Tag: challenge

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Apple employee challenge cards (2023)

Apple challenge cards are sent to Apple employees who participate in company-sponsored events, usually with a gift to celebrate the accomplishment of successfully completing the challenge.

These challenge cards include:

Close Your Rings Challenge (2023)—Hat’s off to you! Congrats! You finished strong. We hope you’re moved to keep on moving—and finding motivation even beyond this Challenge. Your exclusive Apple-branded hat will be an ongoing reminder to keep your body active and your head in the game. You deserve it.

[Editorial note: I wonder how many Apple employees looked at the grossly misspelled headline “Hat’s off to you!”—with the completely unnecessary apostrophe—before thousands of them were printed in metallic gold. Someone’s head was not in the game!]

Mindful Minute Challenge (2023)—One sip at a time. Cheers to you for completing the Mindful Minute Challenge. Enjoy this mug to help remind you to pause and practice mindfulness with something as simple as a sip. Or create your own mindful practice by slowly tracing the logo while taking a few breaths to find your own inner comfort.

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Apple employee challenge cards (2022)

Apple challenge cards are sent to Apple employees who participate in company-sponsored events, usually with a gift to celebrate the accomplishment of successfully completing the challenge.

These challenge cards include:

Close Your Rings Challenge (2022)—Hooray! You did it. Congrats on finishing the Close Your Rings Challenge with flying colors. We hope this journey has inspired you to keep the momentum going (and your body moving). Wear this Apple-branded pullover shirt as a reminder to keep on closing those rings—you’ve earned it.
Mindful Minute Challenge (2022)—Your presence is a gift. Relax, reflect, and remember your practice can be flexible (and comfortable). Use this cozy pillow-blanket combo to rest your head, take a seat, or elevate your mindful practice any way, or anywhere, you wish. Be present and keep going. You’ve got this.

Sources: MacRumors

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Close Your Rings microfiber towels (incomplete set, 2021)

Apple’s fifth “Close Your Rings” employee challenge was held in 2021. According to MacRumors contributor, mikedop, the Close Your Rings Challenge:

“…is an internal challenge hosted by Apple’s Wellness team, which challenges employees to close their Apple Watch activity rings every day for an entire month. The challenge can be won at three different tiers: gold, silver, and bronze… Employees log their fitness in their Apple Watch, and after the month, are shipped a prize if they meet the qualifications. This challenge is offered to all employees within Apple, down to the retail level.”

Successful participants in the 2021 Close Your Rings challenge were sent a set of three microfiber towels that use the colors and designs of Apple’s Activity rings. Each towel is primarily black and has a two-sided tag with the Activity rings on one side and the Apple logo on the other. Each towel features a different design woven into the microfiber: one uses three thin stripes in the colors of the Activity rings along two sides, one uses a “21” design in a unique, triple-stroke font style using the Activity ring colors, and a third towel shows half of the three filled Activity rings.

My collection includes the stripe and “21” designs, but I do not have the half-Activity ring design.

The towels were packaged in a custom white box with the Activity rings printed on top. The towels were created by Sunscope USA under a brand DiLA, Designed in LA (Los Angeles).

Sources: MacRumors (mikedop), SunscopeUSA

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Apple Watch Woven Nylon Band (42mm, Close Your Rings, Black Buckle, 2018)

[This is my 800th post!]

This “Close Your Rings” Apple Watch Woven Nylon band was only available to Apple employees who participated in and completed the “Close Your Rings” challenge in 2018.

According to MacRumors writer mikedop, who has extensively researched and written about the challenges:

“The Close Your Rings Woven Nylon was the second ever employee exclusive Apple Watch band. This exclusivity combined with the unique design lead to a high demand for the band on secondhand markets like eBay… The Close Your Rings 2018 prize came with a challenge card as well…in a book-like style, with the text on the outside and the band stuck to the card on the inside. The text, sitting on the front below a metallic silhouette of the activity rings in either gold, silver or bronze, read the following: ‘Closure. At last. You did it. You completed the Close Your Rings Challenge, and this band is proof. Put it on your wrist. Let it go straight to your head. You’ve earned it. Wear it, flaunt it, feel free to sweat all over it. It’s yours.’”

Incidentally, the first employee-exclusive Apple Watch band was the original Pride band given to employees who attended the LGBT Pride festival in San Francisco on June 26, 2016.

This Close Your Rings woven nylon band is all black with black plastic lugs and a black buckle. It has a three-color loop closure (called the “keeper” in watch parlance) in blue, green, and red—representing the colors of Apple’s Activity rings. This band is in the 42mm size.

Although this band was not available for sale, this is the description that Apple used for the Woven Nylon Band collection:

“Every Woven Nylon band is made from over 500 threads woven together in a unique, colorful pattern. Monofilaments connect four layers of the weave to create a single durable band with a comfortable, fabric-like feel.”

Sources: Apple, MacRumors (mikedop, Pride band)

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Mindful Minute Fleece (2019)

This Mindful Minute fleece was only available to Apple employees who participated in and completed the “Mindful Minute” challenge.

According to MacRumors writer mikedop, who has extensively researched and written about the challenges:

“Those who completed the 2019 Mindful Minute challenge received a soft fleece blanket. The blanket measures four feet by six feet in size (4×6) and contains no designs except for an embroidered mindfulness icon and Apple logo in a light teal.”

The blanket is made from black fleece. For the logo design, the mindfulness icon was simplified to use six interlocking circles in a circle. The design is similar to the Breathe app (which uses eight transparent interlocking circles).

Source: MacRumors

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Apple employee challenge cards (2019–2021)

Apple challenge cards are sent to Apple employees who participate in company-sponsored events, usually with a gift to celebrate the accomplishment of successfully completing the challenge.

From left to right, the challenge cards include:

  • Let the good times roll.—Apple’s fifth Close Your Rings Challenge shipped with a set of black embroidered towels. (The black card measures 2.75 x 5 inches and is printed on light textured cardboard.)
  • Ready to tumble.—Apple’s Eat Well Challenge shipped with an Apple-branded tumbler. (The card measures 3 x 6 inches and is printed on light textured cardboard.)
  • Celebrate—shipped with a t-shirt. (The card measures 3 x 5 inches and is printed on light textured cardboard.)
  • Take comfort.—Apple’s Mindful Minute Challenge shipped with a limited-edition T-shirt. (The card measures 3 x 5 inches and is printed on light textured cardboard.)