EYL #225 How Actively Black Grew into $30 Million Apparel Brand

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One of the things that I learned from the first business that I took into the second one was the power of building audience and community and then serving them right. A lot of entrepreneurs get an idea for a productor or something, and they rushed to build that. They rush to do that, and then they go try to find an audience to sell it to. My advice would.

Revert be to reverse engineer that right.

So before I dropped, before we actually launched, I had ten thousand names on my email list.

I had five thousand names on my SMS list.

As we were building out the Instagram and the social presence, it was more so about what this brand was, about what it was going to stand for and showing the audience the and I was showing mock ups and people were just resonating with it because it spoke to them.

My graduates from my school being false backdrop drop, Mike drop, backdrop drop.

All right, guys, welcome back. E y L.

This is gonna be a dope conversation. Actively black. This is somebody that we got introduced to the brand.

I think Kwame Uncle, Yeah, like two years ago.

Yeah, he introduced us to the brand. And then we got the merchant.

The biggest package of merchandise that I've ever seen from a brand. I said, wait, what is this?

But what's happened is that they've been actually progressively like climbing up the rankings of this whole situation. You've probably seen them being wore. I see the list of celebrities that have championed the brand, from Steph Curry to Pinky Cole, Meganica, Steve Harvey, Deon Sanders, Cam Newton, Damon John a bunch of people, and then a lot of the IL deals, especially with the Sanders family, Shiloh Sanders, Shador Sanders, Travis Hunter, our guy Stagah, Kelly.

Somebody's been down in Jackson. Well somebody's in Colorado now. Yeah.

Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna be in that cold for a little bit.

So it's a it's a I guess the best way to describe it is an athletic where brand.

At leisure at leisure sports apparel.

Yeah, at leisure sports apparel.

So it's a dope conversation from starting growing the brand VC, because you guys took some VC money as well, right, So that leads into that conversation with the seed rounds different things in nature, collaborations with Foolble, collaborations with the Muhammad ali A State, a bunch of different things that's happening.

So congrats on.

That, man, appreciate it.

He just like breaking news today. Yeah, I just saw you. I just saw the post.

Multi year deal with the Muhammad ali Ah State.

We gotta get into that. Yeah. So yeah, we got the CEO, Landy Smith.

Thank you for joining us.

Appreciate you for having me, man.

Yeah, so it's been it's been a long time coming.

Yeah, man, it's funny you say two years ago when Kwame introduced you. That's literally when he introduced the brand, before we even got started. We just made two years on Black Friday this past Black Friday. So we're we're brand that's twenty five months years old, man, twenty five months old.

So yeah, I feel like we've been in text conversation probably for about a year of that about that year and I'm like, yeah, we coming to LA. When we come and we're coming, it's like, yoh, man, I just did this deal that you think Now, I'm like, yo, bro, it's coming.

Here we are, So yeah, let's talk about it. Man.

A lot of people start holding brands, but you, like I said, you've actually been able to reach success and you're reaching more success.

You've been able to raise money and everything. But take us back to the beginning.

What's the idea to start the brand and what's the beginning things that you did to get the brand off the ground.

Yeah, well this is actually my second one.

The first brand I launch is called Active Faith, launched that back in twenty eleven. My two business partners in that with Steph Curry and Anthony Tolliver.

How'd you get those guys. Man, So I'm a former basketball player. Man, excuse me?

Where'd you play? Man?

I played at the University of Houston and finished up with the Sacramento Kings. I tore my knee up thirty three days after signing my first NBA contract, So, you know, something that was a dream for me since I was five years old, chased that dream. Like I said, played my college basketball at University of Houston and had the opportunity to play in the NBA. And that was a devastating moment for me, but it ended up being pivotal

Town by the way, number one in the country, number two, Yeah.

We number three right now. We lost, you know, last game number three. But and you know, I'm back home in Houston. I'm a grown man. I'm broke, living at home my.

Mother, and.

