Author’s Bio: Lanny Smith founded Actively Black, an athleisure brand built to empower the Black community through performance-driven apparel. After an injury ended his professional basketball career, he redirected his passion into entrepreneurship, creating Actively Black and leading its growth into a multimillion‑dollar company.
When Actively Black launched on Black Friday 2020, we made $55,000 dollars in sales in a single day. That was more than half of what my first brand, Active Faith, did in an entire year. The difference wasn’t better products or a bigger marketing budget. The difference was that before Actively Black even launched, I had 10,000 people waiting for it.
Most entrepreneurs do this backward. They build the product first, invest in inventory, then scramble to find customers. I know because that’s what I did with my first brand after my NBA career ended 33 days in. I spent that first year grinding it out from my mom’s house, slowly building to $100,000 in revenue. It worked, but it was hard. When I launched Actively Black, I reverse engineered the whole thing. I built the audience first, then created products that served them.
If you’re sitting there thinking about your great idea for a brand, stop for a second. Have you really thought about your audience? Have you built that audience first? Because if you haven’t, you’re guessing. And guessing is expensive when you’re investing in inventory.
Create something worth waiting for
The world doesn’t need another apparel brand. There are enough out there. So ask yourself how your brand will emotionally connect with your audience and make them feel like they need to be part of it.
For Actively Black, it was creating something in a space that lacked any Black ownership. I come from the athletic world, where I saw firsthand how brands have profited billions of dollars off Black talent, Black consumerism, Black culture. But there was no Black ownership in that space. Serving this audience that had never seen ownership in athleisure was something that resonated deeply with them.
The unapologetic nature we have in representing Black culture and Black history hadn’t existed in the sports apparel lane. When my audience was seeing this, they were saying, “I gotta sign up. I need to know when they’re launching.” That emotional connection, that purpose beyond just selling another hoodie—that’s what gets people to hand over their email address before you even have a product.
You need to identify what gap you’re filling. What does your audience need that doesn’t exist yet? Make people feel something, not just want something.
Build your list across three channels
Before we had a single product available on the website, I was utilizing the power of social media to get the concept and mission out there. I built an audience of 10,000 Instagram followers, 10,000 email subscribers, and 3,000 SMS subscribers. All of this happened before launch day.
These weren’t just random followers—they were engaged with the mission. They understood what we were building. When we finally launched on Black Friday, they were ready. That’s how you turn launch day into a $55,000 sales day instead of crossing your fingers and hoping.
The key is using multiple touchpoints. Social media builds awareness and connection. Email gives you a direct line for announcements and storytelling. Text messages are for your most engaged audience—the people who want to be first to know when you drop something new.
Start posting about your concept, your mission, your why. Share what makes your brand different. Let people into the process before the product exists. Give them a reason to opt in. When they’re seeing what you’re building and it resonates, they’ll sign up because they don’t want to miss it.
Let your audience guide your product
I already had my manufacturing partner lined up when I was building the Actively Black audience. I was working on what the SKUs would be, but I hadn’t invested in inventory yet. I really wanted to see what touched my audience, what moved them. They helped inform what the first collection should be.
This is the advantage of having an engaged audience before you launch. You’re not guessing what to make. You’re listening to what they’re telling you they want. You’re watching what resonates in your posts, what questions they’re asking, what gets them excited.
I thought the inventory I ordered for the launch would last me three months. It sold out in three weeks. But I wasn’t scrambling, because I’d already learned it’s much cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. I earned their trust with that first collection, so when I dropped the next one, I didn’t even have to advertise it. I sent an email blast and a text message, and they came back for more.
This approach de-risks your initial investment. Instead of sitting on inventory you hope will sell, you’re creating products for people who’ve already told you they want them.
Prepare for the demand you create
I need to be honest with you: This strategy creates a problem. It’s a great problem to have, but it’s a problem nonetheless: I’ve been behind on demand since day one, and I’m still behind to this day.
We did $2.1 million our first year. But we were sold out six out of those 12 months. There’s no telling what we could have done if I’d had the inventory to meet the demand. When you’re manufacturing performance products from scratch—cutting and sewing, not just throwing your logo on blanks—it takes 30 to 45 days to make the inventory. Then another 30 to 45 days to transport.
Here’s what makes it harder: We’re in such a fast growth phase that our historical data becomes obsolete the moment I place an inventory order. So many people are finding out about Actively Black every day that by the time the inventory gets to me two or three months later, those numbers are already outdated.
You need to think about this before you launch. Can you supply the demand you’re creating? Do you have relationships with manufacturers who can scale with you? Have you planned for what happens when that first collection sells out faster than expected?
The partnerships we’ve been blessed with—Disney, Marvel, and the estates of Muhammad Ali, Tupac, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Bob Marley—have multiplied brand awareness in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Each one creates another surge of demand. You need systems that can handle that growth.
Looking back at Active Faith versus Actively Black, the product quality wasn’t different. Both brands had purpose. The difference was having thousands of people already connected to the mission before asking them to buy. That launch day wasn’t actually day one—it was the payoff for months of building relationships, sharing the vision, creating something people felt they needed to be part of.
For more on how to build a mission, an audience, and then a brand, check out my full Shopify Masters interview.
