Nestled in the heart of Schaumburg is Greater Purpose Athletics (GPA), a gym and athletics center dedicated to helping young athletes find their purpose.
Established by Jonte Wells, a Chicago entrepreneur and investor, Greater Purpose Athletics aims to supply its members with more than a place to learn and grow within the field of athletics, the fitness center also offers these young men and women an escape.
Growing Up and Overcoming Life’s Challenges
Born and raised in the inner city of Chicago, Jonte Wells has dedicated years of his life to nurturing the young athletes of tomorrow and the children of today. Teaching much more than how to dribble a ball or shoot a hoop, Wells endeavors to call upon his own past to help build a brighter future for his charges.
Wells is no stranger to the athletic community that Chicago possesses, home to some of the greatest athletes on the planet. Having a reliable place and a safe space to learn the ins and outs of competition can be a life-changing offering. As a young athlete himself, Jonte saw firsthand what it meant when kids took to the street instead of the basketball court. Building a business comes second to making a difference in the lives of his students, at least for Jonte Wells.
For his own life, Jonte Wells saw that athletics could introduce him to the ups and downs of life. Learning to deal with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows would simply become part of competing. Learning this at an early age, Jonte realized how incredible competition was for his own ability to take criticism and he quickly realized how that could assist others.
Becoming a Multi Business Entrepreneur
Due in large part to his affinity for the grind, Jonte was able to turn his work at GPA into just one flower in his bouquet of entrepreneurial ventures. In addition to athletic coaching, Jonte owns eight duplexes while juggling fix-and-flip housing projects all year round.
In addition to his work in real estate, Wells has begun to explore franchising through Sugaring NYC, an organic waxing studio. With two locations already open, one in Lincoln Park and one in South Elgin, Wells is preparing himself as another entrepreneur with a quickly growing portfolio of projects. An organic waxing studio that does waxing and lashes, Sugaring NYC has exceeded more than 1.3 million in sales at its Lincoln Park location alone.
Juggling a smattering of successful businesses would be difficult for anyone, but Jonte Wells takes it one day at a time by recalling his life in athletics. Jonte points to the highs and lows of winning and losing, understanding that you must have the ability to bounce back in order to succeed. You can’t stay too low, so you must find positivity to overcome adversity. For Wells, the basketball court was also a classroom for life.
Establishing Greater Purpose Athletics
While you can’t throw a rock in the city without hitting a fitness center, Greater Purpose Athletics sets itself apart from the other options in a variety of different ways. A place to train for any member of the basketball skill tree, guests will enjoy more than 12,000 square feet of coverage, including a full-sized basketball court with seven total hoops. In addition to the basketball court, the team at GPA has installed turf, a weight room, a lounge area, a multipurpose room, and its revered recovery room.
When athletics were shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis, Jonte Wells saw firsthand how kids struggled. Without athletics to keep them focused and out of trouble, it becomes all too easy for at-risk youth to fall into a bad way. More than a place to learn the game of basketball and train with talented athletes, Greater Purpose Athletics has become a communal hub for people throughout the area and a family for athletes in need.
Staffed by talented professionals and backed by premium amenities, Greater Purpose Athletics caters to kids who want to succeed, feel lost, or otherwise want help overcoming their personal battles. Athletics, to Wells’s way of thinking, provides an avenue to accomplish all of those tasks.
As a Chicago-based entrepreneur, Jonte Wells is looking to Greater Purpose Athletics as both an inspiration and a way to uplift the community that helped raise him. For the kids who need guidance and the athletes who need training, Jonte Wells and the team at GPA are ready to step up for the community.
