You’ll find mostly women’s apparel hanging on the racks at Boulder’s newest cycling shop, Cassiopeia. Opened in late September, the “female-forward” store features boutique brands like Ostroy, Jelenew, and Fingerscrossed, and doubles as a cycling café and Velospa. Hailey Moore takes a shop visit to Cassiopeia to chat with owner Diana Freeman about the store’s unique business concept, find out what exactly is a Velospa, the membership model, and more!
Groundwork
Tucked among high façades, across from electric vehicle charging stations on the narrow and nouveau-cobbled east end of Bluff Street, sits Cassiopeia, a new “female-forward” cycling café and retail store in Boulder, Colorado. The tight contours of the recently built neighborhood’s thru-ways, plus limited street parking, make Cassiopeia difficult to drive to. Its pedestrian-first accessibility is by design.
A ground-floor occupant of the new S’Park apartment complex, Cassiopeia is one of the first businesses to open in the city’s more ambitious and long-term Transit Village Area (TVA) project. The municipal intent behind TVA includes creating “a new neighborhood” that promotes alternative forms of transportation – walking, cycling, and public transit – and an atmosphere that encourages a localized lifestyle.
The plan for the 160-acre TVA campus (the result of a ballot initiative passed in 2004) has promised much: housing accessible to varying levels of economic earners; a more central bus depot and an overdue commuter rail line with service to Denver; a new civic plaza for outdoor events; and, affordable retail space for business owners, with priority given to minority-owned operations and entrepreneurs with inventive concepts.
While the long-awaited Denver-to-Boulder B-Line remains elusive and hung up in budgeting debates, the first floor real estate is beginning to fill out. Shops like Cassiopeia seem to be making good on part of the TVA’s promise for a new, diverse, community center.
After nearly two years of planning, Cassiopeia opened in late September 2024. The name is borrowed from a Greek goddess, who is represented in astronomy as an asterism (i.e., a collection of stars smaller than a constellation) and also known as “the seated queen.” The symbolism stops there (so mythology buffs, don’t go reading into how Cassiopeia found herself permanently enthroned in the heavens) and the name serves as a poetic nod to the shop’s target audience of today’s seated queens: female cyclists.
The concept of a female-forward cycling retail space was not one I had previously encountered before checking out Cassiopeia myself. I happened upon the shop while out riding not long ago (it’s right off of Boulder’s extensive bike-path network) and, thanks to the beauty of commuter-cruising speed, my gaze had just enough time to fix on one of the window panels advertising the various brands carried within: Quoc, Velocio, Wild Rye, Ostroy, Fingerscrossed, Jelenew, etc. These were not labels I was used to seeing IRL.
In addition to the boutique brand names, Cassiopeia’s unique business model was apparent as soon as I walked into the shop, which is bifurcated into café and retail. The former boasts perma-springtime vibes: a large evergreen and floral accent wall (papered in a Rifle Paper Co. print, if I’m not mistaken) sets the verdant tone for the rest of the airy space. Plush green chairs seem to sprout out of the ground, the tables are dotted with fresh flowers, and sunlight washes over the pastel glassware – lined up like blooms in a window box – on the shelves behind the coffee bar. In short, the space is glowing.
The prettiness continues through the retail area: scented candles can be found next to CO2 cartridges, eye masks next to water bottles, and cursive neon signage illuminates the walls. The majority of the apparel to be found on the floor is designed for women. Adjoining the retail area is, perhaps, Cassiopeia’s most distinctive feature, the “Velospa”, which encompasses an indoor heated bike-wash chamber and a rider recovery lounge.
Housed behind a modest partition, the mini-suite of recovery equipment includes two zero-gravity massage chairs, Theragun, PEMF mat (a therapeutic technology meaning “Pulsed Electromagnetic Field”), a Vibroacoustic table that combines low-frequency sound waves and vibration to stimulate relaxation and muscle release, and the highest emblem of recovery in today’s cycling age: compression boots. Access to the bike wash and/or recovery lounge is available to guests for varying day rates, or as a monthly membership (with Coffee Club discounts for the highest all-inclusive tier that tops out at $100 per month).
