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To say Brooklyn is a diverse microcosm would be an understatement. With such a tremendous community surrounding our home and our bikes, we're thrilled to spotlight outstanding members of the Brooklyn Bicycle Co. community and how they own their unique Brooklyn story. Read highlights from our fascinating interview with:
Allie Quigley & Courtney Vandersloot
Perrenial WNBA All-Stars Courtney Vandersloot (left) and Allie Quigley (right) with their Roebling bikes in front of Barclay's Center.
Courtney, you hail from the greater Seattle area, Allie from the greater Chicago area. You are the first married couple to win a professional sports championship. Currently living in Brooklyn, Courtney, you led the WNBA in assists last season with the WNBA runner-up NY Liberty, and Allie, you’re a four-time WNBA three-point contest winner who’s taking some time off and serving as Courtney's #1 fan. So much of what we know about you both revolves around your basketball accolades, what is that story not capturing?
I feel like we kind of had a similar childhood upbringing but just on opposite sides of the country. Just in terms of growing up playing outside in that era. I have three siblings, a sister and two brothers. So, I grew up just playing girls versus boys in the backyard. And we're all like,14 to 18 months apart, so we were just so close. And that's just kind of how we bonded and just fell in love with sports, and how I fell in love with basketball. I don't remember a time when I didn't have any kind of ball. I played volleyball, softball, and basketball in high school. And I tried everything growing up, cheerleading, soccer, hockey in the backyard, anything you can imagine.
So much of what we've done in our last 15 to 20 years has been related to basketball. We have this other side of our life that we don't get to talk about as much, but so much goes into basketball that there's really not a lot left. We spend so much time with our family because we sacrifice so much in-season. We go to watch my sister's Division 1 team play, and my brother's a tennis pro, so he teaches tennis all day long. We played overseas for 12 seasons. So now our lives revolve around spending time with friends and family and just downtime. So that's really who we are. We just are really simple.
WNBA superstars Courtney Vandersloot (left) and Allie Quigley (right).
You two have been all over the world. What's your take on New York, but Brooklyn specifically as a microcosm?
We really like it. Just being able to walk outside and have so many restaurants. Not just any restaurant but good restaurants. There's not a lot of chains, which we like. People are very friendly. We get recognized a lot which could potentially be disruptive to daily life, but people here are so friendly and supportive. There a lots of "Go Liberty!" or "great season!" comments so it's just love.
We also like how vibrant Brooklyn is, yet it's not so crazy like Manhattan. We were terrified to move to New York because of all the stuff we see in the movies, and the hustle and bustle, but it feels more relaxed and a little bit in-between.
Just as an example, we were riding back from the Brooklyn Flea and were on a really busy road. We don't really like to ride on those busy roads, but, all of a sudden, we took a side street and I'm like “yes, these are the streets I love.” I like going down those brownstone streets. It's just quiet, and really nice that we can have that option.
WNBA superstars Vandersloot (left) and Allie Quigley (right) on quintessential Brooklyn brownstone steps.
It's true-- Brooklyn’s food and restaurant scene IS hard to beat. What’s been your favorite?
We love the diversity of food Brooklyn has to offer but our favorite is a Halal food truck. There are also some good Mediterranean spots that we found and we also found a really good Turkish spot. We played in Turkey for a few years and loved the food there, so, one day I'm realized they’ve got to have Turkish food here. It's actually down 5th Avenue, Tava, it’s called and it's so good.
Mediterranean food here just feels so different, more authentic than I've experienced anywhere else, except Turkey. Where we're from, we can't really get that unless we go to a chain like Roti.
Tava Turkish and Mediterranean. Photo courtesy of Google.
It sounds like we've covered quite a few of them, but what are your "secret" Brooklyn indulgences?
Prospect Park. Whenever we have a free day, we decide ride there. We do it so much because, first of all, you don’t see parks like that or don't see much grass outside. It’s truly a concrete jungle. And then you go there and it’s beautiful. We ride with our dog a lot.
We’ve also started riding to the Brooklyn Bridge Park area where all the piers are so cool. I also played a couple of pickleball games at that little indoor court. The first time I played was back in Chicago last summer with my mom who has become a fantastic pickleball player. So I went with her, and I fell in love with it. I got paddles and brought them back here and then I searched where the courts are, and that's when I started riding there a lot. But it's crazy busy on the weekends where you may have to wait 40 minutes to get in the game.
We also love the beach. We took the train twice and rode once, our second week here. I used a Citibike and rode down Ocean Parkway. You know when you hear or see 50 minutes on the map, you think it's not that bad, but when you're doing 50 minutes on a Citibike, it's a LONG time.
Allie Quigley (left) and Courtney Vandersloot (right) with their Roebling bikes.
You have three homes now- the Seattle suburbs, the Chicago suburbs, and now Brooklyn. Obviously, this is much less of an automobile town than the areas you hail from. How has having your bikes here changed your perspective on living in the city?
It's changed my life here. I would be hesitant to get in Ubers and I don't know, maybe I wouldn't walk as far, but I just feel like I can see so much with the bike, and discover new things. I feel like when you're in a car or a subway, you're not paying attention to the outside world. You're on your phone and not taking in your surroundings.
We have also gotten to know areas in the city more because we're riding through so many areas as we head to our destination. We look at the route maps and we're like "oh yeah, I've seen this" and we become familiar with alternative routes.
We were also gifted a physical map of all the different bike lanes-- the ones that aren't protected, the ones that are. Whenever we go somewhere, we opt to take the streets that are more protected and easier to ride on.
Follow them on IG: Courtney at @sloot22 and Allie at @allie14quigs.
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