The expansive apparel halls and bustling merchandise stores on HBCU campuses stand testament to these institutions' deep roots. As students and alumni don jerseys, hoodies, and t-shirts bearing their schools' names, they experience that sense of belonging to something bigger.
But peel back the layers, and you notice a major disconnect.
While HBCU apparel generates millions in sales annually, very little of this revenue circulates back to benefit the schools or broader community. So where exactly do the profits go instead?
The Broken Model
Currently, the vast majority of HBCU apparel sales flow through mass e-tailers like Fanatics or large college bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble.
The profits are carved up between these retailers, wholesalers, licensing bodies, and apparel brands themselves. Manufacturers capture their share, as do the advertising firms marketing this merchandise.
But the HBCU at the center of it all? It receives a negligible fraction, if anything at all.
This represents a major missed opportunity, considering these institutions' small endowments and the difference even incremental funding could make.
Misalignment With HBCUs' Core Mission
This broken model also conflicts with what HBCUs stand for. Since their inception, these schools have focused on community upliftment, equity, and collective advancement.
However, the current HBCU apparel economy enriches everyone except the very communities that fuel this demand. Students pouring their savings into apparel lack pathways to participate in the value creation side.
For context, black Americans comprise less than 1% of the $120 billion fashion industry workforce. The infrastructure to seize HBCU merchandise as a force for good simply hasn't existed.
Changing the Script
But what if it didn't have to be this way?
What if there was a model aligning profit motives with purpose - channeling revenues back into HBCUs while creating employment and entrepreneurship?
A model recognizing that true representation means going beyond just images and symbols to reimagining how an industry operates at its core?
This represents the opportunity to bridge the gap between HBCU apparel profits and their intended purpose. To redirect the river rather than just diverting a stream.
It requires rethinking the very structure of how HBCU merchandise makes its way from concept to consumer. Building a supply chain flowing directly through the community, not around it.
Parting Thoughts
HBCU apparel will continue to fly off shelves, recession or not. But keeping this disconnect in place would be a failure to recognize what these sales could unlock.
For once, the solution rests not in seeking outside saviors but in looking within. By fundamentally rewriting the rules, HBCU apparel profits can seed a renaissance realizing these institutions' promise of uplifting from the inside out.
This starts with sparking conversations - acknowledging unmet potential is the first step to building bridges. But a thriving, tangible ecosystem could await on the other side.