Utah Lee is a Nike master trainer who forged her path from fashion to fitness trainer and influencer, I talked with her to get a better peek into her exciting life and journey!
First let’s talk about her career. Utah started in the fashion industry, with her first position being in merchandising at a garment manufacturer. She worked her way up to being a fashion designer, but she left the industry when one of the company’s factories moved to China, since traveling back and forth to check on production got really tiring. After leaving fashion, Utah met a friend who was working in a gym that was looking for staff, she took an interview and started out doing everything around the facility, from meeting new customers to cleaning machines to writing programs. One day the manager asked if she wanted to teach a class, something that was right up her alley since she had been doing dance lessons since she was young, so she started teaching!
From there, people loved her classes, so she got serious about becoming a fitness trainer. This meant learning everything she could about fitness- kickboxing, personal training, and pilates, just scratch the surface. After becoming a fitness trainer, Nike was sponsoring uniforms for the gym where Utah worked and reached out to her about becoming a sponsored athlete- she said yes! Utah started by working on campaigns with Nike to promote women’s fitness in her hometown, Hong Kong.
In addition to Nike, Utah has also worked with other top-level brands like Lamborghini, Redbull, and Prada:
You can see all of her work on her website (utahlee.com). With all of these exciting experiences, Utah’s favorite brand to work with is still Nike. In her words, “Just Do It is more than just wear Nike’s, it’s actually my life motto”
In addition to being a Nike master trainer, Utah also has a dedicated instagram following of 41.3K! She started out just documenting her journey, but as her community grew brands started to get serious about trying to partner with her for promotions. Now Utah also uses her social media influence to give back through charity works and help raise awareness for helping others.
On top of being a Nike Master Trainer AND social influencer, Utah is also a mom to two children- Jacob (14) and Sophia (12). She says managing the balance between family and work was very difficult when they were younger, but now she’s able to “do-it-all” thanks to help from her amazing assistant at home! Now she’s struck a great balance between work during the week and family during the weekend- you can see her with her children below.
As we all know, the road isn’t always easy. Utah says she has learned to take whatever comes her way as a blessing, since with that positive mindset, hard times won’t be too bad. Through the trials she’s learned a couple important lessons:
- Always be kind to others
- If you want to achieve something, go hard or don’t go at all
- Learn to love yourself
- No need to put everything on social media
Utah has built up a great portfolio of work and has had a wonderfully positive impact on her communities. She’s said that the next things for her are to try new experiences, work different jobs, go to new places, and gain new experiences! If you’d like to follow Utah on this journey, you can find her on instagram @utahlee!
