RUGBY RISING THE UNITED STATES OF RUGBY

During the Summer Games of Paris 2024, we all watched Rugby a lot more as we watched Team USA Mens and Womens hit the global stage and in the case of the women, they brought home Bronze! Rugby is a major international sport and is one that continues to grow in the US! In The United States of Rugby we find out more about this sport and its focus on growing it here domestically by following the Chicago Hounds. who are in their 2nd season of Major League Rugby (MLR). This series can premiered Feb 21st with weekly episodes on Roku. With the US hosting 2031 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women's Rugby World Cup on the horizon, we sat down with filmmaker Alex Donnelly to find out more about the series and his approach to capturing this story.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Prior to talking about this series, can you tell me about your background and are you a rugby fan or have you played the game?

ALEX DONNELLY: I come from a background in documentary filmmaking, with a focus on telling human-centered stories that highlight the depth and beauty of everyday experiences. As a non-sports person, when I arrived on set, I had never seen or certainly played a rugby game in my life, I certainly didn't know the rules, or what the positions were doing what - I've come to know the game all too well now - but what I did immediately recognize were stories of resilience, and abundant passion—qualities that rugby represent so well. Throughout this project, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for the sport but more so for the people who dedicate themselves to this gladiatorial game.

AM: What attracted you to United States of Rugby and to be part of this project?

AD: At the outset, what really drew me in was the opportunity to explore something new – something I had never seen before. Rugby has such a rich history internationally, but in the U.S., it's still in its startup phase, trying to carve out its place in the sports landscape. I was excited to document this moment in time - the players, the fans, the clubs, and the league—all pushing to break through and establish rugby as a major force in American sports. That pressure, combined with the sheer dedication of everyone involved in (and behind) the game, made it an incredibly compelling story to tell.

As we progressed through the season, my wife (who is now a big rugby fan) shared a quote with me that I believe encapsulates the heart of this series: “The point of desperation is often the point of truth.” (Author, Matt Haig) No one wants to feel desperate or backed into a corner, but those moments—when challenges feel insurmountable, when you’re forced to navigate uncertainty—are where we truly discover who we are. Rugby is a sport that physically embodies that idea. Whether it’s being smashed into the ground by someone twice your size or facing a more universal, everyday struggle, it’s in those moments of discomfort that we learn the most about ourselves. This series captures that raw, human truth—both on and off the field.

AM: What was your approach for this series as the story is multi-layered in terms of talking about rugby, MLR, the Chicago Hounds, the game in the U.S., placing it on the stage next to other countries where it’s very popular, and showing us details about the game and the passion behind it?

AD: With so many layers to the story, my approach was to always ground it in the human experience - who are these people? Rather than just presenting rugby as a sport, I wanted to showcase the people driving its growth in the U.S.—the players, coaches, and staff who are deeply invested in its success. By weaving in some historical context, the rise of MLR, and the Chicago Hounds’ journey thus far, we aimed to create a narrative that not only educates viewers about the sport but also connects them emotionally to the people behind it. The goal was to highlight rugby’s unique culture and the passion that fuels it, while also showing how the U.S. fits into the global rugby landscape and hopefully creating some heroes of the game along the way.

AM: What did you learn im this project?

AD: One of the biggest takeaways for me was just how strong and committed the rugby community is in the U.S. You are always one degree away from someone who has played rugby. Even though the sport isn’t as mainstream here as it is in other countries, this does not stop the people who are involved from being incredibly dedicated and driven to see it grow. It’s a sport that demands both mental and physical toughness well beyond what they're getting in terms of viewership, and that’s truly unique.

AM: What do you hope that viewers take away from watching this series?

AD: I hope viewers come away with a newfound love for rugby and the people who are working to build its presence in the U.S. Whether they’re longtime fans or completely new to the sport, I want them to feel the energy, passion, and sense of community that rugby fosters. Ultimately, I hope this series inspires more people to get involved—whether that’s playing, supporting a team, or simply appreciating the game on a deeper level.

IG @apdonnelly

After speaking with Alex, we wanted to connect the stars of the series who play on the Chicago Hounds. We sat down with Noah Brown, Charlie Abel, and Nate Augspurger as they give us an inside view on this game and their passion for it.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with rugby and when did you realize that you wanted to play it professionally?

NOAH BROWN: I fell in love with rugby in middle school, but I only realized I wanted to play it professionally during my freshman year of college when I was selected to play with the USA u18s world school 7s team in Auckland NZ. That’s when I realized that rugby could allow me to see the world while doing something I love.

CHARLIE ABEL: I fell in love with rugby when I was about 10 years old. I had two older brothers who played and they were good, much better than me. I wanted to play with them, but also my dad didn’t want to have to take me to separate games, so he forced me to play up. So I was playing Under 12s at age 10. Later I ended up playing Under 16s when I was 12 because my brothers were 14 and 15 – again, because of my dad. I had to learn quickly to keep up, and I loved it.

NATE AUGSPURGER: I remember falling in love with it in high school. I was 14 years old. And when I started as a freshman at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, I felt like I could see myself playing at a higher level.

AM: Prior to coming to The Hounds, tell us about your rugby career.

NB: Played at Penn High School, then Western Michigan for a semester. Then Indiana University - during my time there I played u23 USA 7s and the senior national team 7s. I also played with the Chicago Lions (national champs) which was the main reason I was tied to the Hounds eventually.

CA: I played for several teams in Australia and one in France before I came to the MLR in 2021 to play with the Los Angeles Giltinis.

I started my professional career in the inaugural MLR season with the San Diego Legion in 2018. In 2016 my international career carried over from USA Rugby Sevens to USA RUGBY 15's with the Eagles. I love to compete at the highest level and strive to be in an Eagles jersey. After several successful seasons with the team out West, I had a great opportunity to move back to the Midwest with The Hounds.

AM: Tell us about the position you play.

NB: I play on the wing, usually the finishers on the field. Trusted to score tries and get up to take high balls out of the air.

CA: I play Prop – both Tighthead and Loosehead, and Hooker in an emergency if you need. A Prop usually likes the physical battle. That’s true for me. It’s all good fun.

NA: I play a position called Winger. It's a fast-paced position, a lot of running, and a winger is usually positioned on the outside, like a wide receiver in football. Scoring tries is a part of the job description.

AM: What is an average week like in terms of working out to prepare for your next rugby match?

NB: On an average week I have team trainings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, with rehab/prehab early in the morning then gym sessions later in the day. Then often I’ll do mobility work after the training day has ended.

CA: We do 3 gyms sessions a week, 3 field sessions, a recovery day. And then I do heaps of (physical therapy) treatment because I’m getting old (a youthful 33).

NA: Generally, there is a lower physical intensity with a mental focus approach early in the week. Recovery and treatment offered through the week, as well as chiropractic two times a week. We will have daily gym sessions and meetings to start off a given day. We raise the physical intensity in the middle part of the week. Much more running, training, and competing. The day before the game there is rehearsal time. Gameday is the best day of the week, say your prayers and go as hard as you can.

AM: On game day, do you have any routines that you do in preparation for the match?

NB: I just review my journal in which I have goals that are aspirations for the match. I say them to myself 3 times in a row.

CA: I do. I have lots. My gameday routine really kicks in when I get to the stadium. I’ll have a shower, a cheeky cold shower. I have to get my ankles strapped (i.e. taped) by Sam (Lead Athletic Trainer Samantha Malette). It has to be Sam. She’ll do ankles, left then right, always in that order. Then she tapes heat pads onto my back. Then I apply heat cream all over my entire body. It’s basically bath of heat cream, so my whole body is boiling. I’ll have some snacks, like gummy lollies and an energy beverage. Then I put my stuff on: left sock, left shoe, right sock, right shoe, fold the left sock down, fold the right sock down. Shorts, then I tape my wrists and thumbs – right first, then left. Lately I’ve been adding a nose strip. I think it helps.

NA: I do 20 minutes mobility. 20 minutes activation. 8 minutes speed mechanics (pre game warm up). I say my prayers in the morning. Sometimes I'll have music on and I try to have a smile when I greet my teammates, front office, stadium staff etc.

AM: What routines do you do to come down from all the energy that you had on the field?

NB: After a match the best way to come down for me is to get around the fellas and have a few beers.

CA: I don’t do anything after a game except a little celebration.

NA: I like to go home, put on my pjs and be with my wife and my dogs on the couch.

AM: We got to know more about you, rugby, and The Hounds. What did you enjoy about this series and what do you want viewers to know about rugby?

NB: The doc covered a lot of the PG-rated parts about the sport, which I can’t blame them for. But the really fun parts would be the couple big nights out we have a year, called socials. The whole team gets involved and it’s goofy and raunchy and hilarious. I wish more people could get an idea about what that’s like because it shows how the team is really a family of brothers, not just a sports team.

CA: Rugby is mad fun. The special part about rugby is the culture around it, outside of the game itself. It’s the lads, how we interact with each other and with other teams. It’s very confrontational and violent during, but after it’s very relaxed. You’re mates with everyone.

But, respectfully, I’m going to try to smash you if you’re on the other team. Respectfully.

NA: I liked the action snippets from the games. It reminds me of the games from last season and watching the Hounds compete in slow-mo is fun. I hope viewers can fall in love with how professional rugby in America connects a very diverse collection of people from all over the world. The game of rugby is a unifying sport, the ultimate team game.

AM: What would it mean to you to play for Team USA for LA28 and the World Cup in '31?

NB: Playing for Team USA in LA28 and the World Cup in ‘31 would mean everything to me. Those events will be pivotal in the development of rugby in the United States and I desperately want to be one of the players that prove to the world that we belong at the international table.

NA: Highly unlikely.

AM: What does it mean to you to play for The Hounds?

NB: Playing for the Hounds is like playing for my home town team. My parents can make it to every home game and I love what the Hounds are doing to grow the game in the Chicago. I am extremely grateful to be a part of it.

CA: I love the Hounds. The community of rugby in Chicago is great. I’ve worked with heaps of the club teams around here. I love the games, I love the fans. Playing for fans in the Midwest is the best.

NA: After spending one season in Chicago with the Hounds, it means a lot more to me. I feel close to home in Chicago and have seen my immediate family more this past year than the last 5 years. I love to represent the Minnesota and the Midwest rugby communities in the league. I would love to win an MLR championship with this team.

AM: How do you take time for yourself?

NB: When I’m not on the field I have recently been making time for myself by having a little creative outlet. I have recently started making clothes with a sewing machine and it really calms me down after throwing my body into musclebound Hounds all day.

CA: I have three kids and I love to be around them and my wife Logan.

NA: I like to go for a walk with my dogs. I play my wife in board games and cards. I found an old Pokemon game at my parents, so I'm trying to catch them all. My wife and I play pickleball when it warms up and I coach on the side which is a good balance for me.

IG @noahbenbrown

@charlie_hors3

@nthanielchannel

@chicagohoundsrugby

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | United States of Rugby

Read the FEB ISSUE #110 of Athleisure Mag and see RUGBY RISING THE UNITED STATES OF RUGBY in mag.

THE JOY OF ACCESSORIES | TONY DROCKTON, HAMMITT

Accessories are always the favorite part of our look and it's always great to add to our collection. Over a decade ago, we learned about a boho brand that allowed us to wear them with a number of our outfits, no matter the style we were rocking at the time. This brand is known for their leathers, fabrication, style, and very quickly become a go-to that you enjoy wearing!

We caught up with CEO/Founder, and Chief Cheerleader, Tony Drockton of Hammitt. His passion for this brand and its growth is undeniable. He believes in having fun in the workplace and creating memories for those that will wear the brand as they make it their own. We wanted to know more about how the brand started, how he came to the brand, the design aesthetic, and upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for.

ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s such a pleasure to connect with you as we have been a fan of the brand for as long as it has been around! I also love that we have a few things in common from both of us being from the Midwest!

TONY DROCKTON: I’m from Cleveland and I get to make fun of it because I was born there. It was great growing up there, but then I just absolutely wanted more. I like going back, I’m grateful to have family there, but I’m also grateful as you know – you being on the East Coast and me on the West Coast, it’s great to be here! Where in Indiana?

AM: Indianapolis and my parents met and graduated from your Alma mater, Bowling Green State University!

TD: Oh wow! I’ll be back there in BG this month.

AM: Nice, I went to Indiana University.

TD: Yup, that’s a good one! BG, they have a thing called Entrepreneurship Week every year and I started going back last year and I’m going back this year. I get to speak and judge a competition it’s so fun!

AM: Before we delve into talking about the brand, can you tell me about your background and how you came to Hammitt?

TD: Well we are in our 16th year, quick start, I bumped into Stephanie Hammitt when she was making the bags locally and I fell in love with her as a person as she’s wonderful. She was looking for an investor and I loved the designs and the brand and thought, “let’s give this a shot.” That’s the nexus and once I got into this industry, I fell in love with it.

AM: I remember being gifted a back back in 2009 at an Editor event and I love a lot of the things about that bag that are still cornerstones of the brand. The hardware – the rivets are one of my favorite things, the beautiful fabrication, just how easy it is to wear. I would take them with me to TV segments, a number of events, and travels. I think that it is a testament to the brand that it has really held true as well as having grown into other categories, which is great!

TD: Thank you! The DNA of the brand has been since Stephanie Hammitt and it has really iterated along what we felt would improve the functionality, keep it relevant on the design side, and more importantly to last multiple generations. It’s really about standing the test of time like you mentioned. That’s what we look to do with every new design and also some of our earliest designs are some of our best sellers.

AM: For those that aren’t familiar with the brand, how would you describe what Hammitt is and what are those main things about the brand that people can always see?

TD: I’d say the joy of the brand is how I like to describe it. Like you said, years ago you ran into it and you still remember it and wear it. I think that whether you’re manufacturing footwear or handbags or furniture or cars, when you make something that people get joy out of being apart of, wearing, driving, being in a community of, you’ve nailed it. Think of the late Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, I was just relistening to his biography and he talked about how he wasn’t a shoe guy, he was an experience guy and that he wanted to make sure that his internal team, his vendors, and his customers all had a great experience with Zappos. I follow that same lead with Hammitt.

AM: Being the CEO and the Co-Founder of the brand, tell me about your roles at Hammitt and I also love that you are the Chief Cheerleader which I think is awesome!

TD: Thank you! Well you know, when you’re the founder, you do it all. There’s just a couple of us in the office including our current designer, Jeanne Allen, she's on her 10th year. Then you grow into sort of more of a leadership role as a CEO. I stepped away and became Chairman and brought in a CEO for 7 years and then he just retired. We retired our first long time Hammitt person in March and now I'm CEO again! So I’m Founder, CEO, and also the Chief Cheerleader which has always sort of been my role. I go back to my football days where I was always the guy cheering them on whether I was on defense or offense saying, “we can do it, we can do it!” Whether we were down 1 or up as you want to keep up that energy.

I think it’s very important for people to have fun wherever they work and also cheerleading our team during some of the tougher years. It’s just as important to remind people to stay humble when things are going as well as they are right now and that’s a cheerleader right?

AM: Absolutely.

What’s an average day or week like for you at the brand?

TD: Ha! There isn’t one! You really want to have an open schedule for when people need you. I’m a big believer in keeping that so that I can have 1:1 time as needed. We also have a limited number of regular meetings that we all have within the company and then I try to spend as much of my time in front of our customers or in front of our retail sales associates at our 3 stores, or with our vendors out in some of our Wholesale partners. That’s the joy of standing by our collection in the middle of Minneapolis, and having people try it on and to ask them how they know Hammitt or standing in my store. Or it’s about walking down the street when someone has it on in the wild and asking them how they know about the brand? The next words they say are the words that energize me. Most of the time it’s, “oh I just love this bag, it was given to me by somebody,” or “that it has traveled with me all around the world.” Sometimes it’s simply how many memories that it has created. That’s what they usually talk about. That’s what is so wonderful!

AM: Well, I love the fact that you are so in tune from the customer side and also with your team. My background was in Wholesale, I worked at Lacoste so I dealt with a lot of our accounts. When you see someone that is in the C-Suite that’s rolling their sleeves up, it’s actually energizing not only from a customer perspective, but the actual team of employees that works together. So that’s amazing.

TD: You know Kimmie, in the earliest days, every new person had to work in our in-house distribution center for at least a week. They got to run the products, they got to ship them, pack them, write the handwritten notes when people purchased them, look at the repairs when they came in, and check in new product. That sort of energy can’t be recreated by starting in the office. We’re much bigger now so not everyone is in our fulfillment center, but many of us still spend time on the retail floor, and if we don’t do that, we absolutely spend time at our events. We throw a lot of events and our team always shows up to support. Being in front of the people that love the brand, it’s not work. If it’s work, get out! The greatest companies in the world do this all the time whether it’s in the fashion industry, or any other industry, or the service industry right?

AM: Yup! 100%

How would you define the Hammitt customer?

TD: Ooo. You know, laying aside demographics and laying aside the main psychographics, she loves life and that’s our customer.

AM: I love that! You never know what detailed answer will come with a question like that and it’s great when you hear it, but there is something simple and expansive about she loves life!

I love that the assortment is so diverse whether you’re minimal or not. Can you walk us through the assortment or major product types of the brand?

