When Sarah Kuklisin stepped onto the University of Northern British Columbia campus as a psychology major and business minor, she planned to spend her post-graduation years in a traditional career path. Instead, just months after receiving her degree in May 2025, the former Timberwolves basketball player finds herself at the helm of “It Fits,” an athletic apparel company that is already expanding from basketball courts to golf courses, and she credits her campus connections for making it possible.
Kuklisin’s entrepreneurial journey began not in a classroom, but in the frustration of shopping for gear. “I always really struggled to find footwear in my size in store,” she explains. Her initial vision was ambitious: creating a centralized platform for women’s sports shoes in basketball, soccer, volleyball, and tennis sizes. However, the reality of manufacturing quickly grounded her plans. “To make that happen, you essentially need to make a deal with shoe companies, and they’re very particular on who they sell to.”
Rather than abandon the concept, Kuklisin pivoted. If she couldn’t revolutionize footwear immediately, she would tackle the equally problematic world of women’s athletic wear. “Shoes aren’t the only problem, it’s also clothing,” she notes. “Basketball shorts are hard to find, and not just basketball shorts themselves, but nice styling, good colors.” The idea for “It Fits” was born during a family dog walk, when her father suggested the name as a play on words: finally, athletic wear that actually fits properly. The “for Her” suffix became both slogan and logo, a clever combination of the number four and the letter H, “4H”. The company’s launch was quintessentially UNBC. Kuklisin ‘s first product, a pink compression shirt designed for the annual Shoot for the Cure breast cancer awareness games, debuted with her own basketball team in February 2024. The UNBC media team showcased the shirts during photo shoots, providing the fledgling company with professional marketing material. “They let the girls wear the pink compressions underneath the jerseys for all the photo shoots, which they definitely didn’t have to do,” Kuklisin recalls. “That was huge help for marketing.” That initial success, complete with referees requesting their own shirts, propelled the brand into its first official launch in August 2024, featuring compression shirts in icy blue, plum, and dark green, alongside basketball shorts. Today, the company has secured manufacturing partnerships in China, completed custom orders for high school teams, and is preparing to release a golf line featuring coordinated skirt and top sets in colors like “Ivy League” green and “Strawberry Milkshake” pink. Yet Kuklisin is quick to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not the glossy social media highlight reel it often appears to be. “Financially was a huge challenge,” she admits. “Sampling is so expensive when you’re doing custom items overseas.” She maintains a day job in clinic administration while building the business, reinvesting every dollar rather than drawing a salary. Communication with overseas manufacturers and the relentless demands of content creation present ongoing hurdles. “No one is going to have as much passion or want to put as much work into it as you do,” she says. “You really just have to bank on yourself.”
For current UNBC students contemplating their own ventures, Kuklisin offers concrete advice rooted in her own experience. She encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to go beyond classroom theories and leverage the university’s greatest asset: its people. “I didn’t just go to class and leave the school. I stayed, met people, did extracurricular activities,” she reflects. Those connections, professors, athletic directors, and staff members like Laurelyn and Zoe in the UNBC community, provided not just mentorship but tangible business opportunities and recommendations that helped secure her current employment. “Connections make a business,” Kuklisin states emphatically. She shares the story of meeting a financial broker while working at a gym front desk, casual morning greetings eventually saved her thousands of dollars in customs fees when he helped her navigate complex CRA registration requirements for international shipping. “There are crucial moments that I would not have been able to handle without meeting another person,” she notes. Her practical roadmap for student entrepreneurs includes researching competitors, defining target audiences and mission statements, and utilizing tools like Canva for organization. But above all, she stresses authenticity and persistence. “There’s no one that can tell you to a T how to start your business because everyone does it differently,” she says. “You have to bring it up to people, market yourself, and start saying you’re a business owner because word of mouth is huge.”
As “It Fits” prepares for a busy summer of basketball tournament pop ups and the launch of its golf collection in March, Kuklisin remains tethered to her UNBC roots. She hopes to organize a campus pop up for next year’s Shoot for the Cure event and continues to draw on the network she built as a student athlete.
