Rizos Curls And Kids Of Immigrants Spotlight The Stories Of Immigrants And First-Generation Immigrants With #SupportYourRoots Collaboration

According to the American Immigration Council, more than two out of every five companies on the Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. Together, those companies produce revenues larger than all the economies in the world except for the economies of the United States and China.

Haircare brand Rizos Curls and clothing brand Kids of Immigrants aren’t on the Fortune 500 list, at least not yet, but the entrepreneurs behind the two Los Angeles-based brands demonstrate the power of children of immigrants—and have joined forces on a limited-edition box launching at 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday to spotlight the pride they have in their communities and pay it forward.

Julissa Prado, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, founded Rizos Curls in 2017 with three products. Currently, it sells 25 stockkeeping units priced primarily from $20 to $30, is stocked in 3,500 retail doors, including at Target, Ulta Beauty and Sally Beauty Mexico, and has seen revenues increase 70% over last year.

Daniel Buezo, the son of Honduran immigrants, founded KOI with Weleh Dennis, the son of Liberian immigrants, six years ago. “I grew up in New York wearing Polo and Nautica, these awesome American heritage brands, but I had never been on a horse, and I had never been on a yacht. These brands and their symbolic logos didn’t truly represent me,” he says. “I never really saw myself in culture and pop culture. I never felt represented. For me, it was my calling to step up to the plate and do something that represents me.”

Containing Nourish Oil, Scalp Massage Brush, Detox Scalp Scrub, Vitamin C Hair Repair Mask, a T-shirt and stickers, KOI’s and Rizos Curls’ limited-edition box is priced at $80. Proceeds from the box will support Rizos Curls Scholarship Fund, which will be giving a $2,000 scholarship to a nursing student.

“We represent something so much more than our businesses. We are the new face of what a CEO or a founder can look like,” says Buezo. “Even though it may seem like an unconventional collaboration because it’s hair products and a clothing line, there’s so much synergy there. When we were thinking about the collaboration, we came up with #SupportYourRoots, and that can mean everything from actually supporting the roots of your hair to also digging deeper to what supporting your roots means to us every single day.”

Prado expects the limited-edition box to sell out quickly. “People know when there’s a Kids of Immigrants drop to set your calendar and alarm because it’s going to sell out in two hours max,” she says. “We fully expect this box to sell out that way. Based on the forecasting, we think it’s going to sell out within hours.”

“We represent something so much more than our businesses. We are the new face of what a CEO or a founder can look like.”

In its campaigns, KOI prefers to incorporate role models instead of traditional models. In a previous campaign, for example, it focused on the parents of first-generation immigrant children. The photo shoot for the #SupportYourRoots collaboration with Rizos Curls stars Buezo’s sister and nurse Nohemi Young along with her daughter Zoey.

“I know her really well, but I learned so much about her from the photo shoot,” says Buezo. “Growing up, there was never really a product made for her hairstyle and hair type. It would be a product for all textures or somewhat targeted for her hairstyle, but never specific to her, and there was a lack of representation in the hair space that made her feel her hair was undesirable. That was our big why, and the products are really second to our big why.”

As part of the campaign using the hashtag #SupportYourRoots, the brands encourage their followers to share how they support their roots. In a comment on a post on Rizos Curls’ Instagram account about a giveaway connected to the collaboration, Instagrammer and Venezuelan immigrant Francesca Miroddi writes, “Staying true to my roots means recognizing all of those who came before me, honoring my ancestors and their stories, being grateful for those who fought for our freedom.”

Prado says, “We’re not making money off of this campaign. This is truly a passion project that every single person on the team has been working on. We have been working on every piece of content, and sometimes we are crying as we share our stories. We’re so moved, it’s something truly personal for all of us and has really brought our team closer.”

KOI and Rizos Curls aren’t new to collaborations. Last year, Rizos Curls had a high-profile collaboration with Mexican superstar Thalía on a limited-edition box. Kids of Immigrants’ list of partnerships is long. It’s teamed up with Nike, Adidas, Youth To The People, Vans, Buchanan, Kehlani, Suay Sew Shop and others. Yearly, it invites brands such as Youth To The People to participate in an event it calls Love Day that celebrates its anniversary.

Buezo says he evaluates the success of collaborations based on their brand marketing and social impact. He elaborates, “For me, it’s about having a clear intention that this is bigger than the product every time. It’s about storytelling and using our platform in a way that amplifies stories that we feel aren’t told enough or told at all.”

KOI’s collaboration with Rizos Curls is hitting the market as Buezo believes consumers are increasingly interested in purchasing from brands that represent them. “Consumer consciousness has shifted a lot, and we want to put our money in businesses that share some of our values,” he says. “More than ever, we want to see diversity in the stories that are being told and the faces of the brands we buy into. We want to see ourselves in those faces. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month coincidentally, but this is our story every single day.”