TD: Well, let’s start with some signature pieces that have been around for about 5-15 years. We have our Daniel which is our satchel and it’s carried all over the country. It can hold a notebook computer or it can hold just a couple of things for the day. We have the Bryant right next to that – those 2 go hand-in-hand. Our collectors have both. Then you go into our clutches and we have the VIP which has been around since almost the beginning and there is a whole series of VIP different styles around that. The belt bag is hot right now so Charles is in charge. There’s a slingback so you can wear it around or wear it as a crossbody it’s a great bag. Then we drop down into the bag that I like because it’s called The Tony!

AM: That’s fair!

TD: It’s a perennial winner when it comes to events. I’m sure for Athleisure Magazine, there are a couple of people that might like sports and you have to have a clear bag when you’re going into the stadiums! Then The Tony leather sits side by side that series. Then we have a new entrant called the Kyle. Kyle is small and goes everywhere for the woman who seeks joy and goes everywhere, she’s going to love Kyle!

AM: Wow! When does the Kyle come out?

TD: Let’s just say that it could be out by the time that people are reading this!

AM: Ok!

So if there had to be only 3 bags that a woman would take to start or round out her collection what would those essentials be in the world of Hammitt?

TD: If she’s going on a trip and she can only take 3, I think that she's going to pack the Charles for everyday and probably inside of that, she is going to have a Tony or a VIP to go out with friends or for some events. Those are the go-to bags that I see most women carrying.

I have to mention one more!

AM: See that’s what happens!

TD: It just came out and we just dropped our VIP Mobile which carries a mobile phone and everything that you need in a day.

AM: In terms of fabrication, I love that you just have so many colors and textures. What’s your approach when it comes to colorways in general or as it pertains to the different bodies?

TD: The beauty of having a brand that has been developed over this time, I have an amazing design team led By Jeanne and Collier Smith, they’re all about color theory and one just currently came back from over seas and the other is in Brazil right now. Additionally, they were in Paris, they have been to Milan, so they just finished choosing colors for Spring 25 and they’re already looking for colors for Summer 25. They really look at color as a combination of when the bags are going to come out and what is the inspiration for the collection. So, they have some pastels in our Fall collection for 24 and they’re pastels – they’re right on the runway in the Fall collections. They really try to align both with that woman that loves to be a little bit on the fashion edge while also always wanting something that is timeless. So they walk that line with color theory.

AM: In terms of hardware, I have always loved that about the brand as well. Is that the same thought that goes into that by maintaining certain elements of it and deviating a bit here and there depending on the styles that it is on?

TD: You know, we’re really consistent on our hardware. The reason for that is the DNA of the brand is actually the look of the the brand from far away and across the street. So that signature rivet detail either comes down on the side, the bottom, or the front of every design. It’s 1 size rivet and it’s spaced pretty consistently and that’s the main hardware. Then the other piece of hardware is interchangeable, for example, all of our straps are removable so you can move them from bag to bag especially when trends change. So, we’re pretty consistent. But I will let you in on a secret – we might be working on a new custom piece of hardware that may come out sometime this year and that’s new for us! What we will do also is that within the rivet, we may change finishes and we might even change to a custom rivet for one of our collectible editions. We have done a lot of collaborations. So we have done collaborations with different brands so there will be some customization on the actual rivet for a specific collection which you might have seen in the past on a few items and you’re definitely going to see that later on this year.

AM: Well that’s exciting.

What is your process in terms of your inline items when you’re thinking of adding items to the heritage of the brand versus keeping the core?

TD: Again, the design team, their call to action is that when they see a need in the market, then they’re going to bring us a new silhouette. So we don’t hamper them and say that we need 4,000 new silhouettes every week. In general, it comes down to about 4 times a year that they’re going to bring out a silhouette that fills a need as functionality is the backbone of the brand, but that is also probably on trend as we do have the classic silhouettes that are already in place. It’s a combination of the two and I will let you in on another one, every time that we launch a new silhouette, a single H rivet that we put on it is on the right corner and it signifies that it is brand new. It’s only on it when we launch it.

AM: I like that, it’s almost like a hidden Mickey when you go to Disney. When you know where to look.

TD: Yeah! I heard of this thing about the first pickle at Disneyland, have you heard about it?

AM: Yeah I had heard something about it!

TD: We have some Disney girls that work for us and if you’re the first one in the park and you run to the pickle vendor, you get the first pickle and then a button! I love Easter Eggs.

AM: Same!

TD: When I was a young kid playing video games and you would bump into the secret doorway or you would have to tap the keys in a certain way to open up another level, we have a lot of those in this brand!

AM: I love it!

TD: This catalog right here is our latest one and it has multiple hidden Easter Eggs inside of it. We have the H rivet on our bags, inside of our bags is a little vintage tag which actually says when it was made, every bag has a secret little red somewhere whether it’s outside or inside, and it goes on and on and on.

AM: That’s so fun because as people grow with the brand, they have these fun things to look for and there’s always something new to unveil which is what makes the brand so exciting.

TD: It is! People want familiarity, I believe and the familiarity is the consistency of our long term silhouettes and the signature of the detail and the high quality in the functionality. So they also want something new and when we launch a pure fashion collection, so right now it’s April, we just came out with a new colorway on the VIP that will only be launched now on that silhouette and when it’s gone it’s gone. So it’s a seasonal exclusive, now we also may have repeat seasonal colorways that we bring back every year and that would be normally on newer silhouettes or on other ones. So next year if a leather is really good and then we have our long time perennial leathers that we use over and over again and that’s what we call our bestseller collection. So we have the combination of the 3 and that really allows us to serve every customers needs.

AM: About how many launches would you say a year are taking place – or drops? Because I always love that in accessories it tends to be different then in apparel.

TD: They design in quarter periods. So this year, we call is 24.1, 24.2, 24.3, and 24.4, but traditionally they would call it I guess, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Holiday, Cruise but within each one of those quarters, we have our monthly collections and within our monthly, we also have our weekly drops. So really, every week we’re dropping a new leather family and/or a new leather family with a new silhouette. Every month we have new combinations of either leather families or silhouettes and for every quarter, we have a new collection that tells a story.

AM: Your Sales Meetings must be interesting because that’s massive!

TD: Well, that’s our design team. I love it and they come up with everything. They get inspired and we’re in our 24.2 which is Summer. By the way, do you know Jose Canseco?

AM: Um of course one of the premier power hitters in MLB with the A’s and played for a number of teams including the Yankees!

TD: Well, our latest catalog as you can see here, this is his daughter Josie (Kygo Feat. Ella Henderson - Here for You video, Kith Park: SS2019 NYFW, The Surreal Life)! She’s adorable and amazing.

AM: When you first were talking about the catalog a few minutes back and I was looking at it, I thought wow Jessica looks really good but I know she is much older then the young girl that is on the cover, but wow that’s her daughter!

TD: That’s Josie, we shot her last month and this catalog is our summer collection and it was inspired by our hometown of Hermosa Beach which is where the brand is born and raised, where I live right now with my son, our offices, and Hermosa is a very eclectic town. It’s right next to Manhattan Beach, but it’s its own personality. They came back and that was about a year ago and they laid out what they thought would be a collection to honor our hometown and she was perfect. We shot her and everything came together in this collection of what I just told you about it. It has monthly drops, it has weekly drops, we had a big launch event on April 4th and that’s the first time that we have done this sort of launch. But it’s about bringing everyone together to honor our little town of Hermosa Beach – it’s been fun.

AM: How do you approach doing collaborations and partnerships. I love the work that you have been dong within Mary Fitzgerald of Netflix's Selling Sunset as I think she’s great and you can see how she is aligned with the brand.

TD: We love Mary, she was truly a fan for a long time like you, she knew Hammitt. She was a real estate agent right here on the South Bay where we’re from and then she went out to the West side and had the show, she already had our bags so she was already wearing them. That’s one way that we do collaborations when it seems to be a match. Another way is when my design team and myself love art! Art is my personal inspiration. I go to Art Basel, whenever I travel I go to a lot of modern museums so does Jeanne so does Collier and we found Alex Alpert who is our latest collaboration and we found him at Art Basel a couple of years ago and we’re launching with him this quarter next month. It’s graffiti and when you at look at the design, it’s actually all Hermosa Beach, it’s our city, its waves, volleyball, our logo and he drew this on leather and then we made it into the collection. And that rivet which you can see is a melting rivet.

AM: Which is pretty cool.

TD: So Alex is a fulltime artist, young, very cool and he has a collaboration that I can’t mention coming out with a global brand. He’s gotten really lucky and I don’t even know if he is even 30 yet! The commonality between Mary and Alex – it’s the ones that we think have a great personality. They love life and we want to really collaborate with people where we enjoy the relationship.

AM: Are there other collaborations that we should also keep an eye out for? Are you thinking about LA28 which is coming up? I could see some amazing things there.

TD: Yeah, so there’s a women’s rally launching in the Fall called the Princess Rally and it’s a 100 women driving sports cars from Southern California up to Northern California and it’s sponsored by Richard Mille, a luxury watch brand. We’re doing a collaboration between us, Richard Mille, and them.

Every September we have what we call the September Issue. We have a collaborative bag that will be coming out for that this year as well. Then at the end of the year, there is an artist that we have a collaboration coming out with and she is a print artist and that’s Dani Dazey. She has already posted about it and she's lovely! She’s so great and she did a beautiful print and we have a whole collection that we will be dropping before the end of the year with her. We’re already working on our collaborations for ’25.

AM: Haha I’m always thinking of something. Being that my background is in fashion, being a Fashion Stylist, as well as being an Accessory Expert, I love seeing true collaborations between people or brands that are amazing on their own, but when they are brought together, you truly have a whole new way of looking at something that you really appreciate.

TD: You know, it’s wonderful right? One of the things that we do is these pop-ups as we have 3 retail stores – Manhattan Beach, South Coast Plaza, and Le Jolla here in California. For Women’s Month in March last month, every Saturday, there were 5 of them and across 3 stores, we had 15 pop-ups of small artisans – candlemakers, hatmakers, flowers, and permanent jewelry. They came and set up in our stores on a Saturday and we welcomed in our customers to meet them and they brought their fans and we had champagne, drinks, and music pumping. It was a really great atmosphere and we will be bringing in a lot more of that as we go on throughout the year. It was very successful.

AM: Do you do pop-ups outside of California like here in NY? Or are you thinking of making a store in NY?

TD: We have had pop-ups throughout the country, not in the traditional open for 2 month set up. But we have sat inside a Kendra Scott store in The Hamptons or back in their hometown. We have been invited to do trunk shows all over the country with our retail partners and we still do. We just celebrated National Hammitt Day with our largest partner on a Saturday and they had a small gift for all of their clients and it was a lot of fun. NYC, it’s still on my map and my bucket list. In our earliest day, we used to do a week in the windows of Henri Bendel for Hammitt when they were around.

AM: I remember! I loved that store and still miss it!

TD: I loved it too and I liked us being there. So I have always wanted to come back to NY in style and be on 5th Ave for our own pop-up and it will happen one day!

AM: That is so amazing and I can’t wait for that. Are there any pop-ups in your local area that you want to share that are taking place this Spring or Summer that we can keep an eye out for for our readers?

TD: I would say that in our 3 stores at least 1 to 2 times a month we have small artisans and makers that will be coming in and so look out for those. On May 17th is our Annual Investors Day. So we did a crowd funding and we have a lot of collectors who invested and we are bringing them all together and it’s a day of joy and fun. We can share our results and what we’re doing moving forward. This will be the first time that we have done that. So this will be great. Then once a year we usually have an in-person event that is in Nov where people fly in from all over the country and it’s a theme. Last year’s was Mama Mia and it was a Greek theme and people get to come and be in that theme to have fun, food, and great cocktails. It’s also a great way for them to be able to see all of our latest designs.

AM: Obviously as we’ve been talking, it’s a women’s brand, but there are a lot of pieces that translate for a man as well. Would you ever create a men’s capsule collection or go in that direction in some way?

TD: [Smiles]

AM: I thought so!

TD: I don’t know, maybe you’re on to something haha!

AM: What have been some of the things that you have been proud of for this brand?

TD: I mean, I’m always the proudest when someone comes up to me and tells me how much they have loved my Hammitt. It’s always what they do with them, where they traveled, who they got it from, what memories they have created, and the second piece of it is our team! I was so proud of Angel who was just in NYC.

AM: Yup, I saw him and had the chance to chat with him at the Accessories Council event at Tin Building by Jean-Georges.

TD: He started at our retail store 3 years ago and I asked him what he wanted to do and he told me that he wanted to work at our headquarters. I said great and I told him that when he was ready, let’s go.

AM: What are things that are taking place with the brand whether it’s holiday season or whatever that you’re able to share that it longer term that we can keep an eye out for.

TD: I just saw our Holiday collection. It just came in and it’s mind blowing. It’s the colors, the textures, and it’s going to take it to another level and is a celebration of who we are. I gave you the secrets of Fall – the Princess Rally is going to be great, our September Issue, wait until you see it. That’s all I can give you for now!

IG @hammittla

@styleprofit

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Hammitt

Read the APR ISSUE #100 of Athleisure Mag and see THE JOY OF ACCESSORIES | Tony Drockton, Hammitt in mag.

MAKING HIS MARK | ADAM COPELAND

As we look to close 2023, we're excited to have actor and legendary wrestler Adam Copeland! Many know him as a WWE Hall of Famer who wrestled under the name Edge for a total of 31 championships there and he held the World Heavyweight Championship between 2002 and 2013 7 times as well as the WWE Championship 4 times and a number of accolades while there! This year, he transitioned from WWE to the AEW showing that he continues to be dedicated to his passion and crafstmanship of this sport and doing it in his own name.

His love for wrestling is also shared by acting which is another way to fuel his creativity and dedication. Fans of his have enjoyed him over a number of seasons/episodes of Syfy's Haven, History Channel's Vikings, and a number of movies! Now, you can see him in his latest series Percy Jackson and The Olympians where he portarys Ares, streaming now on Disney+. We wanted to know more about how he got into acting, some of his roles that he has been in, being in the Disney+ series, as well as his phenomenal wrestling career. We caught up with him at home to find out more and you can read his thoughts on 2023 and 2024 in our feature NEW YEAR, N3W YOU!

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you enjoyed wrestling?

ADAM COPELAND: Honestly, it was the first time that I saw it. I distinctly remember that it was Roddy Piper and this was the old black and white TV where you had to turn it with pliers, 3 channels, and one of the channels was CKVR TV from Barrie, Ontario. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Pacific Northwest Wrestling out of Portland, Oregon. It was Roddy Piper and I still remember the trunks that he was wearing were like a creamy yellow and green tartan design and he smashed a beer bottle over his head. I just remember – my brain couldn’t process what this thing was, like this guy is a maniac, but I can’t take my eyes off of him. It just kind of blew my mind, because I was young and very impressionable, it just struck some kind of strange chord with me. I think it was because it was just this big larger than life kind of thing. I loved comic books – I voraciously read comic books. I love KISS because they were super heroes but you could go see them in concert. They played characters and so wrestling was that! I could go down to Maple Leaf Gardens and I found out where they came into the building so that I could accost them back there and bug them. So it really was from the first time that I saw it.

Then it was diving into it deeper and discovering Hulk Hogan and going, “woah, what is this guy doing?” His eyes and his energy! And then from there, it was the deep dives and discovering why I gravitated towards certain people’s matches. Like why did I always enjoy wrestling? Watching Bret Hart wrestle and then I guess as I got smarter, more educated to what the industry is, that’s when it dawned on me. I was like, “oh, it’s because he’s really great!” Got it!

Savage I mean, you’re looking at the Macho Man – he’s awesome, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, Bob Orton – man, the flood gates were open!

AM: I grew up in Indianapolis and went to school at Indiana University, and we’d have our friends in our dorm watching the matches before we went out or after studying and I remember when I first saw you in the ring and it was explosive!

AC: That was the guy liner phase!

AM: Obviously you’ve dominated in your career as wrestler without a doubt.

My mom was a huge Highlander fan and I am as well. Seeing you in Endgame was great to see. When did you realize that you wanted to pursue acting?

AC: It was never on my radar honestly. It really wasn’t. The Highlander thing was just that WWF at the time said, “hey, there’s a small role in the next Highlander movie. It films in Bucharest. Do you want to go?” I said, yeah sure. It sounded like fun, it seemed like an experience and I had never been to Bucharest. That’s really all that was, but my entire goal as early as I can remember wanting to have a career, I wanted my career to be wrestling.

The acting thing was always like if something popped up, sure cool. It wasn’t until I was forced to retire in 2011 and then it serendipitously landed in my lap again and it was the Executive Producers of a show called Haven saw my retirement speech and they said that they were in tears. So they said that they wanted a tie into wrestling and a tie in to SmackDown and they said, “can we get that guy, he just retired?” A week later, I was up in Halifax filming and 1 episode became 41.

And in that process I realized, ok this still taps into that creative vein. And that’s the way that I am wired. I like to create. I like to tell stories. So whether that's writing or whatever it is. So I really really enjoyed the process. I really started diving into that because wrestling was off the table. So it was like, if my first love is off the table, all of these things come off of the same tree. It’s just different branches on where you go to on this or over on this one. So once I understood that I enjoyed this process and wrapped my mind around the differences too. With wrestling, I equate it to maybe standup or a band with a setlist that they change all of the time. You play off of and read off of your audience. It’s a really, really amazing thing. What I had to get used to in terms of acting was thinking that a take I did which was really, really good – and then they may not use that one.

AM: That’s true.

