Kiya Winston: NFL Coach Mike Tomlin’s Wife Made A Name For Herself In Fashion
Kiya Winston Tomlin is the wife to longstanding Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, but she's been busy building a name for herself through her clothing brand, Uptown Sweat.
Although Kiya Winston Tomlin is known as the wife of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, she is much more than that, and turning down the opportunity to be interviewed for HBO’s documentary First Ladies of Sport, not once but twice, only proves that point.
Make no mistake about it, she is fully in love with her husband of 26 years, she just prefers to do it on her own talented terms. She just appears more focused on raising her family and running her popular and growing clothing brand.
KIYA WINSTON TOMLIN KNEW EARLY ON THAT SHE WANTED TO BE A FASHION DESIGNER
Kiya Winston was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on September 3, 1975. When she was a little child, her parents divorced, forcing her mother to raise Kiya and her siblings. While there isn’t much information on Kiya’s family, it is known that Kiya began to develop her interest in designing her own clothes at an early age.
She was tiny as a child. For this reason, her mother was having a difficult time finding clothes that properly fit Kiya. So, Kiya decided she would start designing her own, not only to fit but also to look cool. One Christmas, Kiya Winston asked for a sewing machine, which she got.
So, at age 11, Kiya began to use it, making pillows, ducks, and dresses. The bulk of Kiya Winston’s childhood revolved around her creating clothing designs, sewing, and making clothes. She would make outfits for babies and even prom dresses for friends as well as for herself.
Kiya’s sewing machine would come in handy after she graduated high school. She took it with her to college where she created clothes for her gymnastics club and herself. She even designed an outfit for one of her coaches who was pregnant at the time.
SHE WAS INSPIRED BY DIANA ROSS
In 1982, during Kiya Winston’s childhood, she was away at a gymnastic camp in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Kiya was unaware, but one of her gymnastic campmates had a very famous mother, and when this mother made her first appearance at the camp, it was an impression that pushed Kiya in the direction of fashion.
“The entire scene still replays like a slow-motion dream to me … the vision of elegance, drape of the fabric, and the ease of her sitting with us defines my brand concept to this day,” Kiya says on her website. So, let us set the scene.
A woman who simply demanded attention made her way down to the group of gymnasts. She is wearing a white silk, head-to-toe chiffon outfit, that dazzled as it’s billowing in the breeze. Her hair has that oh-so-familiar look to it.
“When she saw us, she came down to the grass level and sat directly on the grass with us — in all that white silk chiffon. I immediately recognized that it was Diana Ross.” Kiya Winston knew then, just by looking at the elegance sitting in front of her, how Diana Ross embodied her outfit, that creating this look for anyone or everyone would be her future.
KIYA WINSTON IS MARRIED TO PITTSBURG STEELERS HEAD COACH MIKE TOMLIN
Although the image of Diana Ross never left Kiya’s mind, she graduated high school and enrolled at William and Mary’s College as a pre-med student. It was there that she met and started dating Mike Tomlin, who at the time was a grade ahead of her and was playing wide receiver for the college’s football team. He was pre-law.
But not long after the two began dating, Tomlin had decided that he wanted a coaching career. This prompted Kiya Winston to change her major from pre-med to fashion design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, and Architectural Planning. Winston and Tomlin’s relationship was serious enough that she knew a medical career would be a tough go with a coaching career.
The following year, Kiya Winston became Kiya Winston Tomlin. Her move from pre-med to fashion design has been a fortuitous one and has kept her extremely busy while her husband began his coaching career. Throughout Tomlin’s career, Kiya Winston Tomlin has followed him to colleges such as Memphis, Arkansas State, and Cincinnati.
Tomlin jumped into the NFL in 2001 as the defensive backs coach before moving on to the Minnesota Vikings five years later as their defensive coordinator. He held that job for one season before accepting the position of head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has held that job since being hired in 2007, making him one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the National Football League.
KIYA WINSTON WELCOMES THREE KIDS AND LAUNCHES HER CLOTHING BRAND, UPTOWN SWEAT
Before Mike Tomlin took on the head coaching gig with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kiya Winston Tomlin had their three children. Their first was a boy, Dean, born in 2000. Mason, another boy, came next two years later, and finally, in 2006, the Tomlin’s were blessed with Harlyn Quinn Tomlin.
As the Tomlin’s got settled into Pittsburgh and Mike was becoming accustomed to his new position as head coach, Kiya Winston Tomlin continued to work on her craft. She was raising the kids while focusing on making a name for herself in fashion design. Her hard work finally paid off in 2014 when she launched “Uptown Sweat”, her collection of redesigned tracksuits.
Kiya’s “Uptown Sweat” redesign was aimed at women over 30. In fact, many of the current designs are geared toward women over this age. But what is really special about her clothing line is that each and every product is made right here in the USA.
Kiya Winston Tomlin’s designs were gaining the proper attention they deserved. She was becoming a presence on social media, and her website was beginning to sell her merchandise at a solid pace. In 2018, Kiya decided it was time to expand, so instead of selling strictly online, she opened her own shop, Kiya Tomlin Work/Shop in Etna, Pennsylvania, where she currently sells her own merchandise.
“In my heart I felt if I could design, manufacture and sell in one place, that would be a dream,” Kiya says. “That seemed like success.” Before Kiya opened her Etna store, she had a smaller one in East Liberty, but the issue she was having is that she sold her merchandise in that store but manufactured it in a separate location.
The Etna stores kill two birds with one stone. “When we had two locations, I couldn’t be at two places at once,” Kiya says. “When I needed to be at the factory, I would have to close the store. There were times when customers would come by and say your store wasn’t open. By combining the two, if no one is shopping, I’m on my sewing machine or on my computer doing other things.”
SHE TURNED DOWN AN OFFER TO APPEAR ON HBO SPORTS DOCUMENTARY MULTIPLE TIMES
Driven would be the proper way to describe Kiya, which is by no means meant to be disparaging. But that is what makes her such a successful fashion designer and businesswoman. So, you can’t blame her for saying “no thanks” to HBO when they approached her with the documentary First Ladies of Sport. She actually turned them down twice because she thought that the documentary was going to be about Mike Tomlin’s coaching career as well as a reality show.
Kiya Winston Tomlin wanted no part of either. But HBO was persistent and came back to her a third time. This time, though, the producers were forced to send along a rough draft of the series and what they had planned.
The third time was the charm. Kiya realized that the documentary was going to be about the women who support their husbands, but also about what they do in their own lives.
Kiya Winston Tomlin is happy to be called the wife of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. She is happy to be the mother of three wonderful children. But she is extremely proud that she has been able to carve out a very successful career of her own with the backing of her husband and children.