It was it was embarrassing for me to leave the house because every time I'm somewhere, somebody like, yo, that's Landy Smith, the basketball player, and she's supposed to be in the league. Thought she was in the NBA. And I'm at home, broke, you know, not knowing what I'm gonna do next next with my life. So I was praying, man, I asked God to give me some guidance, and I

Sports was always important to me.

So I was like, maybe this would be a cool way to put those passions together to create this sports appel brand that was faith.

Based, had these faith based messages.

So that's how the first one started, man, And just through those relationships. The basketball world is very small, man.

So you know Steph.

I've been friends with Steph for what was it twelve thirteen years now. Obviously he's a man of faith. So when I was talking to him about this brand that I was getting ready to start that was going to be faith based, he wanted to be a part of it. So yeah, that's how that first one got started.

And then What were the issues with the first one?

Why that didn't work out? Oh?

It worked, It still works still. Yeah, we've still got that one. Active Faith has done over twenty million in revenue. We've got customers in seventy five different countries, all e comm It's the first of its kind of.

Faith pushed that brand.

You push that because I've seen this pushed a lot.

Is that being pushed in a different channel.

Yeah.

It's got its own Instagram, it's got its own website.

It's completely separate.

You know, I don't I don't have kids yet, but I would imagine it's like, you know, you're having a newborn. It's got to take all of your attention, you know what I mean. Active Faith has been going since twenty eleven. I've got a partner that's still making sure, you know, running all the day to day with that. But when I had the vision for Actively Black and once this thing got started, man it was it was a snowball.

So I want I want to go back to a little bit right because embarrassed to come out understandable from a standpoint, like you're the man in the town and now you've got this injury that's devastated. You didn't have any income, but you had an idea. How did you go from my idea to actually creating the brand itself? Like what was the manufacturing process that?

Who gave you? You know what I mean? Like? What was that process? Like?

Yeah, man, it's funny all your different experiences in life, how you can look back and you see where you know God was orchestrating things or where these different relationships will come back into play. So in two thousand and eight, I was invited to go on the NBA Asia Tour and so they took you know, a bunch of us. We went and played games in the Philippines and China and in Korea. And when we were in China, we

You know what I'm saying.

I didn't.

I was a kinesiology major at the University of Houston, so I had no background in design clothes. The only job I ever had was playing basketball, you know what I'm saying. So I went to YouTube and I was just religiously looking up everything I could.

Man, I remember googling how to come up with a company name you know what I mean.

And I remember the article was saying to make columns of words that described what your brand was going to be about.

And literally, you know.

Active in Faith were next to each other in this column of words that I was trying to figure out the name for the first company was going to be. And when I thought about active faith and the double entendre of it being the active where brand wanting to be active but also knowing that would activate your faith is is you actually have to put forth action, you know what I mean. People talk about manifestation, they talk about speaking things into existence, but it's the action that

Hire a build website?

And I'm looking they charging ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars to build a website. I don't have no money, So I'm like, I gotta I gotta figure out how to do this myself. So I taught myself to cold my own website, taught myself how to use photoshop and illustrator. Like I said, I don't come from a design background, so I'm just figuring out how to create mock ups just to get the ideas out of my head and get them visually onto a platform.

And really that was the start of it, man.

So when you get the first product right, the next thing is how do you market it? Are you thinking that yourself? Do I need a break a mortar or is it like I'm a solely ecommerce this thing and get it in the right hand.

Yeah.

So, in the beginning with Active Faith, there was two big Christian sports appail I mean Christian retailers at the time, Family Christian LifeWay. I'm thinking, once I pitched them this idea, they picking me up, We launched and were gone. They all told me they'd never heard of Christian sports apparel before, so they were like, this isn't gonna work. So I actually went to e commerce route by necessity, but it ended up being a blessing, you know what I mean.

Guys remember Lynn Sanity?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, So Jeremy's went a closet of mind, yeah exactly, and he was wearing wrist bands from my company. So I got these wrist bands that said active Faith. The tagline was in Jesus, name I Play instead of name I prayed. The tagline is just name I Play. And so I was sending these wrist bands out to all the basketball players that I knew that would understand this concept of a faith based sports

And it was probably two weeks after that.