AC: Then a year and a half later, you see what takes they use and you look at it and say it’s interesting. I had to wrap my mind around that.

AM: Especially since you can work with one director and they think that that was amazing, but the next director or producer wants and looks for something that’s completely different.

AC: Entirely different! I pretty quickly learned too that if a director has an idea, my job is to try and bring that vision. It’s not really my vision because I can have a certain way that I think that I am going to do things, but on the day, it can be entirely different from the set up, the angles, and all of those things. The director is going to get the shot that he or she wants so you mght as well try and dive in with them to get it!

AM: I really enjoyed Vikings! What drew you to that show?

AC: It was my favorite television show. I loved Vikings. I’d sit down, I’d watch Vikings. I was on Haven for gosh, the first 4 seasons and Vikings was in production then. So once I wrapped with Haven and the show ended, I said to my manager that we needed to keep an eye out for Vikings because if something came along there, I wanted to try to pounce on that. An audition came along for it and again, it was kind of like Haven where the character was only supposed to be in 4 episodes and then before I knew it, Michael Hirst (Elizabeth, The Tudors, Vikings: Valhalla) who is the creator and the writer who wrote all of the episodes, he said we need to write more for Kjetill and I said, I’m in.

AM: I love that show and my sister and I watched a number of episodes together.

AC: I loved it too! I can’t show the girls that one, but I really loved that show. I loved the challenge of a period piece, accents, drama, and those were all things that I hadn’t delved into before. So that was super exciting, the challenge aspect of it, because I love a challenge. I would get my scripts and phonetically write everything out. Ok, there’s a hard ‘s’ here, it’s not ‘is’ it’s ‘sss’ and then I would run my lines. So it became second nature and by the end, I didn’t even think about it and I would end up talking like that in between takes.

AM: Percy Jackson and The Olympians is streaming now on Disney+. What drew you to this 8 episode series? How did you get attached to the project?

AC: So, when the books first came out, I was on the grind. 220 shows a year which means you’re generally on the road 250 days a year. So from the years of 1999 – 2011, I didn’t catch a lot of what was happening in terms of social media and mass media. It all kind of flew by me. So I didn’t fully grasp how huge the books were and I’m kind of glad that I didn’t. Because the audition came through and I was like, “oh Percy Jackson – that could be interesting, ok.” I thought that they had made a couple of movies and that was the extent of my knowledge. So I read for the part and I sort of went, “oh, ok this guy, I think that I know this guy.” I found the comedic beats in it. So I wore one of my Edge/Adam Copeland vests and I wore my Andre the Giant T-Shirts cut off. I have never dressed up for an audition in my life, but I thought, what the heck? I shaved my own head, I had my own little mohawk and I read for it and had a lot of fun with it. It was really funny but Beth said, you had a lot of fun with that and I feel like you found that guy. I agreed, but then you have to throw it away because once an audition is done, you have to stop thinking about it. You can’t dwell. About a month and a half, maybe 2 months later, my manager said, the Executive Producers of Percy Jackson want to do a Zoom. I was like, ok and I was trying to remember when I had read for that. I forgot. Then, sure enough, they were like, “when you get out to Vancouver, -“ that’s when I realized that I had got the part! I told them that I was still wrestling for WWE and they said it didn’t matter and that they would figure it out.

AM: Wait, what?

AC: Yeah, that’s unheard of! I guess they had seen my audition and thought, "he's the Ares that I pictured when I wrote him.” That was a huge boost of confidence too.

I hadn’t read the books yet, but I had found the voice of this character in just reading the sides. That was super fun and then I read the books. I was like, “oh man, these are awesome!” Then learning that over 180 million copies worldwide were sold and it made me really glad that I didn’t fully dive into that knowledge before I read it. I mean I think it would have felt like a different kind of pressure I guess!

AM: Of course! It would be like stepping into Harry Potter without having the awareness of the weight of that franchise and then finding out after being in it.

AC: Oh yeah! Even when I got out to set and realized just the scope and the magnitude of this world, it was really really kind of jaw dropping. But it was such a blast and having seen – as I have only seen the first 2 episodes as well, but I watched them with my little girls who are 7 and 10, they have now watched it 3 times. They absolutely love it and watching it with them and seeing how they react and how much of a smile it has brought to their faces already, I am so proud to be a small cog in this giant machine to bring this thing to screen because seeing the kids reactions have been so massive and so much fun for me especially at this stage in my life, 50 years old, 2 kids and this is something that they can watch. I’m so proud to be part of it. The quality of it, it’s such a good show.

AM: How much can you say about the show as some people who are not reading this may not have seen this yet. What can you say in terms of the backstory? Also, we know who Ares is, but how are we seeing him as it is portrayed in this series?

AC: This adaptation of Percy is very true to the books. I think that that is something that movies weren’t. I don’t think that Ares was in the movie, but he is essentially the antagonist in the 1st season of this series. So there is a lot of big holes there with him being so heavily involved in this. I think that for the fanbase, they can take some comfort in the knowledge that Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series). So from a fanbase perspective, that’s huge!

If you’ve never read the books, you can watch it and get it. It explains itself really well, just like the books do. Within the first 3 or 4 pages, you get what’s going on here. It really brought the character traits together. Walker Scobell (The Adam Project, Secret Headquarters, Blood Knot) is so good as Percy. He has just the right amount of charm and sarcasm. The kid is on his way. He is just so good and at his age, he’s 14 now, but when we filmed this, he was still 12 – ridiculous for him to pull off what he was able to pull off. Just ridiculous to watch all 3 of them Leah Jeffries (Empire, Beast, Something From Tiffany’s) and Aryan Simhadri (The Main Event, Spin, Cheaper by the Dozen) and in between takes, they would go to school. Then they’d come back and they would do another take. Or they would do my coverage and then they would go do a lesson. How are they computing all of this? I don’t remember what I had for breakfast and they’re pulling all of this off. I really can’t say enough about all 3 of them and their work ethic and really just the entire crew! It was a really good place to work even in the time that I was there.

In terms of Ares, he’s – I love him, I really do! He’s just acerbic, a little caustic, he’s angry and a little over his head while being all powerful in a way too. It’s fun to play those beats. Because if he was just a god, this omnipotent thing, how much fun is that? Even when I was in Vikings, ok, this guy goes insane. But you can’t just go insane, there needs to be a reason for that. If I can bite into that, Adam Copeland can bite into that, then hopefully, I can pull out some truths for the character.

With Ares, it’s the classic, he’s the child that feels like he should have gotten more attention and now he’s acting out. He just happens to be in a 6’4” 240lb frame and he’s a god and he has a giant sword. It made for a lot of really fun scenes – and scenes that weren’t in the book and that added more depth into the character. My favorite scene that I was involved in takes place in a diner with Grover Underwood (Aryn) and it wasn’t in the books at all, but it was a really, really fun scene to play off of each other with.

AM: The cast as a whole has incredible actors that are in this alongside with you. What did you take away from this whole experience?

AC: I think that more than anything, it was just, I don’t know – to be 50 years old and go, “right, I’m still wrestling – I’m wrestling again and I’m also working for Disney.” What? When I first started this and started training for wrestling at 17 years old, if you had told me that at 50, A – I’d still be wrestling and B – I’d be working for Disney at the same time, I’d have asked you what are you smoking and can you give me some because that sounds amazing.

Sometimes I just sit back. We did the red carpet for the premier last week and I brought the girls and Beth up with me. Just to see the excitement that they had to be involved in this thing and I think that I actually became a cool dad for about a week!

AM: You know, just walking the red carpet with my dad!

AC: I’ll take it, I’ll take it!

AM: I mean I think back to a lot of the things that I did physically when I was younger and being 44 now, there’s no way that I could do the flips and turns that I could do before! The fact that you’re still doing that, I couldn’t imagine it for myself, so I tip my hat to you sir!

AC: Well, a lot less flips for me now ha!

AM: There’s that, but still! But you’re still out there doing it!

AC: I am!

AM: Are there any upcoming projects in terms of acting that we should keep our eye out for?

AC: With the strike, everything just got put on hold. Then, within that strike, I had transitioned from WWE already and went into AEW, so there has been a lot of change, but all for good! My creative spark has really – not that it wasn’t lit before, but now it’s like woah! I have a blank canvas that I can paint all kinds of different palettes and things that I can use now. There’s a whole roster that I never even touched or told stories with. So that’s very exciting for me.

With acting, I’ve pretty much said since day 1 to my managers and agents, I say no a lot! I don’t even read a lot of stuff. It really has to hit because why do it otherwise? If it’s something that’s meh ok, and maybe it isn’t right or the method that you should use, but a lot of time it’s about who is involved. I would love to work with Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, Boss, Dr. Death) – yes, my mom’s favorite actor. She passes away 6 months later I get offered to play in Money Plane with Kelsey Grammer. I didn’t even need to read the script, I was in. Really more than anything, it’s about what is going to be fun. At this stage, from the time I was 22 on, I don’t feel like I have worked. That’s a gift and I didn’t realize how rare that is, so I don’t ever look past it and that means that I also want to continue that streak. It needs to be fun, not need to feel like work, and it needs to be creative and I’m happy.

AM: We touched on this a bit earlier, but you now wrestle under AEW. What's it like wrestling under your own name?

AC: I think that more than anything, I said this for years and years that I wish that I could have just wrestled under the name Adam Copeland. I mean I don't know, what is Edge? I didn’t even know what Edge was, I just pulled it out of the air, said it, and everyone agreed and that was that! There wasn’t a whole lot of thought put into it. Even as stupid as it sounds, the cadence of chanting – Har-dy, Au-stin, Ro-cky, Ho-gan, E-d-g-e – I was just happy to be there.

So to get the opportunity, I have always used Adam Copeland throughout whether it’s the television that I have done, writing a book, whatever it is. I have always introduced myself as Adam Copeland, never introduced myself as Edge as that was a character that I played on TV. That would be like going up to someone and saying, “Hi, I’m Ares, nice to meet ya.” It doesn’t work that way right?

AM: But an easier chanting name though!

AC: Yes! It is but also Adam Copeland ha! Then also too, in terms of the acting. It’s going to be my name there as well and so if you’re looking at it from a branding perspective it makes a lot of sense in that regard.

AM: Well I think that when you recently did the match with Sting and Darby, those leather jackets! That leather work was stunning. When Beth told me that you are the fashion mastermind behind your looks, how much were you involved in creating that iconic look for the 3 of you?

AC: I came up with the whole thing! I have been drawing my wrestling outfits since I can remember – from 9 and 10 years old. A lot of them from that time saw the light of day. Even drawings from when I was 10, I’ve worn tights that I drew from when I was 10. So, when I knew that we would be teaming, I said, “how do we make this really, really special for this occasion?” Because to me, it is. You have 3 generations. You have Darby, you have me, and you have Sting. To me, you have the future, the present, and this iconic character. So I wanted to be able to have some fun with that. So I said, hey guys, I have an idea for coats are you in and they said, “yeah, sure.” So I got their measurements, I sent them off to Sylvia Jensen who is the mastermind behind Wornstar, she does all of trench coats, my demon wings that I wore at WrestleMania. She and I just sit down and think about the ideas, here’s the shirts – we need Sting’s lapels, we need Darby’s hood, and we need to add elements in. On my tights, I had a skull, but it had the Sting makeup. And then I had the other half of Darby’s skull face and Sting in the middle with his full paint which is a cool visual. So you have half, half, full in the middle.

Those were all the things that ran through my mind because as a fan, I would sit there and notice those things. That made me think, these guys care. They really put thought into what they were doing and what they were presenting. In my mind, my kid mind, it goes to, “oh, that’s an awesome action figure.”

“I think that more than anything, - to be 50 years old and go, “right, I’m still wrestling - I’m wrestling again and I’m also working for Disney.” What? When I first started this and started training for wrestling at 17 years old, if you had told me that at 50, A - I’d still be wrestling and B - I’d be working for Disney at the same time, I’d have asked you what are you smoking and can you give me some because that sounds amazing.”

— Adam Copeland

AM: So to see you guys in the look from Wornstar, the visual texture, the detailing, that futuristic element, I spent quite a bit looking at them from your IG.

AC: What I really wanted to try to convey is that we’re all tipping our hats to each other. We had my coat design, but it still had Stings flavor and Darby’s flavor, but then the face paint is the tip of the hat to Darby the Sting face paint on the tights is the tip of the hat to him and were all paying homage to each other and we all came out with the bats which is Sting and I was like, if we get a single spotlight and the bats come into frame and then it flows and off we go! That’s the stuff that I just love being part of and being really hands on to the point that it becomes fairly annoying to people or that they think, oh great, you took that off my plate – you’ve got it? Cool!

AM: Well I loved it, it was well thought out, and it had quite the production effect!

What are you looking forward to in this portion of your career as it pertains to AEW?

AC: Again, the blank canvas! The massive amount of talent that I have never ever had my hands on! I look at that company and I see Swerve Strickland, I see Darby now that I have gotten to team with as well as Sting! Getting to work with Christian Cage again which we both thought was off the table as he was retired for 7 years and I was retired for 9. Both of us thought that our careers were done and now we’re getting to do this and to tell the story at AEW. There’s Moxley, there’s Bryan Danielson, Claudio, Miro, Hobbs – I’ve never wrestled any of those people and have never performed with any of them. That’s super exciting and gives me a new lease on life. Right? I have 2 years here and there’s a bunch of stories that I’m trying to go down the checklist. In the meantime, I can pass along the vast amounts of knowledge in my 32 years that I have been doing it.

AM: I’m sure you can pass around a lot of knowledge!

AC: Well I figured that that’s part of the job! If I sign anywhere now, I bring all of those years from when I wrestled in Teneessee when 5 people were sitting on barrels of hay all the way to WrestleMania to battle The Undertaker and everywhere in between. With that, if you’re paying attending, you can learn a lot.

AM: With the span of your entire career, what do you want your legacy to be known as?

AC: I have always said that I don’t believe in legacies and I feel that legacies are solidified by the people that are putting together video packages and they’re usually more political than anything else. So I have always said that my legacy is my little girls. Am I raising good human beings – that’s the legacy. I truly feel that my girls are awesome and they are great little human beings. That to me is the legacy.

Did I always work hard? Yes!

IG @ratedrcope

PHOTO CREDITS | FRONT/BACK COVER, 19 - 29 + 34 - 39 Paul Farkas | PG 16 Disney/David Bukach | PG 30 - 33 AEW |

Read the DEC ISSUE #96 of Athleisure Mag and see MAKING HIS MARK | Adam Copeland in mag.

BEING THE ECHO | CHEF YIA VANG

There is something about a great meal that allows you to enjoy the flavors, the ambiance and so much more. When the food becomes a gateway to a deeper understanding about the people and culture, it's truly an immersive experience that leaves you with a bigger takeaway.

This month, we're pleased to sit down and chat with Chef Yia Vang, who infuses his passion for food by sharing his love for Hmong food, his parents as well as the people that it comes from. This multi-nominated James Beard Award chef whose restaurant is up for Best Chef: Midwest for a 2nd year in a row, has two restaurants in Minnesota, Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai. He is also the host of Feral, competed on Iron Chef: Quest for An Iron Legend, hosts his podcast Hmonglish and more. He tells us about the food, his philosphy and the importance of representation.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you first fall in love with food?

CHEF YIA VANG: You know, food and I have a really weird relationship. If you say food in terms of kitchen cooking, I would say that kind of for me, it’s kind of like that high school sweetheart that you started dating and then said, “I don’t know man, I’m going to college and we’re kind of like different people right now.” So I did some other things and then we went through this really weird break up thing where we were together, broke up, and got back together and then like 15 years into it, I said, “I think that I kind of love you!” I might as well put a ring on it! Then, when I got into that mode where it’s like, “hey man, we’re each other’s kind of ride or die right now, huh?”

I always say that about 10 years ago, what happened for me was that I re-fell in love with my first love. I always knew that there was something about working in kitchens. It made sense to me and there was this thing inside of me that it made sense, I just didn’t know why. It took me awhile to figure out my why and once I figured out my why, everything connected and through the hard, the bad, the good, the ugly, and whatever, I knew that this thing made sense.

AM: At what point did you realize that you wanted to be a chef?

CHEF YV: I never – I don’t think that, see I was the dude that grew up saying, I don’t want to do this. I’m not trying to be you the guy who says, don’t give me that title. I really believe that titles are something that you earn and it’s something that is given to you, so I never went out claiming that I wanted to be a chef you know? I knew that I loved to cook, but again, it had to be more than just food and cooking for me. So for me, it was this idea of storytelling. My father is a great storyteller. We always as kids growing up – when he put us to bed or you know, when we would sit down, he would tell us Hmong legends and myths and he was really good at telling stories. So, I found myself as a kid, have you ever seen the movie Big Fish?

AM: I have!

CHEF YV: Yeah, you know how the whole movie, Billy Crudup’s (Jackie, Watchman, Almost Famous) character has weird issues with his father because of the stories that he tells and he doesn’t understand him. That was me growing up because I didn’t understand my father. As I got older, I realized that I am my father and as much as he is a primal storyteller, he can captivate an audience, that was also a part of me. Instead of using pen and paper, a typewriter or a computer, we get to use food as a canvas to tell stories.

AM: What was your journey in terms of where you trained or kitchens that you came up in to get to where you are today?

