<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b74a50364dce81a008b513c-2000/gettyimages-599948266.jpg" border="0" alt="apple airpods" data-mce-source="Stephen Lam/Getty Images">Stephen Lam/Getty Images</img></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/apple">Apple's</a> wearables, home, and accessories business unit, which includes the AirPods and Apple Watch among other products, is outpacing the iPad and catching up to the Mac.</li><li>That's increasingly important as Apple continues to look for ways to offset slowing iPhone sales.&#xa0;</li><li>While AirPods aren't solely responsible for that category's growth, they've become a status symbol in recent years.&#xa0;</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.&#xa0;</a></li></ul>As Apple's iPhone sales continue to stall, much of the conversation among analysts and industry watchers has been focused on Apple's big push into services, and rightfully so. The company is on the verge of launching its own credit card, a TV service loaded with big-budget programs, and a subscription gaming service.But Apple's fiscal <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-fiscal-q3-earnings-iphone-ipad-mac-services-china-2019-7">third-quarter earnings</a> served as another reminder that Apple's wearables business - which includes the Apple Watch and AirPods - is becoming increasingly important. It's even starting overshadow well-established products Apple has been selling for years, transitioning AirPods from an ancillary iPhone accessory to a lucrative area of growth for the company.&#xa0; &#xa0;Apple's wearables, home, and accessories division, which includes products like the Apple Watch and AirPods, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-q3-2019-earnings-wearables-business-closer-to-surpassing-mac-2019-7">outpaced the company's iPad business</a> and is gradually catching up to the Mac. This unit accounted for $5.5 billion in net sales for the quarter that ended on June 29, while the iPad hit $5 billion in net sales and the Mac achieved $5.8 billion.&#xa0;Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-12-rumors-5g-release-camera-specs-2019-6">Apple's first 5G iPhone is coming next year - here's everything we've heard about it so far</a>"Read this slowly and ponder it: Apple's wearable, home &amp; accessory category is larger than iPad sales," said Jim Suva and Asiya Merchant, in a note from CitiBank about Apple's earnings. "This underscores a new theme that is starting to emerge from Apple, which we believe investors are overlooking and that is the diversity of Apple's offerings."Analysts from Keybanc Capital Markets, Nomura, and Credit Suisse also pointed to AirPods and the Apple Watch as being key growth drivers for Apple's wearables, home, and accessories division. Keybanc described AirPods as "performing exceptionally well," while Nomura noted that "AirPods were of course strong."Apple hasn't said how many AirPods units its sold since introducing the wireless headphones in 2016. But third-party estimates indicate they're doing well. Apple snagged 60% of the market for truly wireless headphones in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-true-wireless-hearables-market-reaches-12-5-million-units-q4-2018/">Counterpoint Research</a>.TF International Securities Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst known for his often accurate Apple predictions, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-next-generation-airpods-will-launch-in-2019-2018-12">estimated in December</a> that the company would ship between 26 million and 28 million AirPods in 2018. That could jump to between 50 million and 55 million in 2019, driven by the launch of Apple's second-generation AirPods that come with an optional wireless charging case and hands-free Siri functionality.&#xa0;Of course, AirPods aren't solely responsible for the notable growth occurring in Apple's wearables business. The Apple Watch likely also plays a large role, especially considering Apple's smartwatches are far more expensive than its $159 wireless earbuds. The Apple Watch was responsible for 51% of the global smartwatch market in the fourth quarter of 2018, says a report from <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190227006074/en/Strategy-Analytics-Apple-Watch-Captures-18-Million">Strategy Analytics</a>.But what makes AirPods particularly special is because, like the iPhone, they've become a status symbol. Although <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-already-getting-complaints-2016-9">they were mocked</a> when Apple unveiled them in 2016, AirPods quickly caught on and became the center of <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krishrach/sold-out-memes-airpods-apple">popular memes</a>, particularly ones that poked fun at the headphones' price.One <a href="https://twitter.com/khaleed_id/status/1075084273785470976">tweet</a> posted in December 2018, for example, compiled a list of the 10 richest people - and included AirPod owners at the top above Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Oprah Winfrey among others. It has nearly 50 thousand likes and nearly 20 thousand retweets.