ONE-on-ONE: Breaking Barriers with Santia Deck
Santia Deck.
An athlete who shows us that being a leader is about how you serve and empower generations to come.
Images: Eastbay
Meet Santia. Baller. Designer. Change Agent.
When CNK took a pledge to #CreateTheCommunity we knew we would have opportunities to highlight the journeys of some amazing women along the way. Connecting through our passion for sneakHERs, style, or business - there is always a common thread that serves as a motivational tool for our audience (and ourselves) to learn from the next female trailblazer. We find it just as important to highlight women working in the world of sports, which just like sneakers, has historically been a male-dominated space.
Sports has played an integral role in building communities for decades, and sometimes the desire to be an influential athlete is woven into our DNA from an early age. The core values of strength, resilience, perseverance, and sacrifice describe Santia Deck to a tee. She is a woman not unfamiliar to breaking records and making history. To be more specific, she is the first woman to sign a multi-million dollar football contract AND she owns her own sneaker company. But it’s her message of empowerment and pouring into the next generation that inspires us beyond the glitz and glamour. It’s Santia’s grind.
Understanding the societal roadblocks we encounter as women, has left Santia with a relentless fuel that drives her on and off the football field. Aside from the obvious boy’s club in the sports industry, Santia has been mastering her craft through hard work for years with track and field being her first love. She’s made it her mission to show young women that you CAN dream big and haters don’t have a say in the grand scheme of it all.
“If my actions are showing why I deserve it, how can you deny me?”
“It needs to be more women showing young girls that look like them that anything’s possible.”
Founding her sneaker company, Tronus, Santia is paving a new way to empower women of all colors and creeds while putting a concentration on breaking generational curses and poverty. Serving up footwear that supports versatility as well as functionality is right up our alley. Enlisting her love for sneakers into the process of design, Santia’s Tronus silhouettes are a product of her vision that began just two years ago.
We can easily tell you that Santia is rooted in success and to her, words don’t hold much weight - it’s all about the verbs in her book. Listening to her speak so confidently about how her passions and purpose intersect, will leave anyone feeling inspired.
“If you have a dream, protect it.”
Not everyone is going to understand your vision, and that’s OK. Santia explains that no matter how big or small your dreams are, you have to protect them. You also have to add in the ingredients of focus and sacrifice, all of which breed success. As we are all beginning to see a shift with respect and recognition for female athletes, there’s still work to be done. Santia leans into her word for 2020: CONQHER.
She’s letting all the women know that ‘if you want it, go get it’ and don’t stop. A woman who is walking proof that we can push through adversity and break through glass ceilings, Santia aims to help as many women as she can by living in her truth. An unapologetic advocate for female empowerment, she understands that in order to pour into your purpose, you have to believe in yourself no matter what.
Check out more and connect with Santia Deck on Instagram and more of her fierce campaign with Eastbay below.