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First U.S. Black-Owned Footwear Factory Will Receive $2 Million Investment To Produce Shoes Designed By Michig (754 hits)

First U.S. Black-Owned Footwear Factory Will Receive $2 Million Investment To Produce Shoes Designed By Michigan HBCU Students
By Brunno Braga -

In efforts to celebrate Black History Month, Designer Brands Inc. announced an investment of $2 million in the first Black-owned footwear factory in the United States – JEMS by Pensole – to produce shoes designed by PLC graduate students. Designer Brands is the parent of shoe retailer DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, and the shoes will be sold exclusively at DSW stores.

This amount of investment is part of the Designer Brand’s advancing action-oriented Diversity, Equity & Inclusion through a partnership with Pensole and footwear designer D’Wayne Edwards, President of Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design (PLC). Located in Detroit, PLC is the first and only Historically Black College & University (HBCU) in Michigan and the first HBCU with a focus on design. PLC, formerly known as the Lewis College of Business, is expected to reopen in May 2022.

The First Black-owned footwear factory’s name JEMS stands for “Jan Ernst Matzeliger Studio” – itself named in honor of the Black footwear pioneer who in 1883 received a patent that revolutionized footwear manufacturing, a process that inspired methods the industry still uses today.

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