&#xa0;Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Travis Scott, and Lil Uzi Vert all purchased a pair of Louis Vuitton-designed $1,000 AirPods, as <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/02/01/miley-cyrus-travis-scott-and-lil-uzi-vert-all-own-these-1000-airpods/">Page Six</a> reported earlier this year. In 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-are-a-cultural-phenomenon-right-now-according-to-tim-cook-2017-2">called AirPods</a> a "cultural phenomenon" at the company's annual shareholders meeting.Apple even flaunted this on stage during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, when it showcased how iOS 13 will make it possible to create your own personal emoji that you can customize with AirPods. This suggests Apple believes AirPods say as much about your personal look as accessories like jewelry and sunglasses. Apple enlisted YouTube lifestyle and beauty personalities Patrick Starrr and Desi Perkins to showcase the new AirPods-clad Memojis on stage.Apple may never have a hit that's quite as big and impactful as the iPhone ever again. But with AirPods, it's at least proving that it can still move a nascent product category into the mainstream, as it did more than a decade ago with its first smartphone.&#xa0;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">"Top 10 richest people 1. Airpod users 2. Amazon CEO 3. Bill Gates 4. People who refuse to shop at Walmart 5. Mark Zuckerburg 6. Jay-Z 7. People who say "let's get this bread" 8. Floyd Mayweather 9. Oprah 10. People with either "💰" or "💵" in their bio"- ғʟᴀᴄᴋᴏ (@khaleed_id) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1075084273785470976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3x7_w9Oz8lQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-privacy-hacking-scandal-mark-zuckerberg-cambridge-analytica-2019-5">Facebook's scandals aren't enough for people to stop using it. Here's how the company has held up through data hacks, lawsuits, and massive security threats.</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/IvEgOjQK-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

AirPods have become a millennial status symbol, and Apple's earnings suggest they could be its next big thing after the iPhone

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Insider profiled <keyword id="4970365" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="michael-rubin">Michael Rubin</keyword>, the executive chairman of <keyword id="669294" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fanatics">Fanatics</keyword>, partner of the Philadelphia 76ers, and co-founder of the <keyword id="10210535" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="reform-alliance">Reform Alliance</keyword>, following Fanatics' recent $12.8 billion valuation.</li><li>Entrepreneur <keyword id="1912410" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Gary-Vaynerchuk">Gary Vaynerchuk</keyword>, rapper <keyword id="4528364" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="quavo">Quavo</keyword>, and New England Patriots owner <keyword id="1724468" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Robert-Kraft">Robert Kraft</keyword> provided commentary on Rubin's work at the intersections of <keyword id="6356028" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="sports">sports</keyword>, <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword>, business, and criminal-justice reform.</li></ul>In December 2019, I shadowed Fanatics chairman and Philadelphia 76ers partner Michael Rubin as he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meek-mill-reform-alliance-shopping-spree-nfl-game-probation-system-2019-12">hosted a holiday giveaway</a> for 50 families who were affected by the unjust imprisonment of a parent.Arranged by Rubin and his <a href="https://reformalliance.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reform Alliance</a> co-founders <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meek-mill-interview-lids-investment-jay-z-amazon-series-2019-06" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meek Mill</a> and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the event included an NBA store shopping spree for the families and a trip to a Patriots home game on the team's private plane.Rubin's demeanor throughout the event and his genuine interactions with the families worked to dispel a general disbelief between myself and a few of the reporters in attendance that a white billionaire could be a down-to-earth person.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/migos-quavo-interview-lids-partnership-meek-mill-2019-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quavo</a>, of the rap group Migos, a friend of Rubin's, shared the same sentiment when I asked him about the billionaire NBA partner in a Zoom call last month."'Damn, this man really knows what the culture feels like,'" Quavo said of his initial impression of Rubin. "I feel like he was always like a different type of owner, man. I feel like he was just very down-to-earth. Young guy, know what was going on, knows the lingo. And I related to him."