It’s easy to be enchanted by the highly curated space – it’s just a nice place to be. When I sat down with owner Diana Freeman, she told me that’s exactly the point, “We aim to be the community’s expert advisor, but also the best host.” Over the course of our conversation, I was surprised to learn that Freeman had only taken up cycling in the past few years, during the pandemic, as part of a major weight-loss journey while living in Bentonville, Arkansas, and working in the corporate world (her resumé includes a 10-year stint at Coca-Cola). After initially going full-bore into triathlon, Freeman’s focus eventually settled on just the bike. On what hooked her, she said that realizing “cycling is this thing I can do forever” was a powerful epiphany. The community and accessibility elements were other attractive forces. As she put it, “It doesn’t matter what shape, what color, what size – bikes are for you.”
Still, even while finding herself enamored by the new hobby, she relayed experiencing what has become a head-nodding cliché among many cyclists, especially among women-identifying riders: the dreaded group-ride drop. “Suddenly, on a social ride, you’re hanging on for dear life,” lamented Freeman. “I know a lot of women who have had that experience and it’s super alienating if you show up for your first group ride and you get dropped. What’s the point of going on a group ride if you’re not riding with a group? I can go out on my own and not have my ego smashed.”
This shared experience, combined with Freeman’s own sense of intimidation going into bike shops, and feeling frustrated by the lack of retail space dedicated to women’s kit led her to start imagining what her own “dream space” in cycling might look like. While she admits that the idea for Cassiopeia started germinating in her early cycling days, the concept didn’t begin to take form in a material way until she moved to Boulder in the fall of 2022. By then, she’d left “the corporate grind” to chase a new vision, in a new place, for her life. After relocating, that vision seemed to take shape quickly. By December of that year, she’d registered the business with the city and the following summer (2023) she signed her lease.
Devotion in the Details
“Someone described [Cassiopeia] as ‘Bikes met Anthropologie,” laughs Freeman. “That was definitely on my moodboard. I wanted the space to feel different.” That difference can be seen in Freeman’s devotion to the details, from the store’s product inventory and Velospa model, to the café offerings, and Cassiopeia’s approach to hosting events. Before opening, Freeman felt that women’s shopping options were limited and noticed that even the Rapha store in Boulder dedicates more of its floorspace to the men’s line. When it comes to high-end kit, she said, “It’s expensive, so I want to touch and feel and try it on.”
For Cassiopeia, Freeman is adamant that, “The kit has to be worth it.” The floor space is intentionally divided to showcase 70% women’s apparel and Cassiopeia employs a sneaky color-coded system on hang tags to denote women’s, men’s or uni-sex products. On how she chooses which brands to stock, Freeman said, “I spend a lot of time evaluating the product and assessing what is resonating with consumers.” But she’s also cognizant of the cost barrier of certain brands and tries to stock apparel across the price range. So, while shoppers may see Jelenew – a brand that aims to be “the couture of cycling” with one co-founder from Chanel and the other an Olympic gold-medalist – Freeman hopes they’ll also find more entry-level products from less boutique labels. As an extra incentive, Cassiopeia hosts an ongoing monthly gift-card giveaway to which shoppers earn an extra entry each time they ride their bike to the store.
In planning the café and Velospa components, Freeman kept coming back to recovery:
“When I started thinking about ‘What’s my dream space that I want around cycling?’ recovery and nutrition were a big part of that. As women, our recovery windows are shorter than men’s so making sure we do that closer to the time of our hard efforts was something I wanted to build into the space. The café became a bigger concept than I’d originally anticipated. I really want people to feel like we’re an extension, we’re like that third place.”
