Girls wrestling shoes and magazine spotlighting Black creators top winning ideas in Topeka

Keishera Lately, Topeka Capital-Journal
3 min read
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Yes! Athletics owner Deb North, middle, and her daughters Annie, seventh-grader at Landon Middle School, and Rae, sophomore at Hayden High School, on Sunday show off pairs of their women-specific wrestling shoes. The shoes are sold at Jock's Nitch at West Ridge Mall. North received the first-place prize of $15,000 through this year's Pitch Competition.

Topekan Deb North couldn't find unique shoe options for her 12-year-old daughter Annie, an athlete in the rapidly growing sport of girls wrestling.

So North started Yes! Athletics, a sporting goods company focused on wrestling gear for adolescent girls.

North said the business name stemmed from her daughter having the courage to participate in something and say “Yes!” to something that seemed scary.

“That’s part of our mission," North said, "to encourage girls to try scary things and help themselves out.”

Yes Athletics was awarded $15,000 through a pitch contest sponsored by Go Topeka’s Office of Minority and Women Business Development earlier this month.

More:Which Topeka-area girls basketball team will be a dark horse and 4 other questions

Pitch content encouraged Topeka business entrepreneurs

Nine of Topeka’s business entrepreneurs had the chance to showcase their talents for cash prizes totaling $38,000 to be distributed among four business owners.

Glenda Washington, vice president of entrepreneurial and minority business development for Go Topeka, said they analyzed how to provide access to individuals who are marginalized or didn't have immediate access to business needs.

“We wanted to put together equity and offer them that opportunity,” Washington said.

Nine out of 34 entrepreneurs who wanted to expand their business — or had a concept of a business — were chosen to participate in the contest with a mentor who assisted in strategic ways to present their business among judges.

More:With new partnership, GO Topeka and Washburn School of Business see growth for community

First place-winner Yes! Athletics encourages girls to be defiant

Samples of Yes! Athletics wrestling shoes are seen at Jock's Nitch at West Ridge Mall where the shoes are sold locally. Customers can also purchase the women-specific shoes online and at Jock's Nitch locations in Lenexa and Pittsburg.
Samples of Yes! Athletics wrestling shoes are seen at Jock's Nitch at West Ridge Mall where the shoes are sold locally. Customers can also purchase the women-specific shoes online and at Jock's Nitch locations in Lenexa and Pittsburg.

North said the winning $15,000 will go to inventory and marketing needs.

“Defiant1,” “Champion” and “The Beast” are the brands current available shoes, with a variety of different patterns and colors of each. North said “Defiant2” will be released next summer.

The women’s wrestling shoes can be found on the shelves of Jock’s Nitch Sports at West Ridge Mall and the online sporting goods site SV Sports.

“Our target for 2023 is to get on more retail shelves and just continue to grow.” North said.

More:Actor who played the original Black Power Ranger stars in fan film created by Topekan Dané Shobe

Second-place winner Sun-Hero Magazine aims to represent Black youths

Sun Hero magazine is a concept magazine created by Dane Shobe to showcase Black creators. The magazine is expected to be released digitally in 2023.
Sun Hero magazine is a concept magazine created by Dane Shobe to showcase Black creators. The magazine is expected to be released digitally in 2023.

Dane Shobe was awarded $10,000 for his Sun Hero magazine concept.

Sun Hero magazine derives from the 1985 action figure, Sun-Man, who is a Black American superhero created by Yla Eason for her son and other children to see superheroes that identified with them.

Sun Hero Magazine is a Black magazine with a focus on pop culture that will shine a light on comic books, animation, film, toy development and more.

Shobe said while he remembers receiving a Sun-Man action figure as a child, he rarely saw superheroes or cartoon characters who looked like him. Shobe said the Black characters always played the best friend or the villain.

Dane Shobe shows off a poster he designed that grabbed the attention of the original Black Power Ranger, Walter Emmanuel Jones, in 2021.
Dane Shobe shows off a poster he designed that grabbed the attention of the original Black Power Ranger, Walter Emmanuel Jones, in 2021.

“The hope is to now shine a spotlight on these creators, to give Black nerds of all ages and genders heroes that look like them, in more ways than one,” Shobe said. "Representation matters."

He plans to release Sun Hero magazine in an online format through ISSUU as well as look at his options of in-store retail. The magazine is expected to launch in 2023 with quarterly released editions.

More:Meeting the need: Topekan opens pet nursing hotel to care for aging pets, those with special needs

Here are the other two Topeka businesses awarded funding

“Taper Loc” by Tonya Fisher was awarded $8,000 for a series of hairstyling tools for dreadlocks. The products are “designed to make the dreadlock servicing process more efficient and provide comfortability.”

Leslie Fleuranges was awarded $5,000 for Tender Loving Care Pet Nursing Hotel. Fleuranges hopes to add an additional outdoor space onto her business, a pet hotel, to “give the pets the opportunity to be outside where they are most comfortable to be trained or interact.”

Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at Klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Four winners of Go Topeka's pitch contest awarded cash prizes

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