Polaris to celebrate women riders on IFRD, May 6

Polaris invites women who ride any powersports vehicle to join the company in celebrating women riders on International Female Ride Day (IFRD), May 6.

A recent press release stated that the company will celebrate IFRD, “across the U.S. and around the world with off-road and on-road group rides, dealer events and demo rides to further empower, recognize and welcome the participation of women in powersports.”

The company has partnered with IFRD for four years and has seen continuous growth in participating dealerships and riders each year. This year, over 500 dealerships have signed up to offer events supporting IFRD. The list of participating dealers can be found on the Polaris website.

Polaris will also launch a survey, available on the IFRD landing page on May 6, open to all riders.

“In order to celebrate women riders and to grow women ridership, we need to understand what they wish they had and what they want the leaders of powersports to know so we can drive the change and create an industry that is not only inclusive, but inviting, welcoming and exciting for all women to join,” says Pam Kermisch, chief customer growth officer of Polaris and fellow rider. “We’ve done a lot of research ourselves, but we feel like this is an opportunity to ask our women riders, across a variety of terrains, what is it that they love about riding.”

This year, women are encouraged to ride the powersports vehicle of their choice the first Saturday of May and post a picture using #IFRD2023, #FocusFemaleForward and #internationalfemalerideday. “We love the [social media] content because it helps bring to life what riders are doing,” Kermisch says. And engaging every powersports segment is important to Polaris, so off-road riders, on-road riders, snowmobilers and boaters are all invited to ride.

Over the last five years, Polaris has seen women participation across its portfolio of products grow nearly 10%. The company hopes to see this percentage grow as it continues to take steps to encourage women ridership.

Polaris provides a Trail Talk and Shop Talk YouTube series that provides useful content to make riding a reality for new members in the industry. Other opportunities such as Demo Days and Polaris Adventures are intended to get more people on powersports in an unintimidating atmosphere.

“Seven years ago, Polaris started partnering with organizations like Black Girls Ride, Women Riders Now and Women on Wheels to try to understand what powersports riders love about the industry and how Polaris can use that to invite more women to ride powersports,” Kermisch says.

The Polaris Empowersports Women’s Riding Council, launched 2020, and the Powersports Diverse Riding Council were also created to help the company learn about its riders. “We believe that we need to understand some of the different voices. What do they care about? What are the barriers? What are things that they love that we could talk to new riders about? Two-thirds of our retail every year are new to Polaris, so learning from riders and applying what we learn to invite new people to join is very important.”

Participation in IFRD is free and easy. Participants can ride solo, with a group of friends or family, or as a passenger. Polaris is supporting IFRD in several ways, including:

• More than 500 Polaris and Indian Motorcycle dealers across the United States and Canada are offering local IFRD rides, meetups, or celebrations.
• Hosting a ride in France with participants from the U.S., Canada and across Europe. Riders will leave from Biarritz, France, and end at the Indian Motorcycle Nice dealership for an IFRD celebration. The celebration will be open to public and owners.
• Sponsoring planned events and activities by women’s riding groups including, The Litas, Ride Wild, and Black Girls Ride.

More information on Polaris’ support of IFRD, along with a list of participating dealers, is available on the www.polaris.com/IFRD.