We recently connected with Adom Robinson and have shared our conversation below.

Adom, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

First off, I would just like to say thank you for having me. I am a big fan of your platform and grateful for the opportunity to speak with you. To jump right in, I think one of the biggest risks I’ve taken is starting my company Take One Sportswear. Today, we are one of the fastest growing athletic apparel and equipment brands in the United States. Most people know us for our unique custom sports uniforms and athlete collaborations, but what most people don’t know is that 3 years ago I was running the business out of my parent’s garage and I was really unsure if people would support my vision.

A few months prior to our launch I was in the middle of a professional basketball career, getting the opportunity to play in the NBA’s G League and multiple countries overseas. When I first came up with the idea for Take One, I let a lot of people know that I was starting an athletic company and taking a step back from basketball. Honestly, most people looked at me like I was crazy. Not that I can entirely blame them. Although I did have an MBA from St. John’s University, I had no real experience in fashion or leading a company. But I did have the drive to learn, the faith to pursue it and figure things out along the way. My Mom and Dad also gave me a ton of support early on, which really gave me the confidence to put my all into it. I feel like what gets in the way of so many people is thinking about all these things that they need to have figured out in order to get started — that they never even actually start.

I launched Take One Sportswear on June 1st, 2020, which is also my Dad‘s birthday, right in the heart of the pandemic. The day we launched I had zero expectations, I was just hoping to make a sale. To my suprise, we ended up receiving an overwhelming amount of support on day one, making more money than I had ever seen at that time. It was unbelievable.

We began with custom athletic apparel, which became popular in the local DMV area. Local athletes and coaches began to take notice and then I had the idea to begin outfitting entire sports teams. I took a look at some of the bigger athletic brands and I felt that they had started to go through the motions with a lot of their designs and starting to present a “too big to fail” mentality. So I saw some daylight for us.

In 2021, our company had 3 sports teams under sponsorship and had items sold in about 6 different states. Today, the company has over 40 sports teams under sponsorship across the United States, 2 internationally, and we’ve sold products in 25 states. We’ve had the opportunity to partner with a number of NBA and NFL athletes, as well as a roster full of Division 1 athletes who can now monetize their talent through NIL deals.

Although we still have a long way to go, none of this would’ve been possible without betting on myself and taking a risk. At Take One, we believe that in order to achieve any dream, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. Because in order to have something you never had before, you have to do something you’ve never done before. We’ve done our best to work that into our identity. Take Chances. Take Risks. Take One.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Absolutely, I should have probably done that first. My name is Adom Robinson and I am the CEO and founder of Take One Sportswear. I am also a former professional basketball player. Take One is an innovative, athletic and apparel company based in P.G. County, Maryland which is where I was born and raised. We are fully e-commerce, black owned, and athlete led. We present a black-owned option in an industry that heavily markets towards minorities.

I had the idea to start Take One after my basketball season had been cut short when I was playing in Mexico, due to the Pandemic. Before that, basketball was my primary focus and the only way I had planned to make a living up until that point. The Pandemic really forced me to pivot and figure out other ways to use my gifts and apply my passion for sports. From the beginning I always felt like this was something I was meant to be doing. It seemed like as I continued to put more time and energy into it, doors kept opening. Before I knew it, I was working alongside so many people that I Iooked up to as a kid.

Some people may say, “why you” and that’s always a tough question to answer. Of course we have things that set us apart from other brands, like the niche that we’ve carved out with our team uniform creation, unlimited design options, delivery in a quarter of the time of our competitors, and being black owned. However, none of those things I believe can take full credit for how far we’ve come. I think that God is just guiding our path.

I will say that for as long as we can do this, we are going to use our platform to help as many people as we can. There are so many talented athletes all over the world that get overlooked or lack the exposure that could take them to the next level, get an education, or feed their families. We want to give those athletes an opportunity to be seen, heard, and felt on a global level—in an effort to even the playing field.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

A lot of the growth of our audience on social media started with my personal network. Reaching out to people, letting them know what I was doing and just seeing if they would support. Thankfully, a lot of them did, but I think the biggest draw was using my athletic network to leverage credibility.

In 2019, I was a part of the New York Knicks preseason team, and even though I didn’t end up making the actual team, I really enjoyed some of the people that I met during my time there and I did my best to stay in contact with as many of the players as I could. One player in particular by the name of, Elfrid Peyton, did me a huge favor by walking into some of the Knicks home games at Madison Square Garden wearing Take One apparel for all the fans to see and media to take pictures of. That really got the ball rolling for us.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I would say understanding who our audience is our primary strategy. Whether that be the middle school kid training with dreams of being a professional athlete, a professional athlete looking for a performance edge, a mother who wants to go to a yoga class before picking up their kid from school, or someone who’s never trained before and just wants to go to the gym and look like they know what they’re doing. We do our best to understand who we are resonating with and build from there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://takeonesportswear.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/takeonesportswear/

Image Credits
Going across: Images 1,3,4,5 photographed by Marz Jones Image 7 photographed by Taylor Reeves