Building the Redfrog Community
Bridget Zapata — Redfrog Community and Events Director
Bridget has been involved with Redfrog since its inception in 2015, though joined the team full time in March 2017. She spent her collegiate years racing mountain bikes and running marathons; she has vacillated between the two sports into her adult life. As an active member of the competitive running community, she sees the opportunity to build a similar network for the women’s cycling world that is open to riders of all levels.
Before joining Redfrog, Bridget worked for an international education non-profit with a focus on gender equality. She brings this passion for gender equality to her approach when building the Redfrog community and decreasing the gender gap both in cycling and entrepreneurship.
As part of our #introducingredfrog launch series, Bridget shares her background with cycling and intentions when building the Redfrog community.
Q & A with Bridget
Q: Can you talk about your experience with cycling?
A: I was introduced to mountain biking at a summer camp in Colorado when I was 14 years old. We’d go out riding every day for two weeks and even though I had a rocky start with a lot of crashes over my handlebars, the experience stuck with me and I continued to go back to Colorado to ride for the next 5 summers.
When I got to college, I immediately joined the Wheelman — Cal Poly’s club team that was the best in our league and started racing. I wasn’t very competitive my first two seasons, but then stepped it up a bit my last two seasons and branched out to race downhill in addition to cross country and short track. I went to nationals my junior year and placed relatively well considering mountain biking was actually offered as a varsity sport with coaching for many of the other women there. We had this sort of casual, goofy group of women and we called ourselves Team V. I’ll let you guess what the V stood for…
I didn’t continue racing after college, but did ride a lot when I lived in Marin in my early 20s. I then started running more competitively and riding took the sidelines for a while, but I’m trying to balance the two activities now.
Q: What’s it like participating in a male dominated sport?
A: There’s a lot of pressure to prove yourself and fit the cool-girl mold. I worked in a bike shop for a few years in college and was the token female. As an adult, I’ve pursued careers that have put me in female-dominated spaces, so it’s funny to reflect on the times in my life when I was surrounded by men. Even today, when I walk in a bike shop, the pitch of my voice drops a few octaves and I’m sure I start walking a little differently, in a more masculine way, that was ingrained from spending so much time with biker bros. Overall, being in a male dominated industry can be frustrating and intimidating, but that motivates me to work even harder to build strong communities of women.
Q: What excites you about Redfrog?
A: Outside of the clothing itself, I’m incredibly excited to be able to connect more female riders and build the type of community I’ve been thriving in in the running world. When I raced mountain bikes, I always loved the camaraderie with the other women during a race. You were just moved to be overly supportive of one another since you were the minority.
I also want to get more women introduced to riding bikes again and remove some of the exclusivity I feel when I look at the cycling world as an outsider. I hope that building a non-judgemental community of badass women who with wide ranges of athletic goals, will get more people feeling confident and comfortable with themselves and their bodies while bonding with others. Having an athletic outlet or focus as an adult is such a game changer. For me, it smooths any other edges or challenges areas in my life- career, relationships, family. And to bond with other women while feeling the freedom of riding a bike steps that up to a whole other level. Women’s empowerment has become really mainstream now, which is great, as there are many groups now looking to support women doing awesome things. I’m excited to contribute to that and continue to build the network of organizations, companies, and informal groups working to get more women on bicycles.