I think Baron Davis got hurd whoever the two point guards wherever in front of him got hurt and he was forced into this role. And you know what, happened when with insanity and so he's on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Time magazine is everything you could think of laying the ball up and you see Active Faith and you see these wristbands on his wrist. I mean, you go look at it right now. Look up any picture, you're gonna see him wearing these wristbands. And Man, USA

And then we were.

Getting all this traffic from China and Taiwan. So first year out the gate with Active Faith, we did three hundred thousand in revenue off wristbands. Yeah yeah, so man, that's how it got started.

Man.

And then you know, having that initial audience that saw the wristbands, when I introduced the apparel, it just kind of, you know, did his thing. We went from three hundred thousand to jumped from three hundred thousand to one point five million, to six million to eight and a half million, Like it was something that was just moving at a speed that you know, to this day, it's hard to really put it into words.

What was happening.

I mean, I had I had friends at my mom's house feeling orders. You know, my mom's house. I turned her my mom's house into an order for filming facility, you know what I'm saying, And was feeding my friends pizza to helped have them come over and help.

Me feel orders. So yeah, that's that's how the first thing got off the ground.

So all right, so you get that going, Yep, you're taking that money and then starting with actively black.

Is that how that started?

Man?

So so, like I said, so, Steph was my business partner also, and at the time, you remember he wasn't the guy that everybody sees now, you know what I mean, A lot of people don't realize those ankle injuries and the surgeries that he had that.

Second year in the league.

You could be looking at a Grant Hill trajectory with Steph versus what he's on. So, man, people wasn't checking for him like that. But he was rocking with me. He was rocking with the brand. Same thing with him. He gets healthy, he wins multiple MVPs. To this day, he doesn't play a game without wearing his Active Faith

And here it is I. You know, I bounced back from.

An injury that ended my NBA career, built a multimillion dollar business out of my mom's house, and I'm afraid to even show that this is me, you know what I'm saying. And I had instances where customers will call you know, entrepreneur in the beginning, you wearing all the hats I'm doing customer service. A customer is like, you sound like you black, and I was like I am.

You know what I'm saying.

You saw African Black, Jamaica, whatever you were, if you were black, you felt something the first time you saw that film. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna create that brand, and I want people to have the feeling that I had walking out of the theater watching Black Panther for the first time. I want them to have that feeling they when they interact with this brand.

Act of faith kept me plenty busy.

I moved out to LA six months before the pandemic shut the whole city down, and so I told myself, I'm not gonna let this time pass without burthening something new. And you know, we all witnessed murder George Floyd and the aftermath and everything that happened after that, and so I started to see all these brands. I saw Nike, you know, Adeeda, everybody make these declarations about what they were going to do for the black community after the murder of George Floyd, and to me, it.

Felt very performative.

It felt like this was just part of their new marketing strategy because outside of the pandemic, the stuff that's been happening in black people has been happening for centuries, for decades, and none of these brands had ever said anything, So why are y'all saying something now? And finally that's when I decided I wasn't gonna put this idea on the shelf anymore. Ink Magazine called me to do a

So now that people know that you're black and you're running Actively Faith. Has that affected the company?

I've had some I've had some detractors, you know what I mean.

But I've also had people who who have decided to support because.

Of those detractors.

They're like, you know, we want to support this, this black entrepreneur. And and and then also the brand awareness, the brand equity that already had already been built over so many years. A lot of people attributed to being Steph Curry's brand or you know, the brand that Jeremy Lynn was wearing.

So I'm not.

As as as visible for Active Faith as I am for Actively Black.

Is there a level of fulfillment that you that you have now?

Knowing that, because even when I watch your Instagram now, it's like I feel it's like unapologetically Like from what you're telling me the story of the private business, it was like I had to hide it. This time, I'm overcompensated, and I'm going to be unapologetic about it in everything I do, because when I see you posts, I'm like, I feel, I feel the power in it.

