Founding DEAF Athletic has brought to life an idea that was several years and many experiences in the making.

I was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss that worsened as I aged. I began wearing hearing aids in my early twenties. That was about forty years ago.

I’m also a recreational athlete. I love individual outdoor sports, and I often participate without my hearing aids. I’ve found that, in the quiet, my other senses seem amplified. I become more aware of my surroundings in a different way, the rhythm of my body, the movement of the terrain, the feel of the air.

But over the years, I experienced countless “near misses” while immersed in the outdoors and focused on doing whatever I was doing as well as I could.

On training runs. During the bike leg of a triathlon. Slaloming downhill on a local ski hill. Mid-course in a half marathon.

Suddenly, a vehicle, runner, biker, or skier would appear just off my shoulder, startling me, breaking my flow, and, depending on the situation, leaving me either a little embarrassed or genuinely terrified.

Those experiences accumulated. Eventually, I started thinking about how I could make myself safer while recreating outdoors, particularly around other people, bicycles, and moving vehicles, whether I knew they were there or not.

Then, in the fall of 2018, something clicked.

What if I wore something that alerted people that I couldn’t hear?

It could make me safer while also giving the people around me the opportunity to be more aware and safer themselves.

After retiring from a 30 year career with Cummins in July 2024, I finally had the time to bring that idea to life.

DEAF Athletic was founded to create high performance gear specifically for d/Deaf and hard of hearing athletes.

We use high contrast fabric color combinations and put the DEAF Athletic logo in large, bold type on the back of our tops. The idea is simple: make it immediately visible that the person wearing it may not hear what’s happening around them.

But starting DEAF Athletic required more from me than investing my time and money in a startup at this point in my life. It also meant becoming comfortable with putting my identity fully into the public domain.

I’ve never been ashamed of my hearing loss or tried to hide it. But that doesn’t mean the experience has been without challenges.

There are still times when I feel excluded or unable to be fully myself because I can’t hear well enough to participate. I sometimes wonder what people observing me in those moments might think about my intelligence or personality.

There are also moments, like standing at the start line of a race and trying to follow the pre race announcements, when I’m reminded of my vulnerability and my dependence on visual cues.

Launching DEAF Athletic meant sharing this part of myself with people I don’t know. Through our website and Instagram. At event expos. And simply by wearing our gear.

I don’t know if what I’ve done rises to the level of courage. But I hope it might inspire others in the d/Deaf and hard of hearing community to consider how they can bring their own experiences, energy, ideas, and resources to defy the quiet.

Like many early stage startups, we’re still finding our crowd. But already, the intrinsic rewards have been significant.

There’s the message from a husband who bought a DEAF Athletic tee for his hard of hearing wife because he wanted her to feel safer running with others.

And more recently, four members of an ASL run club in Texas chose to wear DEAF Athletic Reverb tanks at a local ultramarathon. One of the runners told us she noticed a huge difference in how accommodating, friendly, and curious people were. Her friends were easier to spot on the trail because of the colors, and she felt safer knowing there was greater awareness among the runners around her.

These days, when I head out for a snowy morning run or a blazing afternoon ride, I have that same peace of mind under my own DEAF Athletic gear. I can immerse myself in the quiet and the soundless choreography of my senses, knowing I’ve made one small adjustment to help create more awareness around me.

And that may be the part of this venture that means the most.

In a time when so much of the world feels divided, leading a business centered on welcoming people in and encouraging greater understanding of difference feels like a small form of resistance and a reason for hope.

Because DEAF Athletic is about more than gear.

We believe the gear can spark curiosity. Curiosity can lead to questions. Questions can lead to conversations. And conversations can create greater awareness and understanding for athletes who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing.

We’re building DEAF Athletic on that foundation, with intentional values and a purpose that goes beyond the traditional measures of business success.

Defy the quiet.