By Zoe Cummings
(Source Contributor. ForbesBLK)
Editor’s Note: This is the published version of the ForbesBLK newsletter, which offers the latest news and events surrounding the Black community. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Thursday!
Howard University graduate Tahir Murray, recognized early on that the fashion industry would be his path to generational wealth. Murray, 26, could see the signs clearly, having grown up in the family business, Von’s Sneakers, which later became the famed School of Hard Knocks. This retail store in New York City, which opened in 1970, became the first Black-owned shop in the country to obtain a license to distribute Nike products. Over the years, it evolved into a cultural movement, where Murray quietly absorbed the blueprint for building a lasting legacy.
“When it comes to being intentional,” Murray says, “running a brand; putting people first—these were all the lessons the family business gave me.”
Today, Von’s legacy continues with Legacy History Pride (LHP), Murray’s startup clothing line that specializes in themed Historically Black College and University (HBCU) apparel. The brand mainly makes revenue from licensing agreements with more than 30 schools, including Howard University, Spelman College, and Morehouse College, alongside their e-commerce platform. LHP also has previous collaborations with Nike, NASCAR, and Nickelodeon.
This fall, Forbes will bring its impactful 2025 ForbesBLK Summit back to Atlanta at the historic Morehouse College on October 8–10. During the three-day event, ForbesBLK will amplify and support members, HBCU alumni, and small businesses with an in-person marketplace.
Additionally, the platform will showcase the next generation of entrepreneurs through a special ForbesBLK Newsletter series, “The Yard to Market.” It will feature brief Q&A sessions with HBCU alumni, offering practical insights and actionable advice on building and expanding a business. This week, Murray discussed his journey.
ForbesBLK: What drew you to clothing and inspired you to launch Legacy History Pride?
Tahir: Fashion has always been a way for me to express myself. (My character is) pretty quiet, but clothing lets me be loud … I’m the quiet one in my Caribbean family (laughs). So, I express my loudness and my bravado through my creativity for sure. My grandfather came here from Trinidad and Tobago, so I have very strong West Indian roots. I see a lot of things through color and texture, so when it comes to designing clothes, I don’t like to have muted pieces. I want to design things where you could see it from a mile away and still be wowed. To me, those pieces are synonymous with who we are as people.
ForbesBLK: Help first-time founders think about financing. How did you start raising capital for LHP?
Tahir: I found things that I loved and monetized them to start self-investing. Things like DJing and throwing parties at school gave me enough money to be able to produce my first clothing sample. That’s the biggest piece of advice that I can provide students: don’t be afraid to start small. A simple step is a step forward.
ForbesBLK: When you launched LHP, what demand were you tapping into?
Tahir: Stepping on Howard’s campus, I noticed that there was such a lack of diversity when it came to the type of merchandise that was offered in HBCU bookstores. My father had a collegiate lifestyle business, so I understood the logistics. But I wanted to translate it into something for our community. For LHP, that translated to our mission of providing high-quality, unique, and creative apparel that is synonymous with the richness and uniqueness of HBCUs and Black culture at large.
ForbesBLK: Where did the name Legacy History Pride come from?
Tahir: Those three words are rooted in our story. People come to HBCUs to either start a legacy of their own or continue a family legacy. There’s so much history that’s rooted in HBCUs, and people take great pride in both that legacy and history part. All of those terms speak to who we are and what we hope to accomplish.
ForbesBLK: Tell me more about your experience at a HBCU. How did Howard shape you to be able to run a business like LHP?
Tahir: Howard is very much a family environment, and you learn a lot about yourself when you’re with family. Going there taught me to be unapologetically myself while also preparing me for the world. HBCUs prepare you by putting you in positions outside of classrooms that allow you to think critically about who you are and who you want to be in the world. Howard was my first time experiencing that kind of belief and preparation in any educational environment. It gave me the confidence to step out on my own.