I wouldn't say over compensating. My my my personal instagram was just private. I've been talking this way whole life I've been this way the whole time. People just outside of who didn't didn't know me personally, who who are allowed to follow me on my personal Instagram They didn't, they didn't know. But everybody who knows me, they're like, Oh, that's that's that's been landing. You scroll back through my Instagram, you gonna see the same thing. I've always been this way.

Now do you, I mean, do you? How does that feel now? Right?

Because you've launched Active Black and it's successful. Yeah, Like we said, you mentioned a list of people that are actually engaged with the brand, that been supporting it as opposed to just having the monetary success from Active Faith.

Is there a difference in the way that you are personally taking this on now?

One hundred percent?

I mean, because the funny thing is, I feel like we're building this in a way that hasn't been built before, especially in this in this particular industry where there's been a lack of black ownership and representation, and in this industry that has profited heavily from black culture, from black ath leads, from the black community, but I felt like

Man.

I had black people telling me actively black wouldn't work. I had black people telling me, Man, if you put black in the name, it's going to prevent this from being successful. So there were a lot of people that I initially told about the idea for actively black that now are looking at me like, damn, it works, you know what I'm saying. And I have a little grace for some of those that didn't believe. A lot of them come from corporate backgrounds where blackness is suppressed. I

So all right, so you made two point three million in the first twelve months. Yeah, that was done through mostly like online set like what was.

All e com all e comm.

I knew that I needed to cultivate this audience that I could reach you online through social media. And one of the things that I learned from the first business that I took into the second one was the power of building audience and community and then serving them. Right, A lot of entrepreneurs get an idea for a product or something and they rushed to build that. They rush to do that, and then they go try to find an audience to sell it to. My advice would revert

There were so many people who were waiting for what we were providing.

So by the time it was time for launch date, they came at it, and actually I was underprepared for the support.

Talk about that.

So the first year is two point three Yeah, two was five point six million in revenue, but you said you missed out on eight million due to demand growing way faster than inventory.

So talk about that, man.

So I've been playing ketchup since day one. The initial inventory that I bought for actively Black, I thought would last me the first three months. It sold out in the first three weeks. So I've literally been playing ketchup from day one. But I didn't know how fast this demand was going to grow. So there's a data analytics

They did an audit on my site and he came back.

And he he called me and he said, Man, you know, I'm I'm the founder of this company. I normally don't I normally I'm not on these calls. I have somebody to make these calls for me. But when I saw your back end analytics and what's going on, I had to reach out and call you because I haven't seen these numbers since I was at birch Box. I don't know if you'll familiar with birch Box. It was one of the most successful what do you call it, the subscription subscription businesses subscription boxes.

They went from zero two.

Hundred million in two years and and.

So, and he was there at Birch Box.

So he hit me, He's like, I haven't seen these types of numbers since I was at Birch Box, and you need to sit down when I tell you how much revenue you missed out on. And so he went through everything, went through the deck and the presentation, and he was like, you missed out on eight million on the low end, because we noticed when you sold out of these certain things, you also turned off your advertising forum.

I had no idea who they were, and then they were walking the streets in London and walked.

Past and I'm like, they're based in the UK.

Yeah, Like wait, I've never seen or heard this brand, but I just kept seeing that the store was flooded, but they had like classes inside the store. I'm like, oh, wait, this makes perfect sense. I'm about to closing. They work out when them right in the same space.

And that's their first store, is their flagship store there. Everything that they've done before then was all e comm director consumer And so the reason why I bring them up is they were a brand that I looked at as my as my north star in getting this thing started. Because when I would tell people, man, we get building a black Nike, it's hard for them to fathom that. They can't they can't envision that. I actually encourage everybody

Our first twenty four months those.

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Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Numbers are blowing their first twenty four months out the water while missing out on eight million dollars in revenue. So if you think about their trajectory of creating a billion dollar at leisurewear brand in nine years, and I'm telling you my numbers are better than that and I missed out on eight million, That's why I'm telling you.

