Meet Jessica Hinesman | Founder and CEO of Eshé Apparel. Co

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Hinesman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When starting my own business, I felt that it wasn’t up to me. I felt like I had a greater calling to pursue something I loved doing. I enjoy learning about others’ cultures and being creative. By turning that into a business, I allow myself to do what I love as an occupation. Helping my community through art and outreach was very important to me and I wanted to guide my community to learn about their own heritage through seeing my apparel.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
This apparel line is more than just your run of the mill clothing items, it’s to help educate and erode the systematic racism that we see in our communities, schools, and on social media. Most kids don’t have access to textbooks let alone texts that tell the realisms of history. We aren’t just talking about slavery here, were talking about all of the discredited African-Americans in history: inventors, actors, singers, engineers, chemist, billionaires and the list goes on.

While in school, I noticed this disparity by founding a group called A.L.A.A.I. We were the adolescent league for Afrikan- American Improvement, dedicated to teaching and educating all children about themselves.

I wanted to try something bigger and make apparel to showcase and teach who we are in a real light, but this is no easy feat. One of my main supporters of this venture was my father when I first mentioned it in high school, but he unfortunately passed due to complications with his health, further negating any funds I had saved for this venture.

That alone was my push to begin this journey of creating the life he never knew being a kid growing up in the mid 1950s. Time goes on and changes and so do we, so why are we still allowing this miseducation to run rampant in our schools?

Eshé Apparel.Co is dedicated to educating all walks of life about Our Story, Our history, and Our legacy.

We operate out of homestead and produce handmade apparel, business development services, and hope to continue showcasing our ideas for investors, patrons, and customers alike.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Atlanta best spots to go are always the places with art! Inman park and Little Five Points were huge contributors to my creativity and I always will recommend there as the place to go because of how rich in Atlanta’s history it is. From Zesto’s or Thai Five, we’re stopping at the best pizza, and food in general. I am a spiritual being so I enjoy checking out the meta physical shops and little strip malls filled with artists and their works. There’s bound to be something to enjoy because it’s a plethora of beautiful art, African shops, creatives, and thrifting.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Recognizing that I have had amazing mentorship up to this point and continuing to this day, Restore More founders Claudine Miles and Kimberlie Milton, have been major players in motivation and helping me see out my goals. I attribute all of my knowing about business models, presentation, and consultation to them. Because without these powerful women in business, I wouldn’t have any guidance.

Website: https://esheapparel.store

Instagram: https://instagram.com/esheapparel.co?utm_medium=copy_link

Twitter: https://twitter.com/esheapparelco

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esheapparelco/

Image Credits
@marjani.photo @esheapparel.co