Posted by Actively Black
on September 25, 2026
Shopify featured Actively Black founder Lanny Smith in a March 2026 first-person story, “My first brand did $100K in a year. My second did $55K in a day,” on how he built the Black-owned athleisure brand after his NBA career was cut short.
It is a playbook in Lanny’s own words: build the community first, earn its trust, and let that community shape what you make.
Key takeaways
- Lanny told Shopify that his first brand, the faith-based sports apparel line Active Faith, did about $100,000 in its first year.
- Before any product was live, Lanny said, Actively Black built about 10,000 Instagram followers, a similar number of email subscribers and about 3,000 text subscribers.
- Actively Black launched on Black Friday 2020 and did $55,000 on its first day and $2.1 million in its first 12 months, according to Lanny’s account in the Shopify feature.
- Lanny told Shopify that launch inventory he expected to last three months sold out in three weeks, and the brand was sold out for about six of its first 12 months.
- Lanny said Actively Black makes premium athleisure from scratch through cut and sew, rather than printing logos on pre-made blanks.
- In response to tariffs, Lanny said, the brand built a 100% cotton, made-in-America collection using cotton grown by Black farmers, including Bridgeforth Farms, which he said has been in the same family for 150 years.
In Lanny's words
“We reverse engineered the whole thing—we built the audience first, and then we built a product designed to serve that audience.”
— Lanny Smith, in Shopify
“The unapologetic nature that we have in representing Black culture and Black history — it hadn’t existed in athleisure or sports apparel before.”
— Lanny Smith, in Shopify
“This isn’t reparations — this is reclamation.”
— Lanny Smith, on the cotton collection, in Shopify
Why it matters
The Tribe came first, before a single hoodie shipped. That order of operations is the whole point: Actively Black was built with the community, and the community keeps coming back because it sees itself in the brand.
The cotton story takes ownership all the way down to the soil. Lanny described a Black-owned supply chain running from the field to the fabric to the finished piece, and he told Shopify it has become one of our best-selling collections of all time.
Shop the story
Wear the reclamation story in our Premium Cotton collection, or start with the pieces the Tribe keeps coming back for in Best Sellers: Men’s and Unisex and Best Sellers: Women’s and Unisex.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Actively Black?
Lanny Smith founded Actively Black and launched it on Black Friday 2020, after his NBA career ended just over a month after going pro because of a knee injury.
How much did Actively Black sell on launch day?
Lanny told Shopify that Actively Black did $55,000 on its first day and $2.1 million in its first 12 months.
What did Shopify say about Actively Black?
Shopify’s feature, told in Lanny’s words, covered his audience-first launch strategy, inventory challenges from fast growth, and the brand’s cotton collection made with cotton grown by Black farmers.
Is Actively Black Black-owned?
Yes. Actively Black is a Black-owned athleisure brand founded by Lanny Smith.
Read the full feature: My first brand did $100K in a year. My second did $55K in a day., Shopify (March 2026)
