Hey hey :) So in an interesting and rather poetic turn of events, 2020 actually made 20 years of us (Harvey Leon and Rony Byas) being friends.
From pedal bikes with reflectors in the spokes to street football games played until the sun went down - from adventures all over New York City to road tripping across the country and back, we've done it all as brothers. Byas & Leon was in many ways somewhat of an oddball idea, considering that at the time (2012), one of us was still an engineering student while the other was a business student running his family mattress factory. We were of one mind however, through our mutual and growing interest in apparel production and more importantly, ethically doing so in Haiti - the seat of our shared cultural heritage. Seven years and many spiritual milestones later, the physical Byas & Leon Shoppe was born, with the two of us succeeding in building far more than we'd dreamed of - a community :)
A Black owned beacon for the ethical and sustainable future of fashion, a cultural hub of learning and love - not bad for two knuckleheads from Queens and Brooklyn right? (laughs)