I had a licensing job at the NBA in 1996, the year they celebrated their 50th anniversary with an 800-page book, which had only three pages about African American teams that played before the league began in 1950.
I was left curious. Because I’d seen many such teams mentioned briefly in other books such as A Hard Road To Glory by Arthur Ashe.
But no one knew anything more about these teams or this history – not even the Basketball Hall of Fame.
So I went to the library to do research myself, by reading old newspapers on microfilm. I devoted all of my free time, and discovered there were dozens of black teams all the way back to 1900.
Each time I found a new team I trademarked the names and logos. Doing this, I created a fine collection of intellectual property and content.
I continued doing this through various management level corporate jobs I held.
Then one day I was laid off. But I got a severance, allowing me to pursue these efforts full time.
To prove there was a market for this niche, I created my company and sought licensees. When none were interested, I created my own line of vintage basketball jerseys and related merchandise.
I got bank credit, set up Asia production, hired a sales agency, secured a distribution service, and soon shipped to over 250 stores around the country with initial orders of over $600,000.
It was great for a minute — our products got onto MTV and BET and into rap videos and onto famous athletes and celebrities who wore them to parties.
We implemented proper accounting practices such as tracking orders, invoices, commissions, inventories, receivables, payables, and profits.
Advice for others:
Whatever you decide to pursue, make sure it’s something you love to do. Not only because you’ll be facing incredible obstacles and deterrents which you simply won’t be able to overcome if you’re doing it just for the money, but also because your love will show through your work in ways that tend to change people’s lives for the better.
Then the market for these fashions collapsed due to over-saturation from other producers.
Almost overnight, demand stopped and many retail stores went out of business.
Luckily, Nike discovered us in the process.
Nike asked if they could use our team names and logos on a special line of Black Fives licensed goods they would create and sell, paying us royalties based on their sales.
Their collection of Black Fives retro sneakers and apparel sold in the world’s best and coolest shops, and even in its Niketown stores.
Then Converse, which Nike owns, asked if they could use the license too. They wanted to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2008.
That sounded like a great idea, so we agreed with that as well. Eventually, Converse’s collection of Black Fives products got even more attention and exposure than Nike’s.
People really like the good feelings they get from learning about these African American basketball pioneers. Their stories and experiences offer timeless life lessons that go beyond just history.
We merge modern elements of pop culture with those valuable lessons to engage, teach, enlighten, and inspire people today. Our slogan is ‘Make History Now.’
What’s great is that I started all of this with nothing but love and my library card.
I think everyone ought to do whatever it takes to make history now.
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For more information and details, see About, Why?, and Claude’s Bio.
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