That's why know what we'll be getting ready to build.

When we spoke about inventory, what it was the difference in the products, because when you're trying to create Actively Black, obviously you want to differentiate from the other brand. I know we had risk bands with the other products. How did you sit down and come up with the listeners? All right, well, this is going to be specifically for this brand. These products in this line is specifically for that one.

They're all they're all very similar.

I'd say the only difference is I elevated the materials on Actively Black and and then the messaging the messaging in the branding.

But other than that, they're very similar.

So it's like the premium.

So all right, talk about so at what point do you decide to good idea to raise money and talk about the process of raising money like I said, I know you had Kwame uncle on the Black Star Fund it's a black venture capital fund. And then Rich Dennis yep, who invested in a variety of different companies.

We spoke to Risk Dennis a few days ago. He said, if it's black and it's business, yo, man.

Shout out to both of them.

One Kwame, it became, you know, the cool thing to invest in black after twenty twenty. Kwame's been doing this long before that, you know what I mean. And he was the first money in off of a conversation. To be honest with you, I told him the vision for actively Black. He put in fifty thousand before before I had the website up, so you know, shout out to Kwame for believing in the vision from from the jump.

And then Man, to be honest.

My journey with with raising capital hasn't been traditional and it hasn't been with what most people have to go through with doing that, I've been very fortunate, very blessed. I had a friend of mine who is the founder of Solo Funds, Rodney William. Shout out to Rodney man doing incredible things as another black founder, and he Rich Dennis had already invested in his company and he was I went over to Rich's house for Christmas and I was like, bro, I got this actively black hoodie and joggers.

Man, what can I actually say about about that that I share? I'll just say this much.

Rich is one of those people who's really about this thing when people talk about investing in black and power black founders. He has an assembly every year that he allows black founders to pitch. It's a combination of Shark Tank meets gladiator, because uh, you up there in front of in front of a lot of powerful people and they throw you in the fire. I went and I pitched and riched it up and said, ma, I'm gonna

And that's seven million dollars.

Actually, how much of the equity is that?

So we did it at thirty two post evaluation, so give up a little a little less than twenty four percent.

So the idea of did you have to take the money or did you feel like what was your even thought process of even going down that path? Was it to just do it faster? Or were you really in need of capital?

I understood through a lot of the struggles that I went through with active Faith that I did need that next level capital. So I told you those numbers for active faith, those those numbers for active faith would be triple if I had, if I had the capital to do what I needed to do with those things. A lot of the things that I'm experiencing were actively black I already experienced before active faith. My best year of

Done, you know what I'm saying.

So the.

Cycle of the inventory, that's been a challenge, right because I'm not going to buying blank T shirts and hoodies and printing on them. Everything we got is made from scratch, like they're sourcing the material, they're cutting and so on it all the embellishments. So that type of production in Asia, it's gonna take thirty to forty five days just to make it, you know what I mean. And so that cycle of selling through something and then trying to get it back as fast as possible to meet that demand

So I was like, man, let's let's go do it, man. And it's been been beneficial.

It's allowing us to start scaling in a way that I know most black businesses struggle to do without getting that outside capital.

Yeah.

So you're building a brand and obviously you had that opportunity to see what it like with the first one, not make the mistakes with the second one. But you launched this during the pandemic, and so you're setting out the merchandise to get made in China. While you're taking orders, you said, you've been playing for mine since day one. So what was the impact that that had on the business? And now coming out of it, what has that been like from a supply issue.

Yeah.

So the funny part is I knew about COVID and what was getting ready happened months before. Like everybody in America realized what was going on because of my relationship with my factories and stuff in China. I had people telling me like, yo, stuff is shutting down over here. And I'm talking to one of them. They were illegally in their country because you know, their government's different. They were showing me stuff of how many people were dying

Sold out, and so you really didn't have an accurate This is year two, so you haven't really had an accurate two to three year span of seeing like what the business really could.

Be at all at all.

