MADE

Jonathan "JP" Platz and Vu Radley, MADE MOBB

MADE to order: How KC’s top streetwear brand plans to fund therapy sessions for ‘our brothers and sisters’

No health, no hustle, said Vu Radley, detailing MADE MOBB’s recently launched effort to fund free therapy sessions for members of the Black community. “Mental health isn’t something that’s talked about a lot within minority groups. For me, growing up, it wasn’t,” said Radley, co-founder of MADE, emphasizing newly heightened stress and super-charged anxiety for…

Buck Wimberly and Joey Mendez, ULAH

Double-clicks to dollars: ULAH duo aims to convert Insta following into ruggedly chic shoppers

A dream has become brick-and-mortar reality for Buck Wimberly and Joey Mendez, the duo taking ULAH from Instagram underdog to Westwood success story. “We wanted the brand to feel sophisticated, accessible and friendly,” explained Wimberly, co-owner of ULAH — a men’s apparel and lifestyle store, tucked within the Woodside Village Shops along Rainbow Boulevard. A…

Nipsey Hussle Kansas City

‘Heartbreaking but empowering’: Nipsey Hussle’s life, death inspire entrepreneurs to action

The Marathon will continue, Wesley Hamilton said, echoing tens of thousands of mourners now pledging to keep alive the transcendent entrepreneurial spirit of rapper-turned-community leader Nipsey Hussle. Hamilton, founder and executive director of the KC-based nonprofit The Disabled But Not Really Foundation, was among a dozen or more Kansas City entrepreneurs in Los Angeles Thursday…

Play It Forward

Former high school rivals from MADE, Local Legends ‘Play It Forward’ in bid to revive South KC

Organizers of the Aug. 12 Play It Forward charity basketball game traded playful taunts as they approached the doors of the former Hickman Mills High School gymnasium. “They painted over your cougar,” said AbdulRasheed Yahaya, a Ruskin High School graduate, referencing the giant eagle logo affixed to the former Hickman facility that now is part…

Jordan Fox and Ryan Hetu, Foxtrot Supply Co.

Beyond buzzwords: Foxtrot Supply mounts protest of an increasingly online-only world

A large butcher block table stands between the owners of Foxtrot Supply Co. and its customers. But the found-object centerpiece of their Crossroads store is meant as a meeting place, not a barrier, said Ryan Hetu. “It’s alluring, inviting and kind of vulnerable,” the Foxtrot co-founder explained. Stitched into the high-traffic fabric of First Fridays…