Getty Image/Merle Cooper
Sneakers are big business these days. Everyone wears sneakers, from athletes to CEOs to Presidential candidates. What were once a specialized form of apparel designed specifically for sports are now a part of day-to-day life, with different sneakers not only for different games, but entirely different walks of life — no pun intended. There’s a lot of money to be made in footwear — and not just making from the shoes themselves. In honor of Black Business Month, here are some of the Black-owned brands making their mark on the sneaker game.
A Ma Maniére
A New York-based design house with retail locations all over the country, the brand expanded from its Atlanta origins courtesy of founder James Whitner’s commitment to quality, leading to collaborations with high-end luxury brands, Nike and Jordan, and even its own hotel. In 2020, he told Hypebeast, “I thought about the best way I could keep the conversation alive around racism and opportunities for the Black community, [and] the easy answer was to get active.”
Brandblack
Brandblack was founded in 2014 by veteran footwear designer David Raysse, who wanted to offer consumers an alternative basketball shoe in response to Nike’s then overwhelming chokehold over the hoops market. The initial designs were informed by a valuable asset and investor: NBA star Jamal Crawford, who endorsed the brand and wore it on-court until leaving for Adidas in 2016. The brand has since expanded to training, running, and casual offerings while maintaining the same ethos of offering something different from the rest.
Joe Freshgoods
Joe Robinson, the founder and creative director of Joe Freshgoods, hails from the north side of Chicago. After getting his start selling goods online and at pop-ups around his hometown, he’s since collaborated McDonald’s, Nike, Adidas, the Chicago Bears, and New Balance. However, as he put it on his Twitter feed recently, “It’s honestly kinda bigger than sneakers.” His goal, as he put it, “Is always how can I get a bunch of black and brown people a check.”
Katty Customs
In addition to hosting Uproxx’s Fresh Pair with hip-hop superproducer Just Blaze, the sneaker customizer has a customer base that includes superstar athletes and entertainers, and her technique involves making custom kicks look factory-made.
Laced
Owned by James “JB” Baker and former NBA player Eugene “Pooh” Jeter III, Laced is located in Los Angeles’ South Bay area, offering the latest from Nike, Adidas, and more. In addition to selling sneakers and apparel, thought, Laced also serves its community, with toy drives and turkey drives for the holidays. It also sponsors basketball and music events in the city.
LEADERS 1354
A sneaker store in Chicago, Illinois, it’s one of the longest-tenured shops of its kind. Owner Corey Gilkey is a community leader in his own right, and there’s even a docuseries in development describing the store’s history and impact on the both the local community and the sneakerhead community at large.
LØCI
With a mission to “combine fashion with sustainability,” LØCI uses recycled materials and ethically sourced cotton and rubber in its own factories to ensure production sticks close to its values. Co-founders Emmanuel Eribo, Frank Eribo, Philippe Homsy, and Mark Quaradeghini aim to make LØCI a “fashion powerhouse,” and made significant inroads in cross-marketing, partnering with hip-hop star Nicki Minaj for a full line of sneakers earlier this year.
Move Insoles
Developed and launched by sports marketing agent Nate Jones after years of working with NBA players and noticing the wear and tear of the 82-game season on their feet, Move Insoles was partially funded by some of the players themselves — including Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, and Jamal Crawford. The insoles are the first retail insoles designed specifically for basketball, and were developed after taken scans of hundreds of feet to ensure they could work for almost anybody. The brand makes insoles for both pros and everyday athletes, as well as casual insoles to use with ever-popular retros that provide little support for all-day wear.
NinetyNine Products
After working as a designer for Nike, Cole Haan, and more for nearly 15 years, Jeffrey Henderson started his brand by accident when he showed a factory owner a design while on a business trip to China and returned to find that the shoes had been produced to his specifications. “I had to come up with a brand that meant something because he basically called me out,” he told FootwearNews. “I had no plans of creating a brand.” And yet, NinetyNine appears to be thriving, with a slate of simple, casual shoes that push stylistic boundaries.
RSVP Gallery
Virgil Abloh and Don C established this store in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood back in 2009, and it remains a part of the late Abloh’s ongoing legacy. It isn’t just a sneaker store, either; it’s also a luxury boutique and art gallery.
Saysh
Founded by decorated track athlete Allyson Felix, Saysh was created after Felix left Nike over its refusal to guarantee salary protections for its pregnant athletes (a policy it has since updated). In 2021, Felix launched Saysh with the goal of “crafting sneakers truly shaped to the unique contours of a woman’s foot.” Noting that on average, women have significant differences in foot structure than men (not to mention gait, center of gravity, and so on), the company also works to address disparities in how women are treated in sports, championing pay equity and even offering free size upgrades as women’s feet change due to life changes like pregnancy.
Unrivaled
A new basketball league founded by the WNBA’s Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, the 3-on-3 league will debut in January. In addition to providing the highest average salary in US women’s basketball (ranging from $130,000 to more than $500,000), the league will introduce — and potentially popularize — yet another new format for professional basketball in a burgeoning market. As such, it’ll likely also provide a huge platform for similarly rising sneaker brands, or established ones, as they make increased investments into the growth market of women’s sports. Additional investors include soccer star Alex Morgan and Carmelo Anthony.
