Cheering for home-grown athletes, particularly during the Olympics, is rallying and patriotic for many Canadians.

Despite the immense support from home, one factor still rests on many Canadian athletes’ minds, even mid-event: Their finances. 

During the pandemic, Canadian national team speed skater Hayden Mayeur started his company, Hayloft, as a way to earn a few extra dollars when he needed them most. Now, the company uses a new and improved espresso bar, and supports a dozen athletes just like Mayeur.

As a Canadian senior national team athlete, Mayeur earns $2,275 per month, an amount that is stretched thin when covering things like rent, food and even gear, with a single set of boots costing nearly $3,000.

Mayeur said that without sponsors and a part time job, “it’s just not possible to chase Olympic dreams.”

 “That being said, we live in a country where athletes such as myself, we’re doing it because we’re proud to wear the maple leaf and we want to go to the Olympics, and this is why we’re here,” he said.

“The same year I was able to leave my part time job, I won a world championship medal in the Netherlands. I’m tracking as an Olympic athlete for 2026 and I would say a good chunk of that comes down to what the business has been able to do for my work hours.”

Prior to the pandemic, Mayeur was working part time at the olympic oval. Because of his intense training, his schedule became unsustainable and overly demanding. 

“When COVID hit, I had a little extra time on my hands, and I decided that there’s gotta be a better way to take control of my work hours while being able to focus on sport. So I created Hayloft, which started in a little antique truck and we entered into the private events industry right away,” Mayeur said. 

Hayloft began as a pop-up shop for Mayeur to use on when he had the time, but took off quicker then Mayeur anticipated.

“We started working with some of the large companies across the city offering private espresso bar services for their functions. From there we snowballed with the athlete owned and operated model,” he said.

Mid-2024, Mayeur expanded his business model.

“I decided I was at a point where I could start to bring on teammates I knew needed a little bit of extra money here and there,” he said.

“In the last six or eight months, we’ve fully rebranded and shifted the business into creating this new atmosphere for athletes to be able to make that extra cash that they need to be able to focus on their Olympic dreams.”

The business now runs inside of a barn-themed trailer, fit with all the needed coffee bells and whistles. Mayeur, admittedly, is not a big coffee drinker, but said that a coffee business stood out to him as something that “everyone drinks” and will never fall out of trend. 

“I simply saw a business opportunity in 2020 when I was trying to find a way to take control of my working hours. I saw a business opportunity in the coffee market, and in all honesty, the equipment side of things always fascinated me,” he said.

“I’ve always been quite nerdy about espresso equipment and such. I decided, ‘hey, if I do something fun, important, I put my name behind it, it could maybe do well.’”

Caitlin Nash, a luge athlete, said that she got connected to Mayeur through mutual friends and teammates. She said she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with other athletes, including Mayeur, as well as Hayloft’s adaptive work scheduling. 

“Hayden (Mayeur)’s structure is very cool. It’s just shift work, so he curates it to people that he thinks would benefit from the experiences if people are interested in going into those fields. Every week, he’ll just put out some shifts and ask you if you’re interested, and if you’re not, then totally fine,” she said.

“We’re able to pick up as much work as we want or need, which is very flexible, and that’s very unique. It works well for a lot of athletes.”

High-end coffee and Olympic ambition in southern Alberta

All Hayloft ingredients, including Calgary’s own Rosso coffee beans, are locally sourced. However, Mayeur said his company is open to work far from home and hopes his business model is one day expanded to athletes in cities across Canada.

“We do service in southern Alberta for the most part right now. There’s not really a lot of businesses that focus on high end espresso the way we do, so if a corporate client is willing to book us to travel, we’ll travel,” he said.

“But for now, we’re servicing for the most part southern Alberta we’ll go out to Banff, Lake Louise, Red Deer, Canmore. 

“Any companies that are kind of looking to do coffee on the spot for their staff or for clients or for a private event, and bringing us on to service that event is going to directly be supporting all the athletes that are behind the bar that day serving you your coffee.”

Before venturing too far or looking ahead to the upcoming Olympics, Hayloft will be present for Calgary Folk Fest, July 24-27.