6 Black-Owned Dance Brands to Shop this Holiday Season
It’s officially holiday gift-giving crunch time, but don’t panic: Dance Spirit is here to recommend some fab dancewear brands—that also happen to be Black-owned small businesses. New dancewear, supporting Black-owned businesses, and #ShoppingSmall? It’s enough to get anyone in the holiday #mood.
Here are six Black-owned dance and activewear brands to shop this holiday season. But if your fave dancewear brand is missing, spread the love, and give them a shoutout in the comments section! Help us to make the season ✨bright ✨.
Are you looking for some stocking stuffers that also benefit a great cause? Brown Girls Do Ballet, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting diversity in ballet through scholarships, mentoring, and community programs, funds its mission through merch sales and donations. Check out their collection of adorable mugs, pins, cropped hoodies, and tees and enjoy the warm fuzzies that come from supporting an organization working to improve the dance community.
These prints are sure to catch the teacher’s eye at your next dance convention. PRU Apparel is an activewear brand founded in 2014 with the vision of promoting power, representation, and unity (hence the name). PRU Apparel sells leggings, sports bras, bike shorts, and tops that will make you the most stylish dancer in the studio.
Matching sets are the trend we’ve all over in 2020 (no more struggling to match a top and leggings!), and Ju’nae Fit has a spectrum of colors to keep this look going well into 2021. Mix and match or keep it monochromatic, and don’t forget to layer up with a matching hoodie.
Aurora Tights
was co-founded with the help of a dancer, a figure skater, and a synchronized ice skater—who all know firsthand what it’s like to not find tights in their shade. They teamed up to start their own line of high quality and shade-inclusive tights. Aurora Tights offers a variety of styles, from footed to convertible, in both child and adult sizes. Plus, they’ve also expanded to sell apparel and accessories featuring their signature logo.
Nobody will complain about unwrapping these dancewear basics. Blendz Apparel makes tights, ballet shoes, half-soles, and jazz shoes in shades that mainstream dance retailers have neglected for far too long. (Obviously, we’re psyched that more and more dancewear brands are getting in the game, but let’s make sure to support the brands that have been providing dancewear for Black and brown dancers since the beginning.)
AS Dancewear
has the perfect something for the trendsetting dancer in your life. Dancer, model, and entrepreneur (and forever DS fave) Alison Stroming founded AS Dancewear in 2018. Her line of trendy leos, tights, unitards, leggings, and bike shorts are unique and vibrant. Pair a leo and leggings for contemporary, or layer some sweats over a cutout unitard to transition from jazz to hip hop.