The fashion wars at the Summer Olympics continue to heat up, with the latest contender being Team Nigeria, who will be appearing at the opening and closing ceremonies, on the podium, in the Olympic Village and at track and field events dressed in Actively Black, a small Los Angeles brand founded in 2020 by former professional basketball player Lanny Smith.
For Actively Black, a company with just three employees, this is like winning a gold medal before the Olympics have even begun.
“When people see a Black-owned brand on the same global stage as Nike and Lululemon and Adidas, it makes people look at us differently,” Smith said in a video from his Los Angeles offices shortly before the look was unveiled. “This is a big moment for us.”
The Nigeria partnership puts Actively Black into a whole new fashion league that includes not only sports brands but also luxury fashion brands such as Berluti (the LVMH brand that will outfit the French team), Giorgio Armani (Italy), Ben Sherman (UK) and Ralph Lauren (USA) that will outfit each country at the opening ceremony.
Partnering with a smaller, mission-focused fashion brand is also a way for Nigeria, which is sending a delegation of about 200 people to the Olympics, to garner attention and enthusiasm, much like when Liberia partnered with Telfar for its Olympic outfits in 2021. (Actively Black outfitted just two Nigerians at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics; now the delegation has reached critical mass.)
“Part of the Nigerian atmosphere is to look good,” Smith said. “We know we have to show up in a way that embodies that. As former athletes, we love the competition and the challenge.”
In practice, it will be a mix of what Smith calls “traditional and contemporary.” For example, the opening ceremony outfits will feature a classic block print in the green and white of the Nigerian flag and will be made from Fantua cotton, named after a Nigerian state. Men will wear long vests over slim track pants with piping down the legs, a silhouette inspired by the traditional Nigerian senatorial suit popular with politicians. Women will wear a style derived from the classic buba dress. Each outfit will be accessorized with a traditional hat.
In contrast, the podium look will be an Actively Black performance fabric overlaid with the silhouette of the Nigerian eagle, while the Closing Ceremony look will be a dashiki-style top with wide white trousers, again with a matching gele and Fila hat.
The costumes were designed in collaboration with Jordan Jackson and Danielle McCoy of Amen Amen Studios in Portland, Oregon, who Smith turned to when he realized the magnitude of the Olympic commitment. Amen Amen Studios enlisted Nigerian partners Lekki Garment Factory and Afrixtabel Textile Productions.
After all, helping capture the nation's attention is no small thing, especially since Smith never planned on getting into sportswear.
A star basketball player at the University of Houston, he signed with the Sacramento Kings as a free agent in 2009. “The NBA was Plan A, B and C for me,” he says. But an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament 33 days into his pro career ended that thinking and sent him into a deep depression. During that time, he turned to his faith and apparel: in 2010, he founded Christian sports brand Active Faith Sports. (Think athleisure and performance wear with slogans like “In the Name of Jesus I Play” and you'll get the idea.)
A decade later, Active Face Sport evolved into Actively Black, inspired by Smith's desire to use clothing to do what the film “Black Panther” accomplished: unite the Black community, especially in the wake of the performative marketing that other sports brands have undertaken in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
“I've been a top basketball player since I was in the sixth grade,” Smith said. “I had all the best Nike gear growing up, and I realized they were just looking for the next Michael Jordan, the next LeBron James, the next athlete to sell their products to. Billions of dollars have been made on black culture, black talent, black consumerism, but I felt like those brands weren't reinvesting enough in the black community.”
He said he decided it was time to “stop asking for a seat at the table and make my own.” Actively Black was launched as a direct-to-consumer brand on Black Friday 2020. Fans include Dwyane Wade, Ludacris, Stephen Curry and the Nigerian Olympic Committee.
Smith first connected with the Nigerian national team through a college friend, Seun Adigun, who competed as a Nigerian track and field athlete in the 2012 Summer Olympics and then founded the country's bobsled team in the 2018 Winter Olympics. (Adigun is the first African athlete to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.) She asked Smith to design bobsled costumes for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the team didn't qualify. So when the country's planned uniform sponsorship deal for the Summer Olympics fell through, she reached out to Smith again. Smith jumped at the chance.
Smith said having an American brand design the Nigerian team's uniforms was proof that “Actively Black is made for the black community”.
“When I say that, I don't just mean African-Americans. I mean we're a global brand for the entire diaspora.”
Smith said he's already been approached by delegations from other African and Caribbean countries about working together. “This is an opportunity we wouldn't have had otherwise,” he said. And it's not just for the brand.
Smith had always dreamed of competing in the Olympics. After his injury, he thought he'd never make it. But on July 26, he'll be walking into Paris with the Nigerian team, which he said is another step towards becoming “black-owned Nike.”
