What's New in Cheerleading Uniforms

Did you catch the Industry Profile section of the latest Cheer Coach and Advisor Magazine (Back to Basics Issue 2010)?


Luke Johnson, Twisted Choreography and Kelly McKeown, GK Elite Sportswear discuss their business relationship and how collaborating with another company can be a win-win situation.

CC&A: Can you tell us how you teamed up with each other and why?

Luke Johnson, owner of Twisted Cho­reography: Let me tell you a little back­ground on Twisted Choreography first. I’ve been choreographing for 10 years and started Twisted Choreography about six years ago. It began when I noticed that most choreographers were focused on themselves and not on the kids. I believe that the kids should be the superstars and when I hire people I make sure they feel the same way and that they understand it is not about them getting the glory. I have 5 choreographers that travel and I have about 12 skill staff.

One of my clients kept telling me about GK Elite and how the company always made their customers feel so great. She insisted that I meet Kelly and was sure that we would get along well because of our shared philosophy of business. Once we met, it was instantaneous; we imme­diately hit it off. It was exactly what we both wanted and had been looking for. Our goals were similar and all of our focus was in alignment. It seemed to work so easily.

Kelly McKeown, executive vice presi­dent of corporate relations, GK Elite Sportswear: We had a mutual acquain­tance that kept telling me that I had to meet Luke and that they were sure we’d work well together since we were both so creative. Finally, we met for lunch one day and hit it off beautifully. We immediately had a connection; we started brainstorm­ing some concepts and decided we were going to collaborate on some projects. That was about a year ago. The relation­ship has worked ever since. We bounce ideas off of one another and it’s two forces of collaboration working together.

CC&A: What do you think has made the business relationship so successful?

Luke Johnson: I feel we both have the same passion and goals. No one is trying to be selfish. I feel that the level of greed with both companies is zero. And with that defining what the two companies are about, it is easy. They (GK Elite) have been very strong on sponsoring cheer­leading and thinking about the future of the sport. We feel exactly that same way. It’s all about the future for us. Our brand­ing is about what is next in cheerleading, where is this going to go and how we can be pioneers in the industry. From the uni­form design technology down to the cho­reography, that’s what it’s about for us.

Kelly McKeown: I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are committed and excited about the industry, about mak­ing changes and about being innovative, about being leaders and about being cut­ting edge. We don’t want to follow the competition; we want to pave new trails. We want to stay true to who we are and that includes looking forward to what things could be.

We don’t need each other. Both compa­nies do many things independently but there is definitely a crossover where we have felt that the energy could be taken to another level. We have a friendship, a business and a partnership. We both bring different strengths to the table and are coming together to build the industry. As for marketing, we come from two totally different directions yet we pull together and meet in the center. It works for us.

CC&A: Can you tell us what the future might hold for your collaboration?

Luke Johnson: It’s all about the future for both our companies. They are the future in uniforms and we feel like we’re the future in choreography. It’s like we never have to try to make the collaboration work, it’s al­ways been an easy marriage.

I’d like everyone to remember regard­less whether you’re a coach, a business owner or a cheerleader that it’s all about the inspiration and that we are all inspi­ration in some capacity and should stay focused on the greater good of the sport. Cheerleading is about relationships.

Kelly McKeown: I see this path continuing to head forward. The great thing is that there is a constant flow of ideas and com­munication. I don’t think there is a limit to where our relationship can go. One of us is always saying, “I just had an idea, what do you think of this?” I definitely see in­dependent forces here, but I also see syn­ergy that together we can expand our vi­sion and feed off of each other’s ideas. Our collaboration is more high level; it’s more strategic than just design. We both have a forward thinking approach to business. We have a lot of things in the pipeline.

CC&A: What would you like our read­ers to know about your companies that you don’t think they already know?

Luke Johnson: We’re getting into com­petitions and we’re going to change the way they are done. Twisted is all about creativity and we’re bringing that to com­petitions. We’re starting Twisted Athlet­ics where we would like the choreography to be valued at a competition. I feel that choreography is what makes us cheer­leading. We can’t be just a skilled based activity or we’d be gymnastics. In my opinion, the closest sport to cheerlead­ing is figure skating. In figure skating you have the combination of athleticism, it has technical requirements, it’s creative, you use your uniforms and there’s music to enhance your performance. Those are the same elements that make cheerleading so great. With Twisted Athletics we’re trying to bring that creative aspect into it and have teams rewarded for creativity. We’re coining our competitions as the “creative competitions” and we hope to be the next generation of creativity.

Kelly McKeown: We are very innovative. We don’t worry about what our competi­tors are doing and we are forward leaning. We think about what hasn’t been done and what we can do better.

Twisted Choreography 1341 Metropolitan Av. SE Atlanta, GA 30316
www.twistedchoreography.com
Ph: 888-77-Twist

GK Elite Sportswear  P.O. Box 16400 Reading, PA 19612
http://www.gkelite.com  Ph:  800-345-4087


Published with permission from Cheer Coach and Advisor Magazine:  www.cheercoachmagazine.com