The branded merch community is full of all sorts of people. What they bring to their jobs is what helps make the industry. And sometimes, where they go after they clock out is what makes them unique.

In Sarah Remple’s case, most nights of the week consist of her lacing up her ice skates and doing things that most of us are only lucky enough to see every four years when we watch the Winter Olympics. And while the Milan Cortina Games may have just wrapped up, the specific form of figure skating that Remple specializes in, synchronized skating, has not yet been added to the Olympics (though there has been a push to include it). So, the highest level of competition is actually taking place March 6-8 at the Skate Canada Cup, and Remple will be competing.

A lifelong skater, as well as brand and demand manager at business services provider commonsku (PPAI 552077), Remple took time away from her job and training to speak to PPAI Media about her journey and how it led to her career in branded merch.

PPAI Media: How did you get involved in figure skating?

Sarah Remple: I grew up in a really small town in southern Manitoba, Canada, just above North Dakota. Ice skating culture is really popular there, whether that’s hockey or that’s figure skating. So for my parents, it was really important for them that my brothers and I knew how to skate. They signed me up for a learn to skate program when I was about 3 years old. I would have just been in a little snow suit.

By the time you’re 6 or 7, you have to make a decision, which is so funny because you’re 6, but either you’re going to pursue figure skating or you’re going to pursue hockey, or you go down a different path. I was showing an interest in figure skating. By 7 years old, I’m competing in front of a panel of judges.

PPAI Media: What kind of figure skating do you specialize in?

Remple: When I was eight years old, I joined my first synchronized skating team. Synchronized skating is a figure skating discipline, just like pairs and ice dance, and the women’s or men’s singles event that you see in the Olympics. However, instead of one or two skaters, there are about 16 skaters on the ice. It’s one of the coolest figure skating disciplines. It’s not quite at the Olympic stage yet, but there’s definitely been a heavy push for it to make it to the Olympic stage over the past 10 or so years.

That’s what I pursue today.

PPAI Media: I imagine that’s amazing to watch at the highest level.

Remple: It’s crazy. It’s like a mix of the pairs skating and singles skating and ice dance, but it’s all put into one. And when you see it performed, it’s nuts.

PPAI Media: Can you tell me about the level that you’re currently competing at?

Remple: The levels that most people are probably familiar with are junior and senior levels. Junior levels are the best competitors under the age of 16. Senior is what you typically see on the world stage, like the Olympics, for example.

In synchronized skating, we have a level beyond those two that is called “Open.” Basically, the open level is for junior or senior level skaters that have moved on but want to remain competitive or are looking for something that is not quite as much as time commitment with practices. In Open, we are practicing two to four times a week as opposed to six or seven times a week.

So, it’s for skaters who have competed at a very high level and are looking for something more recreational that is still competitive. Or skaters like me who never took the junior or senior route, but I still love to be competitive and to skate to the best of my ability. Improving is very important to me.

PPAI Media: So, you’ve competed your entire life?

Remple: Yes, all the way up through university. When COVID-19 hit, I took a pause, and that led to about five years off just because I was dealing with all the other things that come with adulthood. I just got back into it in the past two years.

PPAI Media: Five years off is a long enough time for a lot of people to decide it was a past chapter in their life. What brings you back to this sport that is ultimately still a major time commitment?

Remple: It’s really cool to have a sport that has grown up with you. Figure skating has seen every phase of my life. It’s really important to have some sort of sport or hobby or some sort of interest in your life that you’re so passionate about as a kid, and then you continue that as an adult. Even now, I still have that giddiness when I get on the ice that I used to have as a kid. That’s one of the things that I like the most about it – it kind of brings me back to that passion that I had as a child.

Even now, I still have that giddiness when I get on the ice that I used to have as a kid.”

Sarah Remple

Manager – Brand & Demand, commonsku

One of the things that it’s taught me is perseverance. There’s literally nothing like being at a competition and falling in front of people that are literally judging you and having to get back up and keep going. You have to keep trying. That perseverance has carried with me throughout my life and my career and has taught me that it’s okay to fall. This is so cheesy. It’s okay to fall, but what matters most is what you do when you get back up.

PPAI Media: Tell me about the event coming up this weekend.

Remple: Our team has competed four times this year. Those events have been either through Quebec or Ontario. Ultimately, what all the different teams are building up for is Skate Canada Cup. That’s the event that’s happening this weekend [in Waterloo, Ontario]. That’s the national level competition. Our event is bringing in, I believe, 14 teams representing different provinces of Canada. Ultimately, everyone is competing for the title or to be on the podium, or to just skate to the best of their ability.

There is a qualifier to reach this event. You have to have placed or achieved a certain ranking at a past competition to attend as a competitor. Our season is from August to March, culminating with this event.

PPAI Media How did you get into the branded merch industry? I understand figure skating played part in that as well.

Remple: Alyson Anderson, who has now worked at commonsku for almost eight years, and I actually skated together at the University of Manitoba. We’ve been very good friends since then. We both live in Toronto now. About three years ago, she reached out to me saying, “Hey, there’s this job at this company that I work for in this industry, and I think you’d be a good fit for it.” The stars aligned. I applied and it worked out. That’s how skating got me a job in the promo industry, which is crazy.

PPAI Media: Do you have a playlist you warm up to?

Remple: I don’t. Our coach does.

We’re skating to “The Ordinary” by Alex Warren. I’ll be at a restaurant or the grocery store, and I hear it come on, and I’m like, ”Oh no, I feel like I need to be doing something or need to be somewhere. I’m in the wrong space at the wrong time.”