first practices and thinking that I would get it as a tattoo if ultimate ever became important to me. Five years later, when ultimate had become firmly woven into the fabric of my life, I pulled the trigger. I was really competitive at the time, and it served as a reminder to work hard to be my best for a sport that I truly loved. I stopped playing ultimate for about six years, and I got my second tattoo, a tree on my wrist, for the first team I was on when I came back. It serves as a symbol for my next stage with ultimate, where my focus is on contributing to the community by being mindful of the person I want to be on and off the field, while also working hard to achieve my goals as a player. 

Savage: Do you think a lot about the kinds of tattoos you're going to get or are you more spontaneous? 

LC: I always encourage people not to rush the decision to get inked since it will be on your body for the rest of your life! But I have to say I do love finding people who have gotten tattoos from losing odds — they’re hilariously common in the ultimate community, and usually pretty awful. We featured someone who has a rat in a chicken costume on his butt from losing 1 in 10 odds. The guys on Sin the Fields loved it so much that they talked about it on their podcast and even sent him a free T-shirt!

Savage: Why do you think tattoos are a special part of the ultimate community? 

LC: I’ve been really surprised at how many ultimate-inspired tattoos are out there — for every team I talk to there’s usually at least one person that has one. I think tattoos are a creative way to commemorate powerful experiences or relationships, as well as remembering something, or someone, that’s important to us. I’ve found that it can be really difficult to explain the meaning behind my tattoos to people who ask, especially to those outside the ultimate community. Now, I can just direct them to Ultimate Ink!

Savage: What do you plan to do with the money you raise through Greenbackr? 

LC: The best way to find new Ultimate Inkers is to do it in person. Over the past year, I’ve been traveling to tournaments to chat with people about the project and encourage them to share their tattoos and stories with us. I’m planning on using the money to cover the costs from the project so far and expand the scope to reach a diverse range of storytellers in the future.

Savage: What are your future plans for the project?

LC: We have a lot of great stories lined up that we’ll be sharing over the next few months. I’d also like to start doing more targeted calls for stories around certain subject matter, or long-form interviews with people in our community with unique perspectives. I’d also like to keep encouraging people to write and submit their own stories to us regardless of whether or not they have ultimate tattoos — the tattoos are awesome, but the project is really about sharing our experiences and love for the sport with each other.