CINCINNATI — A group of 14 high school students waited nervously for their team to pitch. They had spent the last three weeks learning how to design shoes and apparel and creating a cohesive business strategy around their clothing line at the Bigger Than Sneakers (BTS) Academy. Now they had to present their ideas to a panel of judges.
“I’m a little emotional because I spent three weeks with a group of teenagers and we all got along, it was really fun,” said Mariam Barry, 15, after her presentation. “It was probably the most fun three weeks of my summer.”
Barry will be a sophomore at Walnut Hills. She thought she would get a summer job, but once she was accepted to BTS Academy, she decided it was more important to spend a few weeks of her summer learning about marketing and design.
“I think the best part of this program is the connections. We now have all the content from these people that could help us start our own brand or business and go further,” Barry said.
BTS Academy asked hand-picked students to come to “class” for three weeks, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. Students were given brand-new iPads, loaded with design programs, to keep. Nearly every day for the first two weeks, they were met with guest speakers from leaders in marketing, design, and business. In the final week, they were divided into groups and challenged to create a fictional company, including budgets and a marketing plan, which they would present to a panel of judges.
Matt Tomamichel is the co-founder of Bigger Than Sneakers. He opened Corporate, a sneaker store, 16 years ago in Hyde Park. Today, he owns two other stores: one in Indianapolis and one in Dayton. So the idea for Bigger Than Sneakers was simply to offer the community more than just fashion choices for their feet.
“I don’t have a college degree,” Tomamichel said. “But I’ve owned my business for 16 years. I felt like I had something to offer people through my network. We said, let’s put this together. Let’s make this something we wish we had when we were kids.”
Tomamichel grew up in Greenhills. He remembers going to Winton Woods High School and being mocked when he said he wanted to open a sneaker store.
“If I’ve been through that, I can only imagine what it feels like today with social media and everything that’s going on with kids, you know,” Tomamichel said. “It’s almost like our kids have to become adults faster. And if that’s the case, then I want them to be prepared. I want them to be able to, you know, find their passion earlier.”
And thus BTS Academy was born.
Jayden Thrasher, 16, is one of the beneficiaries of the program. His sister attended the academy last summer. This summer, he was selected to be a part of the academy and was one of Barry’s teammates for their presentation. He said the three weeks had a tremendous impact on him.
“I just gave a presentation on sales,” Thrasher said. “I didn’t know anything about it: how to calculate the numbers and put them in a spreadsheet, or what gross revenue was. I had no idea what that was. So to learn something like that, that can be applied to other things in my life, other businesses, other things that I pursue in the future, is really cool.”
He said he used to focus on design, but learning from business leaders about business and the costs of running a business has opened his mind and changed his perspective. Additionally, he said he now sees his future more realistically.
“Our project was about passion,” Thrasher said. “Now that I’m diving into it, I’m starting to think: What’s my passion? What do I want to do? I feel like it’s elevating me to a higher level to think about the future.”
And that’s exactly what Tomamichel was hoping would happen.
“I feel like people always feel like they had to flee our city to become great,” Tomamichel said. “Now you can be here and become great. We need more positive examples of success… That’s what fills me every day.”
