Chelsey Jones
Staff Writer/MC486
Javier High, a young entrepreneur at Jackson State University, wants to make historically black colleges and universities “historically fresh.”
High, a senior business management major from Chicago, Ill., is the co-founder of Historically Fresh, a clothing line that pays homage to his love for historically black colleges “I feel that HBCUs are the center point for everything great in today’s society whether it’s fashion, education, or music,” said High.
High started Historically Fresh with Bari Yakubu, an artist he met during his first week of school.
“The clothing line started when me and my friend Bari were in the library brainstorming ideas on a universal symbol for all HBCUs,” High said. “The following semester we ordered a sample batch to show and the school went crazy over them.”
The Historically Fresh clothing line is barely a year old but has already become extremely popular on the JSU campus. Several students can be seen on social media wearing colorful t-shirts with HBCU or Historically Fresh printed across the front.
Even though Historically Fresh has been successful, High still faces the struggles that come with owning a business.
“Some struggles that have come up since officially launching are learning our customers and which market to specifically cater to,” he said. “Also, the logistics behind ordering shirts from a local business and getting them to the beloved customers is also hard.”
Historically Fresh offers shirts with prices ranging from $21 to $49. High stated that his number one inspiration for making affordable and fashionable clothing came from thrift stores. His other inspirations are FUBU and Billionaire Boys Club, two clothing lines created by black men.
“Thrift stores have a lot of variety and colors at cheap prices but very unique pieces to pull ideas from and I’ve always been attracted to that,” High said. “Other inspirations are Daymond John, the founder of FUBU, and Pharrell Williams, the founder of Billionaire Boys Club. Their branding is flawless.”
Historically Fresh is currently only available to buy online but High wants to start doing pop-up shops. He is also interested in one day opening a store on the JSU campus.
“I want an official store right here on Jackson State’s campus just to say that a great brand started here,” he said.
High’s advice to anyone wanting to start their own business is to not be afraid to take risks and to not let an idea sit around for too long.
“If you have a great idea, act on it,” he said.
The official website for Historically Fresh is HistoricallyFresh.com. The brand came be found on Instagram as @HistoricallyFresh and on Twitter as @Hstlfrsh.