Addressing the shop’s macro aesthetics, Freeman continued, “When you go into a traditional bike shop, it usually feels like a garage to me. They’re not soft. I definitely wanted [Cassiopeia] to feel like a colorful, energetic space. I think florals are going to cue more feminine, in a traditional sense, but I also still want it to feel like a space that men would feel comfortable in as well. I don’t want anybody to come in and have the feeling that ‘this space isn’t for me.’ But I definitely wanted there to be a strong emphasis on designing the space for women.” Aside from the overall textures and palette that populate the interior, Freeman applied this women’s-focused intentionality in other ways; “These chairs are smaller, and lower to ground,” she said, pointing to the armchairs around us, and “the community table is counter height, instead of bar height, so it’s more comfortable for people who aren’t as tall.”
During my interview with Freeman, I was interested to notice a few men working in the space. One, a friend and fellow local cyclist, Alex Haeger, sent me a few thoughts via email later:
“Cassiopeia feels inviting and fresh, it is delightfully put together with a touch of smooth awesome. My wife loves it here. I love it here. There is a bike wash with massage chairs in the ‘Velospa’, more cycling styles than I knew existed, and ‘best-of’ café food and espresso at the bar. Easy-to-understand bike routing maps cover the walls with information about nutrition and the next female-forward group ride (men allowed) nearby. Full disclosure: I am a man, and I ride bikes. This place just feels cool and I’m excited to see the community grow out of this female-forward cycling establishment.”
Jenna, Alex’s wife, who interviewed Freeman on their recently launched YouTube channel, had this to say:
“Everybody deserves to feel welcome while biking. But the cycling community can be extremely intimidating – even for those who have extensive experience in the sport. Cassiopeia’s female-focused store allows riders of all skill levels to find personalized gear recommendations, an inclusive cycling community, route suggestions, high-protein snacks, and a space that centers the unique needs of women riders (such as numerous styles and sizes for cycling bibs). At Cassiopeia, women are the stars of the show.”
Cassiopeia is trying to differentiate itself on the micro level, too. With twists on café classics – like a higher-protein whipped cottage cheese bowl in place of a parfait, and a ginger-and-brown-sugar bruléed grapefruit in lieu of a fruit side – Freeman hopes Cassiopeia’s menu stands apart from other local fare. And, like the apparel offerings, the café promotes the store’s overarching female-forward concept, with a line of coffee syrups handcrafted by the Bentonville-based woman-owned company, Pink House Alchemy, and a wall of grab ‘n go goods sourced mostly from women-owned businesses.
All of the attention that Freeman has directed at dialing in the shop’s details is aimed at creating a welcoming environment, and with group events, Cassiopeia hopes to deepen the bonds of community beyond the transactions that happen within its walls. The shop hosts monthly Movie and Mocktail nights (for Halloween, the feature was Hocus Pocus) and weekly group rides. In the future, Freeman plans to have dedicated training clinics to educate group ride leaders on how to balance the range of experience levels among the riders who turn out. In the meantime, she’s been attending most of the rides to make sure that expectations are managed and no one has a negative experience.
So far, Freeman has said that the group rides have been well-received, with many repeat women attendees. She said her favorite part is watching how the dynamic shifts among the group, from a little pre-ride reservation to the organic post-ride gathering that inevitably congregates conversationally around the community table. That’s after the spa towels have been passed out. Did I mention the spa towels? In the cooler months, Freeman told me that they keep warm, essential oil infused face towels on hand to pass out after the ride (in the warmer seasons, the towels will be cool). It’s an easy added luxury, she said.
Despite the broader scope of Cassiopeia’s vision – with the designer bibs, and the massage chairs, and the intentionally-sourced X,Y, and Z product – for some reason, the spa towels really got me. Something about the contrast in experiences: from the misery of getting dropped on a group ride where the expectation seems be “level up or get lost,” to the simple act of handing out cleansing towels to your guests seemed to hold all the difference in the world between competitive charade and real community. The gesture seemed to signify everything that Freeman had been trying to say up until that point: We’re here, but this space is for you.