I'm this year moving forward from today, moving forward will be the first first opportunity I actually have to really see what my real demand is and actually meet it because we we've just been behind so much. But the thing is we've had all these multiplying factors that are pushing that meeting that demand further and further away. So when you're talking about you know, in February, last February and were talking about Black History Month, we were the

The top.

The top outfits for the opening ceremony for the Olympics. We came in number four. There's eighty five countries and you on the same global stage with Nike, Adidas, everybody else. You know what I'm saying, Actively Black was number four out of eighty five countries. And so that type of exposure exposed the demand. Then you have things like you know, Barack Obama wearing the Actively Black I.

Was going there.

I was because the first time that Kwame sent us a text message it was you got to see this brand.

Oh Barack Obama's wearing to watch too.

Yeah.

I'm like, okay, so how did how did that relationship even, like, how did that happen?

Yeah? Make sure I'm careful my words. What I what I can say. So I had this.

I had this.

I have this notebook that has all my I write everything down, all my visions, all my ideas, all my dreams.

And I've got this Active Black notebook.

And I was as we were heading towards launch, I was writing down all the people that I thought this brand needed to be on or who needed to wear this brand, and who would be a great brand ambassador for Actively Black.

Right.

So I've got this list of people.

And I wrote down Michelle Obama And in my mind, I was like, only thing that would be bigger than Beyonce's Ivy Park with Adidas is if Michelle Obama had her own active wear line with a black brand.

When you think.

About what her brand was at the White House, it was getting people moving, getting people fit, getting people healthier, especially our community. And you know that's that's one of the missions for Actively Black, is to you know, get our people in our community healthier. So I was like, she would be the perfect brand ambassador for Actively Black. I've got a couple of friends, I'll just say this much. I've got a couple of friends that worked in the administration.

And I just I was.

I was begging them, begging them, begging them, like, Yo, just just send the gear to him. That's all I'm asking to send the gear to him. And they eventually like, that's all we're doing. We're just going to send it to them. That's all we're doing. And when they got the gear, I got a letter from President Barack Obama probably three weeks later, and when I read it, I saw that he unders stood what I was building because he didn't say thank you for the package the gear was nice.

He was like, the mission of this.

Brand to uplift and reinvest back into the black community is an important one, and we love the gear, you know what I'm saying. And so that started that relationship, and you know, I've been I'll say this much. We are kind of a standing orders you know, whenever a new collection or a new product drops, make sure we get to him.

And they requested some gear for Christmas.

I just we had just got the samples in for the actively Black watch, and I just I just threw it in, you know as a Christmas gift. Wasn't expecting to actually wear it. You know, this is a man who wears rolex'es aps. He's got, he's got, you know,

Yeah.

Yeah, So talk about working in athletics yep. As far as the nail deals that you've signed and noticed, shit, you're tapped in with Dion Sen and his people. So how that relationship happened and how have you been able to grow that?

Yeah?

To be honest, the nil stuff was something that I didn't think we would get involved in this early.

I knew it would be something that we would eventually do.

If I'm saying that we want to compete with the likes of Nike and Adidas and these other brands. Then we've got to be at a place where we're able to sign athletes. So I'm thinking that would be year three, four something down the line. But I saw Travis Hunter's story. I saw him, uh when he you know, I watched the press conference when he decommitted from Florida State and decided to go to Jackson State, and I was like,

That's literally what he did with his action.

He could have went to this PWY and he decided I'm gonna take my talents to an HBCU and I was like, I gotta sign him. I need that kid, and man reached out was able to get some gear to him. Same thing, the same reaction man that that that you guys had. He was like, Oh, this is legit. This s ain't some dude just printing T shirts in his garage Like this feels like Nike.

This feels like, you know, something premium.

