Female athlete, Santia Deck, has made history again as the first female athlete with her own sneaker company. Earlier this year, she became the only female athlete to sign a multi-million-dollar contract with the Women’s Football League Association.
Deck, who is popularly known online as the “Queen of Abs”, has made a name for herself in the fitness and social spaces. She started out as a collegiate track athlete, then launched her own brand as a celebrity fitness trainer.
She wrote and published a book titled ‘The struggle’ to highlight and bring awareness to child abuse and also produced fitness DVDs. The track star-turned-entrepreneur has to her name a record-breaking deal with Los Angeles, making her the highest-paid professional female football player.
“I grew up in an entrepreneurial household,” Deck recalled. “My dad owns a hair salon and my mother owns a production company. She’s also my manager. Get out there and build generational wealth, that’s what we were told when we were young,” she said about her upbringing.
After representing major shoe brands as an ambassador, Deck decided she wanted her own. “I’m a sneakerhead and I’ve always wanted ownership, so I felt like why not me?!” She and her team began the process to launch the company initially with only one design.
That was how her company, TRONUS which means
Deck has been inspiring many people on social media with her over 600k followers, empowering public speaking speeches and also addressing relationship issues.
“To be honest, I owe everything— from my shoes to Rugby to stuff with the NFL, I owe it to social media. Every opportunity has come through Instagram for the most part,” Deck told The Grio. “You never know who’s watching.”
The talented athlete, who was born in Greenville, wants the next generation of young women to know that they can follow their dreams, and they can also create new paths and healthy income streams in the process.
“I want to be able to show little girls ‘hey, I’ve seen someone do what I want to do so I know it’s possible, it’s attainable, it’s real,” she stated.