South Side teens to debut clothing line

Rise Collection features 14 designs by the teens.

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Randy Durr (center) talks with program leader Candice Cunningham and Marcus Taylor.

Randy Durr (center) talks with program leader Candice Cunningham and Marcus Taylor.

| Black EcoSystem

For 16-year-old Randy Durr, his community is the reason behind why he started his own business.

Durr and nine other South Side teens joined a 16-week entrepreneurial program through the nonprofit The Black EcoSystem that would teach them how to build their own businesses.

“The program is helping me build what I want to do throughout life. It’s helping me build for my future,” Durr said. “I’m learning how to manage my own money to become an entrepreneur, my own boss.”

The Rise Collection will debut at a pop-up shop at 5 p.m. Thursday at 1023 S. Delano Court.

Candice Cunningham, 31, who manages two successful online stores of her own, has spent more than eight months training the teens to make their own clothing lines.

“My hope for them is that they not only take the business skills, the training skills, but also the morals that I feel like they are starting to develop,” Cunningham said. “The compassion I see that they are starting to develop is what is most important because we are focusing on how to help other people.”

Durr hopes to use the skills he is learning to help him in his music career.

“When I make it, I’m going to come back to my city and put something up for the kids,” Durr said.

“I want to show love to my community because a lot of rappers don’t do that. There are a lot of things going on that rappers could solve because people look up to them and if they would come back and do something positive, everyone would follow behind.”

With the profits from her stores and help from family members, Cunningham started The Black EcoSystem to help revitalize struggling communities. Cunningham designed a business model that would allow her to teach teenagers how to reach their goals while giving back to their communities. After handing out flyers in neighborhoods and advertising her program on the radio, Cunningham selected the 10 teens after an interview process.

“My goal is for them to use the money they get from this and use is to take care of the other things they want to do in life, but I want to them to remember that while they are on their journey, to reach back and help someone else,” Cunningham said.

Each teen designed a T-shirt with their own target audience in mind.

Durr hopes his design will remind people to be grateful and sport the words “Never Bite the Hand that Feeds You.” It was inspired by his father, he said, who has always told him to be thankful for what they have.

The collection will feature 14 designs that include T-shirts, hoodies and hats that also sport messages like “Revolution,” “Born Sinner,” and “Worthy.” Prices in the collection will range from $29 to $49.

The pop-up shop marks the teens’ graduation from the entrepreneurial program but they will continue to be a part of the Rise Collection. A new company will be created for each group of teens that joins the program.

The Rise Collection pop-up shop will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 

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