I have a confession to make.
I “own” one of the largest Clubs on Zwift, but I’m not sure what to do with it.
Zwift Insider’s Club has 33,012 members. But what can I do with all of them? I host Club events, but those see limited attendance unless they’re included in Zwift’s public calendar and/or I invest a lot of resources into hyping them up. I participate in the Club chat, but it’s so limited that conversation is hindered.
Zwift’s special sauce is its social side, its community. The heart of Clubs is to enable and build this community, to make what’s good about Zwift even better. But the limited feature set means even large Clubs have mostly become simple containers for events.
It wouldn’t take much to move the needle. Some polishing of existing features, some building out of capabilities, and Clubs could make a huge impact on the Zwift landscape.
I certainly don’t have all the answers. But as a Club owner, I know what I’d use! So today, I’m publishing my top 10 Zwift Clubs feature requests. Enjoy!
Events
Races
Right now, Club owners can only create group ride and group workout events. No races. I’m not sure why races still aren’t allowed, but this seems like a quick add that would excite certain Club owners. Let us hold races, including time trials!
In a related ask: Club events aren’t currently “seen” by ZwiftPower, since they’re considered “private” events. Part of allowing Club owners to hold races should include making those race results visible on ZwiftPower, including ranking points.
Automatic “Public Upgrade”
It’s a well-known fact among Zwift Club owners that Club events get very limited signups unless they’re placed on the public Zwift calendar. There’s no clear system for getting your event onto the public calendar, but Zwift could make it happen so easily, while at the same time encouraging Club owners to advertise their events.
Simple signup requirements could be defined which, when met, automatically upgraded the event to public visibility. Something like this:
- 5 signups 7 days prior to event
- 10 signups 4 days prior to event
- 20 signups 2 days prior to event
These numbers could even automatically “flex” based on Zwift signup traffic, requiring more signups during the winter months than in the summer months.
Of course, if a Club owner wanted an event to remain private to the Club, they could toggle that option.
Improved Club Event Visibility
Right now, events from your Club(s) are mixed into the overall events feed in Zwift Companion and not shown at all on zwift.com/events, even if you’re signed in. Additionally, Club events look just like normal public calendar events in your Companion feed. As far as I can tell, there is no indication anywhere that it belongs to a Club, even if you click to see the event’s details.
I’d love to see a “My Clubs” option added to the Companion app event filters, so I could check it and see only upcoming events from Clubs I’m a part of. Additionally, there needs to be some sort of visual indicator telling me that an event belongs to a Club, and which Club it’s a part of. Lastly, these same filters and visibility improvements should be in effect at zwift.com/events for logged-in users.
Recurring Events
Many Clubs hold similar events every week, but there’s no way to mark an event as recurring so it automatically gets created each week and you don’t have to set it up again and again.
Yes, Zwift’s events team can set this up, and that setting is in place, I’m sure, for hundreds of events every week. But this should be a setting that all Club admins have access to, as it would make the creation of repeated events much simpler.
More Configuration Options
I still have to email Zwift’s events team weekly to ask for custom powerup configurations for Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races. (God bless you, James Bailey and Leah Thorvilson!)
The problem is, there are lots of event configuration options that Zwift’s events team can access, but Club owners cannot. I’m not proposing we should have access to all of them, but just being able to use some key ones would let us create more interesting and engaging events, especially once Club owners are allowed to create races.
Configuration options I’d love to access:
- Toggle which Club kit is unlocked when finishing an event
- Choose from one or more pre-approved branded event banner images
- Choose which kit should be used for the event
- Race rules: category enforcement, hardware enforcement
- Custom powerups
- Assigned bikes/wheelsets
- Category pen timing and visibility (important for races)
Club Chat
Clickable Member Profiles and URLs
I’m not gonna lie: this one drives me batty. Probably because members names are blue in the chat, which is the universal color for a hyperlink. But tapping on a member’s name or profile pic does nothing!
In a similar vein, URLs aren’t clickable when pasted into messages. I would love to share helpful zwiftinsider.com links when people ask questions in the chat, but I cannot.
Member Tagging
Right now, you can either allow notifications for all messages in a Club’s chat, or turn off all notifications for that Club. But shouldn’t there be something in between those two? Member tagging. Let us tag a member, and by default let people be notified only if they’re tagged. (Maybe even give the Club owners the ability to tag @everyone, although that may be playing with fire…)
More
These last three features are, admittedly, bigger asks than the requests above. But they would also take Zwift Clubs to the next level!
Custom Club Workouts
Zwifters can already design custom workouts in game. And we can host Club group workouts based on a limited library of in-game workouts. What if we could hold Club events using custom workouts?
My guess is this would require a big rework of how Zwift handles custom workouts today. But I think we’d see a lot of IRL clubs and coaches using this feature.
Custom Kit Designer (Or At Least a Pathway)
If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked, “How do I get my club’s kit into Zwift?” I’d be a millionaire. Everyone wants it. Very few get it.
How awesome would it be if Zwift built an online kit designer (like many custom kit makers have today) which allowed you to design a club kit for use in the game?
Barring that, would if Zwift could offer a clear pathway to getting your kit into the game? Something like this:
- Your Club must have at least 250 members
- You must supply the digital artwork in a format that makes it easy for Zwift to transfer it into the game
- Approximate wait time is 1 week
You’d have Club owners clambering to meet the requirements and get their kit into the game.
Club Leaderboards
This is an idea I’ve heard knocked around Zwift HQ for years, so I know it’s on their radar. Leaderboard stats would include metrics like total distance, total climbing, average climb/distance (so smaller clubs could compete with larger ones), active hours, leaders jerseys grabbed, segment PRs set, and much, much more.
Club Leaderboards would be super fun and build Club camaraderie. There are actually two types of leaderboards Zwift could roll out:
- Intra-Club Leaderboards: just for members of one Club
- Inter-Club Leaderboards: all Clubs together in one place, competing using their combined stats
I’d love to see them both.
Your Thoughts
What do you think? Are my feature requests sensible? Do you have other ideas for important Club features? Or maybe you don’t see a need for more Club features? Share your thoughts below!
wpDiscuz
