2 years ago, we held one of our first photoshoots with Superhera. I had soft-launched the brand with our first generation of 2 shorts: Wavy Stretchy Shorts and Wrap Compression Shorts.
One of my best friends in the photoshoot posted one of the photos on Instagram. I saw someone comment under the photo, something like sickkkkk fire emoji.
At the time, I needed any positive affirmations. During the primitive stages of starting a company, my vision of Superhera wasn’t fully formed. I had our tagline, Freedom to Perform, and I knew what problem we were solving with sportswear. But I was still fleshing through the aspirational view of all we could become. And that made me deeply insecure.
I clicked on the commenter’s profile. She had played professional basketball, coached collegiate basketball, and now lived in LA and coached youth basketball.
She also created a development and personal branding company, 4WARDMVMT. 4WARDMVMT uses the power of sport to help athletes develop into well-rounded human beings, on and off the court.
We held our first call, which I slated during my 30 minute lunch, while I was still grinding away in my consulting job.
Sherrie just had surgery to repair her torn Achilles tendon. She was grappling with that injury and what the power and connection of sport truly meant to her. I understood, having succumbed to an ACL tear earlier that year while playing my sport. We were both post-college, and having to come back from a major sports injury without the support of an athletic training center or team was rough.
That first call locked in our relationship. We would meet up in person, and a few months later, Sherrie was in one of our photoshoots. She had just been cleared to jog.
Fast forward, I was at her first basketball clinic in December 2022, debuting our MVP shorts.
It was at this clinic that I changed our entire business model.
I created a little booth at Sherrie’s clinic, and I outfitted all of the coaches in our shorts.
The coaches ranged from tall, curvy, athletic, medium height, thin, short, bigger upper half, or bigger lower half. Their styles ranged from androgynous, feminine, masculine, hipster, urban, simple and eccentric.
Every single one of the 13 coaches came up to me and said they had never felt better in a pair of shorts. That’s when I knew that we had to get into Team Uniforms.
I called my manufacturer and gave him an ultimatum — we build team uniforms or I walk. At the time, I was doing the smallest amount of volume at my manufacturer, and made him the least amount of money. He said fine, walk.
He called me 3 days later and he said, “I remember when I quit track in high school because I hated the shorts, and my coach wouldn’t let me wear another pair. My daughter came home crying because her soccer shorts didn’t fit. We’re in.”
It took us about 10 month for us to create a team uniform business model, build traction, find the right fabric and develop a basketball uniform, and formally launch Superhera.
At Sherrie’s clinic this past December 2023, the athletes wore our newly launched basketball uniform. At that clinic, Sherrie told me her next goal was to create an AAU Club Basketball Team. In a hugely competitive and volatile youth basketball environment, this would be a tough goal. She told me she just needed 5 players to field a team.
In March 2024, Sherrie was hosting trainings and tryouts every weekend and most weekdays, to reach her goal.
We continued to design her 4WARDMVMT uniform to keep moving forward, knowing that this team would happen.
In late April, she called me enthusiastically, and she said “WE DID IT. WE HAVE 8 GIRLS FOR OUR TEAM!!!”
Last week, Sherrie picked up the uniforms. In their inaugural weekend, the 4WARDMVMT AAU Club team went 2-0 with 2 tournament MVPs.
I couldn’t be prouder of my friend, who I consider a teammate and a sister, for the perseverance she has had to make her goal come true.
I’d be remiss to say that some of my most pivotal moments and ideas for Superhera have come when Sherrie is in my orbit.
The best part about building Superhera, is the women who this company brings together, and the joy we get in building epic things together.
Cheers to forward movement and finding our Freedom,
Marina