He also received help in identifying vendors from the Association of Black Sporting Goods Professionals. The athletic footwear franchise works in partnership with local governments to raise capital from a variety of public and quasi-public sources such as community development corporations. Often new stores are in urban enterprise or empowerment zones. My plan would increase black participation and success in retail trade in apparel and accessories by building ties to vendors and across retailers. It would supplement, not supplant, other efforts to encourage black entrepreneurship in retail trade and other areas, particularly by eliminating bank discrimination.
Blacks form an important market niche in apparel and accessory retailing.
A 1993 Department of Labor survey found that blacks spend 7.9 percent of their income on apparel and services, compared with 5.3 percent for whites. Black retail trade entrepreneurs have been more successful in apparel and accessories than in any other retailing. But a need is still felt for apparel and accessory stores in the black community. In the survey of upper Manhattan cited earlier, clothing stores ranked number one as the type of store residents would like to see added to the neighborhood. Although many large independent buying offices focus on apparel, they handle few black retailers.