And you know he understood the message and what we were trying to build actively black. He was the first one that we got that that nil deal done. But then Shiloh and Shador they're seeing his gear and they're like, Yo, what's this and they're asking about it, and that just turned into them wanting to be a part of what we were building with this brand as well. So initially, man, honestly, I was just trying to get Travis Hunter and it led to Shadora Shiloh signing with us, and then definitely

Yeah, that sounds similar to the story of how under Armor got Steph Curry when they had Baise War and he was getting all these sneakers and that he couldn't find out to figure what to do with Steph because he was having the ankle injuries, and he was like, these guys will make you a shoe for every game, And that's kind of how it got signed. So you have a bunch of people who have supported the brand, but I know a lot of times that's not always

Yeah, I would say. If there's anything that's that's pained me the most in this journey actively black, it has been seeing a lot of people something that I've looked up to, who publicly are delivering a message that, man, we're supporting black you know, we want to support black business, and then behind the scenes that's not really the case, you know what I'm saying.

And so.

I've always thought that for for people like us, you know, our culture is the most influential culture on earth.

And there's so much that.

Has provided value for brands that are not owned by us, by our culture, you know what I mean. You know, I wanted a Rolex growing up, because that's all That's what I heard Biggie n jay Z talk about. When you know, when you reach a certain level of success, you know you need to roll How how much money has Rolex made over the years, just because that has been embedded in our minds that that's what we need

You know what I'm saying. And you know, been talking about that a long time.

And so as I'm having these meetings and having these calls or some of these black celebrities and they're like, yeah, I got your package a lot of gear, but I'm not going to post it unless you pay one hundred thousand dollars. It's like you, but you're wearing Nike on your gram and they not paying you. You know what I'm saying, You wearing you're tagging Louie and Gucci and

But I feel like that just watching actively Black bro I feel like that that didn't discourage you. I feel like the game plan kind of changed or it was altered a little bit and you could correct me if I'm wrong, But it seemed like it wasn't let me go for the aless celebrity.

Let me get the entrepreneurs doing that thing and let's put the merch on them.

Was that like the part of the marketing strategy because I started seeing with I'm looking at the people in our space, I'm like, oh, they were in it too.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, the strategy. I never thought that getting my brand on the celebrity what was gonna was going to build a brand. I would actually tell anybody who, especially people who are getting into this apparel space or whatever, don't let that be don't let that be your goal. To me, the power to me was always with the people. To be honest with you, those are the people who were on that site. They one and have been selling

Rocking with it or not.

I got the people with me, and that's what's going to sustain you more than any celebrity giving you a co sign. And it has established us in a way with the people where they know We're always going to be authentic with whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we put out. It is not going to be because of what any celebrity thinks. It's not going to be for any amount of money. My marketing I don't even even call I wouldn't even call it a marketing strategy.

You know what I mean.

So these other brands are very aspirational, Actively Black and Active Fate.

They're inspirational.

We want you to be the most authentic and best version of you and the people resonate with that. So that's more powerful to me than any co sign from any celebrity, to be honest with you.

So before we wrap, talk about your collab with Muhammad Ali's The State and Marvel.

Yeah, man, Marvel, we got a chance to do a collab with Black Panther Wakonda Forever. That was a full circle moment. As you know I'm telling the story. Part of my inspiration for creating Actively Black was seeing the first movie. I got a shout out Damon John because this wouldn't have happened without him. Damon reached out to do a Footboo collab and he came to La. He's like, let's sit down and talk about it. We're talking about the food Boo collab and he asked me, well, what

It was just just so much energy there.

So I created a deck, had a whole collection designed, and so I showed him the deck.

In the middle of the meeting. He picked up the phone.

He calls the head of licensing for Marvel and Disney and he's like, you guys need to see this right now. And two days later he set up a meeting. I pitched Marvel and Disney. I showed him the deck and they were blown away. They fast tracked the whole licensing journey so that we could get stuff in time for the movie to release, and so we were able to drop the first of our collabse with Marvel and Disney for Black Panther o'conorf Forever, which has been absolutely amazing.

It's opened up so many other doors.

Now Marvel and Disney want us to take on some other properties that they own, So the next up is going to be Miles Morales, the Black Spider Man.

