The Part of Black History I’m Living in Real Time. Inventing Is One Thing. This Is the Other.
Hi Hairbrella Family,
It's Black History Month, which is usually the time of year when I pop into your inbox to talk about the Black inventors who came before me—people whose ideas literally changed the world and the way we live, often without the credit or compensation they deserved.
I still want to honor them.
But this year, I’m also living a piece of what they went through. 😣
Over the last three months, a good bit of my time has been spent doing something I never romanticized when I dreamed up Hairbrella: assessing the cost, impact, and game plan for taking legal action against a company that has copied the Hairbrella Classic Rain Hat - my first patented invention - scene for scene.
I'm talking colorways, construction, silhouette. A remix this is not.
The company, KISS Products, Inc., is not Black-owned. But they absolutely market to the Black community, leveraging familiar faces and influencers to sell into the same aisles and online spaces we’ve been grinding to build in. And while I don’t knock anyone’s hustle, it hit me in a very specific way:
This is how it’s always happened.
For generations, Black folks have had incredible ideas, documented and undocumented, that were quietly picked up, repackaged, and scaled by people with more resources and more distribution. The world moved on. The origin story, and the originator, disappeared.
So as much as I’d love to pretend this is some wild anomaly… it isn’t. It’s historically inevitable.
For about a year, I told myself I’d just outwork them.
Beat them with guerrilla marketing. Keep innovating and dare them to keep up with Hairbrella.
And I did that. But I never felt settled.
Toward the end of last year, I made a different decision:
I decided I was going to fight.
So as much as I’d love to pretend this is some wild anomaly… it isn’t. It’s historically inevitable.
And to be honest, a part of me always expected this. If you’re creating something truly useful and no one ever tries to copy it, that might actually be the bigger red flag. 👀
For about a year, I told myself I’d just outwork them.
Beat them with guerrilla marketing. Keep innovating and dare them to keep up with Hairbrella.
And I did that. But I never felt settled.
Toward the end of last year, I made a different decision:
I decided I was going to fight.
Not because litigation is fun (it’s not), or affordable (definitely not), or because I suddenly have time to spare (definitely not). I decided to fight because, in this Black History Month especially, I’m reminded that I’m not just doing this for me. 💯
I'm doing it for every inventor who didn’t have the opportunity or resources to defend their ideas. And I’m doing it to send a very clear message:
We don’t just have great ideas.
Joy, because the very fact that we’re here means Hairbrella is real, valuable, and worth copying.
Purpose, because I believe one of the reasons I’m walking through this now is so I can help other founders navigate it later. 💯
We don’t just have great ideas.
We defend them.
I won’t get into every legal detail, but here’s what I can share:
- We’ve been working with counsel on a plan to enforce our patent rights against KISS.
- Their copy of the Hairbrella Classic is now in hundreds of CVS stores and online.
- And we are moving forward, intentionally and strategically, to protect what we built.
Joy, because the very fact that we’re here means Hairbrella is real, valuable, and worth copying.
Purpose, because I believe one of the reasons I’m walking through this now is so I can help other founders navigate it later. 💯
This will be another tool in my arsenal- not just in my journey to wealth, but in my mission to ensure 10+ other millionaires come out of this ecosystem, too. Founders who don’t just invent, but actually get to keep the value of what they create, and can invest in the next generation of innovators.
Thank you for being part of this story while it’s still being written. We are not “there” yet. We’re very much mid-climb. But we are climbing - and we are protecting every rung we’ve earned.
Fearless in any forecast,
Tracey
Founder & CEO, Hairbrella
P.S. So many of you have already sent photos from store aisles, screenshots from online listings, and even dropped honest reviews on Amazon telling the real story of this product and this company. I can’t tell you how much that means. It educates people about the history behind Hairbrella and the mission we’re on - and it reminds me we’re not fighting this alone. Let's make history!
Fearless in any forecast,
Tracey
Founder & CEO, Hairbrella
P.S. So many of you have already sent photos from store aisles, screenshots from online listings, and even dropped honest reviews on Amazon telling the real story of this product and this company. I can’t tell you how much that means. It educates people about the history behind Hairbrella and the mission we’re on - and it reminds me we’re not fighting this alone. Let's make history!