CHEF YV: I never knew that culinary school was a thing. I didn’t do that and I’m so glad that I didn’t do that. For some people it works! We have chefs that work with us who came from culinary school and they’re incredible you know? I’m one of those people that if my hand touches it, then I can understand it. If I understand how the concept works, then I will be able to do it. My dad, he doesn’t understand English but if you give him a table, he can look at it and reverse engineer it in his brain and he can build it. So for me, that's how I work also. It was just me working in kitchens and I was so young when I started that I was too dumb to realize that what I was doing here, that was very hard. I was just working on my feet for 12 hours and felt that that was what everyone did. I know that I had a sense of what was “kitchen culture,” when I first started, 20 years ago it was like, “hey kid, you just go and you just earn your spot.” Because, that’s just what you do. Don’t try to talk about how you feel. I worked in a lot of kitchens and again, while I was doing it, I never thought that I would actually be doing this. I felt that that was a job, I was doing it at that point to get to the next bigger and better thing.

AM: In preparation in speaking with you, I like reading that you said, that for you, cooking is about intention and interpretation and that that came from your background as a communications major at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. That struck a chord with me as I was a Telecommunications major at Indiana University and I got that! Can you tell me what you meant by that?

CHEF YV: Again, my first goal in college when I got in, all I cared about and I was kind of a gym rat. I wanted to play football and I wanted to play college football. That meant that you had to be an Exercise & Sports major or you had to be a Science Teacher. Right when I got into Biochem, I was like, “dang this is too hard!” So, I literally changed majors a couple of times and I ended up with communications. In my first class, the professor asked, “what is more important? The interpretation of the message or the intention of the message?” We had this big discussion and she gave us this study and we read that 70% of the people based on this qualitative and quantitative study said that the interpretation of the message is more important than the intention of the message. So as cooks, when we’re cooking food, I can say, “oh yeah, this is what my intention is and this and this.” I want to do it this way, because it should be eaten this way. But if the interpretation of the message isn’t interpreted like that, I think that as cooks, we need to readjust ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we’re changing our values and beliefs in what we’re doing, but we have to say, how do we get the message across? In communication, communication is not a monologue. It's a dialogue between 2 people. So, if I am trying to explain something to someone and they’re not getting it. I have to ask myself, “what do I need to adjust on my end?” I think that we live now and the pendulum swings right? It started with the customer is always right. I think that the pendulum swung to that side and then there’s a whole group of chefs who are like, “F- you! The customer is not always right, and we need to explain our intentionality.” Now, it has swung to the other side and what we’re doing is we’re having guests who are dining with us and they don’t get the food. They pretend that they do because you have to look good in social media. So that’s why for us, that’s why I say, “hey, there’s a happy medium over here.” I want to talk about Hmong food. What makes Hmong food, Hmong food? Even Hmong people, we can’t make a decision and be consistent on what is Hmong food. If our own people can’t figure out what it is, how are cultures from the outside going to be able to figure it out? So for the last 7 years, we have had the pleasure – I call it the pleasure, the pain, and the everything to try to say how do we create guard rails, not rules and guidelines around Hmong food. So yeah, it’s been a pleasure in being able to do that.

AM: It’s great that you said it like that because when I interview chefs that are known for Mediterranean cuisine, Italian, French etc. I will ask questions that focus on foods, ingredients and tastes that are indicative of those culinary styles. But again, in watching your videos and hearing you talk about this food and how you see it, you say that Hmong food is a philosophy, and it involves the people that are woven into the food. That is such a great concept. How important are the people to the food in your opinion?

CHEF YV: It is the most important thing. Our food is our people and our people is our food! When you get a group of people that doesn’t have a home and doesn’t have a country of their own, and they don’t have any kind of “marks of identity,” what they do is gather around food.

Because if you think about food, food is so core to survival right? It’s that thing that keeps us alive. Well of course what keeps us alive and is so core to our survival is the closest things to our hearts. It is for us, the way that we think about food, it’s the same way that some people think about their family. They think about the people that are the closest to them.

You know, when my parents came to America, they had to change the way that they cooked because cooking in the mountains of Laos over woodfire, pots and pans in huts made out of tree barks and bamboo, is different than cooking in a duplex apartment in Wisconsin, you know?

AM: Right!

CHEF YV: They had to change and they had to adapt and to survive the way they did things. The reason why is that they had to raise and take care of their kids! As a kid who’s 5 years old who comes to America and then I eat the food that my mom and dad cooks here in the United States and of course it’s going to be different than where they’re from and have a different flavor and taste! But the heart of it is still the same! What we love talking about is the food that we grew up with is Hmong food because it’s made by Hmong people. It’s Hmong food because it’s touched by Hmong hands. Our people if you can see back from generation to generation, it’s about survival and for the first time, my generation, my group of people as I’m 38, those of us that are here now, all the millennials that are the Hmong kids, this is the first time in a long long time in our history, that we don’t have to worry about uprooting and constantly having to move. We don’t have to worry about war and we don’t have to worry about death. When you have a civilization that doesn’t have to worry about that, they have the ability to grow, to dream and to imagine. They have the ability to wonder. I was just joking with a friend this morning and I told him that I felt like Moana from Disney! I can wonder beyond the reef! I feel like I can ask those questions like mom and dad, what’s beyond the reef? Because everything that I have known is in the reef, but now we’re one of the first generations like myself and my nieces and nephews and those that are younger, they can wonder and talk to themselves and think about this idea of wanting to be an architect – what’s an architect? I want to go into finance, what's finance? All of these things are completely different and it's a whole new world! The reason that we can do that is off the backs of mom and dad who cooked this food for us. I’ll be damned if I look at that and say, “well, I’m going to make a twist on it.” How dare I make a twist on anything? I get to add on to what they do. So that’s the way that I think of Hmong food and that’s the way that we can challenge the way that people think of it. We get a lot of push back here and there. But the truth of the matter is, I think that that is food generally. Isn’t that what it’s about?

We have a big family! So there is that thing of wanting to have something better and being able to sacrifice for it. It’s the same thing that our parents did for us. It’s great that we pay an homage to the old school stuff. I think it’s amazing and I do that all of the time. But to say that this is how we have to be – no, that’s how a civilization or a group of people remain stagnant. We live in a world of advancing forward. For our food company, we always say that our core DNA, our core functional values are 3 words are “moving forward together.”

We got those words and are inspired by them because of my mom and dad’s journey escaping Laos after the war.

My dad always said that as a group of people that lived in the jungle for months and months to escape the murders, the genocide as a group, we always had to keep moving forward together. Move forward together.

The question of why are there melting pots all through the Midwest?

AM: Yup!

CHEF YV: Like go to Dearborn, Michigan. There is a huge Muslim population there. Like Dearborn? Dude, they didn’t go to Dearborn, Michigan because of the weather. St. Paul, Minneapolis, has the largest Hmong population. We didn’t come here because we love the winter. We’re from the hills where it’s sunny and muggy, here it’s -30˚ for 5 months!

We didn’t do that, it was survival! In that connection of survival, especially with food, it connects our humanity together. As much as we are different, we’re not that different. That’s what we choose to tap into. In a society and a world that’s all about the pendulum’s swing where it’s let’s all the be the same or we can’t all be the same – that pendulum continues to swing back and forth to create that dichotomy in this country. I say, “hey, we are different, but we’re not that different.” We can share that with Hmong food. We don’t have to wait for a culture to dub us worthy or to hear our stories. No, we have our stories and if you allow us a little corner of the stage, allow us a little corner of a soapbox, we want to tell you that story.

AM: We have spent the last 2 years trying to get an interview with you because of everything we've seen about you on TV and although we have yet to go to your corner of the world to eat at your restaurants personally, We love the messaging and awareness that you do through your food. It’s an honor to be talking with you right now.

CHEF YV: Thank you so much! That means so much! At the end of the day, I have these college buddies of mine and we’re so tight and they always ask, how do you keep it together and I’m like, “I don’t know, I hang out with you idiots!” I tell them that they keep reminding me that I’m just a Wisconsin boy that still doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I love that you know? I love going home and my mom – I remember the first year that we got our first James Beard Award nomination and I was so excited and told her. She was like, “that’s nice honey. Just take the trash out when you leave.”

AM: Haha well that’s the Midwest in us!

CHEF YV: Oh yeah, that is! I remember last year when we were finalists and I was explaining to my mom what it is and she was like, “oh, does everyone in Minnesota get one of these?” And I’m like, yeah, yeah mom sure haha! It’s like bless her heart you know? I feel very very honored to be here and to be able to do all of these things, the TV and it’s such an honor to be part of all of these things.

AM: You’re the chef/owner of Union Hmong Kitchen. Like you said, it was a James Beard Award nominated semifinalist, tell me about this restaurant and what are 3 dishes that we should try on our next visit?

CHEF YV: For sure, we have all of these things going on and we’re very blessed that Union Hmong Kitchen started as this tiny little pop up tent thing at Farmer’s Markets. We always say that Hmong food consists of 4 elements. We don’t say that Union Hmong Kitchen is authentic Hmong food. We don’t say that. It’s a gateway to understanding our people and our food. So we always have the following. Think of meats and three. We always talk about that. It’s the best way to communicate with people especially Southerners when you’re talking about meats and three.

So Hmong food consists of 4 elements. There’s a protein, there’s some kind of rice – it’s either jasmine rice, sticky rice and then you have some kind of vegetable. Sometimes our vegetable is in a broth or sometimes it’s just a vegetable. The 4th element is a hot sauce and there has to be a hot sauce. So when you come to Union Hmong Kitchen, that’s what you’re going to get. You get to pick your meat – your protein and you have your sticky rice – we have purple sticky rice which is historically connected to Hmong people and then you pick a vegetable side. Sometimes it’s a noodle or straight up right now it’s Brussel Sprouts or something and we’ll change it up since Spring is coming. Then we have a couple of different hot sauces that we traditionally grew up eating. So it’s meat and threes, it’s dealers choice.

What we’re very proud of is the Hmong sausage that we created. It is a recipe that my dad showed me growing up. It wasn’t like he taught it to me. He made it and I watched. As I grew older, I would say, “hey dad, can we try that?” We won a couple of awards with it and it’s funny. Again, I told my dad, I mean we’re from the Midwest so you have all of these sausages since it’s sausage central and I said we won it with the Hmong sausage that he created. I brought the trophy to my dad and he was like, “really they liked that silly recipe?” I was like, well this is in your honor I guess! To me, that’s a very very special thing. It’s part of dad’s legacy. We’re to the point with that where a really great Eastern European sausage company, they now make this for us with our recipe. It’s the coolest thing ever to see a Hmong recipe being made in a Ukrainian family which is almost a 70 years old company here.

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF YV: Yeah, you know what I’m saying? How amazing is that?

Nick, the son who is the owner, he’s just like, this is one of our best sellers here. A Ukrainian family making a Hmong sausage which they love themselves using and now it’s in Twin Stadium and now we’re trying to get it out to local shops and stuff like that.

AM: That’s really cool.

CHEF YV: Exactly, so me and Nick are talking together and with everything going on in Ukraine – all the refugees in Ukraine and all the war in Ukraine. I’m talking to him and I understand that as a kid who is a refugee and comes from war too. It’s different parts of the world and yet again, we’re very different, but we’re not different.

That was a tangent but yes, we have Hmong sausage and we worked very hard on our pork belly. Obviously, we have the chicken, and our tofu is good as well! Again, I don’t want to say, these are our 3 dishes, just come in – but we do have what we call the Graze Feast! For me, it came from when we were very poor in college. But when all of the dudes scraped all of our money together, we would pitch in and we would go to Famous Dave’s and we would get the Trash Can Lid BBQ. Do you know what I’m talking about?

AM: Yeah I have had friends who went there!

CHEF YV: Yeah so basically, you get the highlights of the menu on a trash can lid and Famous Dave’s still has that. So this is an homage to that and we call it the Graze Feast. It’s served on a bamboo rice basket. We lay it out on a banana leaf and we put everything on it and it’s like the best of both worlds. If you’re 4 people, I tell them to get it because it is the bang for the buck. You get the whole tour and secondly, you also get a whole fried fish on there too. We have a fried Bronzino fish that we throw on there and that’s another mom and dad classic. My mom loves cooking a whole fish and deep frying and grilling it for dad. Dad just sits there and lives his best life now. His favorite thing that he loves to do when he has the whole fish and all of the sauces on it, if his grandkids are around, he likes to pick off all the meat and to put it on their plates so that they don’t have to fuss with it.

AM: That’s really cute!

CHEF YV: It is. Apparently for King Crab as my nieces and nephews love it, he takes them out of their shell and for shrimp, he peels it for them. I look at them and I stare at them in their eyes and I say, “you don’t know what struggle is kid!” We used to have to pick our own meat and now they’re living it up, those Gen Z kids!

AM: True, but that’s a food memory! They’ll be 20/30 years old and every time they eat that, they will remember what their grandfather would do for them.

CHEF YV: Yup and Kimmie, they’re going to all be soft! They’ll complain that they have to pick it off themselves.

AM: You also opened up Vinai. What does that name mean and I love this residency concept and we’d love to know more about it.

CHEF YV: Over the last summer, we had the chance to run this residency. Vinai again has been that problem child. I love it so much, but they don’t sleep and it cries all of the time. We struggled a lot with the financing to get that building going. So the last 6 months has been an exciting time for us as we can now visually see that this is coming together the way that we thought. My parents always taught me this idea. You don’t just sit there and sulk when there is a problem. My dad always says that you work the problem and you keep moving forward. My mom said that when they were in the refugee camp, it wasn't with us. They had to live everyday and just continue to move forward.

So we said that Vinai wasn’t really about a building. It’s about the people, it’s about the food. So what we have been able to do with Vinai, is to do this residency. After COVID, there were spaces that were open and they were looking for partnerships – a lot of bars, cocktail rooms, etc. They were like, frick, we have to figure something out to get people back and to get butts in seats. So we connected with some of our friends that had these places and partnered up. So we started these residencies so that we could give people a glimmer of what Vinai would be.

Vinai Is the name of the refugee camp that my parents met in ’77, they got married in ’78, I was born in ’84 and as a family, we left there in ’88.

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF YV: Oh yeah, they were there for 10 years. So Vinai from 1975 to 1992, hosted about 90,000 refugees. Out of those 90,000 refugees, 90% of them were Hmong people. And all of those Hmong people who came through Vinai, ended up in the Midwest – all over from Ohio to Wisconsin, Kansas City and Minnesota. So mom said to us, Vinai is not where our story ended, but is where our story started.

So Vinai, the current brick and mortar that we are working on right now, is a love letter to my mom and dad. It is their legacy captivated in a menu, in a building that has a specific design. Vinai is also one of those things that as we were growing up, as Hmong kids, we would talk to each other and ask which camp you were in. It was a way that we would identify with each other. To the white kids that heard us, they didn’t get it that we were born in a camp somewhere that was a summer camp. We’re like, “yeah it’s a summer camp, but not really – you don’t know when you’re going and you don’t get letters.” I just wanted to be able to make these names that we grew up with to become very normal just like if someone says Washington, D.C., Seattle, and NYC. In American culture, we know those names. I wanted to take the name Vinai outside of the Hmong vernacular and conversation so that it becomes part of majority culture. So when people talk about Vinai, I get to talk about mom and dad. I get to talk about the war and how they suffered for 10 years and not knowing as it was a stop gap for all of these Hmong people – 90,000 refugees. The Thai government didn’t want anything to do with them. The US government didn’t want them to come in because of issues regarding refugees. To claim these refugees would be claiming that the US was at war and there was a secret war in Laos that the US had won, but people didn’t know and there was a deal that was made with all of the people that fought. Fought like my father that regardless of what happened, that he would be able to come to America and get free citizenship because he fought for the US government. Then that conversation became one that people said that that didn't happen.

So there was denial in that. So all of that was going on during those years and just a little name, we can talk about that.

So that’s what it means and the dishes that we get to do in there, it comes from mom and dad’s table. Now is it going to be exactly like there’s? Absolutely not. I don’t think that our mom and dad would want us to do that. I know that they don’t want us to do that. My mom has said don’t make it like this, add your touch to it, but this will always be a part of you. We get to showcase our chefs and we have some incredible chefs. The majority of our chefs aren’t Hmong. We always talk about that and I’m very clear. Hilltribe, our mother company, is not about Hmong people just for Hmong people. If you look at the history of the word Hilltribe, those were the tribes of the people that lived in the mountains. It was the people that nobody wanted, the people that they said were the low people and they were not wanted by others. I couldn’t imagine living off of the mountains. I told all of our staff that we were the people that when people said that we were cooks or working in kitchens that we weren’t going to amount to much. It’s where a lot of the troubled kids go to right? It’s that culture mentality, the never will – so I tell them, we need to prove them wrong. What happens when a group of people come together and say we’re going to change the way that we live. We're going to deal with mental health issues, we’re going to deal with substance abuse and deal with all of this stuff. We’re not going to run away anymore from this. That’s why our company is called Hilltribe and we always say, cook from who you are. I don't expect you to be a Hmong cook. But I do want you to love your background, your culture and to love all of that as much as I love being Hmong. To my Mexican brothers and sisters who work with us, I want them to dig into that. To my Ecuadorian brothers and sisters, I want you to dig into that. To Tony who is Chinese, I want you to dig into that Tony. So Hilltribe isn’t just Hmong for everyone, it’s a place where the people can come – the outcasts and the broken can come in and show people what a group of broken people as they come together can go and reach out for more broken people and to create a place of refuge.

