Ok, y’all. I am SA-WAMPED these few weeks and have to admit that I’m not sure if my head is screwed on straight, but I had to check in today and make sure you saw the news! Revolve, the clothing e-retail titan of industry who moved to my sh*t list last year after reports of willfully shutting out people of color from their platform – among other acts of bigotry – has finally announced a plan to course-correct after months of silence. Today we’re talking about Revolve’s mentorship program – the good, the “huh?”, and where to go from here.
As a response to public support of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, the brand has set up a mentorship program for emerging Black designers. The idea is to create a pipeline so that more Black-owned brands can be scaled and sold on the Revolve platform – the current number is at around 4% of the 500-600 brands sold on Revolve.com – and provide everything from guidance on finances and supply chain logistics to social media marketing. The program was announced last month on Revolve’s Instagram feed and was reported on by WWD.
Yay!
There’s a lot to be cautiously optimistic about. After all, my fear was that in the backlash following Blackout Tuesday, the brand would simply diversify their social media feed to appease the public without making any internal changes to their organization (more about that in this post). As of now, they’ve signed on over 30 brands to their mentorship program and reportedly intend to keep recruiting – good news! Revolve is a major platform, one that provides incredible visibility and marketability – not to mention that as of 2020 they were worth around $3 billion, according to Macrotrends. They’ve revolutionized influencer marketing, their online shopping experience is the best out there, and they truly have the potential to introduce their vast customer base to a new generation of Black-owned and designed brands we’d otherwise never see.
Yay?
I do want to emphasize the “cautious” part of that optimism, though. The fact they have reportedly spoke with the Fifteen Percent Pledge, yet haven’t officially signed on, is cause for concern. Signing the pledge would hold Revolve publicly accountable to produce specific results, and avoiding that commitment allows them to proceed without any concrete, measurable goals. They also haven’t vocalized any specific commitment to actually selling the brands they mentor on their platform and what kind of marketing they’d receive once on the platform. These details matter because it’s these types of things that could make or break the program. Again, it’s possible that they do have these things hammered out, but they haven’t publicized them (an instance of the ol’ CYA, maybe?).
Revolve’s Mentorship Program in 60 Seconds
Sometimes, you need the Readers’ Digest version – here’s all the info, crammed into 60 seconds:
@stigmendes WATCH ON REPEAT, it’s a dense one! Update on #revolve 🚨🚨🚨#revolvearoundthehouse #15percentpledge #pulluporshutup #revolveme #millennialsoftiktok
Where We Go From Here
Revolve is making moves in the right direction – and if you shop at Revolve, be vocal and spendy with your support of their inclusion of Black-owned and -designed brands. Keep an eye out for Black-owned brands on the platform (for now, they have dedicated this page), and keep your memory long. The brand truly has a chance to make waves, but we need to keep the pressure on!
Here are our action-items:
- Spend your dollars with Black-owned or Black-designed brands on Revolve
- Be vocal with your support of these brands on Revolve’s Instagram. Their success is heavily dependent on social media, so your engagement here matters more than with other brands!
- Tag Revolve in posts supporting the Fifteen Percent Pledge (@15percentpledge) and Pull Up Or Shut Up (@pullupforchange)! The Fifteen Percent Pledge would commit the company to dedicate 15% of shelf space to Black-owned or -designed brands, and Pull Up Or Shut Up is a campaign asking companies to publish their corporate diversity data. Concrete goals and transparency are both KEY to a long-term, successful commitment to diversity.
What do you think? Are you excited by this program? Rolling your eyes? LMK!
love,
Stig
