Representation is key,HBCUs are the future & past.

Tones of Melanin is a Black woman-owned business that makes apparel and marketing items for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We currently hold 40 HBCU licenses. Tones of Melanin aims to create clothing to bring awareness to HBCUs. We are not only an ally to HBCUs but also a modern-day revenue-generating marketing tool.

Our Team-

Founder: Ashley Jones is the founder of Tones of Melanin. She is responsible for all designs. Ashley has been a designer for over 15 years and has worked with HBCUs for 11 years at only 28 years old.

Operations Manager: Raven LeMelle manages all day-to-day operations making sure we meet all deadlines. Raven is also in charge of our brand ambassador program.

Social Media Manager: Calvin Clark oversees all social media platforms.

Fulfillment Manager: D'Angelo Durr spearheads all direct-to-customer orders. He is also our print specialist.

Vendor Manager: Micah Lemelle is our vendor manager. Micah evaluates all business-to-business contracts and verifies that we satisfy all requirements.

90% of our team and employees have all gone to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Problems-

Lack of Representation- The current HBCU apparel that is in the market doesn't represent the population that it serves. African American millennials don't want to wear polos to represent their school.

Solution & Advantages

For us by us! We are the underrepresented population. We know what we want as a market. We want to make HBCUs stand out with their clothing. We believe that this will attract more students to attend them. Tones of Melanin combines current and past fashion to create a new genre of style. We've created collegiate streetwear.

Tones of Melanin has proven that there is a need within the market by selling out of several stores within the first week of launch at Belk Department Store and Follett Bookstores.

Product

We've created all new products, including a varsity-style reversible jacket and reversible basketball shorts. We've also brought back some traditional items but put our spin on them, including crewnecks, t-shirts, hats, jean jackets, jerseys, sweatsuits, warm-up suits, jogging shorts, jogging pants, and so much more.

Traction

In under a year from obtaining all of our collegiate licenses, we have secured deals with Follett, Belk Department Store, Fanatics, and Dicks Sporting Goods. We are also in talks with Sam's Club to be in their stores this upcoming fall. We've sold out in several stores in under a week. We've also worked directly with several universities and secured contracts to be their go-to manufacturer

Investing

With your investment, we plan on becoming a vendor for more stores. The capital from your investment will be used to order larger quantities to get better pricing. With our current B2B contracts, we have net 30/60/90 terms that limit the number of contracts that we can obtain to the current capital that we have in hand. This investment will also allow us to increase our marketing budget to see our product on a large scale. In 2022 we plan to sponsor HBCU bands that typically have over 100 undergrad members with 30+ years of alumni band members. We believe that we can invest an untapped market and use that to generate more money.