That’s why at Hilltribe, our restaurants have to be out more than just the food. If we're only all about food, then all we're going to do is just have pats on the back and accolades so that magazines can write about us. But it has to be more than just that.

So that’s the culture of what we’re driving, but everything comes from mom and dad. Our kitchen table was always open to anybody. If mom was making dinner, she didn’t care what color you were, what you were socioeconomically, or your background. You always had a place at that table. I learned that watching them. I want to be able to continue to do that for all of our restaurants.

AM: That sounds amazing and just doing that is a lot. Yet, you are constantly on so many different TV shows. You have Relish the PBS show which is a great look at the culinary cultural heritage of a number of people who are in the Twin Cities. Such a great concept and are you working on another season of this?

CHEF YV: Yeah we actually are next week! This time instead of doing these 10mins vignettes where we stitch together all of those 10 mins to create an entire show, we’re going to do full episodes. So we’re starting on Mon and it’s Relish but they call it a Relish 2.0. I think that the show is so much fun especially being in the Twin Cities. It's great to engage with people and the show is so much fun. We’ve been super blessed to be on so many different media outlets and many different shows.

I can always tell because I will get stopped you know in public once in awhile and they’ll say, “I love your show!” I can always tell by the age of the person who’s saying it, what show they are talking about. It’s like, are you talking about the Outdoor one, are you talking about Netflix or our feature on Bon Appetit or whatever? It’s always that age group that’s at 62 or above you know it – it’s PBS, public television. Prime time on public television is Sun at 2pm. So when they’re saying it, I know you’re talking about Relish. They’re so funny. They always think that we filmed it last week and we just put it on. So they’ll say, that I was talking about a certain restaurant and they’ll describe it to me and I know it was 2 years ago. They'll say that it sounds good and they should go visit it and I have to tell them that with the pandemic, they had to close.

AM: Right!

CHEF YV: Yeah and they’re like, “but the episode was last week!” So I have to explain to them how TV works and how production works. It’s always fun and that one I really love. My agent is always really funny about it. She’s LA and she’s always focused on getting the best deal. I love her and I get what her job is. She’s like, there’s no pay in that and she doesn’t want me to do things where she feels that I am not getting my worth. I’m like, Lauren, I love this and the producers Amy and Brittany they’re always great to work with and initially the concept was that my mom and I would cook together, but when the idea was pitched, they let me know that they wanted me to host this show for 6 episodes. People ask me where I went for my media training and I tell them that I learned at PBS. I was very blessed and the producers and directors are amazing. I love them and now with this other season coming up, we’re growing it and it’s going to be really big.

AM: That’s awesome! Last summer I enjoyed seeing you on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. I’m a huge Iron Chef fan so seeing you on Quest, I was like, what?

CHEF YV: That show was incredible!

You know, first of all, I was just dumbfounded that Gabriela Cámara was standing next to me. Dude, in my mind, I was like, don’t fanboy man. Act like you have been here before, be professional. In my head, I was like, “I love you!” She’s the sweetest lady ever. Very small and petit, but huge personality! She gives me a big hug and after we were done, she hugs me and whispers in my ear, “yeah, I didn’t want to cook against you, I wanted to cook with you.”

AM: Nice!

CHEF YV: I thought oh wow, could we record that for everyone so that everyone can understand that she said that to me and I didn’t make it up? It was amazing and it was a great time! We filmed it in the midst of the pandemic.

So as a group, and as a restaurant, we were like, we need this win. Not like to actually win it, but to be there and to do this for fun and to celebrate together. It was incredible and the response from it globally, was incredible. Hmong people from all over the country and there’s a group of Hmong people that ended up in France because of French colonization in Southeast Asia. One of my favorite things is that I got a DM from a young Hmong lady who lives outside of Paris.

She said, “hi I want you to know that I’m Hmong. We watched the show because my boyfriend is a huge Dominique Crenn fan and she was on there. When I was scrolling through there, I saw you and your name and I thought to myself, I think he’s Hmong. When I watched that episode and that first introduction, by no means of me doing anything, I cried because it was the first time that I saw our people on this global level.” She continued by saying, “my boyfriend’s French, I’m disconnected from my culture and I felt so proud being Hmong at that time. I looked at my boyfriend and I said to him that’s our people, that’s our story. She told me that being in France, they don’t talk about Hmong people.”

It was a global thing. There were Hmong people in Australia that DM’d us letting us know that they loved sharing the episode with their friends to let them know about our people. That to me, I’m not a huge competition TV person. I knew that when Netflix came and they had that offer, we had to do it and we were doing it, we would do it the Hmong way. We were going to do Hmong food on there. Even though some of the producers wanted us to be more global, we told them that we were sticking with Hmong food. I knew going in that we probably wouldn’t win. I didn’t care, just being on there was a win for us! As chefs, we were like, “dude, if we beat Gabriela Cámara then we know that this was rigged!” That was amazing and it was fun to be part of that and to be in that Iron Chef family.

AM: You also have Feral! Congratulations on the 1st season and I know you’re renewed for the 2nd season as well which drops later this year.

CHEF YV: I don’t mean to interject, but we’re actually just shooting season 3.

AM: What?

CHEF YV: Yeah, I leave in 10 days to start shooting season 3!

Season 2 was all filmed this fall right before the beginning of winter. But I’m leaving in a couple of weeks here to shoot season 3. The 3rd season was renewed about a month and a half ago. I think that they have all the creatures down and the locations down. They just need to clear up a couple of them. I’m really excited about that.

I tell my team that filming wise, I need about 8 weeks a year to do filming projects. 10 months out of the year, I’m there, I’m a restaurant guy. We train and we have an incredible team that takes care of business. They take care of everything while I’m gone which is the equivalent of 8 or 9 weeks.

There are some creatures coming up where I’m like, ok holy crap. I have no idea how I’m going to handle that, but I will just have to get it done. There’s some freaky stuff where I’m like – frick!!! Season 2 was pretty crazy, we had some freaky moments where I was like, what the hell am I doing here? It was amazing and season 1 was awesome. I learned a lot from season 1 to season 2 and heading into season 3. Sometimes you learn that nature doesn’t go along with filming production crews. You just have to say, ok, I'm trapping a beaver right now. The beaver literally looks like an overgrown rat and I have to skin and cook it up. It has some weird teeth looking at me, it’s 40lbs and it’s heavy, and it smells like wet dog. You gotta do it!

AM: What drew you to the show? It’s an interesting concept, you have these animals that are invasive in the environments that they are in. You learn how to trap them and then you cook them. What was it about this that made you want to host this show for all these seasons?

CHEF YV: So, here’s a couple of things. Before I get into anything, I always ask myself, what am I doing? First of all, I will be very very honest. I have been very honest about this. When you think of Outdoor, you think of white dudes, hillbilly hicks, hunters that lean towards the right. When you think of the Outdoor Channel, you know the persons that you’re thinking of, right?

AM: Yes.

CHEF YV: I get that. To be completely honest, some of the media stuff that we did for Outdoor - this is a media outlet. We live in a world and a country where it’s ok to have different perspectives. Right away I knew that this was different. Most of them have never heard of Hmong people. They have never heard of the Hmong story. They never heard about the fact that if you want to talk about patriotism, the Hmong people like my dad at a young age, was contracted out by the US government and trained by the CIA and Special Forces to fight in the mountains of Laos for American interests. They were patriots before ever being guaranteed any citizenship to the US. So when you have people who are saying, true citizenship and patriotism, my father is one of those. He loved America so much that he risked his life to fight for America not even knowing if he would ever come to America. I get to talk about that, the whole intro of our show is about that.

At the end of the day, the idea that going out into the woods, the jungle to some waterway and finding whatever invasive creature is out there to harvest and to hunt them, and cooking them – that is what they do in the mountains of Laos. Lizards, bats, sparrows, weird looking eels, and fish. That’s what my parents did. That’s what my dad did as a boy. I get to do what our people have been doing for thousands and thousands of years. I get to do that and there is a show about it. While others might think that it’s weird or gross, eating an iguana or a lizard for Hmong people in the mountains of Laos, it’s not eww or gross, it’s actually a Tuesday. That’s the protein that they can get. Having pork and beef, that’s a luxury. Saying you have pork to us, that’s amazing that’s a celebration!

AM: Like you said, it’s about survival and what you have that is in abundance to you. There are dishes that can support this if this is what you have in order to nourish your body. It’s important to juxtapose that and let people know that this is not just something that happens in other parts of the world, but in various parts of the US as well. Either by necessity or people simply enjoying it.

CHEF YV: I also think that what I am trying to say to the audience is this, look at home, you may make Chicken Dumpling Soup, but now, we’re making Squirrel Dumpling Soup. You’re just changing the protein out. Again, we’re different, but we’re not that different. Because the base to both of these things is still the base. The reason why you use chicken is because it’s easier to get chicken at your store. Why is Darrel from Southern Illinois using squirrels? Because that is in his backyard and the closest grocery store is an hour away. This isn’t him trying to be cool and to use it as a shock factor, he’s using that squirrel because there are plenty of squirrels that have been gnawing on those frickin’ acorns and they have that extra thick hind quarters, you know what I’m talking about? Like 3c’s kind of thick.

AM: Squirrels are vicious!

CHEF YV: Yeah like if that squirrel had yoga pants on its ass would be turning heads kind of thing. That’s delicious! We’re still talking about squirrels right?

AM: So in addition to your work in TV, you also have your podcast Hmonglish. It focuses on people, culture and Asian excellence. How does it feel to use your platform in this way, but also to talk about people that you also want to highlight?

CHEF YV: Prior to Hmonglish, we had this little podcast called White on Rice. We were interviewing all these people from Minneapolis and it was kind of our way to counter not being able to hang out and be with people during COVID. So, we thought, we’d bring people in a room that were 6' away from us so that people could hear what they were doing. It was cool because people enjoyed and felt that they were getting to meet all all of these people because of our longform podcast. We weren’t really smart about anything. But then when we really started thinking about it, Hmonglish came from when we were growing up, we would speak to our parents in Hmong but then there would be these English words. So if I was asking for a computer, I would say it in Hmong but then would say computer in English. So the Hmong kids, we just started calling in Hmonglish. I noticed that what Hmonglish really meant was this beautiful collision of 2 cultures. When you have 2 cultures collide, you’ve created a 3rd culture and in that culture, you’re trying to make sense of what it means. When you create a new culture, you’re trying to figure out what the norms are. You’re trying to figure out how to speak another language like for example you do fashion and all of that stuff, so when like Hip-Hop culture struck mainstream culture, there was this 3rd culture that was created right? Because mainstream had this culture where everything was formal and you enunciate very clearly and then you have Hip-Hop culture that hit it and that was more of a go with the flow and you had this different flowage and then it’s like does mainstream culture become Hip-Hop culture? Is Hip-Hop culture mainstream culture? Or how does mainstream culture affect Hip-Hop culture or does Hip-Hop culture become more diluted? There’s all these questions and all of these conversations.

The same thing with Hmong people or Hmong Millennials who either came to this country really young like I did or was born in this country. The Hmong Gen Z. I was born, I’m an American, but man, I’m still Hmong. How does this work? So we just had all of these Hmong guests come in who straddle these different cultures and who talk about their experiences.

Like Xee Reiter is a good friend of mine and is an incredible, incredible artist. Water painting, water color – all of that stuff. Her husband is white and they have been married for 15 years and she’s talking through that. We’re talking to another friend of mine, Pahoua Yang Hoffman who is the Senior Vice President of Government & Community Relations of one of the largest healthcare provider here. She’s an executive and she's Hmong. What does it mean to be an executive and you're rolling with all of the big boys that make the decisions that are billions of dollars. How do you do that not only as a woman but as Hmong? There are all of these expectations like Hmong women are docile and submissive – how do you navigate that? It’s such an incredible podcast and we dig deep into that.

We have these incredible guests such as Lee Pao Xiong who is the foremost and knowledgeable Hmong historian of our people. He traced our people back to 7,000 years in China. So, talking to him and listening to what he has to talk about in the Hmong stories and in our culture. It helped me understand that this is where we come from. We get to share that with a huge audience group. And again, we have gotten some really incredible responses. People DM our producer and it’s one of those things that I want to be able to put some really good production value on it so we spent a few good pennies on it to make the production value really well. We believe that in doing something beautiful, we want to make it great. We also know that for Hmong people sometimes, it’s just about getting the product out there, it’ll be good. We were like, no, we’re in a world where looks matter, the way it sounds and how it’s put together strategically – it’s been really cool!

AM: That is amazing and just looking at the accolades, the restaurants, the awards, being a TV personality, being a host, having your podcast and I’m sure you have a ton of other things that you have coming up as well, what do you want your legacy to be seen as?

CHEF YV: Honestly and I mean this with all of my heart, I actually don’t want to be seen in terms of a legacy. There is no legacy here. It’s mom and dad’s legacy. I am merely a mirror that reflects them. I want people to look at what we do and then I want them to be driven by these 2 people. My mom and my dad who are in their 70s, who are grandparents, who live in the suburbs, they have a little plot of land where they have a small farm where all of their produce comes to our restaurant – no money asked, no money put down.

AM: Wow!

CHEF YV: All they want to do is that they want us to live a life where they knew that they could never have. But they want us want us to live it. So that’s all it is. I want people to look at what we do and I want to direct them back to my mom and dad.

So the reason why is this. Last year I won when I was a nominee and then a finalist, my sister is a therapist. She’s the family therapist. But she always therapizes the whole family and I don’t even know if that’s a real word, but I always say that. I’m pretty sure she called my mom and explained to her what the James Beard is and what that honor meant. Because my mom wouldn’t know that by herself. When mom called me randomly that night after it was announced, to say that I was so proud of you, I was like, oh my sister called you.

I’m driving home from work and I’m pretty drained and tired. She congratulated me and said that she was so proud of me. She told me that she wanted to tell me a story that she felt a little ashamed to tell me. She said her plan was not to tell us kids about it until she was on her death bed as she felt ashamed about it. She said that when she was younger, she was caught and put in this war prison. She said that they were in there for a year. It was the worst time ever. There was no food. Communist propaganda would come in and say, just leave your family and marry a Communist man and forget your life. There was not enough food for the children, kids were dying and her first husband was killed. Her babies were all taken away and she said that it was the worst thing possible. We grew up in a Christian household, so when she was there, she told me that every morning she woke up in that camp and she would pray to God that he would let her die as an act of mercy. She felt that life was so tough, that the only way that she thought that she could escape is to die. She wanted to die, every morning she wanted to die. She said that one morning she woke up and she had that same prayer asking for God to let her die that day. She said that what was different in that morning was that there was a voice inside her heart and that that little voice said to her that, “I’m not going to let you die, because I have great plans for your children. They are going to change the world. They will do big things so I’m going to need you to survive a little longer and I’m going to need you to push forward a little longer.” She said that when she heard that my name is among the names of all of these great people in the country and you were one of the best, and they were looking to you for leadership, “I knew in that moment that it made sense. That moment 50 years ago made sense. That’s why God didn’t let me die in that camp and I can hear that today.”

I don’t know Kimmie, when you hear things like that, for me, everything changed. For me, it was no longer about this legacy that I was going to leave, it’s them. Somebody suffered, somebody went through pain, somebody went through a war camp – talk about trauma. To live on a glimmer of a hope that one day your children, to know that there is a special plan for your children and I need you to go through all of this to take all of this and one day you’re going to see it.

AM: Wow.

CHEF YV: That’s it, I don’t give a shit about my legacy. I don’t want to be known. I love these interviews. I get to talk about them. Do you know why I do this TV stuff? I don’t want to be a TV star, it’s too much bullshit in it. I do that so that people can look at it and say wow, we have to go to this restaurant, wow we want to know more about his mom and dad, we want to know more about their story. I’m just an echo. If there is a word about legacy, I want to be an echo of them. That’s it, hands down. The rest of the stuff is just little details.

AM: I have never talked to someone where in every facet of everything that you do, is paying homage to your parents, your people and how it is ingrained in every single thing. I’ve never talked to someone who has just been so authentically that.

“That’s it, I don’t give a shit about my legacy. I don’t want to be known. I love these interviews. I do that so that people can look at it and say wow, we have to go to this restaurant, wow we want to know more about his mom and dad, we want to know more about their story. I’m just an echo. If there is a word about legacy, I want to be an echo of them.”

— Chef Yia Vang

CHEF YV: We were interviewing PR groups and one of them said, “yeah the whole family thing and culture – that’s your schtick.” I was very angry and I wanted to say F- you dude. If you think that this is a schtick, I don’t think that you're the right people for me to work with. This isn’t a schtick man, this is life. There’s going to be chefs that come out and out cook us, great - awesome - good for you. But they’re not going to tell our story better then us. I live this and I will die this, you know? I don’t give a crap. I will live in the basement of wherever to keep everything at low cost so that we can put all of our funding into making this work. I want you to know that I am the first to make all of the sacrifices. I’m the first to inject my own personal money when we can’t get payroll going for last month. We’re going to do that and there’s no amount of cost that I wouldn’t do and we’re going to do this.

