Julie Stewart lends true meaning to the title of #bossbabe. A graduate of Pepperdine University business school, Stewart leads with a uniquely feminist, forward-thinking attitude. As Stewart reflects on her first full year as CEO of Sportsheets, she finds that success lies in professionalism that cares.
“I have been in this industry over 26 years, and I have participated in and seen many wonderful improvements, both customer-facing and within our company,” Stewart tells XBIZ.
The company remains committed to the success of its customers with more useful resources and sales tools planned for the near future.
In January 2020, Sportsheets' beloved founder, Tom Stewart, stepped down after 27 years as CEO. After spending almost three decades selling vanilla-friendly bondage equipment and sex toys, Tom was ready to retire and focus on his youth philanthropy project, Drums for Drummers.
“One of the most exciting things about this retirement is that I’m able to leave the company in the capable hands of my sister, Julie Stewart, who’s been my partner for over two decades and the president of Sportsheets since 2012,” Tom Stewart said in a company announcement on January 8, 2020. “As the sole owner of Sportsheets, Julie will be taking the company into the next decade and beyond.”
Since assuming the helm, Julie Stewart has focused on team-building and used this tactic to evolve the company as a whole.
“My role hasn’t changed much since Tom retired, but my leadership style has a bit,” says Stewart. “My goal has been to nurture our leaders so that their departments have clear goals and the resources needed to meet those goals.”
Stewart reveals that she organized a strategic team retreat in 2020 to update Sportsheets' mission, vision, areas of focus and initiatives for the future. With input from the executive team of operations supervisor Ed Hayes, VP of product development Karina Figueroa, and director of design Chaney Cox, Stewart and co. crafted a plan that's now been in motion for the last few quarters.
Shortly after Tom Stewart handed off his leading role, Julie moved the entire team from their location in Huntington Beach, Calif., to the nearby inland town of Cerritos.
“We finalized our ownership transition and then I relocated the company to Cerritos in January 2020, never knowing that a pandemic was right around the corner,” recalls Stewart.
“It was a tremendously difficult year for people,” Stewart laments. “Everyone at Sportsheets has been so incredibly flexible, dedicated, and positive through 2020.”
Stewart explains that her team initially pivoted to sewing face coverings beginning last spring, and even launched a new business dedicated entirely to mask-making: Jane Care Inc. Stewart's team shipped over 15,000 masks to local businesses, industry customers, and others in need through JaneCareInc.com.
“My team reacted and redirected so quickly and effectively. They really blew me away,” says Stewart, who describes her staff “working safely, providing a service for local industries, and giving people here a sense of purpose in the early months of COVID and all its uncertainty.”
Diligent COVID protection was of course extended to Stewart's office environment as well. Sportsheets Safety Officer Juan Chavarria led safety protocols while Monica Hernandez coordinated on-site testing to reduce exposure and risk for employees. Meanwhile, warehouse team leads Durante Brown and David Lopez worked to expedite production and inventory during a time when shortages and delays were the norm.
Following in Tom Stewart's always-philanthropic footsteps, Julie found altruism to be the driving force behind her team's high morale, even during the scariest parts of the pandemic.
“Despite the extra stress, we still managed to support local charities in 2020, supplying 500 Thanksgiving dinners, a food drive, and hundreds of gift bags for the Long Beach Rescue Mission,” says Stewart. “Watching my team assemble gifts bags was a highlight of the year.”
Through it all, Stewart highlights, director of design Chaney Cox and VP of product development Karina Figueroa stayed focused on creativity, growing the Sportsheets online community through social media and increasing inclusivity in the company's packaging and marketing images. The team additionally launched Nexus, a new line of silicone dildos and hollow dongs. Stewart gives kudos to the design ideas of Chaney Cox and art department lead Justin Mills, who respectively updated products and packaging to the highest-caliber quality.
Outside of Sportsheets, Stewart maintained her charity work with the board of the Siksha Foundation, a non-profit that builds dorms and school facilities in India and Africa. Prior to COVID, Stewart traveled to India to attend the openings of these new facilities and scout the next projects with board members. Stewart says the experience was both incredible and humbling.
“Many of these kids have slept only on a floor their entire lives,” explains Stewart. “The organization directs all funds into the building of safe, clean facilities in rural schools with the purpose of creating a healthy environment that allows children to learn.”
Back at Sportsheets headquarters, Stewart now contemplates the evolution of the ever-popular role of “female CEO,” for her peers and now-teenage daughter alike.
“Is this industry the business world I wish for my daughter? Not yet,” she sighs.
Stewart is positive about the industry's lengthy strides, but believes we’re far from out of the woods yet.
“Our presence has increased significantly. Our leadership has increased fractionally,” she analyzes, “[but] we need to make more gains in product safety and diversified leadership within companies in our industry.”
Stewart feels women, people of color and those in the LGBTQIA+ community are still tacitly expected to work harder to prove their intelligence and contributions in business. She also says the era of #metoo is far from over. Even the steadfast Stewart claims she's tolerated inappropriate behavior from colleagues at certain points in her career.
However, Stewart's silver lining is her powerful role as a working mother and knowledgeable businesswoman.
“As I cringed at the daily news stories from #metoo in 2020, I had to remember that many people still work in these toxic environments. We are fortunate to have tremendous diversity in our organization,” says Stewart of her company.
“We are a majority-Hispanic company, so our biweekly company meetings are presented in English and Spanish. We have more women leaders at the highest levels of our company than men. We provide free menstrual health products to all female employees,” she explains. “But I don’t think these things should be extraordinary; they should be the norm.”
As the midway point of 2021 fast approaches, Stewart doesn't let disappointment turn to discouragement.
She's recently added industry vet Brian Sofer to spearhead Sportsheets' overall marketing efforts and B2B sales executive Julia Harney to attend to customer service excellence. Stewart is perhaps most proud of the launch of Sportsheets Reseller Support (SRS), a B2B service hub housing 40-plus gigabytes of promotional and marketing materials. The team also anticipates new product launches in July and October. "Customers can look forward to incredible additions to everyone’s favorite brands, exquisite designs and materials, and gorgeous plus-size models on our packaging," notes Stewart.
Overall, Stewart's long list of goals is all underlined with Sportsheets' family-centric ideals toward staff and clients.
“The company remains committed to the success of its customers with more useful resources and sales tools planned for the near future,” she confirms. “The leadership of our company is super solid, [and] everyone here is itching to get back out there and see our customers.”
But if COVID prevails, Stewart says not to hesitate to give her a Zoom call. “We also love that we can so easily connect in a safe, less expensive way over Zoom with customers, retailers and for events,” she concludes. “We’re excited about using this technology to continue to reach more people now and into the future.”