<h2>'A tornado of will'</h2>When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of last year, Rubin's humanitarianism went into effect on a larger scale.At the onset of the pandemic, when PPE was in short supply nationwide, Rubin shut down a Fanatics manufacturing plant in Easton, Pennsylvania, and used the material his company would normally use to produce official uniforms for Major League Baseball to instead make masks and hospital gowns for frontline healthcare workers. Fanatics ended up disseminating more than one million masks and gowns to healthcare centers in 13 states.In April, Rubin followed that act by orchestrating the <a href="https://www.fanatics.com/all-in-challenge/x-12589906+z-9713580-3838082054" target="_blank" rel="noopener">All-In Challenge</a>. The viral charity campaign raised over $60 million to combat food insecurity by getting a wide swath of notable people to donate a prized possession or "once-in-a-lifetime" experience for fans. Participants included Leonardo DiCaprio, Drake, Kim Kardashian, Kevin Hart, DJ Khaled, Tom Brady, Justin Bieber, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, among others. Rubin said that the effort garnered more than a million and a half individual contributions.Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur and friend of Rubin's, led the All-In Challenge's social media effort and described Rubin's campaign as "a tornado of will" that involved 18 and 19-hour work days and countless phone calls to get celebrities to participate. "I always think that there's a group of people in the world that just will things to success," Vaynerchuk said of the effort. "And I think Michael has that gear."Robert Kraft, another friend of Rubin's, had a similar perspective: "I've known a lot of people, but I've never known anybody quite as creative, productive, and successful at achieving what they set out to do. I don't think failure ever crosses his mind, and he wills things to happen," Kraft said, adding that Rubin's work on the All-In Challenge was "symbolic of what he does with his businesses."I spoke separately and at length with Vaynerchuk, Kraft, Quavo, and Rubin to get a picture of the factors and qualities that have facilitated Rubin's career trajectory and diverse network. A continuing theme that arose was what Vaynerchuk called a "chameleon-like compassion" in Rubin's ability to deftly navigate the different fields he operates in - the ecommerce industry, the worlds of sports and entertainment, and the fight for criminal-justice reform. <h2>An 'offensive machine' in ecommerce</h2><div type="image" title="Michael Rubin" height="2349" width="4176" msid="82183873" hostid="261"></div>Rubin, 48, began building his fortune in high school, when he started a successful ski equipment business out of the basement of his parents' home in Philadelphia. In his 20s, after dropping out of college at Villanova, Rubin founded an apparel and logistics company, Global Sports Incorporated. That company evolved into GSI Commerce, which by the late '90s offered an innovative third-party software platform for brands wanting to take ecommerce in-house. Kraft related that he started spending time with Rubin around 2011, right after Rubin had sold GSI Commerce to eBay for $2.4 billion. In the sale, Rubin fatefully hung onto the production arm of the company, Fanatics. Only in his late 30s at that point, Rubin had "already achieved something very special," Kraft said."Nothing but power plays. Chess moves," Quavo said, when asked to characterize Rubin's business instincts. "He straight like a game of chess, man. He do 'em right."The primary chess move, and Rubin's signature innovation in the field: Vertical commerce. Where several years ago licensed sports apparel companies would have to guess and fumble slowly after consumer demand for apparel, Fanatics innovated an approach to production that eliminated a dependence on third-party vendors and allowed the company to meet evolving sports-apparel demand in real time by making apparel on-demand. As Fanatics has continued to acquire licensing rights among major league sports and apparel companies, its vertical commerce approach has allowed it to produce and sell exclusive merchandise, including official Nike products, to meet rapidly changing demand across the hundreds of partner sites it platforms. When Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, for example, Fanatics was able to manufacture official Nike jerseys for the move within seconds of the announcement, a company rep said."It's a great story of incredible strategy: Go make the right deals with the right leagues; build out an incredibly competent execution model that brings more value to the leagues than they had in the past, which builds more momentum," Vaynerchuk said. "What I would call 'offense.' That's what I think about when I think about Fanatics, just an offensive machine. It feels like the reverse of complacency. It is in constant motion, acquiring licenses and relationships, and refining its best practices of what it does extremely well around email and search and sales and <keyword id="6354851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="retail">retail</keyword>."Fanatics' motion, as it were, has increased profoundly during the pandemic, despite a several-months absence of sports. A Fanatics rep estimated that 2020 saw three years' worth of ecommerce industry growth in a single year. As a company that finds 80% of its sales through ecommerce, Fanatics is one of many online retailers that has benefited from the pandemic in an outsized fashion. The company set an annual revenue record in 2020, and in August, it raised $350 