IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ADIDAS PURPOSE

Families help shape how our stories begin. And through family, we learn what gets us centered, what we return to, and what keeps us moving—even when no one is looking. In Gee’s Bend, generations of women pass stories through quiltmaking, preserving the Pettway legacy and carrying memory forward with their hands.

With that same sense of care, L.E.A.D. co-founders Kelli and C.J. Stewart create spaces for young people to discover their purpose while navigating through life’s toughest challenges. Meanwhile, at adidas S.E.E.D., design draws from lived experience as participants create from what’s inherently within, shaping those experiences into form and meaning.

Each person carries their story and the stories of those who came before them—each with curiosity and intention, asking in their own ways: How do we continue to honor what was given, and how do we allow it to mold us into something new?

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In many families, creativity is inherited. Sometimes it’s named and, other times, it’s seen in the creations that fill rooms, hang on walls, and live in the things made by hand. For Kimberly Shane, Cheresse Thornhill-Goldson, Ashley Comeaux, Precious Hannah-King and Eliyah Jackson, it began at home. Kimberly’s father, a self-taught oil painter, made portraits of her family. Her mother and grandmother sewed without patterns.

Their home carried proof that beauty could be shaped from the mundane in the everyday. Cheresse grew up surrounded by the woodworking of her uncle and the paintings of her grandfather: Eliyah, one of eight siblings, learned to see artistry in everything around her. Her brother, a muralist and tattoo artist, influenced her most, sparking her creative journey at age eleven.

Those early family practices shaped their paths as designers in the footwear industry and for some, pioneering design pathways through adidas S.E.E.D., the School for Experiential Education in Design—a two-year paid program that reimagines who gets access to the footwear industry. Cheresse leads the program, guiding participants to design from what they know and carry, using lived experience as material. She pulls from her Caribbean roots, where everyone learned to fish and make use of what they had, a model of resourcefulness that guides her work today. Kimberly, a designer with over twenty-five years of experience, channels her skills into mentorship, offering the kind of guidance and support she once searched for early in her career.

Through these stories, each designer has developed her own creative voice. “I design with an awareness that beauty and meaning are often found in what's been overlooked or undervalued,” Ashley says, describing how her work connects form to story and story to place. Precious found inspiration in her aunt’s sneaker collection and in seeing how objects can be a form of expression. What began as admiration for style became an understanding in the way one woman’s vision makes space for another. “Kim opened the door for Cheresse, Cheresse for Ashley, Ashley for me, and me for Eliyah,” she says. “We’re confident because we know what we’ve been through and what we’re building."

Eliyah, a former S.E.ED. participant, now works with adidas and carries forward the spirit of collaboration. One fact that remains constant: Kimberly’s reminder to “know who you are and whose you are,” a truth that standing in spaces requires faith in your purpose and in your work. Together, they remember and create from home—a place that helped make them possible.

Quiltmaking is a way of keeping time and tracing stories for the women in Gee’s Bend. The Pettways each learned their craft from a mother, sister, aunt, or grandmother, building on the lessons passed from one generation to the next.

Each quilter honors the women who came before them, while stitching their own story into a pattern—a tangible way of passing down tradition. Among them are Stella Pettway, Pleasent Pettway Scott, Kristin Pettway, Emma Mooney Pettway, Mary Margaret Pettway, and Claudia Pettway Charley, third and fourth-generation quilters who sing a collective song of technique and colors.

For Emma, at the core of her memory is her grandmother, Lottie Mooney. Emma remembers her as a spiritual woman who stayed home cooking and sewing quilts to keep their family warm during the cold months. Lottie’s stories were carried through her hands and told in the fabric and patchwork as much as in the words she shared at night with the children gathered for bed.

These artisans blend imagination with tradition. Patterns like the block of nine or strip quilt provide structure but no two are the same. Each method adding to the one before but never erasing what actually came before. This shows up in how strip sizes shift, colors change, and pieces are reworked into new compositions. “I remember when she used fabric from my first day of school dress,” Mary Margaret said while referring to her mother, Lucy T. Pettway. “I hadn’t seen that dress for years and years, and when I looked at the quilt, it just came flooding back, the first day of school. It is here the quilt becomes a living archive that holds memory and keeps things protected against the sternness of time.”

Stella recalls her father, Clinton Pettway Sr., stepping in to sew and wash clothes whenever there was a new baby in the family. Clinton was not a quilter, but his help showed how everyone played a part in keeping the household moving. In Gee’s Bend, the work is shared, and the work belongs to everyone. “My mother and aunt were also quilters,” says Claudia. “I call myself a late bloomer. I made my first quilt in my thirties, and now my daughter Francesca is generation five.” Her words remind us that it is never too late to pick up and carry what’s left for us and there’s always an opportunity to move the story forward.

Kelli Stewart keeps a photograph close. In it, she stands with her husband, C.J, and their daughters, Mackenzi and Mackenna, on each side of them. She calls it a testament to God’s trust in her spirit and proof that even after loss, love can return.

Much of Kelli’s understanding of family began with her grandmother, Ms. Amy Lou Faust. Born during the years of sharecropping, Ms. Amy worked as a domestic in Athens, Georgia, and built a life through her own labor. Known for her generosity, she often fed neighbors who had fallen on hard times, saying, “You betta mind how you treat folks, ‘cause it’s coming up again.” From her, Kelli learned that community begins with the concern you have for others and that family is measured by how we show up for one another.

C.J. Stewart fell in love with baseball in 1984 at his grandparents home in southwest Atlanta. He remembers watching the Chicago Cubs on television: his grandfather catching the day games, his grandmother tuning in at night. C.J. later joined the Cascade Youth Organization Braves, a neighborhood team where local civil rights leaders came to watch the kids play. Baseball was his dream, but the hopes of his family were shaped by Atlanta’s legacy of activism. They imagined a future for him driven by social change. “I wanted to be something between Hank Aaron and Martin Luther King. Jr.,” he said while reflecting on a family photo. For years, he thought those worlds were separate. But time and experience revealed to him otherwise.

After his professional career with the Chicago Cubs in 1998, a conversation with a mentor challenged him to act on the decline of Black players in baseball. That exchange became the seed for what would grow into L.E.A.D. Center for Youth, a nonprofit built to “advance equity and well-being through sport.”

Kelli and C.J. are partners in life and in purpose. And as co-founders of L.E.A.D., they help young people navigate barriers and see that family can be given and chosen through mentorship and community. For Kelli, her leadership and care is an extension of Ms. Amy’s concern. For C.J., it is a continuation of Atlanta’s legacy of civic duty and athletic distinction. Their purpose anchors their work in service, in their love, and in the act of building what lasts.

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This article has been produced in collaboration with adidas Purpose, Pitch Blend and TRENCH.