I wanna See your Steel in 2023.

We meet in many tunnels. In 2022, I connected with thousands of you for the first time. Partners, parents, clients, members, investors, colleagues, kids, leaders, athletes, Commanders, and Chiefs. Since we've only scratched the surface, here's a bit about me and my ambitions for 2023. I can't wait to learn more about you. Please reach out and say hello, because I wanna See your Steel. If you're scratching your head, read on for five....

I grew up a restless outsider in a Baltimore suburb with an unconditionally loving family, sandwiched between 2 boys. I indulged in movement, strength, and physical and mental risk 25 hours a week at Rebounders Gymnastics. My obsession with flipping and flying began in that gym, imbued a deep awareness of my body and balance, honed my confidence, taught me fear, and inspired my approach to strength and movement 30 years later as I launched a global fitness brand.

My other movement compulsion is skiing. Despite growing up in the flatlands I spend every minute I can in the mountains and screaming downhill as fast as possible. I've realized skiing, when in pursuit of powder, cliffs, bumps, jumps, and speed, is a lifelong version of gymnastics, acrobatic and intoxicating. I was blessed and spoiled by childhood travel in the US and Europe and family vacation nearly always involved snow.

When I was 15, I moved from home and went to Blair Academy in New Jersey. Maybe I needed to bust the seams on the identity crisis my unique childhood created for me. The all-in nature of boarding school suited me. Blair satiated desires for new athletic adventure, deep friendships, freedom to try, and a lot to love. The academics and nurturing were a springboard for Princeton. I followed my older brother Clayton there and it felt like it was what I was supposed to do. Army ROTC granted a scholarship and a path was paved.

I was a two time All American rugby player, a fierce high speed tackler and tirelessly competitive. After three major injuries I hung up my cleats for a US Army uniform and served four years and one deployment with the 52nd Engineer Battalion supporting the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom 1.

When I left the Army I floated, uncertain on the future, poised from the past, and still unsure of my precise purpose. I had met my husband Ben and he was still deployed, so I traveled to Europe, launched my first startup leading local hiking and biking tours on the front range, and applied for a single MBA program because it felt like the only fit. Ben left the Army and joined me first in Switzerland and then at Tuck in Hanover NH. We had met on the Colorado ski slopes, so the White Mountains seemed an ideal spot to transition to civilian life. I followed Ben to New York for medical school, found a dream job at Warby Parker in its infancy, and built their retail portfolio from the ground to 55 US and Canadian stores. I adored Warby for its leaders, mission, and the simple, physical nature of our work. We helped people to see and experience.

I had my 2 baby girls during those first years out of graduate school, and joined the Volunteer Fire Service, seeking the camaraderie I dearly missed from the Army. I stumbled upon a passion for mission readiness, the need to connect physical, mental, and emotional health intimately to our real life demands. That wasn't happening, and for most of us, it still isn't. A curious and stubborn inventor, I made strength tools out of firehose, alpine sand, and hose clamps. The Steelhose came to be, and my vision formed for this magic wand to change the way we define strength, and the way we feel, think, move, and live. Not just for firefighters. For everyone. From cradle to grave. Forever.

I left Warby as it crested the big leagues. I was better suited to a scrappy startup and I wasn't thriving. Arlyn my youngest was 18 months, and my firehouse garage hobby became a professional passion. And so FitFighter was born from the truck bays of Long Island and in 2018 started planting roots in homes, gyms, trainers, coaches, ABC's Shark Tank (co-captain Daniel Lubetzky and team), the Military, and US Fire Departments.

In our 5th year, we're wrapping the world in Steel and hose and growing a SteelNation of adopters. We seek the most important problems where we can have the most monumental impact. After all, in the past 50 years, there's been a linear correlation between the growth of the fitness and food industries and the decrease in our health. That's the definition of insanity, and I love being a part of its fix.

It's been a 40 year journey (I'm strapped in tight), to understand that my 10,000 hours in the gym three decades ago, the chase for independence from barriers, my love-fest with risk, speed, service, talking, touching, and teams, formative years at Warby, intrinsic optimism and obsession with smiling, together have spawned a movement about movement for all of us, and the need for a new kind of strength from what we've been taught. One that's rooted deep inside, visible only in what we rouse and do and affect, endowed by balance, stability, and ability, soundness of mind and heart, and emboldened by curiosity, connection, humility, and truth. Strength for which muscles and moving mean nothing, until we awaken them with vigor, vitality, fortitude, energy, and soul. In fact, this isn't strength at all, it's Steel.

I live and breath what I say and do, so if nothing else, it's real, and I'm on the same journey as anyone else, searching for, growing, nurturing, my Steel. Here are five personal ambitions for 2023. I reserve the right to change them and add more.??

1. Raise my voice. This is scary. I've been battered and bruised by the internet-emboldened paparazzi that seems to mask insecurity through insults. But whenever I get the gumption, you always ask for more, so I'm working on it.
2. Reach new heights with Steelhose. There is much undiscovered territory in movement and Steel that I plan to explore this year, and I can't wait to be with you for the journey.
3. Choose joy and love. Every day, every time. With family, friends, and passions.
4. Launch our #SteelNation. I'm going to leave it at that so as not to spoil the fun! Coming soon, a place to indulge in Steel for all, together as a nation.
5. Confront fear and insecurity. To push boundaries, break china, and move through fear into energy, love, action, and impact, it takes a village.

Thank you for being a part of mine! Talk to you in 2023! -- Sarah Apgar

#SteelNation #ComingSoon

Sarah Apgar is the Founder & CEO of FitFighter, Army and Iraq Veteran, Shark Tank success, Former Volunteer Firefighter and Warby Parker executive, and mom of two. She lives in Freeport, ME with her husband Ben, girls Emory (6) and Arlyn (5) and pup Louisiana.