Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Yudelka Salcedo . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Yudelka , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The Yubrand came to life during the pandemic. I was working from home at the time and had plenty of time to think. I have always a had a passion for art and kids fashion, so I had an idea that became a reality. I had purchased all of my equipment and got to work designing and started off doing sublimation and print tee designs for kids. I saw that this was a industry that was in high demand with not much urban appeal. I am a mother of two and saw that there was not much representation out there for kids of color. I also wrote and illustrated two children’s books for that very reason, bridging the gap of black culture in design and art. I was so excited to see the response from mothers who were so thankful to have something their kids could see as their own in fashion and books. Seeing how this will shape the vision of our culture for years to come makes what I do all worthwhile.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Yubrand came to life during the pandemic. I was working from home at the time and had plenty of time to think. I have always a had a passion for art and kids fashion, so I had an idea that became a reality. I had purchased all of my equipment and got to work designing and started off doing sublimation and print tee designs for kids. I saw that this was a industry that was in high demand with not much urban appeal. I am a mother of two and saw that there was not much representation out there for kids of color. I also wrote and illustrated two children’s books for that very reason, bridging the gap of black culture in design and art. I was so excited to see the response from mothers who were so thankful to have something their kids could see as their own in fashion and books. Seeing how this will shape the vision of our culture for years to come makes what I do all worthwhile.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was 23 years old, starting my own pet apparel line — created a Kickstarter campaign but did not have a photographer or videographer to capture a quality video to fully launch my campaign. It was then that I realized that crowdfunding takes so much more effort than you realize. I also realized that business requires hard work. I had to take a step back from the reality driver seat, and start over with a better plan/idea.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I will say that in business, there are good times and bad times. I remember just starting out, I purchased a great deal of material that I later determined that I did not need to do tshirt printing for The Yubrand. I later came up with better ideas to use print on demand services and utilize my network among other resources. Going through this journey as an entrepreneur has taught me a lot about myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: Theyubrand.com
• Instagram: @theyubrand

Image Credits
Sheree Swann