A Surprising Tool for Creative Athletes

First, a quick yay! moment for Strong Girl Publishing. Our first children’s book, The Ragtag Best Friends Bicycle Club, is out now! This book, written by All Bodies on Bikes cofounder Marley Blonsky and illustrated by Pip Claffey is such a fun celebration of diversity in cycling and our launch at the Sea Otter Classic Cycling Festival last week was incredible. We were able to do some adorable readings, and we have some incredible collaborations with brands like SHREDLY, PoCampo and Prevelo. You can check out the SHREDLY kit, PoCampo bag combo, and of course, the book, right here.

But on to something completely different, and a bit of a departure from my normal Substack posts. When I started Strong Girl Publishing, it was after years of honing my very do it yourself (DIY) ethos. When I was a teenager, I started my own zine—a homemade magazine. That meant not just writing articles and poems for it, but also photographing, convincing friends to contribute, editing those pieces, laying it out, photocopying, stapling, getting a post office box, soliciting subscriptions, taking payments (that were mailed to said PO box) and sending out issues. This—to date myself—was sort of the second coming of zines, which had been hugely popular in the punk crowd in the nineties. They were fading in the early aughts as online platforms took over print, but still alive and well at the start of the world wide web.

At that time, my absolute favorite gadget was this massive stapler that allowed me to staple the zines together (normal staplers only go 3.5 inches deep, but I needed 5.5 inches of space to staple the middle of pages).

From there, I naturally had a LiveJournal, but I also quickly transitioned to building some of my own websites for my admittedly painful poetry. I worked for start up magazines, learning how to properly use software to layout real magazine that would be printed in the thousands, not dozens. That gave me the tools I needed to start laying out books and self-publishing before there were softwares that made it so anyone could get a book onto Amazon.

A couple of years ago, when I started Strong Girl Publishing, I was looking at the cost of getting signs made, getting shirts printed, getting tablecloths and tents with my logo, and I was appalled at the cost. So, I bought a Cricut so I could make my own iron-ons for all of that stuff.

All that to say… I’ve always loved doing things my own way, figuring them out. And I love little pieces of tech that help me do that. But my latest obsession, I had to share with you: A thermal printer.

I can’t believe how late to the party I am on this, having shipped thousands of books at this point, all by hand, all by printing labels on paper and taping them onto envelopes. But no more! When we had a huge amount of preorders for The Ragtag Best Friends Bicycle Club, I realized I needed an easier way to do labels, and finally realized what I needed was a thermal printer, which does the labels that you often see on packages that get delivered from UPS or Amazon or wherever.

I had NO idea how much I’d love this tiny little machine. The thermal printer works with thermal paper or stickers/labels, and uses heat rather than ink to print. So you never have to replace a cartridge—and surprisingly, these little doohickeys are inexpensive, as are the labels compared to regular printer labels. The downside is that compared to regular printing, they aren’t as long-lasting. They fade over time if exposed to heat or friction—but they’re surprisingly hearty, I’ve found! They do, however, have BPAs in them, though there are some non-BPA alternatives. But if you’re not putting the thermal labels all over your skin, I don’t see this as a major stopping point unless you’re extremely sensitive to things like that.)

But what does this have to do with athletes? Basically, the thermal printer can be a super simple tool for athletes to quickly print things, and it’s super portable so it’s easy to travel with / have in a dorm room if you’re a student athlete. I have a few great use cases:

I was at Sea Otter launching Marley’s book last week, but I also had a ton of meetings—and this is what launched the idea for this blog post. I typed out my schedule, then realized I didn’t want to have to keep referencing my phone at the event, since I wanted to be fully present. So, I resized it and printed it onto a 4x6 inch label, then stuck it in my notebook. Voila! A beautiful schedule for me to follow.

Have a habit stack you’re working on? Make a list and stick it where you’ll see it and actually follow it.

Quickly print out race day mantras and stick them wherever you’ll see them on race morning!

I know a lot of riders now just use cycling computers, but riders used to print out critical notes/directions and elevation profiles that they’d stick to their handlebars. I love this idea, especially for gravel racers who need prompts about eating/drinking, and for courses that have some tricky directions that you need to remember.

It does only print black and white, but honestly, that can be pretty cute! I’ve been using it to print out some of the photos I stick on my bulletin board, and if I was racing soon, I’d likely stick a few motivational photos on drop bags for aid stations.

I now have a little weekly grocery list that I edit and print, which is really helpful so I’m off my phone in the store. I know a lot of people just use a notes app, but I find that harder to do than something analog!

This is a HUGE one. Print out packing lists for different types of activities/competitions and stick them directly in your actual duffel bag or backpack for future reference!

If you’ve used our amazing Unstoppable journal, a sticker version of some of Sasha’s prompts is a great thing to have around so you can quickly pop it in whatever notebook you’re using at the time.

Trying to do some branding? You can quickly make stickers with your logo or a QR code for people to scan. (I’m telling all of my authors to do this so people can scan a QR code to get to their book!)

For all those boxes and bins that hold shoes, hats, gloves, various chargers and gadgets, gels, sports drink powders, etc. — way more cost effective than a label maker!

Many athletes these days don’t have printers at home because we so rarely need to print things. But sometimes, we just need to quickly print a doc for something. (For me, obviously, that’s usually shipping, but things like receipts or quick notes also come up.) Some things, you do need a real printer for, like a passport application or something. But for most little bits and pieces, a thermal printer and resizing the page to 4x6 works in a pinch!

If you already have a printer and don’t use it a ton, you probably don’t need one of these gadgets. But I love any way to keep my stuff more organized and orderly, and I think this a great hack and fun tool for athletes!

(Psst… ICYMI, we did a massive website renovation at StrongGirlPublishing.com and we’d love if you checked it out!)