Brothers Darryl and DeKoven Humes opened a clothing store in 2017 to provide accessible high-end clothing options for men in the Detroit area.
In mid-May, Darryl was invited to the Henry Ford-Detroit Pistons Performance Center as part of the annual SHOP313 small business summit, which was only blocks away from the Humes’ brothers’ store, which is called Mature, a brick-and-mortar space located in the historic Fisher Building located in the New Center neighborhood. Amazon co-sponsored the event.
As a neighbor of the Pistons and small business owner, Darryl saw great importance in attending the day-long event.
“I'm always seeking and trying to learn ways to continue to grow,” Darryl said. “We're super excited about building our community with other entrepreneurs, but it is also just learning from a lot of experts within the field that can help grow, mature and increase our client experience.”
The SHOP313 program, created in 2021, puts the spotlight on small businesses through community exposure, educational programming and social media promotion. The immersive platform was developed to promote and support small business owners and entrepreneurs at no cost.
Pistons owner Tom Gores frequently refers to the Pistons as a community asset, and the SHOP313 program is an example of the franchise’s ongoing commitment to the community.
“We continue to find ways to engage with and support small business in the community,” Pistons vice president of business affairs Stefen Welch said. “We had three meetings with small businesses in an effort to find ways to help. The SHOP313 is a way we can help these businesses utilize and learn about e-commerce.”
The afternoon seminar featured various sessions with Pistons and Amazon representatives designed to strengthen partnerships and share best practices for selling, pitching and ways to support small businesses through brand marketing and online sales.
“I think having that sense of community is really important for the success of a small business,” Amazon head of community engagement Ian Conyers said. “From an Amazon perspective, most people don’t know who they’re purchasing from and so when you have the opportunity to buy from a women or veteran-owned business it just adds a chance to support your local community.”
Mature was one of 100 Detroit-area small businesses to benefit from the program, which earned recognition from the NBA with the Team Partnership of the Year Award in its first year.
“We view our online presence almost as our face card,” Darryl said. “I feel like most people nowadays, they do their due diligence by going online first to learn about where they want to invest or shop.”
“We’ve been in the Fisher Building for almost five years, and we are considered a staple in the community, and we embrace those responsibilities while continuing to grow our online experience.”
Such programs are important for small businesses. According to Local Initiatives Support Coalition, there are more than 50,000 small businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color in the city of Detroit.
“We know in the city of Detroit, we have an evolving and growing small business community and we want to continue to support that because at the end of the day, we know that they're the economic engines within our community,” Welch said.
Since the start of the program, SHOP313 has benefitted more than 300 small businesses.
“Whether they're in fashion, restaurant industry or the service industry, we can all learn from each other,” Darryl said. “This journey sometimes can feel very lonely so coming to these events can help people relate to the struggles as well as the wins. It creates a true entrepreneurial community.”
SHOP313, which is currently supported by Amazon, Comerica Bank and BELFOR. Each business will be selected to host a pop-up display at a Pistons 2024-25 home game in the Little Caesars Arena concourse. Local businesses can learn more and apply to be a part of the SHOP313 platform by visiting pistons.com/shop313.