✍🏾: @tiff.chey
GRAMMY-winning gospel artist turned entrepreneur #TashaCobbsLeonard is the first female recipient of The Athlete’s Foot’s new signature program, StAART which stands for the ‘Strategic African American Retail Track’!
StAART’s mission is to increase African American representation and ownership within the sneaker industry, mainly through franchising, while championing Black-owned Businesses within the Black community.
Through StAART, The Athlete’s Foot directly recruits, develops, and mentors Black entrepreneurs by providing franchisees with access to resources, systems, relationships with strategic brand partners, and a mentorship network to directly address the barriers that typically prevent Black entrepreneurs from launching and successfully sustaining their businesses with the help of various professionals well experienced in the footwear industry.
The multi-award-winning singer owns various successful lifestyle brands, and her passion for the fashion industry, being a self-proclaimed sneaker-head is now taking on the footwear world.
According to a press release, Tasha shares her next chapter as a franchise owner. “Grateful is the word that comes to mind when I explore my feelings about my new venture with The Athlete’s Foot,” she stated. “I’m grateful that I have an opportunity to be a leader and an example that black and brown girls need in order to believe they can be whatever they want to be.”
As a new franchise owner of TAF, Cobbs-Leonard is scouting locations for her store in her hometown Greenville, S.C., giving the city its first TAF.
“We sought to bring a powerful black female entrepreneur into The Athlete’s Foot community, and I could not think of a better person to fill this spot than Tasha,” said Senior Director of Product and Marketing for TAF, Darius Billings.
While looking forward to witnessing the impact Cobbs Leonard can provide to the business, including the StAART program, we can see things fall into place as she flourishes in the industry. Congratulations, sis! #BWLM💕
