Cliff Fretwell of Compound Clothing presents a check to USA Wrestling’s Executive Director, Rich Bender at the Beat The Streets NYC event May 15 at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. Photo by John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com

One of the first individuals to act after the announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board that recommended wrestling not to be on the 2020 Olympic program was Cliff Fretwell of Compound Clothing. By noon that day, Fretwell’s independent Olympic-themed facebook page had 34,000 followers and has since grown to over 92,000.

Cliff and his wife Stephanie leveraged their company, Compound Clothing, to create a Keep Wrestling at the Games shirt to sell with the profits to go to the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW). For over 100 days, Stephanie and Cliff Fretwell have handled all the shipping and order fulfillment.

“We've sold shirts all over the world from Hawaii to Ukraine, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Turkey and everywhere in between,” Fretwell said.  “We were able to raise more than $10,000. We hope to raise another $10,000 to donate to CPOW.”

CPOW is very appreciative of the efforts being put forth by the Fretwells and Compound Clothing, which was done within the rules of the Olympic movement and in cooperation with CPOW.

“CPOW wants to thank Cliff for his quick action and honorable entrepreneurial spirit,” said Bill Scherr, Chairman of CPOW.  “By bringing awareness to the issue and following through on his commitment to donate the profits from his shirt sales, he has set a positive example.”

As the USA, Iran and Russia came together to clash at the Rumble on the Rails and United 4 Wrestling competitions, Fretwell created special shirts using the Farsi (Iranian) and Russian languages. USA Wrestling used these shirts in various promotional ways.  Hollywood actor and wrestling enthusiast Billy Baldwin even wore his while addressing the media at a United Nations media lunch the day before the USA, Iran and Russia competition in New York City.

In addition to Compound Clothing, other companies have used their product sales platform to provide significant financial support to CPOW. All-American Wrestling Supply and Cliff Keen joined forces for the cause by marketing an official t-shirt and Sheels All Sport in Iowa should be recognized for doing their own t-shirt product sale with proceeds going to CPOW.