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UPDATED: Aug. 26 at 11:47 a.m.

A number of Black students at Syracuse University have turned the campus into a mini business district, operating businesses and services ranging from clothing companies to e-commerce beauty supply stores. The business owners operate them not for their personal gain, but to inspire others in their community.

August is Black-Owned Business month. A few of the Black-owned businesses on campus include Beauty X Paige, Loyalty Over Love, Sincerely,Fab and Basketball Royalty, LLC.

Paige Adebo is the founder of Beauty X Paige, a campus makeup service that doubles as an online beauty and fashion editorial, with a YouTube page of the same name. In addition to doing customers’ makeup, Adebo is working toward her goal of becoming a cosmetic formulator.

“I truly enjoy working with makeup, trying different hairstyles and shopping from different places,” she said. “Being able to do what I love and also help others in the process fuels me to keep going.”

Adebo’s YouTube channel is more than just a makeup channel. It is also a platform to inspire young Black women and give them a role model they can look up to.

Adebo said that it doesn’t matter to her how many people her videos are reaching because she is representing Black women in the beauty industry, where Black people are historically underrepresented.

Stephon Johnson founded Loyalty Over Love, a clothing brand based out of Johnson’s hometown of Harlem. Johnson founded the brand to provide an alternative, as he says, “for us, buy us.”
Johnson said his business was formed to make clothing more affordable for his peers in the Black community.

He wanted them to shop at a Black-owned business “instead of them spending money on multi-million dollar companies whom are run without their best interest at heart,” he said.

Amber Deas (left) founded an online cosmetics store, and Paige Adebo (right) runs a campus makeup service and YouTube channel. Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor

Loyalty Over Love’s apparel includes signature shorts as well as newly-released face masks.

Domonique Charles, an SU senior and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated., the first historically Black Greek sorority, is the brains behind Basketball Royalty, LLC — a clothing brand geared toward raising awareness to the injustices that Black athletes face.

As the daughter of a basketball executive, Charles had a firsthand look at the issues Black athletes face on a daily basis.

Amber Deas, also a member of AKA, has founded Sincerely,Fab, an online cosmetics store offering health and beauty products. Deas’ goal with Sincerely,Fab is to uplift and empower women through her products.

“I love to remind my customers that they are amazing and that my products enhance their fabness,” Deas said. “Even a cosmetic company can speak to someone’s soul and that’s my mission; changing how you feel about yourself from the inside out.”

(Right) Domonique Charles has saw first hand the issues Black athletes face through her father’s position as a basketball executive. Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor

Aside from her work with Sincerely,Fab, Deas is an SU junior in Falk College. Sincerely,Fab offers a wide range of beauty products, from beard oil to chapstick.

“My customers have moisturized lips and affirmative words to carry them through the day,” she said.

Deas has already seen the potential of her business’s impact.

“The most amazing inspiration I get from my business comes from the girls as young as 6 and 8 that reach out to me for help on starting their businesses,” Deas said. “It brings me pure joy to be able to help them become business owners and to know that this all started from a dream that I had.”

Directory

Here are some other Black-owned businesses and services on campus.

Goon by Lance Evans- clothing brand

Lance Evans is an illustrator from New Jersey who focuses on making editorial illustrations and album covers. He’s done work for rappers and singers, as well as done covers for zines and playlists. While he’s mainly an illustrator, he does do graphic design for his clothing brand, Goon, as well as some graphic tees for other clothing brands as well.

Cmryn Dzyn- Communications direction, editorial publication & package design service

Camryn Mangual is currently a sophomore Communications Design major at Syracuse University. They are striving to solve issues with design, promoting greater thought with innovative branding, package design, UI/UX, editorial publication and much more.

AROMAS by Chloe- Holistic lifestyle brand

AROMAS by Chloe is a lifestyle brand centered around the intersection of aroma and nature designed to accommodate the physical and cultural needs of Black and Brown bodies but not limited to. Currently, AROMAS offers a variety of incense, Coils, a perfumed daily body oil, and Murungo Butters, a mango and murumuru butter blend for skin and hair moisturization.

Tori Sampson Photography – Photography service

Tori Sampson is an art photography student offering special event photography and individual group portrait photography, particularly in an outdoor setting.

Sandrine- Creative direction & production services

Sandrine is a self-titled design business offered by Sandrine Bamba that specializes in architectural services, including set and event design, as well as creative direction and production services.

CORRECTIONS: A previous version of this post misspelled Domonique Charles’ name. Charles’ father is a basketball executive, not an NBA executive. Camryn Mangual’s pronouns were misstated. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on August 26, 2020 at 12:49 am

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