Drippin In Culture

Drippin In Culture is a partnership store founded by Rambendu Yarnlay and Mary Yeboah in 2020. We started Drippin In Culture when we realized how disconnected Black people in the diaspora were to the African continent. As two Black women growing up in our predominantly Black South Atlanta community, we had the advantage of seeing the cultural mixes of our West African and various Black cultures, which help us realized that we could become a part of the solution. Through our shared passion for entrepreneurship, we came up with the idea to establish the launch of our long time dream store called “Drippin In Culture”. Drippin In Culture aims to connect and educate the diaspora and anyone interested in learning about Africa through a collective line of African inspired clothing, skincare, and natural beauty products.

As someone growing up exposed to many Black cultures, I became intrigued by the ways Black communities and cultures interconnected. During the day, I will walk through my predominantly African American community, and by the evening, I will walk through the doorways of my African household. The more I experienced different Black cultures, the more I grew conscious of how obscure our differences were. Likewise, Rambendu Yarnlay shared a similar experience of seeing different Black cultures with her own Liberian heritage while also growing up in Atlanta. For the past years, Rambendu Yarnlay and I have dreamed of bringing this idea into life. We have done countless research, planning and yet, we seem to be at the same start: struggling to launch. 

We are hoping to launch Drippin In Culture's online store in the summer of 2022 , which will compromised a variety of products divided into three categories: clothing (our proverbs T-shirts and hoodies collection), natural skin care products (different shea butter and oil lotions collection), and beauty (our African inspired lip gloss that will be named after various African countries). These products are in high demand and are reasonably priced, which will benefit us because our store will add a distinctive branding touch to them. Additionally, we will attract new customers not just through our goal, but also through our distinctive packaging (our lip glosses will come in a box shaped like Africa) and innovative items (our hoodies will be in reflective vinyl words that spread educational and relatable messages).

What makes us different:

Our brand mixes cultures that we have ourselves experience and are a part of and uses that to connect and educate others. Through our African inspired collections, we will be creating innovative ideas that people will be able to relate to. For an instance, one of our t-shirts , which is an African proverb, quotes”Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped”.  This quotes will then be in reflective words on our t-shirt and hoodies. Here, we are taking a culture that we are a part of and using it in a way that becomes relatable to people as we empower them to feel good about themselves. We will not only be making our customers feel good about themselves, but we will be empowering them as they also learn something about new about Africa. 

Challenges We have faced: 

Throughout the years, we have struggled with acquiring capital. Obtaining capital has been our biggest set back as we continue to work on our business. Despite us developing our business plan, having piles of years of research, and even making some of our products, our lack of access to capital continues to set us back.  During last year, we were able to save enough money to buy a heating press and a few shirts to make some of our shirts and hoodies. Despite us knowing what products we are making and how to make them, we do not have enough money to afford our packaging,more t- shirts/hoodies,website/shopify fees,  and beauty products to successfully launch our business. We are hoping to launch in the summer of 2022.

What grant will be used for: 

If awarded, we will be spending the money on buying products and inventories, branding ourselves, fixing our home studio workplace and other costs that may surface. Below is a detailed list: 

• Sewing Embroidery Machine 
• Wholesale blank clothing for our t-shirts and hoodies collection
• Branding services(website design, tiktok,instagram and facebook marketing)
• Transportation cost for packaging/shipping
• Home studio/workplace set up 
• Empty bottle Tubes for our beauty line
• Empty bottle tubes for our Natural skin remedies lime
• Materials to make our own lipstick: lipstick base, glitter, different lip balm tubes,etc.  
• Food items/Materials to make our natural beauty products: fruit/vegetable for our  carrot oil, avocado oil,etc. 
• Packaging cost(design, box printing, etc)
• Materials that goes inside the packages: thank you cards,  business card,etc. 
• Emergency (The rest of the money will be saved up for any last minute expenses that pops up)