About JOYN.BLK!

There are THOUSANDS of black-owned fashion + beauty brands all over the world. Black-owned brands not only represent the culture of billions of black people across the African diaspora (including 50M+ in the US & Canada), but also provide the primary vehicle for black people to benefit financially off of our innumerable contributions to the fashion industry. However, only a handful of black-owned brands ever make it onto major retail platforms, where many of their core consumers shop. Because of this widely-publicized resistance from the retail industry to invest in black-owned brands, many black brands now sell directly to consumers (D2C) through their own websites. Leveraging a D2C model, albeit resourceful, sometimes creates a disjointed shopping experience for black consumers and makes black-owned fashion brands less accessible than other brands that sell through traditional retail channels. Enter JOYN.BLK!

JOYN.BLK is an ecommerce aggregator marketplace that showcases black-owned brands and collaborations with black brands. What started as an Instagram page dedicated to black-owned fashion has turned into JOYN.BLK, the movement! Come explore and discover black-owned fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands and styles all in one marketplace...and when you are ready to purchase we will direct you the vendor's website. It's that simple. We hope to become the largest website for black-owned fashion lifestyle brands and eventually become a major resource for black-owned brands, providing visibility and retail support.

JOYN.BLK was founded by Harlem-native, ex-Bloomingdale's merchant, and 2022 Wharton MBA grad, Elaina Joyner...me (haha!) After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I, like many of you, became intrigued by all of the various compilations of black-owned brands presented by editors and retailers alike. I began to wonder why they were just releasing these lists now...we know why...but why did it take something like a black man's murder for these industry gatekeepers to come forward with the information that they were obviously sitting on? (I hadn't even heard of some of the brands and I had worked in retail for my entire career!) It then made me wonder if the retail industry would ever do right by us on its own. Well, I ain't sitting around waiting to find out! I started my MBA journey that fall and decided to major in entrepreneurship. I hope you all appreciate this website as a labor of love both for the fashion industry and for all my beautiful black people. I love us for real!