Who is Troy?

Hello,

I’m Troy Coenraats, 22 years old Co founder of retro7, entrepreneur, Coach, athlete and enjoyer of life.

I make a living doing the things I love, but it wasn’t always this way… just like everyone else I went to school had a normal life and never really had a goal in life. I just knew something was off.

I found my passion (parkour and freerunning) at the age of 12. The first time I tried this sport I immediately felt free. From that moment on I knew that I was going to do this for the rest of my life and I knew I had to make a living out of it.

At first I only had eyes for being an professional athlete, I wanted to be sponsored by redbull and compete in competitions all over the world. But then something very unexpected happened. My coach introduced me to teaching. I said it wasn’t really for me, but sure I’ve always been very open minded so let’s try. My first time teaching I felt really nervous and had a hard time just talking and explaining, but something just clicked or felt right for me. At the end of the day I saw the students leaving with a smile on their face because I taught them something! For me this meant the world and it gave me a kind of purpose.

I’ve always really liked clothing, so much that the moment I started making money I’d usually spend it all on new clothing… It was an expensive hobby, so I thought: Why not make my own! My friend Tim (co founder of retro7) Had the same mind set about this. We just wanted to wear clothing that we created and thought looked cool and if other people would wear them as well that would be a bonus. I bought myself a sketchbook and started drawing random ideas and everything that I could think of.

Later in life I found myself a cute girl I met on the bus ride on my way to work. Eventually she became my girlfriend and we fell in love. Unfortunately because of personal problems after a year we broke up.

At first in my head I blamed it all on her, but then I started to really think about everything that I could have done better and at this time I was watching a lot of self improvement videos and I just realized that the way I was living back then just wasn’t what i wanted… I didn’t have a goal, I wasn’t disciplined, I felt depressed, I wasn’t proud of the way I looked, I just felt stuck and always tired. It was time for a change!

I wanted to grow in mind and body, feel better, look better, and look for my values and a bigger purpose. After quite some time, HARD work and dedication I did al those things and discovered my

true purpose: I wanted to be able to help people like me who feel the same or even worse to get out of that hole. So this is were Retro7 came in to place! this is our way of helping people in our environment or all over the world to become the best version they can be. And if they wear and like our clothing that’s still a bonus!

One very important thing to mention: Self improvement is a never ending journey with ups-and-downs. Sometimes more downs then ups, but the point is to never stop working on yourself. The moment you stop… your stuck. I’m still improving myself as we speak and believe me there is ALWAYS something to improve.

If you feel like making that change make sure you check out our coaching platform! See you there!