There's a reason countless kids with basketball on the brain wanted to “Be Like Mike” in the late 1980s and early '90s; “His Airness” was simply one of the best to play the game. And if those same kids were coming of age in the Lehigh Valley, there's a good chance they wanted to “Be Like Michelle,” too.
Michelle Marciniak didn't garner nearly as much ink inside the pages of Sports Illustrated as Michael Jordan, of course, but she did snag a spread in the magazine in 1991 as her remarkable basketball career at Allentown's Central Catholic High School was coming to an end. She stayed in the spotlight in the years that followed, first as a Lady Vol at the University of Tennessee with a mission to win a national championship alongside legendary Coach Pat Summitt, and then as a professional ball player in two different leagues. Now, following a leap of faith that landed her in the business arena, Marciniak has shifted her focus from jump shots and zone defense to what happens after the final buzzer has sounded and the sun has set—more specifically, how athletes (or anyone, really) can get a more restorative night's sleep.
Marciniak's love affair with all things sports-related didn't begin on the basketball court; instead, it was gymnastics that had her jumping, twirling and tumbling, starting at the age of three. Marciniak was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1973. She moved to Macungie with her parents and two older siblings (sister Kim and brother Steve) when she was five years old and trained at the famed Parkettes gymnastics center in Allentown until she was eight. But even then Marciniak knew her days in a leotard were numbered. “I was never going to be an elite gymnast,” she says. Still, she credits gymnastics with laying the foundation for her success in other sports. A young Marciniak could be found breaking a sweat not only on the basketball court, but also on the baseball diamond, the soccer field, the volleyball court and the golf course—oftentimes the only girl among a gaggle of boy competitors. “I was taught at a very young age that you can do anything a guy can do in the sports arena,” she says. “So, I didn't know any better.” And she never felt out of place. “I could hang with the boys,” says Marciniak. In fact, so impressive was her athletic prowess that Marciniak was considered for Most Valuable Player honors in the boys' soccer league during her freshman year at Central Catholic. But, recalls Marciniak: “They didn't want to give MVP to a girl, so they did a co-MVP [to include a boy].”
But Marciniak was truly in a league of her own on the hardwood. “I was obsessed with becoming the best basketball player I could,” she says. “I knew I was good enough to become a really great player. I knew it inside of me.” Her parents laid down a slab of blacktop and put up a hoop and a spotlight outside the family home so she could practice day and night. Marciniak recalls setting up her boom box in her sister's bedroom window, cranking up her favorite music and going to work. Basketball was everything. “I had no interest in going out,” says Marciniak. “No interest in things normal high school kids would do.”
Marciniak calls herself an introvert and says she tries to avoid the spotlight, something that became harder to do as she racked up point after point inside Central Catholic's storied Rockne Hall. The Sports Illustrated article that came out in 1991 dubbed her the “ponytailed princess of hoop.” That same year, she closed out her career for the Vikettes with 3,025 points and was named the National High School Player of the Year. She was heavily recruited by colleges from across the country, including the University of Tennessee. Just how badly did the school want Marciniak to work her magic inside Knoxville's Thompson-Boling Arena? The prior year, a very pregnant Coach Pat Summitt continued her recruitment visit with the Summitt continued her recruitment visit with the Marciniaks at their home even after her water broke (according to Sports Illustrated, she gave birth to a baby boy after returning to Tennessee that evening). Marciniak spent one year at the University of Notre Dame before transferring to the University of Tennessee and joining Summitt's Lady Vols. She led the team to three appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including two Final Four championship games. In 1996, the Lady Vols captured the NCAA title and Marciniak was named the NCAA MVP.
Marciniak then played for the now-defunct ABL (American Basketball League) and the WNBA before ending her professional career in 2002. She joined the University of South Carolina Gamecocks as an assistant coach for the women's basketball team under Susan Walvius. Marciniak says she was pondering her next move a few years later when a new opportunity presented itself—and it all began with a pair of athletic shorts. The shorts were a favorite of Marciniak's: “They looked great, they felt great. I liked the way they draped,” she says. She gifted a pair to Walvius, who was also a fan. Marciniak recalls what happened next: “She said, ‘I'd love to sleep in this fabric.' I looked at her and said, ‘let's do it.'”
And that's the idea behind SHEEX. There's a reason athletic wear became the go-to wardrobe staple for many during the often-dreary stay-at-home days of the pandemic—it's comfortable, it's cooling and it's soft against the skin. SHEEX aims to replicate that same sensation in the bedroom. “It's the feel. When people go to bed, they want that cozy, soft feel,” Marciniak says. The company, which Marciniak and Walvius officially launched in 2007, offers performance bedding and sleepwear, with a goal of putting an end to overheating and other sleep-disrupting temperature fluctuations. “Everyone thought we were crazy,” Marciniak says, “but we thought we were on to something.” Two years later, the Lehigh Valley got its first taste of the SHEEX experience when some of the products went on display inside the merchandise tent at the U.S. Women's Open at Saucon Valley Country Club. It was a full-circle moment for Marciniak; Mimi Griffin, the founder and president of MSG Promotions, which handled the marketing for the event, was her basketball coach during her elementary school days at St. Thomas More in Allentown. Marciniak calls her a mentor and a friend.
SHEEX opened its first brick-and-mortar location at the end of 2019, but then the COVID pandemic struck, and the storefront inside the King of Prussia Mall was forced to close. Marciniak says the company is currently trying to raise enough capital to try again down the road; she'd love to see a SHEEX store at The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, but nothing is set in stone. It's what Marciniak refers to as a “reset” moment—a moment when life picks you up and plops you down at the starting line for a new beginning, whether you like it or not. Learning to deal with those moments is a skill that Marciniak says translates from the basketball court to the business world. “There's this persistence and resilience. Just being able to bounce back,” she explains. “Basketball taught me how to win, and how to lose. Most importantly, how to lose. How you react to losing will dictate how successful you are for the rest of your life. On the court, you're working hard, you're working smart. But you're not going to win all the time.”
