Black-owned streetwear brand funds scholarships for low-income students in Chicago

CHICAGO -- Gratitude Chicago is a Black-owned streetwear brand that donates a portion of its profits to several community causes.

Brothers Nicholas and Malcolm Fox teamed up with their fraternity brother, Darick Anderson Jr., in 2019 to build Gratitude Chicago based on their collective love of streetwear, shoes and giving back to the community.

"The goal of Gratitude Chicago is to preach the importance and teach the definition of gratitude," Malcolm said.

"We try to connect Chicago and the community and essentially Black and brown people in everything that we do," said Nick.

"Gratitude Chicago is going to be the biggest brand coming out of Chicago. Not only in the street fashion sense, but the touch," Anderson added.

The Gratitude Chicago team has developed partnerships with Foot Locker, secured $30,000 in scholarship funds for Chicago Public Schools students and headed a campaign that raised over $17,000 to create a STEM department at Wendell Phillips Academy High School.

"To go through the processes that we did to make it out of the communities that we did, and understand what those trials and tribulations look like. I think it's our job to give back to the community that built us," Nicholas said.

As members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, these two South Siders and West Side native say their goal is to lift as they climb and contribute to the neighborhoods they come from.

"Us all being Omega men it really helped us cultivate in terms of how we structure our business and structure how we do things. You grow up with a lot of people but you never really gets experienced things like this at this level, with your closest friends So us being able do this or just be able to be seen on different platforms together, it's a blessing," Anderson said.