York Athletics is a company I’ve written about before. What I liked about the brand is their simple approach to footwear and their core approach to their niche. York is a brand for fighters. They support boxing and technical sports like mixed martial arts. Their blog reads like a training manual for those interested in learning more from the people who utilize the art of pugilism to overcome depression, ptsd, and the various problems that life hurls at us all on a daily basis.
The FRANK by Aly Raisman is a shoe that remains embedded in what I consider the best approach for a footwear company: limited SKUs created with thoughtfulness and a message for a particular segment. Most brands can’t be all things to all people. In a market where one company could crush almost every footwear company in athletics, smaller athletic businesses have to “get in where they fit”. YORK has two styles: The Henry and The Frank. Their work with Aly, a champion Olympic gymnast, is so out of the ordinary that I consider it important enough to share.
Think about this, Aly Raisman could have done with Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas did. She could have cashed in with Nike and Beats headphones, or parlayed her fame into a Kellogg’s sponsorship and television shows. Instead Aly Raisman did the most difficult thing in the world. She came out against her abuser Larry Nassar. She made a conscious decision to fight so that other girls could see the importance of standing up to speak out against sexual abuse.
The hashtag #worththfight means more because the easy thing to do would be to align with one of the bigger brands with more name notoriety, but a fighter working with a company built by fighters for fighters is both symbolic and powerful.
Take a few minutes to discover YORK Athletics by visiting the link below: