The Founder
Justin Lea
Founder & CEO — Hayworth Athletic
Founder & CEO — Hayworth Athletic
There is no soccer company in America that is seriously aiming to become the rightful owner of an unmistakable American soccer identity. That space is wide open. We have the opportunity to author it.
Justin Lea — Austin, TexasJustin Lea was born in Austin, Texas, grew up in Lockhart, and attended Lake Travis High School. He was a two-sport college athlete (soccer and baseball) at a small school in Iowa—Grinnell College. Afterwards, he attended Marquette University Law School—with a focus in Sports Law.
He worked in corporate antitrust in Washington, D.C. before building a small law firm in northern New Mexico, handling a broad spectrum of civil cases and managing a criminal defense practice that ranged from misdemeanors to first degree felonies. During that time, he was on the Finance Committee for New Mexico Legal Aid, an organization dedicated to indigent representation.
He later built an organization called the Taos Sports Alliance that, together with the Town of Taos and School District, raised funds for and constructed a FIFA 2-star artificial turf regulation field. For several years, he served/chaired the Taos Planning and Zoning Commission and was concurrently the President of the local youth soccer organization that had 600+ kids.
He studied sweatshop labor in the soccer ball industry in Pakistan and drove around the world for two years from Kuala Lumpur to London in an old Land Cruiser. He returned home to Austin in 2018 and reengaged himself in a restaurant group that he had been a longtime partner in, becoming CFO and a Managing Member of the company. He was hired as a business consultant and built a luxury brand tequila that launched in the summer of 2022.
Late in 2018, he discovered a small village in Colombia, where he and his dedicated team have spent the past seven years building prototypes, supply chains, and a small factory that focuses on fair wages and the preservation of fine handmade soccer balls.
Justin started Hayworth because he believes that not just fair wages, but decent wages are at the core of a better-balanced future for humanity, and that these labor practices should become the norm. He hopes you share his passion and enjoyment for this beautiful ball.
Over the past twenty years, Justin Lea has built a law firm, a restaurant group, a sports tourism nonprofit, and one of the best soccer fields in the United States; he's chaired a planning & zoning commission, run a 600-player youth soccer league, completed a global circumnavigation in an old Land Cruiser, launched an Austin-based tequila brand, and spent the past seven years building the most beautiful soccer ball in the world—the foundation for America's first soccer brand, Hayworth Athletic. Grinnell College alum (class of 2001). Based in Austin, Texas.