<\/p>\n
\n\tActively Black is shifting part of its manufacturing to the U.S. and out of China, aligning with broader national efforts to bring production stateside.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Thursday, the sportswear brand, owned by former Sacramento Kings player Lanny Smith, will debut a collection designed by an all-Black creative team. Unlike previous drops, every piece in the collection \u2014 which includes graphic T-shirts, shorts and hoodies \u2014 will be made from 100 percent certified Black-grown cotton and produced entirely in the U.S. through a fully Black-owned supply chain.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis venture kicked into high gear earlier this year after U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s global trade war gave Smith the push he needed to pivot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe idea of working with a fully Black-owned, U.S.-based supply chain [first crossed my mind] last year, but it didn\u2019t really accelerate until all the tariff talk began. That\u2019s when we had to start looking at some pivots just for operational survival,\u201d Smith told Sourcing Journal. \u201cBut overall, so many industries in America were built off of profits made from slavery and cotton. Our people unwillingly participated in the wealth generation that created the U.S. economy, but we never got to enjoy the fruits of that labor or share in the upside of that wealth creation. There are scars, there\u2019s trauma\u2026but I see this venture as reclamation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTo onshore its operations, Actively Black partnered with Bridgeforth Farms, a fifth-generation Black-owned and operated cotton farm and manufacturer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBased in Tanner, Ala., the farm was established almost immediately after the Civil War, when former slave George Bridgeforth began purchasing land in North Alabama to build a legacy. Together with his wife, Jennie, he laid the foundation for what would become one of the oldest Black-owned farms in the country.<\/p>\n
\n\tFast-forward to today, the farm is now run by Carlton and Kyle Bridgeforth \u2014 along with a few other family members \u2014 who were \u201cvital assets\u201d in bringing the collection to life.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Bridgeforth family has been an amazing partner. Their capability to produce the products we\u2019re releasing is incredible, and the fact that they\u2019ve kept this going for 150 years is just remarkable,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re also working with another company, Comoco Cotton, which is aggregating Black farmers in North Carolina. By working with both, we see an opportunity to hopefully scale [our operations] into an ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis collection was intentionally timed to drop on Juneteenth, the annual June 19 holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think of Juneteenth and what it means for our people and the continued fight for freedom and equality\u2026that\u2019s part of what this [collection] represents,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re not asking for a handout or for anyone to give us anything. We\u2019re building our own supply chain so we can generate wealth and power ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Actively Black is shifting part of its manufacturing to the U.S. and out of China, aligning with broader national efforts to bring production stateside. On Thursday, the sportswear brand, owned by former Sacramento Kings player Lanny Smith, will debut a collection designed by an all-Black creative team. Unlike previous drops, every piece in the collection \u2014 which includes graphic T-shirts, shorts and hoodies \u2014 will be made from 100 percent certified Black-grown cotton and produced entirely in the U.S. through a fully Black-owned supply chain. This venture kicked into high gear earlier this year after U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s global trade war gave Smith the push he needed to pivot.\u00a0 \u201cThe idea of working with a fully Black-owned, U.S.-based supply chain [first crossed my mind] last year, but it didn\u2019t really accelerate until all the tariff talk began. That\u2019s when we had to start looking at some pivots just for operational survival,\u201d Smith told Sourcing Journal. \u201cBut overall, so many industries in America were built off of profits made from slavery and cotton. Our people unwillingly participated in the wealth generation that created the U.S. economy, but we never got to enjoy the fruits of that labor or share in the upside of that wealth creation. There are scars, there\u2019s trauma\u2026but I see this venture as reclamation.\u201d To onshore its operations, Actively Black partnered with Bridgeforth Farms, a fifth-generation Black-owned and operated cotton farm and manufacturer.\u00a0 Based in Tanner, Ala., the farm was established almost immediately after the Civil War, when former slave George Bridgeforth began purchasing land in North Alabama to build a legacy. Together with his wife, Jennie, he laid the foundation for what would become one of the oldest Black-owned farms in the country. Fast-forward to today, the farm is now run by Carlton and Kyle Bridgeforth \u2014 along with a few other family members \u2014 who were \u201cvital assets\u201d in bringing the collection to life. \u201cThe Bridgeforth f…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}