03/26/2026
Tom Miller has learned to find faith in unfortunate moments.
In the fall, the former Marlington teacher and basketball coach will embark on a new endeavor, opening Trad1tions, an athletic apparel and accessories store and manufacturing facility in the building that formerly housed Fastenal.
It’s a huge step in a journey that has been 20 years in the making.
The facility will produce and sell the Ballher brand that Miller started as a way to attract players to a fledgling Lady Dukes hoops program when he took it over in 2006 and has slowly grown ever since. It will also feature a new line for boys – Only Option -- as the store will focus on Alliance, Marlington, and Mount Union, but will also be able to fulfill custom orders.
Trad1tions will also launch Cleveland Culture, a line celebrating the Guardians, Cavaliers and Browns.
Miller, who owns the proprietary rights to all three brands, sees a long-term plan where he could franchise Trad1tions to other areas, where it would focus on the heritage of the athletic teams in those locales using his brands.
For now, he’s busy opening that first storefront on Union Avenue after receiving a significant Vibrant Communities Grant through JobsOhio and a loan through the city, which is helping make his vision come true following years of steady growth among a series of heartbreaks.
“I am fortunate to be where I am,” said Miller while addressing members of the Alliance Rotary Club during a recent luncheon meeting. “I’ve learned to find faith in all of these unfortunate moments that I’ve encountered along the way.”
Miller was teaching English and coaching youth teams in the district when he was hired to guide the Marlington High School girls basketball team in 2006. He may have been the only person that applied to take over the Dukes, who had been struggling in an elite Northeastern Buckeye Conference and consistently was in the bottom of the league standings.
“I knew we weren’t going to fix it overnight,” explained Miller. “It takes time to build up skills.”
But he could build numbers quickly, if he could entice girls to come out for the team. He needed the players, and their skills would eventually develop.
Always artistic and creative, he developed the Ballher girl, a logo of a female athlete and symbol of confidence and female empowerment. He put the character on T-shirts, explaining that the “h” was added to the word “baller” to make it more feminine. He added wording to the T-shirts that read like a dictionary entry -- “Ballher: A talented young woman that excels on the basketball court. This individual can knock down open jumpers, break down would-be defenders, and lock down leading opponents. She is not just your average ‘girl next door.’ With a whole lot of skill and a whole lot of game, she can probably run the whole neighborhood.”
He found a company in Cleveland that would print them with a custom label and when girls came to open gyms, he handed each one a T-shirt.
It started to gain some traction, but he wanted to take it to the next level, so he created the Ballher Skills Camp. The Canton event attracted 90 girls from in and around Stark County after securing the appearance of WNBA star Tamika Catchings to appear and speak with those players, each receiving a Ballher T-shirt and basketball.
“Our girls at Marlington saw that and wanted to be a part of it,” said Miller, who started to get the idea that his Ballher girl could be something even bigger.
As his team developed, he asked his players what clothing, specifically for female athletes, was available to them.
The answer was as he expected.
None.
Other coaches started approaching him. All of their girls wanted to wear those Ballher shirts that his players had.
Miller explained that he was the one who created them, but he couldn’t give them away. His players considered it their mascot and if their rivals were wearing them too, he wouldn’t be very popular.
“I started to believe it could be bigger than what it was,” said Miller.
During one summer, he became the major sponsor of an AAU event in Kentucky. He hauled trailers full of Ballher apparel to the event and sold $23,000 worth of merchandise in three days.
“The Ballher name had power,” said Miller, noting that now shirts are available for girls in all sports with the ball and wording being switched up to match whether it be soccer, volleyball or softball. “You can wear Jordan stuff and all that means is that you’re a fan of Michael Jordan. To wear these shirts for these girls meant that they were an athlete and that was the power behind it.”
With the idea of turning Ballher into a much bigger brand circling around his mind, Miller remained loyal to the Marlington program. By 2012, his team was a winner, notching 16 victories and two tournament wins.
The Dukes’ third tournament game was a district showdown with No. 1-ranked Manchester, who was undefeated and had blown everyone out. No team had come within 20 points of them all season.
That was until they met Marlington.
“We had some great players and I knew we could hang with them, and we did,” said Miller. “We ended up losing by two points in double overtime. It was amazing.”
But Miller knew it was his last game as a coach. At the age of 32, with the Marlington program in good shape, he decided it was time to hang up his whistle and to take Ballher to another level.
“I knew it was time to pick one or the other,” said Miller. “I had to see where Ballher could go.”
That last game had been so electric, Miller was approached by Manchester’s coach immediately following the game about playing each other in the regular season the following year. Both teams had most of their players returning. It just seemed like a good fit.
“I told him he would have to ask the next coach,” said Miller. “He looked at me like I was crazy. He asked me why I was stepping away when I had one of the top returning teams in the state.”
