BLK & Bold, a Des Moines-based Black-owned coffee company, has announced a multi-year partnership with the NBA, reports Afro Tech in conjunction with the Des Moines Register.
The specialty coffee and tea brand — which was founded by Rod Johnson and Pernell Cezar in 2018 — first began its expansion efforts when it became the first Black-owned coffee company to get a national distribution contract with Whole Foods Market.
Blk & Bold is currently available in 31 different Whole Foods Markets across the Midwest region. It also has its own Amazon storefront, and is available at select Target locations, as well.
But this new agreement that the company has with the NBA is very different. Under this partnership, Johnson & Cezar will “co-brand, co-market and collaborate” with the league for the development of new products.
“The Warm Up includes a blend of coffee beans from Ethiopia and Central America and is described as having a fruity and caramel flavor profile. Each purchase on blkandbold.com of two bags — one representing the NBA’s Eastern Conference and the other the Western Conference — also comes with a limited edition trading card.”
With every sale of Blk & Bold a portion of the proceeds is donated to at-risk youth through more than a dozen nonprofits across the country. The NBA has announced that as part of the new partnership with BLK & Bold, it’ll match 5 percent of the nonprofit donations, as well.
“This partnership gives us the opportunity to be super creative and I’m looking forward to how else we can incorporate the league into what we do here at Blk & Bold,” Johnson said.
