V1: Community-Powered Fashion

Community First

V1 is finally here, and it's more than just clothes dropping — it's the start of something bigger for North Lawndale. In our circle, we've been learning the basics and fundamentals of clothing design and development, and we've come with a community-based concept for measuring our commitment: defaulting to local, family, or small businesses owned by members of the community.

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Local Supply Chain

If necessary, we'll expand to other small businesses, but we're only dealing with large chains and conglomerates if absolutely necessary. A shared goal is keeping the community with us on our rise. We're looking at old abandoned buildings in the North Lawndale area for repurposing to textile development, to offer all the brands we support the opportunity to get behind the same mission of keeping the community first.

(Investors get at me — lots of redevelopment funds have been set aside by the city for this area. Let's get it before someone else does.)

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Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

With the economy taking hits from trade wars and tariffs between governments, people's lives and livelihoods are getting thrown into upheaval. I never want to minimize that struggle—it's real, and it affects real people. But just as a matter of fact, anytime something "bad" happens in life, someone usually benefits from it or "turns a negative to a positive."

Those who get stuck often make the mistake of passing judgment when we should be evaluating, anticipating, adapting. This happens because we're usually sitting too close in perspective to get a full view of the ramifications and whether they may be good or bad. It reminds me of that story of the Chinese farmer who keeps saying "maybe" to every supposedly good or bad event that happens to him, knowing that the full impact isn't yet clear.

Rather than waste time (our most valuable resource) and emotional energy, I encourage you to N-MB Urself to the emotional roller coaster that life is and focus on controlling what you can control, which is your everyday effort and attitude.

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Local Advantage

If shipping prices on third-party materials go up? Advantage to us who want to make it here so our community can get more opportunities to show what we've got. At this point, I'm trusting that the universe is conspiring to help N-MB become worldwide so I see all signs as positive signs, but still remaining steadfast when perceived adversity hits.

We're still a work in progress ourselves and need to be properly pressure tested for authenticity—like the Mohs test for a diamond. The pressure reveals what we're really made of.

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Chicago Designers Platform

We're developing a Chicago-based platform for local designers and brand owners that'll give them the same features we're building for ourselves. They'll have the ability to post limited-edition merchandise, offer local in-person delivery for orders based on their preferences, and showcase their work to the world as authenticated Chicago-based clothing.

This platform embodies our community-based philosophy—you can support the whole city or focus on your specific area, whether it's your community area, neighborhood, or block. We believe that by lifting each other up, we all rise, and Chicago fashion gets the recognition it deserves on the global stage. The talent in this city is unreal, and it's time we created our own ecosystem to nurture it.

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Made-to-Order Approach

Seeing as we are NOT a huge box retail supported brand, I wanted to empower our creators with the opportunity to be able to create product without tying up too much money in inventory. So we've been taking advantage of AI to offer our customers more SKU options on items we couldn't financially afford to sit on right now.

Majority of our products are made to order. Please pay attention to the estimated time to ship in our shop listed in the product cards, as we are artisans and some of our more intricate pieces take time and need lead time on the processing of individual components of the garments.

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Limited Editions & Pop-Up Exclusives

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Chicago Local Delivery

We're announcing that in our store checkout for City of Chicago and surrounding areas, we're offering in-person delivery on purchase orders over $250 free of charge. That means significantly less wait time, gives the team an opportunity to get feedback from the community that matters most, and allows our local supporters to connect with us directly.

This could definitely be an opportunity to see some limited merch if we have some on hand at the time of your delivery—just ask! (But remember we don't sit on merch often, so a little bit of luck will be involved here.)

As far as qualifying for Chicago and surrounding areas, the application checks your location, and if you qualify, the in-person delivery option will be shown on checkout and will be available to select once the cart total before tax is over $250.

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Tech & Design Partnerships

For our access to the tech services we use, see CodexMetatron.com and LucsCode.uk (two tech companies run by Black men in North Lawndale, AKA "the new Black Silicon Valley").

If you're a local Chicago designer or brand owner, contact me via the N-MB contact form with your brand info, and we can work out something special for you. We're all about lifting each other up as we climb.

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Coming Soon: N-MB Views of Chicago

We're also developing a "N-MB Views of Chicago" lookbook and table book which should be available in our store soon. Take a look at some of our adventures during our first year in the city giving back.

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So we're working for y'all. Thank you for all the continued support, and to the haters, "I can't feel U noway" lol.

Get ur new N-MB, out now!!!