That’s the thing that I want to be able to teach our chefs on our team. Find something in your life that you’re that passionate about. I don’t care what it is. Find it and work for it, fight for it in the same way just like mom and dad. To this day, they still do that. They’re retired, we’re all adults. They don’t have to do that. We have our own lives and we do our own thing. They still on my frickin’ birthday gives me $100 and he’s like, this is for gas. I’m like, what and he tells me that he wants to make sure I have enough in my car. They’re still warring for us! It never stops and I think that they’re heart has this go go nature. I look at my father and I don’t give a crap, I had a great example of what a man is, what a good father is, what a good man is and I tell people.

How do you know what it means to be a good man? Look at my father. If I can be quarter of who he is, how he takes care of us, how he loves us, how he fought a war to get us here – if I can be a quarter of that, if I can be a good husband one day and hopefully to be a good dad one day – that’s who I’m looking to!

My mom ferociously loves us. She never gives up on us. When I visit her, she always tells me that she’s praying for me and the restaurant. She says it constantly and even when I want to give up on myself and say that I’m done, she’ll pull me aside and say, “hey, this too shall pass. It’s ok.” This is coming from someone who sat in a war camp as prisoners and tells me that it will pass. She has seen it all, she has seen hell, she has seen evil. She still says that it will will pass. In COVID, they looked at us and said it was ok and it would pass. She said that they had been through things like this before. They never panicked about COVID. I love it, that’s my parents. Like I said before, the food is just the tip of the iceberg. There is something deeper and richer here.

I really appreciate media outlets like yours that want to dig into that. Like we have the easy and low hanging fruit like culture, being all about family and if you want to do a 500 word piece on that, that’s great and we can do that too. But for those that sit there and say that they’re going to sit down for 2 hours and hear about this, I’ll go deep man! I’ll go deep deep into this!

AM: We have a lot of stories and we love sharing them!

CHEF YV: It’s awesome to see the different kinds of groups of people that are there. There’s also people there that I admire myself and I’m like oh that’s awesome! So I felt all fanboy like yeah!

IG @yiavang70

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 30, 52, 55, 56 + PG 132 63MIX ROUTIN3S Eliesa Johnson | PG 33 - 34 + PG 132 3MIX ROUTIN3S Courtesy of Chef Yia Vang | PG 38 - 44 Netflix | PG 48 Outdoor Channel/Feral | PG 51 TJ Turner Photograpahy PG 58 Emilie Ann Szabo |

Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see BEING THE ECHO | Chef Yia Vang in mag.

COURSE BOUND WITH JULIE TYSON

On Aug 16th - 22nd, THE NORTHERN TRUST golf tournament will be back at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, NJ. We attended back in 2019 and in anticipation of the upcoming event, we wanted to find out more about this tournament, its importance in the golf season and how it benefits its communities. Julie Tyson is the Executive Director of the PGA TOUR of THE NORTHERN TRUST. She shared her career journey, how she came to working in the golf industry, her approach to putting on one of golf's biggest tournaments as well as how she balances a myriad of schedules.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Back in 2019, we had the opportunity to go to THE NORTHERN TRUST and had an amazing time there so it’s so great to find out more about this tournament and your role in it. I’m also excited to chat with you as we are fellow alumnae at Indiana University so it’s always nice to connect with people from there!

JULIE TYSON: You are! You’re a Hoosier?

AM: I am and I was impressed that you were a founding member of the IU Dance Marathon on campus as I enjoyed going to that and raising awareness!

JT: That’s amazing and so cool! I’m on this sports board that they have now at IU and we had a board call last week and it’s like a who’s who of sports. I was listening on the call and I thought, “gosh Indiana turns out some really talented people!”

AM: Without a doubt!

JT: Well you included!

AM: Well thank you!

JT: You have quite a business!

AM: Thank you for saying that! It’s been an incredible journey and even in this time of the pandemic, we were really able to take stock to optimize what we’re doing while working on some really amazing things that will be launching soon! You know, in doing this magazine, we talk to so many people across a number of verticals and a number of them have come from IU and it always makes me think of just how phenomenal of a school it is and how far their arms reach! I’m from Indiana originally so I always wanted to go there, but looking at it from where I am now, seeing all the people that come through there it truly is incredible.

JT: I have 2 older brothers and I’m from Chicago originally and they went to school there during the Bobby Knight era.

AM: Same!

JT: And just like you, but for a different reason, we really wanted to go to Indiana University badly. I remember my first foot steps onto the campus, I had a couple of those pinch me moments like, “I can’t even believe that I’m here!” It’s such a cool experience.

AM: I loved it so much that after my freshman year, I became an Orientation Leader there every summer for the incoming students that were coming in! I’m still friends with a number of the people from those teams as well as students that I oriented. Bobby’s last year was my senior year, but my memories there were truly incredible and anytime I get to talk to others that went there, I know that it’s good people.

JT: Awww me too. I agree completely.

AM: Exactly. You have worked in this industry for a number of years. What is your background and what led you to working in sports and specifically to the golf industry?

JT: I was in media sales for a long time out of Chicago and I remember very distinctly boarding a plane and it was one of those really small 19 seat planes and I was in Michigan and it was in Feb. and I thought that it was freezing cold and dark and I need to do something different. I started to think about what would be next for me and I thought that being an agent would be interesting and fun. So my easiest path in I thought would be women’s sports to become an agent. I thought that I didn’t want to travel all over the globe at that stage in my life so that eliminated tennis because they were playing a lot of their events globally and I thought that golf would be an interesting thing because it was very well established and sort of fit with the lifestyle of not being in freezing cold Michigan weather.

So I reached out to the Vice President of Business Affairs at that time and said, “If you ever need help with your television, I’d love to help.” We got through a bunch of conversations and lo and behold he became the Commissioner of the LPGA, a guy named Ty Votaw. So I went to go work with the LPGA initially and worked there for a long time. It’s a very entrepreneurial setting where if you can dream it, you can do it. I loved my first foray into golf through the LPGA and then my career progressed and I ended up working at the PGA TOUR first in Account Management and then in Global Sales. Then, in 2017, my path led me to a counterpart and a friend that had become the head of our Championship managed event that we own and operate a portfolio of events and he asked if I ever wanted to come and run a tournament within this group of events? That began my event management experience was in 2017. THE NORTHERN TRUST happened to be moving from LA to NY so it was a perfect time for me because I got a new title, we were playing new venues and so everything was new. I didn’t walk into a big legacy really even though this event has been played in and around this area for over 50 years!

AM: That is quite a journey. Before we get into THE NORTHERN TRUST, can you tell me about your role at the PGA and what your day-to-day is like?

JT: So, I’m the Executive Director which means that literally if you think about it like a CEO of a small business, every aspect of the event rolls up through me whether it's client relations, whether it's operations, local relationships with the city or the state – putting on an event like this you have to let everybody know you’re coming to town and make the appropriate accommodations, marketing, HR, everything under the sun. Now the great part about this is that if you think about it like a franchisee, I have the PGA TOUR in the backdrop that we’re owned and operated and I have those resources that I can tap into on a daily basis. But we’re pretty much in NY running our own show up here.

AM: As you mentioned, THE NORTHERN TRUST is over 50 years old, can you tell us about this tournament which is the first of 3 Fed Ex Cup Playoffs events? What makes this such an important event?

JT: This is probably one of the most competitive events in all of golf where players compete throughout the regular season to earn enough points to make it to the Playoffs. We are the first Playoff event as you said. So we only accept the top 125 players in the world. If somebody gets sick or decides that they don’t want to play this particular week, we will play with fewer people. We won’t bring anybody else in. Not only do they compete to get into this event, after this event, we will cut as the Playoffs progress as they go from this event to the second event it will go to 70 players. So for some number of players like 55 players, their season will end at the conclusion of our tournament at THE NORTHERN TRUST because they didn’t earn enough points to make it into the top 70. So that’s 1 and 2, we tend to be one of the largest global platforms first being in and around NYC which is a huge enough platform to begin with. This event is also televised in over 220 countries worldwide so it’s a really big stage that we're putting these guys on. Lastly, over the course of those 3 weeks, these players will pay for over the 3 week run between the bonus pool at the end and the 3 weeks of purses, almost a $100 million in prize money. So that in and of itself, the scale of the stage, the number of hours of television, the platform, the fact that their season could end – there is a lot at stake here that these guys are playing for. So, really competitive environments tend to produce memorable moments on the golf course.

AM: Wow that is very critical in the fact that you could be ending your season after that particular tournament. How far in advance do you begin working on a tournament like this and as we’re a few weeks away, what does your schedule look like leading up to it?

JT: This event typically rotates in and around NY and NJ and in 2020, we played in Boston. We start planning 18 months in advance for where we are going to be in the upcoming year while simultaneously completing the steps towards the current year’s event. We have to be building 2 events simultaneously.

AM: When people think of golf, they think about The Masters, The Players or The Open as opposed to thinking of a tournament that’s minutes away from NYC, what are the intricacies of having a PGA TOUR event in NYC?

JT: Yeah. Interestingly here a local NYer or someone from NJ that is from the area will tell you that convenience is key! You have to have an easy way to get to something no matter how compelling. Unlike some of these other places where you’re in Augusta, GA and it’s convenient and easy to get to once you’re on the grounds of Augusta – you’re pretty local there. Here we battle traffic and all of these other kinds of modes of transportation. I think in 2021 what you will see as fans is that we have made it more convenient to get to the tournament. This being our first time back since 2019, we learned a lot from our fans so parking will be easier, we’ll have our rideshare much closer, our Ferry will drop off at the Liberty National Port instead of at Port Liberté. It will be super easy to get the opening and closing holes. So we have made it more convenient – that’s 1.

2, I think that if you live in the area, you have access to pretty much anything that you could ever dream of from world-class food options to entertainment so we really have to try harder to make this a singular experience that is super memorable. So we have really held ourselves accountable to building something that we think will get people to come back time and time again and hopefully your experience proved that we’re working hard on that front.

AM: I thought it was awesome. We went to the Media Day the day before and took the ferry over that day. I thought it was really cool. Who would have thought that steps away from the city, we have a golf course that we can go to without having to go to other regions in the country. It was really well produced and I’m excited to see what this year will be like. When I think about the music festivals and fashion weeks that we have attended it’s always challenging to do them when you’re talking about doing them here!

JT: I totally agree and we’ve lived through every challenge. COVID being what it is, to have THE NORTHERN TRUST last year in Boston during COVID which I can’t think of anything that is more complicated and we successfully pulled that off so we learned a ton about running events in a COVID environment just like everybody did in running their businesses.

AM: Speaking to that, running any type of event during COVID is problematic. What was your approach last year to tackling it and being in a different locale and keeping in mind all of these other factors that were literally outside of your control?

JT: Well, first we had to determine what was going to be our North Star. Our North Star was always going to be safety. Safety of the players, safety of the fans, safety of the volunteers, of the staff and in every step. We decided that we were going to operate without fans because we didn’t know if we could effectively do it as there were a lot of unknowns about COVID, there were no vaccinations - we just didn't think that we could aggregate people in a safe way. We knew that with the areas with the population of people and volunteer staff and players, that we could control how they could engage, we could control social distancing safety measures. So safety was always going to be our North Star. The second part of this and I think with anything that you’re going through with a crisis, is communication. We over communicated to everybody, the league, we communicated to the state and health officials. We over communicated with people and brought everybody into the process so that they could transparently see what we were planning to do and to advise us if we were going down a bad path. It helped us to be able to play in a time where most sports were unable to. We were really excited to be able to do that and to deliver to fans so that they could at least watch it on TV.

AM: In 2019, we had the best time watching Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka play and walking the course as they played. So for this year’s event, what kind of hospitality features and experiences that fans can enjoy while watching their favorite players.

JT: I think one thing to note is that if you’re a golf fanatic, we’ve got an option for you which is golf with a side of fun, but if you’re not super into golf and you just want to watch a little bit of golf, we’ve got fun with a side of golf. I think that more and more our fans are starting to see that you don’t have to watch 8 hours of golf if you don’t want to. We’ve got hospitality options that range from anywhere from over a little over $100 a ticket to all the way to $7,500 a ticket. It just depends on the level of convenience that you're looking for. So at the high end of that, the $7,500 ticket gives you valet right up to the door of the club. At the lower end of that, you’ve got access that will keep you out of concession and food lines and it gives you a reserved seat which generally is hard to find in golf. We’ve got hospitality options with everything in between and it just becomes things like climate control, shade or location on the golf course if you’re on a finishing hole. Those things come at a premium. We’ve got people and opportunities that can help coach you through any kind of opportunity that you want to experience. I think that the most interesting thing is for our Grounds Patron. We have 6 miles of front row seats for our Grounds Patrons which is unheard of in sports. Also, our amenities bring in local flavor with our food partners that you saw in 2019. So Shake Shack, Luke’s Lobster and Pizza Vita are there. We also brought in Playa Bowls which is a healthy option that was one of the bits of feedback that we got back from our food partners. We’ll have a wine garden that we fashioned after a North Fork vineyard experience with Adirondacks and food for purchase that pairs up nicely with wine as well as other kinds of experiences that people can enjoy. Again, if you’re interested in fun with a side of golf, we’ve got all kinds of space on a 6 mile golf course that is out in fresh air for you to enjoy with your friends.

AM: In addition to watching amazing athletes and having fun on site, there is also a charitable component as I know you’re focused on food scarcity. Can you tell me about where the proceeds will go to this year?

JT: Thank you so much for raising that as it is super important to us. Right now, we’re trying to frame up our relationships with our charitable partners and part of the reason why we’re still working on that is that it is the tournament’s proceeds that go out to that charity. So we have to hit the numbers in order to take the proceeds and provide them out. What we have tried to do is to pick some themes under the umbrella of Community Champions and Community Heroes. We know everyday that there are people going to work to make somebody else’s life better. Wherever we and THE NORTHERN TRUST as our title partner can go to work and help make those folks lives easier, we want to be able to do that. Things we've focused on include food scarcity that is coming out of COVID in NJ. They're focusing on real issues and summer is always tough with kids not going to school and having a guaranteed meal so that was one that we knew we wanted to be able to help. We’re looking at Boys and Girls Club, The First Tee which is our national charity partner with local chapters. We work with Tackle Kids Cancer, so we have a whole host of charities that we’re talking to right now and we want to help them in 2 ways. 1, with proceeds and financial underpinning and 2 is to take the PGA TOUR’s broad spotlight and shine it on those charities so that not only are we giving to them, but others that can afford to give are also supporting them. So you will see a lot of that going into the weeks leading up to and during tournament week.

AM: Going back to the point you were making with safety being a North Star, what can fans expect when it comes to their experience on-site at the tournament this year in terms of protocols and adherences that are taking place?

JT: Happily, NY eclipsed it’s 70% mile marker with vaccinations so that has been a mile marker that we have been waiting on for a long time! That being said, we also know that as people take their first steps back out into society, they’re going to do this in a cautious way and we want to meet them where they are. First, our food service, even when you’re in a shared structure for hospitality, where we used to have a buffet, we’re going to modify those experiences in terms of the way that we serve and produce the food so that we can make sure that everything is done safely, prepared safely and served safely. Second is, we’ve got fresh air that people can enjoy so we will keep things largely open air this year, more than we have in years past. That's due in large part because of COVID, but also because we have all been cooped up and we think that people want to be outside a lot more. Thirdly, we want to remove the judgement from mask wearing so we will be an environment where if you feel that you want to wear a mask, there will be no judgement and we will encourage it, but it will not be required. Generally speaking, we have an army of volunteers that will be wiping down surfaces and making sure that we keep people a reasonable distance apart – all those things that we have come to expect and want at a golf tournament will continue. I think that our 2020 experience made us much more knowledgeable to know how to operate in this environment.

AM: Wow, it seems like you have so much on your plate with so many different types of schedules running, outside of your job at the PGA TOUR, how do you take time for yourself?

JT: You know, I think that work and life sort of blend together and I’m fortunate because I work in golf and golf is a passion point for me. Being outside is a passion point, so I get to do a lot of what I like to do anyway. I have a family and I have a dog and things like that and when they want your attention, you sort of just give into it at those moments. So everything has its place and I’m grateful that I have all of those things because they are welcome distractions.

AM: How do you give back to the community whether it’s golf or philanthropic endeavors that you’re involved in?

JT: I sit on a couple of boards, but I think that really the thing for me is that my job marries to my passion point. Every day I get up and I get to think about the tournament that my team and I, THE NORTHERN TRUST, that operates with us will be able to benefit the communities where we play. I’m really lucky in that regard because I get to do that every day for a lot of hours a day. We all work a lot of hours and part of my mission is to make sure that we’re serving those communities and building deep roots and I’m grateful that we get to do that so that work and life get to blend together in that way.

AM: It’s always great when we get the opportunity to talk to changemakers and I think especially when we talk with women in sports that are dominating their fields and doing such an amazing job. I know our readers will enjoy it and personally, just prepping for this interview and seeing the dynamics of your career, I was really impressed and excited to talk with you and to see this event from another vantage point!

JT: I’m impressed with you! You’ve got this business that you created from the ground up are you kidding me? This is amazing. We love your support in covering this tournament.

AM: We’re always about storytelling and I love bringing awareness to a number of our topics especially when it comes to areas where people may not think of women being involved in. It’s exciting to see what the landscape can be especially for younger women that are coming up that they will have a better footing than what we had when we started on our journey.

JT: Hopefully that is true or we’re not doing our jobs. Someone once told me, “when you get to the top, send the elevator back down for women.” I’m grateful that you’re helping to do that and any way that I can do it, I want to do it!

