Blended Designs Seeks to Create Inclusive Products

When doing research on character backpacks for her son, she found that of the 670 character backpacks on the market only two percent featured a child or character of color. With her new brand, Blended Designs, Casey Kelley and her husband plan to change that percentage and encourage youth of color to be their best, academic selves. 

“If you’re not seeing positive images of yourself, how do you know that you can be successful?” said Kelley. “Unfortunately with the way the media portrays people of color, what you tend to see in order to be successful is to be in entertainment, in music, or an athlete.”

Blended Designs has created 10 characters that represent what the brand stands for. Kelley explained that in each of their bios, they possess academic qualities such as being a good student, and having goals of graduating college. 

“The overall goal of our company, our mission is to empower young people, and also to create more first generation college students,” stated Kelley. “If you’re a first generation college student, you’re able to break the cycle of poverty and create more [economic] wealth in the community.” 

Blended Designs sells all types of empowering bags and accessories. They have an assortment of HBCU themed travel bags, fanny packs, and more. But their pride and joy, and best selling line, is their 1954 back-to-school line. The name 1954 come from the date of the Brown v. Board of Education court decision (May 17, 1954) which desegregated schools. “Just like they desegregated schools, we’re desegregating the back-to-school category and bringing more diversity into a very very segmented category.” 

But their brand goes far beyond just backpacks, school supplies, and bags. They’re on a mission to uplift the community. The simple fact is, being represented in a positive light, such as on backpacks, has strong correlation with self-esteem of the youth of color.

“The kids, when they see the backpack, they’re like ‘mommy, look!’ like they see themselves,” explained Kelley. “They’re not used to seeing themselves of anyone that looks like them or that is receptive of them and their families.” She told us that every time she sells a backpack, she hands it right to the kid, and immediately they hug the bag.

Kelley said that so many women – mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc. – see the backpacks and buy them just to have them. They are overjoyed to see the representation because it has never been done before. “People are not buying our backpacks for school,” explained Kelley, “they’re buying our backpacks for empowerment to be used in school. So it doesn’t matter that it’s their child, they’re buying it from a community standpoint.