WHAT’S IN A NAME?

I was recently watching “Straw,” Tyler Perry’s Netflix movie and it made me reflect upon the name of our brand, our tagline, our movement - KoncreteKlay: More Color Belongs On The Court- so I decided to devote our second blog post to what’s in a name.

I started playing tennis on both hard courts and clay courts when I was 11 years old, so the name KoncreteKlay does refer to those surfaces, however, it refers to much more.  It refers to not just - the surface of - but the entire being of - a WOMAN.   The main character in “Straw,” Janiyah, a struggling single mother of an ill child went from concrete to clay to concrete to clay throughout the entire movie.  Like concrete, women are strong solid beings, but we are subject to crack under the weight of this thing called life.  Like clay, we are malleable beings possessing a unique ability to mold and transform ourselves as needed.  The strength of a woman is the ability to be both concrete and clay.  

I’ve always been a fashionista and when I started my tennis journey, I wanted to wear different types of outfits than what I saw people wearing at the country clubs or tennis academies where I grew up playing, but my mom wanted me to wear the traditional tennis whites.  It’s not so much that she wanted me to fit in, but as I reflect on it, I think she wanted my fellow players who rarely looked like me and their parents to know that I was able to have the same things that they did so in a sense she wanted them to know that I belonged - by my attire.  The KitStarter Collection is a nod to my mother who is also my best friend.  I start off with two basic plain colors (white and black) but The A-Liner peeking through The Shift1530 is a subtle nod to what is to come with our fall collection which will be full of color.  Yes, color is different shades, but color is also differently made, and color is differently raised.  More color belongs on the court in terms of the wear and the wearer.  We intend to play our part in bringing it!