Introducing the Amazon Black Fashion Innovators Award
Access to funds is one of the major pain points for our founders in the fashion zone, but that barrier is larger for black founders. “Access to funding, financing, capital or sales was the top stated challenge by a significant margin. 75% say that if they needed to find $10,000 to support your business, it would be difficult for them to do so.” Taken from Abacus Data (external link) .
Get to Know: Jaymin Luces-Mendes
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Jaymin Luces-Mendes Toni Marlow (external link) , who is an active alumnus of the Fashion Zone, has identified not only faced such challenges in their business but understands the value in supporting and uplifting marginalized communities are using this avenue to give back to their community by donating the $25,000 from their Amazon Canada (external link) Fashion grant to the Fashion Zone. This is why receiving this donation to support a new fashion award for Black fashion entrepreneurs at the FZ will be pivotal for our founders and will
We have decided to ensure that a wide range of black founders has access to this opportunity, so we decided to break down the prizes. So if you are not eligible now or part of the Fashion Zone now, you can access it in the future.
Award Details
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What you need to know:
- Prize division:
- Prize 1: $10,000 Spring 2022
- Prize 2: $2500 - Fall 2022
- Prize 3: $2500 - Fall 2023
- Prize 4: $10000 - Spring 2023
- Applications for “Prize 1” will open on March 1, 2022, and will close on April 3, 2022, at 11:59 pm.
- To be eligible for all awards, you need: to be registered as a full-time member of the Fashion Zone or an alumni member with one black founder.
- For $10,000 specifically: you need to have a product/service in the market with proof of concept ($1000 in sales since January 1, 2019)
- For $2500 specifically: A business model canvas
Thank you for your interest in the award! Here's what Jaymin Luces-Mendes had to say about donating the award to the Fashion Zone.