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $6.2 billion. That figure <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sports-retailer-fanatics-raises-320-million-at-128-billion-valuation-in-new-funding-round-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than doubled last month</a>, when Fanatics announced it had raised $320 million in new funding that valued the company at $12.8 billion. Still, Rubin said he feels like Fanatics is "in the first inning of a baseball game" in its trajectory. He said the company's latest round of funding - all from existing investors, including private equity firms Blackstone, Silver Lake, Fidelity Investments, Neuberger Berman, Thrive Capital, and Major League Baseball - will go toward expanding its opportunities in vertical commerce, among many other expansion opportunities "over the next several years.""I think they got an incredible opportunity to invest in the company at this level," Rubin said.<h2>'Michael Rubin party, man. Star-studded' </h2><div type="image" title="michael rubin jay-z shaq" height="2673" width="4009" msid="82183874" hostid="261"></div>Many of the personal qualities that have led Rubin to success in business have translated into a certain magnetism toward him across social circles, according to his friends. "I think he's a very loyal person, almost blindly loyal. If you're a friend of his or a team member in one of his businesses, he'll do anything to support and help you," Kraft said. "I think his relationship building and EQ capabilities are off the chart and allow him to get loyalty in return that really allows him as a businessman to get things done quicker and more efficiently, almost more than anyone. Well, he's one of the top.""I think there's a chameleon-like compassion and empathy and people skills. There's a comfort within your own skin that is required," Vaynerchuk said of Rubin's ability to navigate disparate sides of society. "A very strong, kind of under-the-radar strength that he has is the ability to laugh at himself. I see that publicly and privately, and I think that's powerful."In recent years, Rubin has developed a reputation for throwing Super Bowl parties that attract A-list names in sports, business, and entertainment. Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez, Shaquille O'Neal, Emily Ratajkowski, Post Malone, and Dwyane Wade were among the guests at Rubin's 2020 party in Miami. Jennifer Lopez, Rodriguez, Shaq, Cardi B, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, and Aaron Judge were among those who attended a suite party of Rubin's at this year's game.<div type="image" title="quavo michael rubin" height="3164" width="4446" msid="82183881" hostid="261"></div>Quavo, a regular at Rubin's Super Bowl parties along with Kraft, also performed at Rubin's parties in Atlanta in 2019 and Miami in 2020. "Michael Rubin party, man. Star-studded," Quavo said. "We all having fun, enjoying life, celebrating. Toasting to nothing but positive energy, good moves. He constantly introduce you to some of his guys, some of his business partners, some of his good close friends, that's, you know what I'm saying, in the business, too. So it's like an open book, and he just having fun is all. We all having fun."Regarding the parties, Rubin said, "One of the things I love doing is putting great people together." Not specific to the parties, he expressed what he has gained generally from having "the most diverse group of friends on the planet.""I have a lot of friends with different backgrounds. I'll walk up, by the way, and talk to somebody in the middle of the street. They'll ask me questions, I'll ask them questions," he said. "So, I'm like a sponge. People don't get, like, I really did barely make it out of high school, and I didn't go to college. And so, I iterate. That's the way I learn."People always say to me how lucky Meek is to have me as his friend. I always say how lucky I am to have him as my friend. Think of what he's taught me about what happens in Black America, what happens in poor neighborhoods, what happens with the way he grew up. You know, I learned so much about culture from him," he continued. "I think if you have a diverse group of friends, you can constantly learn from each other. Robert Kraft and I learn from each other. Meek and I learn from each other. Quavo and I learn from each other. Gary Vee and I learn from each other. One of my best skillsets is the diversity of friends that I have." <blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">-My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1347420818540621824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2021</a></blockquote>A noteworthy illustration of said diversity, in January, a picture of Rubin gambling with Drake, <keyword id="1102581" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Meek-Mill">Meek Mill</keyword>, and Lil Baby in the Bahamas went viral.The photo came a year after Drake name-dropped Rubin in his song, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jz0GAFNNIo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When To Say When</a>," where he rapped, "I watched Michael Rubin win a million off a couple hands."I asked Rubin for his reaction to the lyric."A bit of a cringe," he said, with a laugh. "Look, obviously it's incredibly humbling to be shouted out in one of Meek's songs and one of Drake's songs. But you're more proud of being shouted out for <a href="https://genius.com/15907517">having someone's back, like Meek said in his song</a>, than having Drake have me, you know, win a million dollars in a few hands. I mean, look, I've played blackjack my whole life. I've always been a blackjack player, so no secret about that. But you'd always like to be shouted out for the good things you do on the earth, not that you like to gamble. How's that for an honest answer?"