For Maietta, sport was never just a game. “My introduction to sports was in the fourth grade when my brother put a basketball in my hand at the YMCA,” she recalls. What started as a way to connect with family evolved into a lifelong lens through which she views the world. Growing up during the rise of Michael Jordan, she recognized early that what you wore, like your shoes and your jersey, communicated identity and pride. “What you put on your feet speaks,” she says. “That was the first time I knew what I put on said something about who I was.”
That connection between expression and competition became Round21’s DNA. Every piece in the brand’s catalog from the limited-edition basketballs and jerseys, to the ping-pong paddles and footballs create stories. “Every Round21 product is a story, and every story is told by a storyteller,” she explains. Artists and athletes co-create these objects, transforming gear into cultural artifacts. “We empower the artists to create what they believe the world needs to see.” It’s a deliberate inversion of how traditional brands operate and it’s a new power dynamic where creativity drives commerce, not the other way around.