The Couple Behind the Brand

photo: Karlie Pickett

We believe that coffee culture is relational at its core.  

Each human in the process of taking coffee from tree to cup is crucial.  We all need each other in this industry; growers need roasters, roasters need customers, customers need coffee.  Furthermore, we believe customers need a brand they can trust with owners they can know.  We here at Velodrome believe in the old-fashioned, traditional business model of owners taking pride in their business and being the ones putting in long days to personally serve customers.  Teagan and I don't want to become background figures making things work from behind the scenes, we want to be the face of our brand.  We think this is how community works best, being citizens in a town where we have the opportunity to serve, first hand, and give back to other citizens.

So this post shares a little about us, through it you'll be able learn a little more about Velodrome.  

Let's start with Teagan.  She was born in Marquette and mostly raised in the UP.  She attended NMU and graduated with a degree in Creative Writing, a passion her Oma instilled in her when she was little. Since then, she has grown her art into not just writing, but also into her hand embroidery, which has become her full-time gig. She still has a passion to publish a creative novel, the rough draft is in her hands, but the time to finish it just has not presented itself. Hopefully soon! She is also passionate about people and relationships, setting aside the small talk, and getting into the real grit and mess that we all deal with. She wants to encourage, lift up and love, and finds that this is sometimes best done sitting down over a cup of coffee. 

And now for Brice.  He was born and raised in Northern Wisconsin on 40 acres in the secluded woods just miles from the Wisconsin/Michigan boarder.  Learning hard work, the value of a dollar, and enjoyment of the outdoors were major aspects of his upbringing.  A good friend got him into Specialty Coffee while in high school and Brice turned his attention to home roasting and espresso instead of sports before graduating.  He started his first barista job at 16 and has been in coffee professionally since!  Since day one Brice has always focused on learning more and advancing his career at each opportunity, starting as a barista, progressing to roaster, and now to Director of Roasting where he is able to buy green coffee and teach others to roast coffee!  One last step is now coming together - owning his own coffee company! He's incredibly passionate about all around sustainability and telling the stories of coffee farmers.  He also has big dreams to shake up the entire Specialty Coffee industry and change the way we understand coffee as a whole. Brice pretty much lives and breathes coffee - he's one of those people who has a hard time answering the question of what he does for fun outside of work because coffee is one of his only hobbies and as much fun as it is work.  One other thing he does love is biking - he's bike commuted for a few years now, even year round in chilly Green Bay, WI.  He's excited to also bring his love of cycling into the brand of Velodrome.  

We have been married for just over 2 years now.  We lived in Green Bay, WI for a while once we got married and in a spirit of adventure moved to Franklin, TN at the start of 2016 where Brice started his Director of Roasting position at Honest Coffee Roasters and Teagan was able to focus more directly on her art.  Now after some time of being inspired and challenged here in Tennessee we couldn't be more excited to return to our roots and start something special.  

So that's us - an adventurous couple with big dreams to bring Specialty Coffee to the great north!  Who are you?  We'd love to know more about the people who are reading this and looking into our brand.  Where are you from and what are some of your passions?