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@Thentgolf

PHOTOGRPAHY COURTESY | PGA TOUR/THE NOTHERN TRUST

Read the JUN ISSUE #66 of Athleisure Mag and see Course Bound with Julie Tyson in mag.

CONTEXT + REPETITION: MARTY SMITH

Our July cover story took us to Ocean City, NJ for a fun and inspiring day at the beach as well as insight to the fundamentals of life. Marty Smith, ESPN's Broadcaster/Journalist is someone who breaks down the game, brings his enthusiasm for the love of sport and is always exchanging energy with those on set as well as those that are off. As someone who began his time at the network covering NASCAR, he has grown into a number of areas which include: SportsCenter, College GameDay, this fall's SEC Nation as a host, and the successful Marty & McGee. This interview not only includes Marty's journey to the successes that he currently enjoys, but also lets you reflect about what happens when you believe in your self, honor those that came before, acknowledge where you came from, and allow yourself to engage in powerful progression that you may not have planned for yourself!

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you knew that you fell in love with sports?

MARTY SMITH: I would have to say I was a young boy and my father, he was infatuated with the Pittsburgh Steelers, back in the Steel Curtain days of Joe Green, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and those immortal – immortal Steelers teams, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth and all those guys. So, I was a little boy and I would sit with my daddy and watch the Steelers and my momma used to say that even as a four year old, I would be like, “that was a hold,” or “that was a clip,” and I’d call out penalties before the flags were thrown and what not. That’s when I kind of knew – the way that it felt just being in my father’s aura that way. I grew up in a small farming community in the Southwestern part of Virginia and all we had was ball. We played everything and there was no sitting inside. My parents were like, “get your ass outside and do something and don't come back until dark," and so football, basketball, baseball-and I loved to compete. To this very second, I love to compete. That feeling of competition and that feeling of grinding your way to noticeable improvement against competition is something that’s intoxicated me forever. So I knew real young that I was going to be a sports guy.

AM: So can you share with us your sports background – what you played and how far you went?

MS: From four years old through my Freshman year of college, I was an athlete and I started with baseball as a little Pee Wee League guy and then when I was in 4th grade, I started playing Pop Warner Football. The same year, I started playing Little League Basketball so from 4th grade all the way through my Senior year of high school, I played all 3 of those sports and I played all year around. I played football from August until the winter time – December. From December until March or April, I played basketball and then I played baseball for my school teams until school was over or the season was over, and then I played either Rec League Baseball or American Legion Baseball all the way through the summer. And then we did football again. So, I never stopped playing ball and again, I grew up in a small community so my buddies that were my teammates and I went to school with them, they’re still my boys today. My best childhood friend since I was 4 years old basically, is the Tampa Bay Rays Athletic Trainer – how weird is that? We grew up in this tiny little town of very few people. Everybody were farmers or blue collar community and he and I both made our way out to pro sports – pretty crazy.

AM: What was that moment when you realized that you might be interested in pursuing professional sports?

MS: I wasn’t good enough. So when I got to college, I went to a small college in East Tennessee first. It was a Division II school athletically, called Carson Newman and they had a really good baseball program so I went there to play baseball. I stayed there 1 year and then I transferred over to Radford University from which I graduated and thought that I would easily make the baseball team – no question in my mind. I had no doubts. I went and they had a walk on tryout and they asked me to participate in that and I did that. I hit and threw it ok – I was a middle infielder and didn’t have a good try out. So the coach who knew about me in high school - I grew up around the corner, he was like, “man, I don’t think that you’re good enough.” They didn’t allow me to play. So I will tell you this. God is funny. I was so devastated in that moment because I don’t care. If you’re passionate about sports – I don’t care if your ceiling is high school, I don’t care if your ceiling is college and certainly for guys like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Drew Brees or these guys – the elite of the elite at whatever their passion is athletically. When it’s time to be done, you lose your whole identity because my whole identity, my whole life was athlete.

That was my identity and because truth told, I was a pretty good one in high school in the area in which I grew up, I had a decently celebrated career, we won state championships as teams – we had that kind of talent where I came from. So when I lost baseball, I’m not kidding y’all, there was a level of depression that I did not anticipate and I have never been a guy who’s down – I’m unstoppable, it’s how I’m wired and I was stopped. I knew a girl that dated a buddy of mine and she came in one day she said, “you know you need to get up off your ass and you need to come with me to the Sports and Information Office and you need to work because you have such a wealth of knowledge.” I’m like, “what, I’m not going in there and taking stats – I play ‘em – no.” After a substantial pity party, I got up one day and I said, “alright man, let’s see what happens.” Went in there, I fell in love with being around it again. Some of my best college friends were guys who played baseball, they played basketball – because the Sports Information Department gave me substantial responsibility immediately. As a Sophomore, I ran around with the baseball team - took their stats, etc. As a junior, they handed me Women’s Basketball and I traveled with the Women’s Basketball team on top of my class load. Then, I got the greatest break you could ever ask for. I was offered a stringer position by the Roanoke Times which is the major regional newspaper in the area in which I grew up covering high school sports, the local NASCAR short track, etc. That’s when I realized that I was going to write for a living and that was what I’m gonna to do. As a Senior, I got to cover Virgina Tech Football as a stringer for the Washington Post.

AM: That’s insane!

MS: On top of my class load. So all of these people believed in me. I will tell you this, had I not gotten cut, I don’t even know if gotten cut is fair. Had I made the Radford Baseball Team, I wouldn’t be sitting with you now, guarantee you. Because I wouldn’t have had to make that shift in focus that I had to make because I wasn’t playing anymore. How about that?

AM: Wow. You’ve had so much in your career prior to ESPN, so what was that journey like as I know you were with NASCAR.com for awhile.

MS: So much of my career goes back to people who believed in me. And in that book, they wanted me to do the dedication page. Who do you dedicate this to? All I wrote was, For the believers. Most notably, Lainie, Cameron, Mia and Vivian my nuclear family – wife and children. But so many people have believed in me from coaches to mentors to all the way down to people that work at ESPN, who don’t have to take the time to offer you guys this opportunity, to pitch you this opportunity, but they believe enough in me that they’re doing that.

When that believer, a guy named Ray Cox, who writes for the Roanoke Times, even still, he covered me in high school. So when I wasn’t playing anymore, he was like, “what?” I saw him at a Radford Basketball game. He said, “I think that you need to be writing for me. You have this factor that you’re so relatable to people and you connect with people in a way that you need to be writing.”

So I started covering high school sports like I said and that led to the local short track called New River Valley Speedway (now Motor Mile Speedway) at the time and I was a NASCAR guy as a kid because my daddy liked it. But my favorite driver was Davey Allison. Davey died in a helicopter crash July 13th 1993, I stopped loving the sport in that moment. My passion – I mean it was like lighting a bottle rocket when I went back to that short track. I went and I told her (Lainie), I know what I’m gonna do - I know what my path is – NASCAR is my way. It’s the fastest way to get through pro sports. I covered it for the Lynchburg News – I had a job that may not even exist anymore. I made $12.80 in my first job out of Radford. I bought her engagement ring with it – you talk about broke as Joe! I started chasing race cars. I’ll never forget sitting in the Richmond International Raceway garage – sitting on the pit walls watching these cars go by. Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon – “holy smokes that’s really them, I’m on this side of the track.” I’m inside the track and I can walk out there and talk to them if they’ll give me the time of day. I couldn’t believe it. I worked there for one year.

During that time, I wrote a story on a guy named Paul Brooks who was from that town. His mother called me and said I needed to do the story. I thought it was Jim Bob Jordan the street stock driver down the street. Paul had been elevated to the VP of NASCAR. Called Paul, we hit it off, he liked the story and he sent me some desk furniture of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR like a business card holder that you put the pens in. At the very bottom of the box was his stationary with his email on it. I emailed him, “get me the hell out of here. I’ll clean toilets in Daytona Beach, Florida if you get me out of here. I got big aspirations, got big dreams – you can help me get me there.” They didn’t have any jobs, a few months later, a guy quit at NASCAR.com – he called me come to the interview, if I was good enough I would get the job – I got the job. I made it to $20K. Now I’m traveling around the country man. I went to San Francisco man, Napa, California and I got to cover race cars! Worked there until ’05 and ESPN called. They were coming back into the business of NASCAR. In ’07 they put together their whole broadcast team and I was going to be in the insularly part in a show for SportsCenter we had a show called NASCAR Now.

AM: Great show.

MS: It was a great show! Jack Obringer – this is all in my book. Jack Obringer, the guy who called me who is still at ESPN now and is one of my greatest believers. He said that everybody who talks to me says your name – you know what’s going on in the sport and you know the drivers. I laughed and said, “hey man, I’m so flattered, but you called the wrong guy. There’s a guy named Marty Snider who’s a great broadcaster and I’m sure that that’s who you meant to call.” He laughed out loud and said I was the guy. He told me to go home and think about working with him. I went home to Lainie and I said, “you’re never going to believe this, I think that ESPN wants me to come work there." I'm a guy who would rather crash and burn and fail knowing that I can’t, then wonder 20 years from now sitting on that porch wondering if I could have. So I took the job. The first time that I was really on television was SportsCenter. Can you believe that? There are local reporters who are so talented, they work their asses off, they set up their own camera shots and dream of that chance and I was afforded that chance immediately. That’s never been lost on me and I’m so appreciative. From there, the company let me grow. They let me make mistakes, they let me look like – I needed a lot of work. My story is just unorthodox because I was sportcentric for 7 years – really 8 from ‘07-‘14 those 8 NASCAR seasons. I got to grow and learn my voice and ESPN afforded me that voice and no one has ever once asked me to change it. They’ve never asked me to try to lose this accent because I have always maintained that you can be Southern and articulate at the same time. It worked because I was covering NASCAR. Then we lost NASCAR and I thought, ok what do I do now? Do I pursue another network maybe, do I bet on myself again? I went home and told Lainie that I needed to bet on myself again and I was ready to see what was out there and I signed my 3rd ESPN contract which was ’15-’18 and bet on myself. My career has been beyond every fantastic dream that I could have ever imagined.

AM: You have covered so many different sports for the network. How do you prepare yourself when you’re reporting on College Football versus the NFL – is it the same for you?

MS: No. I’m voracious about study. I’m voracious about preparation and reading and listening and things that intrigue me, I put it in a document. Then I take that document and pair it down and then I study that document. Like, Tiger Woods. When I got the opportunity to interview him, I studied so hard and watched so much and I probably had a 40 question list and I paired that down to 15 and I studied those 15 until minutes before I was sitting in front of him and I crumpled the paper up and threw it away. Because I want to have a conversation with you. The best interviewers listen. Because the best question is more often than not, why, how, when, how did that come to be, what was your passion. That was most certainly the case with him. Can I tell you how I got there?

AM: Yes!

MS: 2012 I think it was, I interviewed Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR Countdown Pre Race Program and I had this specific thing that I wanted out of Jeff and I kept interrupting him during the interview to try to keep him on task. It worked for what I was sort of after. But after the race before which it ran which was New Hampshire, after that race – I was so proud of myself that I got this interview with Jeff Gordon man – 4X Champion – 80+ wins! After the race, I went out to interview Dale Jr. who is like my brother – we’re brothers – we’ve been through it together. The highest of highs and the most crushing of lows we’ve walked it together. I get out to his car because he wrecked and they’re looking all around the cars when they’re looking at the dings in it. He turns around and says, “come here, I’m pissed at you.” There’s other reporters around so he takes me to the entrance to the truck that carries the race cars and says, “you need to stop interrupting people.” I was like, "what?” He said he watched the interview with Jeff and he wanted to hear some of the things that he said, but I kept interrupting him and that I looked like an asshole, “stop interrupting people.” I was so mortified. He cut me and do you want to know that it was the single greatest advice that I have ever gotten in this job? I completely changed my interview approach. I let people expound upon their thoughts and thereby, be ing able to tell me their story rather than trying to conjure something that you desire. I tell that story sometimes when he’s around and he’s like, “damn, let it go.” I’m like, “no. You changed me and only a real dude does this.” You’re on this high and most dudes would be like, “hey man that’s cool.” I am forever grateful to him for that.

That’s what I do. I study, study, study and then throw it away. Because I want to hear you and want to be immersed with you. It has proven to be very successful for me.

AM: So what are all the shows that you’re on at ESPN?

MS: Wow. A lot of them! So SportsCenter, College Game Day, SEC Nation, Get Up, Marty & McGee – which is such a fascinating study. Marty & McGee is a Southern culture program almost more than a sports program. There was a lady named Cherita Johnson and for a time she kind of ran the podcast/digital arm at that time. I called her one day and said I had a proposal as I had a buddy Ryan McGee (she knew him because they were PA’s together) and him and I had covered NASCAR together and felt that ESPN could produce a really cool piece of content with a podcast, we would be willing to go to a studio so we wouldn’t have to hire a bunch of people. We just wanted to do a podcast about NASCAR if she would let us. She wasn’t sure if there was a market for it and she asked me to tell her a story. So, 45 minutes later, I’m telling her all these stories about Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. She said that I was so passionate about that she would go ask. She did and they greenlit it. The magic of Marty & McGee is the chemistry, we’re buddies and have been so for 20 years! It went from a live radio show on Sat afternoons, then a few years ago they moved us to 7am on Sat! That’s when I said, “son, our lives just changed!” That’s when everybody is going to get the donuts and taking junior to baseball. It changed everything! Then, last year, they decide that the coaches in the South Eastern Conference they wanted to be engaged in a different way and they wanted the two if to make it happen. They asked what the set should like and I said, “a card table, an American flag and an eagle soaring by – I don’t know.” They built us that set. The coaches come in. They’re immediately disarmed. We’re laughing out loud with them. Nick Saban is talking about his dad, Nick Sr. had tears in our eyes. So they give us a weekly show on SEC Network which this fall moves to Weds. so that it ensures that it’s not pre-empted by soccer or a live program. We don’t even know what to make of it – we’re floored!

AM: What’s it like juggling all of these shows with your current schedule?

MS: It’s a lot and I’m afforded the ultimate blessing which is a patient, immersed, patient and loyal partner who appreciates all of this. She understands all of this and allows me to chase the dream. I can’t wait for people to read about Lainie in the book because they are going to see what a phenomenal soul she is. In this life, we meet people that are more successful, that may not have as much, we meet people who are more beautiful, we meet people who are the most blue collar down-home, people who grew up in the city all of that – all walks of life. Very rarely do you meat innate grace. Lainie has it. There is no way in hell that I could have this career, this life, have met these people that I am so fortunate to meet if she didn’t have that personality. I thank her everyday!

AM: Specifically during the college football season, what is your week like for that?

MS: We work every day. From now until mid January, we are gas on the throttle doing college football. Even on days off, we’re prepping. On days off, you’re reading, calling around, texting around, talking to coaches. Sports information people, in some rare cases – players. To make sure that you are at least ahead of the game but at least in the game. You go hard as hell man and I love every second of it.

AM: Who are you looking forward to interviewing this season from the college football side – what are 3 things that you’re pumped about?

MS: I’m blessed beyond what I deserve. We have a host and reporter who is among the most talented television professionals I have ever seen. Her name is Laura Rutledge. Laura makes all of it look easy – it’s not and she makes it look so simple. She is going to have her first child this fall. As a result of that, she will go on maternity leave and will miss a portion of the season. While she is away, she is the host of a show called SEC Nation and it’s a phenomenal show. I mean Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears and Paul Finebaum are the panelists. They are all great friends of mine already - Tim is like a brother to me. In the book, I share his influence on me which is dramatic. So when Laura is on maternity leave, I am going to get to host that show. When ESPN called me and told me this, my initial reaction was Euphoria and it was also, “you know I have never done that before and you know it’s something that I am going to have to learn.” They understood all that and said that my passion was what they needed. I can’t wait, a live atmosphere with a live audience in the South Eastern Conference, with those 3 guys and a producer – Baron Miller, who's a brother to me anyway. He has an artistic vision and unbelievable passion to help guide us through. I can’t wait for the energy change. My best friend, Eric Church, always says that there is going to be an energy exchange tonight. There is going to be my energy and your energy. I'm going to give it every last damn ounce of everything I got and if you give it back to me, there is going to be a moment and it’s going to live forever. Well I get to drive that moment and I can’t wait! Tebow man, Spears – I’m not Laura – I’m not as talented and polished as her or Joe Tessitore the first gentleman who hosted that show, or Maria Taylor who also hosted that show. They’re better broadcasters than me, but I’ll never be out passioned. I can control 3 things everyday: I can control kindness, effort and passion. If I max those out, I’m going to be alright and I’m maxing. In every single facet of my life: fatherhood, husbandry, professionally, friendships – there ain’t nobody going to ever say that I didn’t leave it all out there when the Lord calls me home.

AM: One of the things that draws me to your reporting is your passionate storytelling and being someone who grew up in Indiana, watched Hoosier basketball growing up, graduated Indiana University and was glad to have been there during Bobby Knight’s last year as coach, we believe in the concept of “Life is Sports and Sports is Life”. When college basketball happens, there is such a feeling that comes through which permeates all aspects of my life. Why does college football have that feeling for you that makes you so passionate about it?

