YES! ATHLETICS Gets Girls in Gear for Wrestling

By CHRIS MARSHALL

Photos by JENNIFER GOETZ

Between cheerleading competitions, softball games and track and field meets, the North family calendar fills up fast. Like her two older sisters, 13-year-old Annie North enjoys participating in sports considered “traditional” for girls.

But when she was 8 years old, she set her sights on a new challenge: wrestling.

The idea doesn’t sound as farfetched as it did five years ago, but at the time, it was difficult to find competitions or equipment tailored to girls.

“Girls wrestling wasn’t as big as it is now,” said her mom and Founder of Yes! Athletics, Deb North. “Some girls made fun of her. Boys were brought up to not hurt girls, and whether they win or lose, they could have buddies make fun of them. They were in a tough spot. At the time, they didn’t want them there.”

The few girls who did compete typically had to do so in boys gear.

None of this deterred Annie, which inspired Deb to address the lack of girlspecific wrestling equipment. In 2019, she opened Yes! Athletics, named in honor of her daughter’s willingness to say yes to something scary.

Thanks to Deb’s entrepreneurial spirit, girls like Annie now have access to shoes and other essentials they need to compete in the sport. But long before the business began, its founder had to grapple with challenging circumstances of her own.

The Force Behind the Business

North’s oldest daughter, Grace, graduated from Silver Lake and currently attends Missouri State University. Rae goes to Hayden High School, and Annie attends Jardine Middle School.

In 2010, the year Annie was born, their father, Tim, passed away. Suddenly a single mother of three, Deb, who had been working as a recruiter for 15 years, decided to open her first business: True North Consulting.

“It was a God thing,” she said. “I put on my big girl pants and set out on my own.”

The company employs a team of recruiters who specialize in finding top talent and placing them in roles where they can help businesses grow.

The decade-plus of experience running her own business (and helping others run theirs) came in handy when Deb saw the need for an entirely new venture about a year after Annie started wrestling.

“We were in the process of buying shoes and found there was nothing specific for girls,” Deb said. “Everything was black and white in boys styles and sizes. Girls would have to buy boys shoes and convert the sizes to see what fit them.”

Annie and Deb designed the first shoes for Yes! Athletics together, and a focus group of girls tried them out and gave feedback that Deb took back to the factory — side grips were added, along with additional stitching to increase durability. They were produced in pink, purple and other colors, all with girls sizes printed inside the tongue.

The final product couldn’t have come at a better time. In 2020, the NCAA named women’s wrestling an “emerging sport,” which has contributed to a nationwide expansion of collegiate wrestling.

“There were 80 schools with women’s wrestling when I started the business,” North said. “Now, there are over 120.”

Right Time, Right Inventory

Locally, the sport’s growth is most evident at the high school level.

“Kansas was on the forefront of separating boys and girls wrestling and sanctioning a girls state tournament in 2020,” North said. “Look at Washburn Rural. They have over 100 girls come out. Look at Silver Lake, Seaman, all the schools around here. Rossville had a state championship team. Now there are so many opportunities with a lot of college wrestling teams within a couple hours of here.”

North’s ability to keep up with rapidly growing demand has paid off. 2021 was the first full year of operations for Yes! Athletics. In 2022, sales increased by 60 percent.

She said most business is through e-commerce on Amazon and Walmart websites, though shoes are now available at Jock’s Nitch and Play It Again Sports. Spooky Nook Sports in Pennsylvania also carries them.

“I’m in some discussions with a big retailer, so that’s a goal for 2023, as well as growing team sports,” North said. “Team sales will really get going in June, and there will also be opportunities on our website for apparel.”

Local business organizations have been invaluable for North and her store. In 2021, she received a Game Changer Award from Win For KC, an initiative promoting women’s sports. In 2022, she won the Pitch Contest sponsored by GO Topeka’s Office of Minority and Women Business Development, receiving a $15,000 grant to pay for inventory. This April, she was the recipient of an Emerging Innovation Venture Award through GO Topeka.

Pay it Forward

For all the community support she’s received, North aims to pay it forward whenever possible.

Yes! Athletics supports Special Olympics Kansas, Wrestle Like a Girl and Beat the Streets, which offers lifechanging resources for at-risk youths.

“They provide tutoring, mentoring, college visits and ACT prep, and we provide shoes to them through a buy one, give one campaign,” North said. “We send 100 pairs of shoes to girls who otherwise wouldn’t get them.”

To further grow its brand, Yes! Athletics sponsors UFC fighter Miranda Maverick and Olympic hopeful wrestler Lauren Louive. In addition, the company has 30 brand ambassadors across the country and features a high school wrestler of the week on its website (yesathleticsusa. com).

“I try to focus on the mission, which is to support girls and encourage them,” North said. “We love the fact they said yes to this sport that was pretty nontraditional until a few years ago. That’s what will sustain us in the long run. Hopefully, we make it clear in our messaging we’re not out to make a buck.”

As far as day-to-day operations, Yes! Athletics essentially runs itself, North said. A warehouse handles all order fulfillment and deliveries, which frees her up to focus on bigger-picture needs.

“They say you can either work on your business or in your business,” North said. “For the past months, it’s been a lot of working on the business.”

Just say “Yes!”

For all the company does for the sport and its participants, North’s top priority is saying Yes! to the three girls who matter to her most.

“When I became a single mom, people said, ‘You can’t do it all, don’t try to do everything,’ but you do what you need to do,” she said. “The time I invest into Yes! Athletics makes it a little tougher, but based on the fact that I can set my own hours, I’ve been to every single one of my girls’ sporting events. You name it, and I’m there.” TK