<h2>'The right one to push those envelopes'</h2><div type="image" title="Meek mill michael rubin" height="2000" width="3000" msid="82183882" hostid="261"></div>In January 2019, Rubin and Meek Mill recruited Jay-Z, Kraft, and a list of other prominent names to launch the Reform Alliance criminal-justice reform organization following Meek's 2018 release from prison. Meek had been controversially sentenced to two-to-four years in prison in 2017 over a technical probation violation, a moment that Rubin attended in court and recounts as "surreal." In the two years since its launch, the Reform Alliance has gone on to push for and <a href="https://reformalliance.com/our-wins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help pass bipartisan legislation centered on the reformation of probation and parole systems in several states</a>. While Rubin is currently a partner in the Philadelphia 76ers as the team's third largest shareholder (as well as a partner in the ownership group of the New Jersey Devils and Crystal Palace FC, a UK premier league soccer team), he stands to reason - for the sources of this article and <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2021/01/05/michael-rubin-fanatics-nba-owner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA commissioner Adam Silver</a>, at least - as a prime candidate for a lead ownership position of a major league sports team, in part due to the social justice pedigree of his work on Reform and the All-In Challenge in the current cultural climate. "I feel like he more connected to the streets and the fans and the people that's on ground, because he communicate with guys like us, guys like Meek Mill, you know what I'm saying?" Quavo said. "He keep his ear to the streets and keep his ear to what's going on. So I feel like if he get concerns and stuff from the fans or whatnot, or something that's coming from the fans that may demand a little change or something like that. I think he'd be the right one to push those envelopes.""I think he'd be an outstanding owner in any league wherever, as long as he was passionate about it," Kraft said. "I've seen him in operation. It's all about winning and whether it's in business or sports or securing new ideas and new ways of doing things; you know, he's very open-minded and has this never-give-up demeanor that's not just talk. I've seen it, and I've seen how hard he works at it." He added, later in the call: "I think what Michael has done in terms of leading the organization of Reform Alliance and taking a very difficult time in COVID, then doing this All-In Challenge just showed his innovation skills and entrepreneurial efforts in the social justice area." I asked Rubin whether he believes a social-justice pedigree is important for a major league owner to have currently."Here's what I'd say is, first of all, I think if you own a sports franchise, you have to recognize that you're a steward of a community asset and you're responsible for doing two things: winning championships and using the franchise to make the world a better place," he said.He added, however, that owners "shouldn't fake" social justice efforts if they don't care about the cause, which he said "a lot of owners" don't care about. "I think what you do has to be authentic. It's become in fashion to focus on these issues since the tragedy of George Floyd, but none of these are new issues," Rubin said. "You talk to anyone from Black America, they'll tell you these are normal days. The only thing that happened was someone caught a good video of it, and social media blew it up. That's the only difference. So I'd say, for an owner, if you care about these issues, you should make a difference. If you don't care about these issues, then focus on making a difference in something that you do care about."After coming up short as a finalist to purchase the NFL's Carolina Panthers in 2018, with a proposed ownership group that included Stephen Curry and Diddy - which Rubin says would have been a "great opportunity" for him at an hour and 10 minute commute from his home on the east coast - the chairman of Fanatics says a new bid for major league ownership isn't a main focus for him currently."I'm not waiting for any opportunity to come at me. I'd say, first and foremost, my kind of role as the primary owner of Fanatics is one that I wake up and go to bed excited for every day of the week. I love the business, and I think the opportunity we have ahead of us is enormous. And so that's my primary focus," he said. "I'm loving that I get to learn and grow every day. I'm doing that with Fanatics. I'm doing that for the Reform Alliance. I'm doing that with the Philadelphia Sixers. I'm doing that with my two daughters. So, I'm having a blast, and if something great comes along, incredible. If it doesn't, I'm not losing any sleep."