Be Loud: “Fashion has always been a way for me to express myself. (My character is) pretty quiet, but clothing lets me be loud,” Murray says.
Be Loud: “Fashion has always been a way for me to express myself. (My character is) pretty quiet, but clothing lets me be loud,” Murray says.
Photo courtesy of Tahir Murray
ForbesBLK: At what point did you really see LHP start to gain national recognition?
Tahir: During the 2020 NBA Playoffs, Chris Paul, who was playing for the Oklahoma Thunder at the time, wore our pieces in his pre-game tunnel attire. That decision to showcase HBCU pride on a national stage sparked an immediate response, with merchandise selling out within minutes. That was really a turning point for our business, and we were able to scale more aggressively, doubling our orders for Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard, which were the schools his outfits featured.
ForbesBLK: You won Pharrell’s 2024 Black Ambition Prize. How did you prepare, and what impact did it have on your brand?
Tahir: Black Ambition is a great example of companies that support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) businesses not just by giving us money but also proper resources, tools, and access to actually grow. When the award was first announced in 2021, I applied and actually got denied. A few years later, I heard about the HBCU accelerator and got accepted. I spent the next eight weeks learning everything from marketing to product development from industry professionals, which prepared me for our final pitch presentation.
Black Ambition was our first major yes. I applied for it unapologetic about who I am and my vision. It was that confidence in articulating where I saw the brand going that separated me from other people and garnered that investment. For majority Black male-owned apparel brands, it’s hard to get financial capital at the early stage. To have someone invest time, resources, and money is rare.
ForbesBLK: You’re coming up on the sixth anniversary of your brand. What were some of the struggles that you had at the beginning, and how did you overcome them?
Tahir: When I graduated and was pursuing LHP full-time, I realized the magnitude of what I had committed myself to — entrepreneurship is not a 9 to 5. It’s 24/7. Because of that time commitment, I had to grow and mature very quickly. LHP is an everyday thing. There’s not a time where I’m not thinking about ideas or thinking about the brand in some way. It’s the lens through which I see the world now. And I think the biggest challenge for me is— even though I’ve had family in the fashion business — there are still so many things I have to figure out on my own.
ForbesBLK: You come from a strong line of entrepreneurs. What advice would you give to younger entrepreneurs looking to break into the apparel market with no blueprint?
Tahir: Figure out what you like. There’s a lack of originality in content nowadays. But, you have to lean into who you are. That’s what people are going to buy into. They’re going to buy into your ideas, your vision, your personality. Then, you can figure out how to reach the right people.
For us, we knew the best way to reach our audience was through licensing. We applied through the Collegiate Licensing Company, and then we were able to form individual partnerships with specific institutions. Colleges are extremely picky about who they allow to represent them, so taking this path allowed us to cut through some of the red tape more easily.
ForbesBLK: What is success to you over the next five years?
Tahir: Success for me is being able to expand partnerships, not just with big-name brands but with my peers. Thinking forward, it’s important for us to continue to use our position in the HBCU community to make an impact on scholarships and fundraising for schools. Another dream is to open a storefront, similar to my grandfather’s, with the intention of building a community space for people with similar interests in music, fashion and creativity.
ForbesBLK: If you could see your brand worn by one person — dead or alive — who would it be and why?
Tahir: President Obama. He’s the only person that could rock everything. He could wear the basketball jersey, a crewneck, a T-shirt, a sweater — and he’ll swag out all of them.
For Murray, all of the work, investment and partnership is a step toward something bigger: “I want to be the most purpose-driven, most impactful brand of all time,” he says.
This fall, LHP is collaborating with Black-woman owned athleisure brand, STRIPT, founded by Howard University alum, Arianna Davis, to corner a new piece of the market. For Murray, this is a natural next step in growing his business reach. With 26 schools included in the collaboration, the most the brand has ever done in one drop, Murray is confident that the impact will be felt nationwide.
Legacy. History. Pride. And a whole lot of business savvy.
