Public attention is an every day occurrence in the life of a traceur and sometimes it can be hard to convince others that what you are doing is safe and within your control. Because of this, traceurs should take every possible measure to appear professional when greeting others. One tool I have found to be invaluable are properly designed business cards!
Business cards are wonderful no matter what profession you are in. They are simple tid-bits of information that you can pass on to another person with minimal effort. Tell someone that you have a website, and they might remember, but probably will forget by the time they have a chance at a computer. Write down your information and they are all the more likely. However, present someone an interesting piece of hard paper that holds all of your contact information and your chances of success rise dramatically.
No matter what the case, presenting a business card to someone after a conversation about parkour and suddenly your sentiments have increased in legitimacy and value. A card shows that you are passionate enough about parkour that you will carry business cards specifically to give to others. What’s more, carrying around business cards says a number of other things such as mitigation of suspicious behavior.
I’m sure most who read this post will have been stopped by a police officer at least once in their parkour careers. By consciously holding business cards with your name and all your contact information, you are inherently less likely to do something potentially illegal.
Here is my new business card design:
I ordered 250 of these from Vista Prints for barely $20. If you’ve spent any reasonable sort of time as a traceur and are looking to get that extra advantage in your random street conversations, perhaps you should look into designing your own personal business cards.
