Yesterday was an adventurous day in Los Angeles shooting with SHEEX and Ironman World Champ Mirinda “Rinny” Carfrae. Rinny was such a good sport as she had been sick all week, although no one would have noticed. I met up with Rinny’s agent (and good friend), Shannon from PCH Sports and thank God, she drove, otherwise, I’m not sure I would have taken the risk of a long drive solo at 36 weeks pregnant. Due to the rain, we settled at the Mondrian hotel in LA (great place, BTW) and took over a few nice suites in the hotel.
We shot some LPGA players, NFL players and Rinny. The conversations about running between Steve Smith (NY Giants) and Rinny were great. Below are a couple highlights from the shoot:
Here’s Rinny rolling around on SHEEX. Her funniest quote during this take was, “Oh, this isn’t awkward at all.”
We then moved into another room and did some still photos. Her smile is gorgeous. Don’t you agree?
Rinny posing for SHEEX still photos
While we were shooting, Rinny learned about how SHEEX was founded which went a little something like this: In 2007, Susan Walvius (then head women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina) and Michelle Marciniak (her assistant coach at the time) were sitting at the gym after a long day of coaching a summer camp. Susan was exhausted and while looking down at her comfy running shorts said to Michelle, “I love this fabric, and I’d love to have bedsheets from this stuff.” Michelle said, “Let’s do it.” And with zero formal business experience, the two women stepped boldly into the world of entrepreneurship. 3 years later, they are days away from a national launch into Bed, Bath & Beyond!
It was fun to listen to Rinny and Michelle trade questions about basketball, triathlon and careers. Michelle was a Final Four MVP as a member of the Lady Vols’ 1996 National Championship team coached by Pat Summitt. She then played in the WNBA for the Portland Fire and Seattle Storm and went on to be an assistant coach for the USC women’s basketball team from 2003-2008.
Now to come full circle, Michelle is training for her first half-ironman this fall and although many people don’t know this, Rinny was actually a basketball stud in Australia before she began racing triathlon. So you can imagine how fun the conversations were. They each ask a question in these videos:
Rinny asks Michelle about her biggest challenge
Michelle asks Rinny about swim starts
Be on the lookout for Rinny’s face in upcoming SHEEX collateral and for more info on the product, visit www.sheex.com and if you’re interested in getting into some of these super cozy performance fabrics yourself, use promo code: “rinny” on the SHEEX web site to get her special deal.