Miller explained that he revealed his plan and that his one-time opponent said that he wanted to be his first-ever customer.
Miller walked away from a teacher’s salary and went to having zero income of his own. His family would have to rely on the his wife, a third-grade teacher, while he got his business off the ground. Operating from an old barn behind his house, he started to work on a business plan.
“It was scary, but I believed where we were going,” said Miller. “I didn’t know how to even print my own shirts or any of that. But I knew we had a market.”
Manchester’s coach did become a Ballher customer. The other top teams from that district tournament – Hoban and Norton – did as well. Soon almost every girls team in Stark County, besides some of the bigger school districts, was sporting the Ballher logo.
Miller eventually outgrew the barn and moved into the Huntington Bank building on Main Street, buying it for a mere $40,000 in 2016. He never put up a sign because he didn’t need one. He used it to manufacture and meet with clients.
Over the years, he continually evolved and looked for ways to expand.
He applied several times to be on the TV show Shark Tank, a business reality TV show on ABC where entrepreneurs pitch their startups to a panel of five wealthy investors. He made it to the final round on four occasions, but never got to make that presentation on air.
“I had a producer call and say that they had seen my application several times and it was fantastic, one of the best to ever apply,” lamented Miller. “The guy said, ‘I’d love to put you on, but it’s never going happen.’”
The producer explained it this way: ABC is owned by Disney, which also owns ESPN, whose major sponsor is Nike, and they’d be in hot water if they gave Miller a 15-minute segment talking about how Nike doesn’t do anything for girls and he was going to fix the problem.
“That was heartbreaking to hear,” said Miller. “And it still stings every time I see the show.”
Another opportunity that looked extremely promising actually found him when a 12-year-old girl from Arizona was making a plea to a major sporting goods outlet to do something about the lack of goods being marketed specifically to female athletes.
“This little girl wrote a letter to the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods saying that she wanted to find something that matched her passion for the game of basketball and she couldn’t find anything and it went viral,” explained Miller. “So the CEO invited her and her family to Pittsburgh to talk to him about it.”
In the meantime, the girl’s father found out about Ballher through social media and asked for a box of merchandise that he could take to the meeting.
“I shipped him a huge box of stuff to his daughter in her size and she made a video wearing it and about my brand and how it needed to be in Dick’s Sporting Goods,” said Miller. “She took it to the meeting.”
In the end, however, it was like that encounter never happened.
All she got out of it was a $100 gift card.
What Miller got out of it was the realization that in order for major retailers to put his brand on their shelves, it meant that someone like Nike or Under Armour would lose space and that was unlikely to happen.
“Nothing came of it and it was just another unfortunate circumstance in my journey,” said Miller. “But we just kept going.”
In 2019, he was approached about selling the bank building, but believed the inquiry wasn’t serious, so he dismissed it even though he knew he needed more space if he wanted to grow.
Every day, he would pass Fastenal on his way to his Main Street location. He would think that the building was exactly what he needed, but thought it would never happen.
Then, one day, he saw a for sale sign in the grass lot beside the building. The next day, he went inside to ask about it and found out Fastenal was closing.
“I threw that sign in my car and called the number on it,” said Miller.
Eventually, he was able to negotiate sale terms and took possession of the building. Six months later, that buyer for the bank building called back again, this time with a serious offer that paid off the Fastenal building.
“It just all came together,” said Miller.
And now, he’s the recipient of that Vibrant Communities grant that will allow him to sell his own brands at his own store.
“All those experiences and setbacks like not getting on Shark Tank and not getting into Dick’s has taught me to rely on myself and the community,” said Miller. “Those things have just pushed me along the path to a point where I now feel that I am in control of my own destiny. Those misfortunes, in the end, made me stronger.”
Miller knows he’s on the right track. A fortune cookie told him so.
Miller attends an annual Chinese New Year Party, given in honor of his cousin’s adopted daughter from China who joined the family about 10 years ago. During this year’s event in February, when it came time for everyone to open their fortune cookie, Miller’s was empty. When the little girl saw that Miller did not have a fortune, she handed him the one she had received and told him that he could have hers.
When he looked at the little slip of paper, it read: “Your career will advance in September.”
And the plan to open Trad1tions had just been finalized. The grand opening target date was set for September.
“It chokes me up whenever I think about it,” said Miller, who carries the fortune in his wallet. “This little girl wasn’t around when we started the brand, but she loves it. And for her to give me her fortune so that I would have one, and then to read that, I took it as a sign that everything I have been doing has put me on the right path. It truly has been an incredible journey.”
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The Alliance Rotary Club meets from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Wednesday at the Alliance Elks. Those interested in joining the Alliance Rotary Club should contact Mark Locke by email at [email protected]
