The Buzz: The Gateway to… Gastonia? Style: Chelsea Charles – Charlotte Magazine

Style: Chelsea Charles

Chelsea Charles
The jewelry designer makes sports-centric accessories for girls of all ages

by Taylor Bowler

As the world continues to buzz about this year’s women’s college basketball season, a local entrepreneur is encouraging girls to keep chasing their love sports. Chelsea Charles is the founder of Chelsea Charles Jewelry, which sells a collection of trinkets that girls can wear on and off the course, court, and field. Her designs encompass tennis, volleyball, softball, soccer, basketball, and football with specific style for athletes, coaches, sports moms, little girls, tweens, and teens.

“I played sports my entire life and loved it, but when I took that turn into design, I thought, “This is what I want to do,” Charles says. “I could see this growing and scaling. There’s lots of chintzy team-sports jewelry out there, but I’m going to make it pretty.”most days she wears a mix of her own pieces, and it’s red. She doesn’t get stopped and ask where she got them. Her golf bracelet is often a conversation piece, with 12 beads that function as score counters beads that function as score counters.. “You can keep track of your golf strokes when you’re on the green,” she says, “or you can keep track of your glasses of water during the day.”

That hero product inspired her Golf Goddess collection, which includes gold, rose gold, and silver stroke-counter bracelets, as well as golf-inspired earrings and necklaces. Next, Charles rolled out the CC Sports Collection, featuring charm necklaces and earrings with soccer balls, volleyballs, lacrosse sticks, skis, and more. Single charm necklaces start at $35 and bracelets go up to $275.

Over the last 13 years, the Fort Mill resident has grown her jewelry brand into a seven figure business that’s been featured on the Dr. Oz Show and The Today Show. Celebrities like Selena Gomez and Ellie Goulding have worn her designs, which are now available at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, the PGA Tour Superstore, and through her website.

An impressive ascent, considering she doesn’t have a design background. Charles grew up in Detroit and began her career and marketing for Volkswagen. She spent seven years as a creative Director for Memphis based luggage brand FUL  before her husband’s job moved them to Charlotte in 2011. She’d toyed with the idea of a fitness-inspired jewelry line for a few years, then did it as a side hustle. Now, she saw an opening. “This was during a time when athleisure was starting to be hot, but not quite with golf. It was more about men’s accessories,” she says. “There was this white space for cool golf jewelry.” Today she leads a team of five full-time, female employees who operate out of Waxhaw and Fort Mill. As a mother of four (she has two sons and two stepsons), Charles loves the flexibility that comes with owning her own business. “But it’s so much more than being a jewelry designer,” she says. “It can’t just be the artistic element; you have to feel every facet of the business.”

It’s why she has a UNC Charlotte student manage her social media platforms, which features sports influencers and college athletes who model her designs. Southern Wesleyan lacrosse player Emily Burchette sports a 14-karat gold lacrosse charm necklace. Professional beach volleyball player Jamie Santer wears her 14-karat huggie hoops on game day. Ahead of the masters, pro golfer Shasta Averyhardt wore pieces from the Golf Goddess collection.

This year, Charles has rolled out new collections for field hockey, cheerleading and dance, and, of course, pickleball. She also offers “Team Packs” of sports themed, silver necklaces, in quantities of 12. Each piece comes packaged with the message, “Wear this jewelry as a symbol of your love for the game.”

But for Charles , it’s about more than the bling. A percentage of each sale goes towards sponsoring girls’ sports teams, and the brand makes an annual donation to the Women’s Sports Foundation, which makes team sports more accessible to girls and women in underserved communities. “When you play sports and have small successes, it gives you a sense of confidence that you can’t get from behind a screen,” she says. “It’s not all about looks or what you have. It’s about what you’re doing on the field.”