So yeah, so so we'll be working on that next.

And then Man Muhammad Ali collab another uh just incredible opportunity, uh that we were blessed with. They actually reached out Lani Ali, his his wife, uh widow. She was unhappy with how some other brands that have had that licensing with them haven't fully portrayed who he was, which to me is a microcosmo what what happens in American society any with some of these mainstream brands. He's watered down to just be float like a butterflies, thing like a bee,

Yeah, And I think I mentioned this to you when you have posted the Instagram posts about the potential collapse that you're coming in and it's going to be life changing and it's going to be legacy.

Yep. In my mind, I was going to text you, I'm Mike. Yeah.

I think he signed Kyrie Irving because it felt like somebody who had been outcast. Yeah, it felt in that time, and I was like, that would be a dope class. So for the future of that, are you looking for, you know, major athletes to partner with on Brandon?

So I'll say this much.

I've got a couple of NBA players who's Nike and Adidas deals have did that have expressed interest in Wane to sign with actively Black. But one thing that I'm going to always maintain is the authenticity about who we are, what we stand for. And I'll put it like this, I had a meeting with Kyrie's team six months before all of everything that ended up happening that led to the Nike releasing him, and nobody was talking about what

It.

It wasn't about the.

People in the community and and everything that actively Black stands for. The meeting didn't go the way that I thought that it would go based on what I thought that would represent. I'll say that much and that's no, that's no, that's no dis or no slight to to Kyrie. I also understand a lot of times people's teams don't accurately reflect their personal growth or what they're thinking or what they want to do at the time.

So I have grace for that, but.

It didn't align with with who we were, and I'm not going to sacrifice that for anybody. We had a we had a Peloton deal that I pulled the plug on because they wanted us to minimize the black talk. They wanted us to minimize how bold we were. Matter of fact, it was supposed to. It's supposed to it's supposed to drop today. It was supposed to be a Black History Month. Collabed with Peloton, and they wanted to water down who we were, and I was like, man,

Stands for, I'll pull the plug on that deal.

So with anybody that we're gonna partner with, or that we're gonna work with, or that we're gonna sign, they got to understand that, you know, we're standing firm on what we on, what we are about. You know, the tagline for Active Black is there's greatness in our DNA and and we're unflinching in our boldness about about our blackness. So if there's anything that's gonna that's gonna uh that's going to uh sacrifice that integrity, we're not about it.

There you have it.

So how can people buy actively black on the website, social media and all that.

Yeah, actively black dot com, the socials, actively black on all the different socials, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. You know a lot of people think I'm They still think I'm crazy. I'm gonna stop saying we're building a black Nike because what we're building is much more, has much more depth to it. It's not just another apparel brand. The way we give back to the community. You mentioned a five point six million that we did in revenue last year,

We really about this, you know what I'm saying. So not only do we give back to the.

Community, but what we're building is bigger than just another a pair of brand. Hopefully I get a chance to come back and talk with you guys, because there's some there's some plans with this that involve the next level, that involve Web three, that involves some of the things that we're going to be doing to make sure our community, our people are not left behind in this new era of what's getting ready to happen in tech and how that applies to actively black.

Yeah, we appreciate you coming, man, and we show you that Fashion Week.

Yes, sir. Shout out to that, Yes, sir, New York Fashion Week.

Yeah.

The first and only black athletes are where company to have a show on fashion.

Week exactly, So it's black history, man, were making Black history.

Every day, yes sir. No, not just for a month, man, Yes sir, all right, Troy House, Yeah, shout to everybody.

On Patreon dot com. Shout to everybody on eyl University. Shout to actively black. I am wearing my actively black. My brother's here with us, he works out and is actively black man. That's a shout out to you. Keep supporting and keeps bought in to merch or in Elisia. Obviously, we got ask the c ovill abilities to shout out to the Mers team.

Love is love. Y'all all right, God, thank you guys for rocking us.

We see you next week. Peace.

Peace, My graduates from my school being force back drop bag Drop Mike droft backdrop.

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