For Black History Month, the Atlanta Hawks have partnered with Honor Roll Clothing for a merchandise collaboration. The NBA franchise discovered the brand through Atlanta Fashion Week.
Recently, co-founders Chris Duncan, Darnell Sheperd and Blair Coffey spoke to rolling out about the partnership and celebrating Black history.
How did this partnership with the Hawks come about?
Coffey: Honor Roll Clothing has been around for 13 years. We’re based in Atlanta, and the partnership came about through Atlanta Fashion Week. We were in the last show, the Hawks were sponsors, and they had the City Edition coming up, so they wanted to partner with us to do some design projects for the release. That’s how everything got going.
Why do you need to celebrate Black History Month?
Duncan: Black History Month means a celebration of our heritage and our culture. It’s being able to not only look back, but also look forward to what the people have done and what the people will do. It gives us time to pause and say “thank you” through our actions, through our speeches, through whatever it may be, but actually being able to connect with people in the community to celebrate all the strides that have been made to move forward.
Sheperd: Celebration is the first word that comes to mind. It gives the younger generation something to aspire to. Understanding Black history is more than just MLK and Malcolm X. There are a variety of Black innovators and Black artists who have come before us. Letting the youth know there’s more to aspire to than just being an entertainer or a basketball player. There’s more that can be done.
Coffey: Black History Month is a celebration of all of the work that’s been done over the generations. When you think about Atlanta, celebrating the City Edition going into Black History Month, this is us celebrating with generations that came before us and laid the amazing foundation and groundwork. Even thinking about bearing fruit since 1968 when the Hawks came to Atlanta, all of the progressive movements that came out of specifically Atlanta from that time, we want to celebrate all the people that continue to contribute and lay down that foundation. To what Shep said, there’s a generation that’s coming up behind us, and they’re watching us celebrate the people who came before us. So we have to show them the value of the rich history that we all come from.
How can people support your brand online?
Sheperd: We’re on Instagram @honorrollclothing. Our website is honorrollclothing.com.
As always, just support. We are always in the city, we do pop-up shops. We’re also at a few boutiques nationwide. We’re also at hawksshop.com, as well. So looking forward to you guys stopping by and seeing what we do. We’re going to keep this thing going.