The dynamic career and life of Michael Rubin - billionaire team partner, friend of high-profile rappers, and criminal-justice reform advocate

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e58109dfee23d16685bac22-2400/shelby.jpg" alt="Shelby Ivey Christie" /><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/bronze_bombSHEL">Shelby Ivey Christie</a> is the former digital marketer and sales planner for Vogue. She is currently attending <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">New York University</a> where she is an M.A. candidate in the Costume Studies graduate program.</li><li>Christie focuses her studies on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prada-diversity-inclusion-settlement-nyc-human-rights-commission-experts-opinions-2020-2">intersection of race, culture, fashion, and politics,</a> and has written numerous <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelbyiveychristie/">articles regarding the topic</a>.</li><li>Online, she is known for her <a href="https://twitter.com/bronze_bombSHEL">Twitter threads</a> documenting black America's historical contributions to the costume and fashion industry. </li><li>In a sit-down interview with Business Insider, Christie spoke about growing up in North Carolina, attending a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beyonces-ode-to-hbcu-in-homecoming-2019-4">historically black university</a>, working in corporate Fashion America, and the impact black Americans have had on the fashion industry.</li><li>This is part of Business Insider's "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/thestyleseries">The Style Series</a>" highlighting fashion entrepreneurs and businesses across the globe.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><a href="https://twitter.com/bronze_bombSHEL">Shelby Ivey Christie</a> is a historian for the digital age. Online, she is known for her meticulous and informative Twitter threads which recount and document the impact black Americans have had on the fashion industry. This is, as she said, to make sure that black people's contributions are widely acknowledged and appreciated, especially when they are often overlooked. Her work has led to notable partnerships, including one with streaming service <a href="https://tidal.com/">Tidal</a> where she was able to interview legendary fashion designer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dapperdanharlem/?hl=en">Dapper Dan.</a> She also worked with Netflix for the <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626">release of Beyoncé's 2019 "Homecoming" special</a>. But Christie isn't just "Twitter famous" - she's also an academic. Hailing from North Carolina, she attended <a href="https://www.ncat.edu/">North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University</a> where she obtained a B.A in race, class, and culture. She then moved on to work for some of the biggest corporate names in fashion, including a stint at Vogue as a digital marketing &amp; sales planner. She is now an M.A. candidate at New York University for costume studies. In a sit-down interview with Business Insider, Christie<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-and-inclusion-change-company-culture-for-black-women-2020-2"> spoke about diversity in the fashion industry</a>, what has changed, and how far we still have to go. "I was born in New York."I was born in New York and I lived there until I was three. And then my mom and I moved to Denver, Colorado. I grew up [in Denver] until I was 10, then I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. Growing up, I [would] bounce between wanting to be an attorney and a fashion designer. I did always love fashion ... [but] by the time I got to high school, [my passion] was more journalism."I went to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University."I entered as a fashion merchandising student. But at the time, I had a boyfriend who went to another school and he was a history major, and I loved talking to him about black history. I was like, 'wow, I think I really love that.' So I secretly snuck and changed my major. [But] I was confused [about my career path] - I took two years off from school [and] in that time, I moved back to New York to intern for [W magazine] and I took community college classes online ... I went back to college [at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University] when I was 21. I entered as a race, class, and culture major.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e581096fee23d16312f995b-427/image0.jpeg" alt="Shelby Ivey Christie" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />"When I came [back] into fashion in 2015 I moved to New York <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrity-stylist-julia-von-boehm-fashion-empire-career-interview-2020-2">to intern for InStyle magazine</a>."That was right around [the time] where you were hearing whispers about magazines starting to close. I love fashion and I thought, 'okay the editorial sounds like it's not going to be doing so hot.' But at time, the fashion closet was right around the corner from the marketing director. I thought, 'oh, what does he do?' and someone said 'Oh, he's a marketing director.' And I knew about marketing as a business corporate function, but I never knew these corporate roles [overlapped] into fashion ... I knew there was more job security there. "I think a lot of fashion operates on white nepotism."A lot of the people who occupied that space, they haven't had to maybe work their way all the way up, or they come from a certain kind of pedigree or background. So they probably haven't spent a lot of time around people of color. You're kind of the one person who they interact with throughout their day who isn't white. So there's a lot of pressure that comes with that from a performance perspective, always having that extra gaze on you. And then just the rigor of the work.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e5810a6fee23d0a80683108-571/photo credit andre gray .jpeg" alt="Shelby Ivey Christie" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />"Vogue was some of the most challenging work I've ever done in my life."In the last two years since I left [Vogue], I started the Instagram Stories and the Twitter threads, and they've taken off. I was only able to do that because I was no longer at Vogue - because I didn't technically work in fashion anymore, so I could be more vocal.