- As a former University of Houston men’s basketball star and NBA player, Lanny Smith says he has no fashion background, no business background, and everything he does now has been self-taught.
HOUSTON – Smith is the founder and CEO of the clothing brand, Actively Black, an international brand that will clothe athletes from Team Nigeria, for the 2024 Olympic games.
“Did you always have a knack for design did you always have an eye for it?” asked KPRC 2 Anchor Sofia Ojeda.
“Not at all,” said Actively Black Founder and CEO, Lanny Smith. “If I could go back and tell my younger self that this is what I’d be doing, he probably would laugh at me.”
Smith said he never thought fashion would be a part of his life’s work.
As a kid, basketball was his entire dream. Smith played basketball at the University of Houston and went on to play in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.
But a career-ending knee injury took it all away.
A very dark time in his life, he recalls.
“Broke, depressed, struggling with the identity crisis of trying to figure out who am I without the game of basketball, and what am I going to do with my life,” Smith said.
Through a lot of prayer and reflection, Smith founded the brand Active Faith in 2010, with the help of his friends Anthony Tolliver and Steph Curry.
“The idea was to create the faith-based version of Nike. So we launched that out of my mom’s house, grew that brand, we had customers in 72 different countries. I also had this idea if I could build this for the faith-based community, could I build something like this for the Black community? Something that could uplift and reinvest back into the Black community,” said Smith.
Smith moved to Los Angeles in 2020 to pursue his fashion career.
And he says, not soon after, the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor left a huge impact on the world as we know it.
“I saw a lot of these different brands come out with very performative declarations about what they were going to do for the Black community and it felt performative and it felt like their new marketing strategy. We donate 10 percent of our sales back into the Black community,” added Smith.
And so, the brand Actively Black was born.
An authentic brand that gives back to the community. He says this brand is for everyone.
“If you believe in supporting the Black community, and you believe in supporting Black culture, you are welcome to wear Actively Black. This is a brand that is not discriminatory against anybody.”
And through an old connection and a twist of fate, he was given an opportunity to design for the Nigerian Olympic team.
Close friend, Seun Adigun, the first African athlete to compete in the summer and winter Olympic games and who created Team Nigeria’s bobsledding team, made it happen.
“She reached out when she saw I was starting this brand and asked if I was interested in outfitting team Nigeria,” said Smith.
The Actively Black Team Nigeria Olympic kit has now been getting an overwhelming response.
“To have this opportunity on the global stage where you’re competing against multi-billion dollar brands, the Nikes, the Adidas, the Lulu Lemons of the world, this is an incredible opportunity to show up on that stage and show what we’re made of.”
The opening and closing ceremony outfits were made in Nigeria. Smith wanted the fit to have a tradition with modern performance. And he says, he always dreamed of going to the Olympics.
His dream is now being realized, just in a different way.