Young ’14 Transitions from Professional Athlete to Sneaker Entrepreneur

Chase Young ’14 has excelled in reaching his goals since his time at the Prep. As a student, he captained the lacrosse team while performing well in his academics, earning a Division 1 offer to play on the University of Michigan lacrosse team. At Michigan, Young became a co-captain of the varsity program while pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree. Upon graduating from college, Young was drafted to play professional outdoor lacrosse for the Denver Outlaws. Afterward, he took a sales position at Merck in the greater Philadelphia area, which he held until January 2022, when he dove into the world of entrepreneurship and founded his sneaker sales company, Culture Kicks. 

Young started his Instagram page (@cultur3kicks) in March 2020 as a hobby to create content featuring sneakers and artwork around the city of Philadelphia. As his following grew, Young wanted to capitalize and see how he could monetize the page through building relationships across the sneaker community, and continue to sell sneakers. Starting in June 2021, Young decided that he needed to start investing himself more fully into this passion and spent his free time outside of work continuing to grow the brand. After a successful six months, Young decided that he could pursue his passion full time and in January, Young quit his job and partnered with a former client to make the leap forward.

In the early days, Young partnered with classmate Chris Martin ’14 to produce visual content for the page. When asked about the influence of the Prep, Young says, “It is not seen until after you graduate, but the network of the Prep has been so important to growing Culture Kicks.”  

Now Culture Kicks is finding their niche market as a pop-up store selling sneakers in cities across the country, including Philadelphia, Miami, and Detroit. This year, Culture Kicks has partnered with the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia Wings to host the first-ever Sticks and Kicks events at the Wells Fargo Center, selling sneakers to fans during their games. The brand intends to partner with professional athletes and organizations like the Premier Lacrosse League by serving as a pop-up sneaker shop at major sporting events. 

Young was recently back at the Prep to speak to students involved in the Sixers/Trust the Process Club about his company, working in the industry, and his experience as an entrepreneur. He looks forward to the opportunity to be involved in the Prep and the greater Philadelphia community and using his platform to help give back to the community. “The Prep has given me so much that it would feel wrong not being able to do something for the school,” he says.

Young is enjoying the entrepreneurial experience and says, “Each day is a new opportunity to grow the company. It is all on you and there is a lot of pressure, but it is paying off now as we continue to grow and generate more sales. I wouldn’t trade it to go back for anything.” 

For more information and to follow along on Chase Young’s journey, follow @cultur3kicks on Instagram.