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#cheer

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Alo Japan

alojapan.com/1278066/how-a-gro How a group of Japanese business men in suits became a beloved cheerleading squad #Britain'sGotTalent #BusinessMen #cheer #cheerleading #CheerleadingTeam #Japan #JapanNews #Japanese #JapaneseNews #news #performance #salarymen #squad #stunts #suit While in the U.S. you might see your fair share of men in suits driving to work, getting coffee, or riding the subway, in Japan you’ll also see them flying through the air, especially as Cheer Re-Man…

How a group of Japanese business men in suits became a beloved cheerleading squad
Public
Ess Bee

💖 #Love is in the air, and #ValentinesDay is just around the corner! 🎉 Why not spread some #Heartwarming #Cheer with my adorable #HeartShaped #Fabric #Ornaments? 🌈✨ Each one is a unique, #Upcycled #Treasure that you can snag for a *sweet* deal—pay what you want with a minimum of just $1! 💸💕

Show your #Partner, #Bestie, or #FamilyMember that they truly have your #Heart! ❤️ Grab yours today and let the #Love flow! 💌👇

[Get your #HeartShaped #Ornaments here!](ko-fi.com/s/abbbb5628e)

Public
Chuck Darwin

Nationwide, just over a million children, mostly girls, participate in #cheer each year
(some estimates are even higher),
more than the number who play softball or lacrosse.

And almost every part of that world is dominated by a single company: #Varsity #Spirit.
It’s hard to cheer at the youth, high school or collegiate level without putting money in the company’s pocket.
Varsity operates summer camps where children learn to do stunts and perform;
it hosts events where they compete;
it sells pom-poms they shake and uniforms they wear on the sidelines of high school and college football games.

Each year, Varsity ships 4.6 million pieces of apparel,
from $80 leopard-print “Cheer Mom” fleeces to custom uniforms covered in Swarovski crystals.

Critics like Matt Stoller, an antitrust expert and the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project,
claim that the cheer giant is a #monopolist whose dominance in its area rivals that of Google in tech
and has had negative impacts for participants and their families.

Varsity, based in Memphis, generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue,
with gross profit margins at times topping 40 percent,
making the company a cash cow for a series of private-equity owners.

Parents have reported spending upward of $10,000 a year per child in competitive cheer,
with Varsity controlling, by some estimates, more than 80 percent of that market.

#Jeff #Webb, the man who founded Varsity, has been called “John D. Rockefeller with glitter”
and the “Dark Sith Lord” of cheer
by some of his detractors.

Webb, now in his 70s, pioneered the gravity-defying acrobatics of modern cheer.

He paired his innovations with a desire for control over every facet of the sport, which he pursued over the course of more than four decades

nytimes.com/2024/10/22/magazin

The New York Times · How Cheerleading Became So Acrobatic, Dangerous and PopularBy David Gauvey Herbert
Continued thread
Public
Susan Larson ♀️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈

In #VicePresident #KamalaHarris' #ancestral #village in #India, #people #cheer her #US #presidential #bid.

At a small #temple in southern #India, a group of people has been #praying every day since late last month: “May Kamala Harris #win this #election. May she #visit this #temple and do good for our #village.”

— This story will also appear in the international section.

npr.org/2024/08/22/g-s1-18035/

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