For Andrew Henry, turning his life-long obsession with sneakers into a career has been as hard-fought as any rugby game.
After returning to New Zealand from playing professional rugby in Wales and Italy, the son of the All Blacks' World Cup-winning coach, Graham Henry, decided to pursue his passion - designing sneakers.
Despite having no background in business or designing shoes the Auckland entrepreneur, who owns about 100 pairs of sneakers, put pen to paper to come up with his perfect shoe. That turned out to be the easy part.
"Everything I have done I have had to learn myself. From finding a factory, to production, to dealing with China," said the 30-year-old.
"The whole process from start to finish was self taught, so as you can imagine there was a lot of trial and error."
Yours was set up in 2009 and last year launched the first range of limited edition sneakers at Wunderkammer in Auckland. The new range, which launches next Thursday at ONE on Karangahape Rd in Auckland, includes more styles, women's sizes, and it's going global.
Henry travelled to New York with some pairs of sneakers in a suitcase and "walked the streets until I was lucky enough to lock one store down".
"In terms of distribution, especially internationally, I have encountered difficulties with retailers being unwilling to take on a new, completely unknown brand. A big part in overcoming this was making the effort to meet people face-to-face.
''Travelling to Melbourne, New York and Tokyo, and getting to know distributors made a big difference. I have learned that building a working relationship takes more than just a good product."
The shoes are simple, sleek with an eye to detail.
Henry admits he's inspired by iconic sneakers made by adidas and Nike, but "I try to incorporate interesting things and people I see every day''.
''Some things work, some things don't. All sneakers have something unique to offer and the culture as a whole influences me."
While it's been a long road from drawing the shoes to the launch next week, Henry has no regrets.
"Seeing my work completed it makes it all worth it. I still remember seeing the first pair on a stranger walking the streets, very cool."
Although he credits his father for being one of his biggest inspirations, and he's going to get him a pair of his new range, the company is all his.
"A friend came up with the name because I had done this all on my own. He said, 'it's yours' and it just made sense."