MS: I was discussing this this morning. There is a country artist named Justin Moore. I have known Justin his entire career now. This is his 5th album he is putting out this week and he’s only 35 and having a tremendous career. He grew up in a little town called Poyne, Arkansas. The Arkansas Razorbacks are their pro team. I grew up 20 miles west of Virginia Tech’s campus on a cattle farm. The Virginia Tech Hokies are our pro team. They are also our identity, they also brought a national brand to a farming community. Because of Frank Beamers’ Hokies Virginia Tech Hoakies, Blacksburg is known in Seattle, in California, Clearwater, Fl and it’s known in Banger, Maine. Everybody knows Blacksburg because of those football teams. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a whole lot when I was real young. My daddy worked all the time and I didn’t get to be around him and he was a bit of mysterious and mythical figure to me. But there were some Saturday mornings when he’s wake me up and say, “boy get dressed, we’re going over the mountain.” I knew that meant we were going to watch Virginia Tech football. It was bad football. It was 0-8, 0-10, 1-9, 2-8 because Coach Beamer was still laying those foundation bricks to the amazing legacy that he built. But I got to go there with my daddy and I got to have a fountain coke and I got to have his attention and I got to feel his love and hope he felt mine and we got to watch Virginia Tech play football. To this second, I feel closer to him in Laine Stadium then I feel anywhere else. I lost daddy in ’08. When I go back there, I feel closer to him than anywhere else. My passion for it, is so much deeper than simply the game. It’s this father/son connection, it’s this family connection because so many little college towns take their identity from those athletic programs just like Bloomington does. I get to go in on Fridays and Saturdays in the fall and I get to be there with those people. Whether it’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Columbus, Ohio, Blacksburg, Virginia, Ann Arbor, Michigan – those towns are those schools. I get to live it. Hell, they pay me for it! Wow – it’s unbelievable to me!

AM: With such a busy schedule, you have a book coming out August 6th, Never Settle: Sports, Family and the American Soul. Why did you want to write this book and what do you hope that your fans and those who read this book take away from it?

MS: I have wanted to write a book for a really long time. It’s funny, I wasn’t ready until I got the deal. I didn’t have enough life experiences until last year. Back to Tiger, I interviewed him and of course I put a picture up with us on the ‘gram. You’ve gotta do it for the ‘gram and I came home that evening and my son has a YouTube channel and we were skateboarding. So I said, “you know what man, let’s go down this hill. I’ll be on my board and you’ll be on your board and I’ll kinda get crouched down and get a cool shot with my phone for you.” I put it on my Instagram Stories and this publisher saw it. I was blown away by that.

Long story short, the next thing you know, I’m meeting with this gentleman, a guy named Sean Desmond at Twelve Books, my publisher in NYC. Avenue of the Americas man, wow country boy comes to town. He talked about how his little boy who is 12 is fascinated by all the stuff that I get to do. Then he saw that and he was intrigued. How is this guy that was interviewing Tiger Woods in the morning and hanging with his son in the evening – he wanted that. He wanted my family in the book, he wanted Lainie, he wanted the husband Marty in the book, he wanted father Marty in the book. He wanted me to be so vulnerable and he wanted Tiger, he wanted Nick Saban and he wanted Cristiano Ronaldo in Shanghai, in Beijing. He wanted all of these experiences. He wanted me throwing a post pattern on the White House lawn. Thank God the Secret Service has a sense of humor! It’s all in the book. I actually did that! We were stupid, man. He wanted all of that and he pushed me throughout the writing process. Show me, don’t tell me. You’re telling me a good story, show me a good story. I loved that advice because it demanded of me to take another layer of veneer off.

Again, I have so many friends that are musical artists. They told me throughout time that anything worth its salt is vulnerable. But with that vulnerability comes a very unique emotion because you are putting this layer of yourself out into and this energy in the world. You have to be ok with whatever comes back good or bad. You’ve given this and holy crap it’s giving me anxiety and Lainie is like why? That was always my response to my friends too because they were putting out something good – but you’re putting this part of yourself out there and above all, I know it’s relatable and vulnerable. I think it will sing and I think that a lot of people will see themselves in that. I discuss things like the primal sorrow of losing my mom when I was barely an adult. She had breast cancer and died when she was 47 years old. My sister turns 47 in Feb so, Stacy and I go back and forth about what that’s like. Because when you’re 21 you don’t realize how young 47 is. When you’re 43, you think that she hadn’t even gotten started yet. I’d give anything – anything to be able to show her. She would be tickled and the coolest grandmother to these little people that we have running around.

My son has Tourette and so there is a lot that comes with Tourette. His tics, how people react to that. He’s used to people staring at him. Middle School is hard, he’s only recently gotten to a place where other kids sometimes aren’t nice. My mother, back to that innate grace, I never met anybody that was more Godly than my mom. She raised a lot of kids and I only have one sibling. She raised a lot of kids. I had a lot of buddies and she was there momma too. I wish she was here to see all of this and to be that for my kids. I go all the way into that primal sorrow. I write it in that way that’s really really raw. It’s a hell of a thing and I hope that people feel themselves in it. There’s a football coach that I have become very close with, Barry Odom – head coach of Missouri – Missouri Tigers. He wrote me the nicest text the other day. The 4th chapter of the book is about one of the most impactful people in my life. There is a Special Olympics athlete that I chronicled in '15, her name was Olivia Quigley. It’s all in there – why she was so important to me and Barry read the chapter. I sent him an advanced copy. He was like, “dude – I knew you were pretty cool on TV, but this is what you need to be doing. It’s changing lives.” That was very cool for him to say.

AM: How long did it take for your to put the book together?

MS: I started almost immediately when I met with Twelve last May. My deadline was Jan. 15th and I was very naïve about the time – really naïve. I wrote a lot of it in Ocean City Coffee. I would get up before dawn every morning when we were here last summer. I rode my bike down there and wrote until about 9:30am morning and then came back. Then, I thought I didn’t have to worry about being a present father or husband on airplanes and hotel rooms. But when you have covered a college football weekend, the last thing that you want to do is go to your hotel room and write! You just want a cold one and to laugh with your buddies a little bit, eat a meal and get on the pillow. I somehow managed to do it. That last week, I still had quite a bit to write. I came home from the National Championship in Santa Clara, California – immediately packed a bag, flew to NYC and spent 5 days holed up in the publisher’s office pounding on those keys. I’m not kidding ya, 5:30 on Jan 15th was when I needed to have that thing in and it was 5:30 on Jan 15th when I said, I don’t know if it’s done, hope it is - but here it’s yours.

AM: How did it make you feel when Eric Church wrote your forward as he’s your best friend.

MS: He’s my best friend. I was here – he called me about something else and he needed my opinion and perspective. We probably talked about it for 90 minutes. You get Eric Church on 90 seconds it's a miracle - we were on the phone for 90 mins! So I said, “before you go, I have something else to tell you about. I hate to bother you with it and I know you’re busy. I’m writing my first book.” He said, “it’s about fuckin’ time.” Truth be told, he thinks I’m wasting my time doing anything but writing and he has always been a fan of how I write and the way I paint pictures. He’s a writer, that’s what he does. So we have that mutual energy exchange and kinship. I said, “I would be really honored and I don’t think it would be complete the way that I need it to be complete if you don’t write my forward.” He said that it would be the pleasure and joy of his life that I would pick him to do that. I will tell you that it showed up near my deadline because it’s Eric. I was kind of badgering him saying, “hey bro – I have to have this thing in.” He asked me when it had to be in. I’m sitting in Charlotte and he texted me that he had sent it via email. Two other people had read it before he sent it, his most trusted confidentes in his life – his wife Katherine and his manager John Peets. I get my computer and Lainie is sitting next to me and I’m reading it and I can feel myself and she’s capturing it on video. I will tell you that it’s the most single kindest thing that I have ever read in terms of your impact on somebody. It made me belly laugh and ugly cry. He’s a real hard ass. He plays one for a living, he doesn’t suffer fools, he takes no crap. He taught me that my passion is ok and that my way is ok. Even when the bosses tell you something, if you believe it do it. For him to write what he wrote about me, I can’t wait for y’all to see it. I want to talk about it so much but I want y’all to have to read it. It’s awesome. It means the world to me that he would take the time to do it.

Like Greg Sankey is the commissioner of the SEC and I gave him the very first copy that I had ever held in my hands. McGee and I were interviewing him and he said he wanted one, but that I would have to sign it. So I sat down right there and signed it and said it was like handing him my first child. He wrote on the Internet how good it was and that Eric Church had written the greatest forward that he had ever read in years – he was right. I could talk for days about him – my hero!

AM: One of the things that we were struck by is the amount of people on Twitter who were talking about how those who pre-ordered received FaceTime messages thanking them for doing so.

MS: I have 52 people left to call! I was trying to think of a way – I felt bad that the people that pre-ordered the book that they invested in me and I wanted to make it personal. I saw that Kurt Busch, one of the NASCAR drivers, had FaceTimed some of his fans. So I thought that we should try that. I thought it would be 10 people. Marty will call you or FaceTime you if you pre-order his book. It was a lot more than 10 people. To see the reactions from the people! One young lady called me and said, “you’re always talking about people who give you that passion and this life direction to help you have that perspective and to stay focused – you’re that person for me.” She was in tears. She can’t wait to have the book. It was very fulfilling for me as well. They’re so appreciative.

AM: I mean just from the comments, people running out of the meetings in their offices and getting so excited.

MS: One guy worked in the Library of Congress and he was so excited that my book was going to be there. Another guy worked as a Missouri State Trooper or a Detective. He pulled over and took a picture of us talking. I still have a few people to contact and I will get to them. One of them was my high school football teammate, we were Defensive Backs a long time ago. We won the state championship together.

AM: Do you foresee writing another book?

MS: That’s up to the publisher, but if they afford me the opportunity – hell yes! There are 25 chapters in this book and there are at least 15 stories that I didn’t even get to. I talked to Paul George about what it was like when he broke his leg in half. The way he felt and the way he saw his team react. The vulnerability and how stripped he was. I talked to Anthony Davis – I was surprised it went down this road. It was in the middle of Black Lives Matter was such a movement in this country. We kind of brought up race and here I am having this great conversation of depth with this gentleman who grew up in Chicago, African American a face for those other young man growing up in that neighborhood. He got out, you can do this. Being interviewed by a 40 year old white man from a rural Appalachian town and how we were connecting and what an example we can be together. It was a wonderful conversation. Stuff like that that’s not even in the book. I hope this book is received well enough that I get that chance – I would be honored.

AM: As someone who travels as much as you do, what are 3 items in your carry-on that makes you feel comfortable or have a sense of home?

MS: Everything is a carry-on I don’t check bags. Bose Q35 Noise Cancelling headphones are my life blood because I am such a music guy. Costa Del Mar are my sunglass guys – I always have them with me because of the injured eye. I like having it covered. Either Jordan 1s, 3s, 4s or 11s. I don’t ever travel without at least 1 pair of Jordans - ever.

AM: The Sneaker Duffle is going to do well.

MS: Yes thank you! ESPN watchers know me for my sneakers. When I was growing up, once again, my dad never in a million years would have been like I would pay $140 for those shoes. Hell no! When I was in 8th grade maybe 9th. I saved enough money from throwing hay bales in the summer to buy my first pair of Js. They were 5s. The original pair of 5s, I don’t have any 5s in Ocean City or I would show you what I was talking about. The original 5s have clear bottoms – soles. The clear bottoms had the Jump Man in the ball of the foot. If you wore them outside, they would soil to this amber color. I was not about to let that happen. I would carry my Js to school and then put them on when I got there. I never lost that. If you guys had any idea of how neurotic I am about my shoes. All of my shoes are like that. I’m a Js guy and I love Air Max 90s the original Air Max and I am crazy about these. I would say those 3 things.

AM: How do you take time for yourself to decompress with all of the things that you do?

MS: Water. I grew up on a farm, I still own hundreds of acres in Southwest Virginia that is still farmed. When I was a little boy, I was always captivated by the beach. So we bought here 5 years ago I believe our families bought this home and last July, Lainie and I bought a home on Lake Norman in Charlotte and that’s where we live full time. It allows me to really reflect, be vulnerable and to consider who I want to be. It also allows my children to get away from their phones and for me to get away from it and get away from everything. It allows me to be a dad that is creating memories. That’s so important to me to be a present father and husband when I’m not on the road – to be here. I try very hard. It’s hard for any driven professional. I do my dead level best to demand that of myself. Last night, we sat on the beach. I didn’t have my phone other than to play music on a Bluetooth speaker from 3 o'clock in the afternoon to 10:30pm. I bet I had 50 or 60 text messages. Don't judge me – you promise – I have 193 unread text messages! When I’m here, I purposely don’t get on my phone. Tomorrow I will be in Charlotte for our college football seminar for the next 2 days, the day after that I have to shoot something for Marty & McGee all day for the SEC network, the day after that I’m in Clemson, SC all day covering the first practice for the Tigers and we’re kicking off August 24th. And I have a book coming out!

You know one thing that you will never hear me do – complain. I won’t do it. Do you know how many people would sever fingers – I’m aware. I’m very protective of my time in a demanding industry. But, I’m a grinder man.

AM: When you’re in Ocean City, where can we find you grabbing a meal, go shopping or working out?

MS: Kessel's Korner 28th & Asbury. We eat there that’s our spot. Express Pizza is right around the corner here too. They both have grilled buffalo wraps – grilled chicken buffalo. I’m a buffalo sauce freak show – I love it. I don’t only get the grilled buffalo wrap, I get extra buffalo on the side because I dunk it in there – buffalo sauce is my deal man. I go to the local gym and I’m also an endurance athlete. I was supposed to run the New York City Triathalon but they canceled it because of the Heat Index hitting 115 degrees. I was supposed to do the running portion and to be apart of a trio it’s called Challenged Athletes Foundation. Bob Babbitt one of the godfathers of triathlons in this country asked me to participate. There was going to be a double amputee as our swimmer, a world class cyclist as our cyclist and I was going to do the run in Central Park. I run the boardwalk all the time it’s 5 miles. 2.5 each way and I do it all the time.

Lainie gets on the Internet. She got all of our school supplies from Target. 7th Street Surf Shop is another one that we enjoy. Heritage Surf Shop is another one because I love surf T-shirts, big brim hats because I am super pale.

AM: We’re all about #TRIBEGOALS – people who inspire us to be our best selves. Who are those 3 people for you?

MS: Not to say that I want to be overwhelming about the book, but it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to write it. I wanted to champion those people. My parents would be one answer. I am so fortunate and I’m that guy who's an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. My momma was an angel and my daddy battled my demons. I got both of them inside me. I am so fortunate that I had them. They were very present for every game I ever played, they were very demanding, I was one of those guys that if I wasn’t on the honor roll then I didn’t get to play. I’m so thankful for that. I got spanked if I did something wrong and I got wooped – there were no time outs. I’m thankful for that. Everything I said about Eric applies here. It’s because he showed me through our friendship and through his approach to be absolutely unmitigated to be who you are. Be passionate, reach through that camera lens! I knew that when I was covering NASCAR working for ESPN on a Sat morning SportsCenter in the fall when people were ready to watch college football – you may not be interested in NASCAR but you will listen to me during that 2 months because of how much I love it. He helped me realize that that would be ok! Then my wife, Lainie is such a special person. She’s selfless, graceful, she don’t take no crap, she is my single greatest sounding board and will tell me the truth the whole time. That’s why she is reading the book for the first time. She is so astute and I am so appreciative of that. She also made me more selfless.

IG @MartySmithESPN

Our shoot took place in Ocean City, NJ which meant that we enjoyed showcasing menswear looks that are perfect for the beach.

FASHION CREDITS

LOOK 1 PG 16-25 | LE TIGRE Polo Shirt | KENNETH COLE Shorts | SPERRY Gold Cup Collection | TIMEX Watch | NAGICIA Bracelet | COSTA DEL MAR Sunglasses |

LOOK 2 COVER + PG 26 - 35 | KENNETH COLE Shirt | MAVI Shorts | SPERRY Gold Cup Collection | TiMEX Watch | CLEAR VISION OPTICAL/REVO Sunglasses | HEX BRAND Sneaker Duffle | JORDANS Sneakers |

LOOK 3 BACK COVER PG 37 - 49 | MAVI Denim Shirt + Shorts | TIMEX Watch | KENNETH COLE Sneakers | CLEAR VISION OPTICALS/REVO Sunglasses | EARTHCRUISER Bike |

You can hear the full interview with ESPN's Marty Smith in August on our show, #TRIBEGOALS which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multi-media podcast network! Make sure to subscribe to find out when the episode drops. You can hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and wherever you enjoy listening to your favorite podcast.

Read the July Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Context + Repetition: Marty Smith in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG | BREAST CANCER AWARENESS SHOP

Throughout the month of Oct, we've had our Breast Cancer Awareness Shop highlighting some of our favorite brands who have products that support this effort. If you have yet to check this out, you can still support a great cause while adding to your wardrobe. We have a great mix of fun brands from accessories, apparel and lingerie.

Our Co-Founder/Style Director, Kimmie is from Indiana and is an alumnus of Indiana University, Bloomington. So of course, she has a heart for brands based in the state and those who are connected to this university. The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer hit an amazing milestone this October 2017, announcing that Vera Bradley has currently raised $2.2 million for the year bringing the total raised to date over $30 million to fund research efforts (these funds are donated to the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis, Indiana). The lifestyle brand continues to offer a seasonal pattern (this year - Modern Medley) to raise awareness and support the Breast Cancer cause while contributing a direct donation to the foundation annually from all fundraisers and philanthropic event efforts held throughout the year.