[Eventually] I wanted to figure out, 'okay, I love fashion, I want an advanced degree. What does that look like for someone who doesn't want to go into design?' "I'm a fashion historian and a curator, but I do wear many hats."I do like to always put myself out there for opportunities where I'd be leading discussions with brands. I just partnered with <a href="https://tidal.com/">Tidal</a>, sitting down with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dapperdanharlem/?hl=en">Dapper Dan</a> for them ... And I partnered with <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626">Netflix to do a thread about Beyoncé's "Homecoming" costumes.</a> I try to make myself available for all different opportunities ... I want to be the authority as far as costume and fashion goes from a cultural, societal, and race perspective.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e581097fee23d0a7c5a9566-640/photo credit tidal.jpeg" alt="Shelby Ivey Christie" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />"I want [people] to understand that fashion is not just this frivolous thing."It's not just clothing. It's political. Textiles can tell us a story about how [the] economy [is doing] ... I think the more people learn about [fashion and its history], the more it can help inform decisions and help people make better ones and understand the time that we're living in. Just from observing fashion."Black people have given so much flavor, color, and depth to the fashion landscape that it would not be there without us."Look at <a href="http://www.thebootcave.com/">Bootsy Collins</a> and the funk movement. And all of the camp that they injected into the atmosphere and changed the way black masculinity was perceived. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bustarhymes/">Busta Rhymes</a>, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/andre-3000-isnt-rapping-anymore-928207/">Andre 3000</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/liluzivert/">Lil Uzi Vert</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/youngthug?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Young Thug</a> - the work that they've done to change how masculinity is viewed in hip-hop from a straight cis male perspective. And we go all the way back - <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/meet-three-black-designers-who-were-hidden-figures-fashion-industry-n974671">Zelda Wynn Valdes designed the Playboy bunny costume</a>, [which was] the standard of sexy. <img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e582f74fee23d2d717618aa-2400/gettyimages-2687033.jpg" alt="Rappers Big Boi (L) and Ande 3000 (R) of the iconic rap duo OutKast" />"[Black people have] always been in awe of luxury, because that's where we come from, right?"Luxury is a symbol of rising from the ashes in a sense. We've caught up to our [white] counterparts in the 400 years [<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">since American slavery ended</a>]. It took them centuries to do what we have done. The concept of "<a href="http://thesaltcollective.org/why-black-people-dress-up-for-church/">Sunday's best</a>" is something that is true to African American culture - and that thread has stayed with us. We love to get dressed. Fashion is both societal and political ... For many, many years, black women wore uniforms - something that was made in a farm, or a housekeeper uniform. And so when you finally did not have to be in your uniform, or you were finally off work on Sunday - you were with your own family after being with the white family you worked for all week, and you finally get to Sunday, and you can wear your own clothes."The black elite definitely dresses differently [than they did in the past]."Furs would have been a mile marker, white gloves, different kinds of hats. Now we're less focused on the pearls; it's moreso about individuality. Affluent black people have moved away from those key indicators in wanting to homogenize into white society. Now we're at a point where to be wealthy is to be able to express yourself in the truest, purest form. Wearing a black designer on a red carpet or to a very importance appearance ... that is more like a show of power and allegiance for upwardly mobile black people.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e581096fee23d107341be76-427/lead imagephoto credit jaelin collier .jpeg" alt="Shelby Ivey Christie" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />"I don't think <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/virgil-abloh-says-streetwear-is-going-to-die-next-year-2019-12">streetwear is dead."</a>There's been a dramatic shift back to feminine silhouettes. But I don't think that means that streetwear is dead; I think people are observing that [shift] and they might think, okay, there definitely is a shift away from [streetwear] as far as, you know, whole collections dedicated to streetwear. But I don't think it will ever be dead because it's ingrained in a black way of dressing, and one can't be divorced from the other.When you see a sneaker, whether that is on a runway or out on the street, that comes from a certain kind of hip hop culture. There's culture in that, whether it's intentional or not."I'm passionate about making sure that our footprint [and] black people's contributions to the fashion landscape are documented and more widely known."As a black woman who used to work in fashion, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/raf-simons-tapped-as-prada-co-creative-director-2020-2">we revered the YSL, we revered the Dior</a> - and I love [Dior] and I love his legacy - but we so often don't hear or see anybody who looks like us, even though they existed.My hope is that people who are passionate about fashion - even people who are already more familiar with the black footprint and the black impact of fashion - know that we were there in the beginning and that there are all these great fashion pioneers who were black too.

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