How Dove Men+Care is taking action against racial discrimination

Justin Drummond, Execz Suit Company President and CEO, joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Dove Men+Care partnering with the NCAA for Off-Court Champs and the mentorship to its provides to today’s student-athletes.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: March Madness gets underway on Thursday. And during the tournament this year, Dove Men Care is launching a new initiative to celebrate Black men on and off the court. And here to talk about this is one business owner. He's also a former athlete that Dove is spotlighting. We have Justin Drummond. He is the president and CEO of Execz Suit Company.

Justin, it's great to have you on Yahoo Finance. The goal of this initiative that Dove is rolling out is to help athletes be successful in their careers, so once they get beyond the world of sports. How do you hope to help today's student athletes? And what do you think is most necessary at this point?

JUSTIN DRUMMOND: Yeah, so thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. So you know, the goal is, ultimately, to be an example. You know, for myself, being in the same shoes that a lot of our student athletes are in today, I pride myself on being that example.

And then with Dove Men Plus Care, with their initiative over the last 10 years of trying to get men to embrace taking care of themselves and those around them, they also are moving toward this year to do more of the commit to care now, which is allowing our Black athletes to really see some of the success stories of people that have been in their shoes. I was living in basketball, playing an NIT tournament literally five years ago. So I'm literally able to speak off these experiences and really provide the information. And it's a great avenue that we're able to do this through Dove Men Plus Care with their Commit to Care Now initiative.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Did you approach them? Did they approach you? And then, how do we go forward? How does the mentoring work from this day next?

JUSTIN DRUMMOND: Right. So the great-- so, you know, more so talking about, let's say, the landscape that they operate in right now, you know, I was an athlete. So if it's far as, you know, all of the travel and everything, how to really transform your perspective to know that things are a lot bigger than basketball, you know, after your four years, and you must more so make that investment while you're in school. So I would read books, connect with people outside of my teammates, you know, people that I can learn about other professions and really expand my horizons.

So with this initiative, us off-court champs are ultimately the example of people that have put that into practice and had re-success in coming down to more so provide that blueprint to grab and pull others up.

SEANA SMITH: Justin, I want to ask you about your company, Execz Suit. You're the president and CEO of it. How has business been during all COVID? And how have you navigated the very difficult last 12 months? Because from my understanding, you sell suits. And it's something that maybe people aren't wearing as much as they were, going back a year ago.

JUSTIN DRUMMOND: Yeah, so you know, a lot of businesses, of course, you know you had to come to that point where, all right, it's time to adjust. And the thing that I did, I have another company called Spark Seed, which is a cybersecurity company that sort of kind of helped that transition for where we had to kind of double down. In, let's say, financial, you know, things came into play.

But ultimately, we had truly come back. You know, our pricing and our quality has really brought a lot of our past customers back. And we're literally kind of gaining more customers based on our idea of really reaching athletes with comfortable, athletic formalwear. And that is something that we're moving forward because I'm 6' 4". I wear-- you know, I'm 220, so suits aren't normally made for me. Let's say you have to get them tailored, and that comes with a cost.

And our goal was to really, let's say, undercut that, ensure that, you know, people that look like me in my community of Black men have an opportunity to make that great first impression without having to, let's say, go into a financial hardship or having to think twice about if they're going to get their value. So-- and that was the, let's say, the mission that has helped a lot of customers come back, but also has helped us sustain a solid level to be able to take off in the years to come.

ADAM SHAPIRO: You have a master's degree in cybersecurity from the University of Maryland. And I was just curious. Part of the initiative that you're now involved with, when I was reading about it, it was about we tend to not see people as they are. We see the stereotypes that we were raised with. So I'm curious, how is this going to change? And looking at you, I don't know if many people would know you have a master's degree in cybersecurity. But how do people react when they first meet you if they don't know who you are?

JUSTIN DRUMMOND: Great question, and then great question. And that was one of the goals that I wanted to accomplish with doing this. Yes, I was a great baseball player, all conference. I had champion, I had rings and everything. But I saw my vision as bigger, that I needed to be an example for others who had great careers. But you know, all glitter is not gold, and I wanted to more so provide that blueprint with that.

So when I tell people, you know, I've got a cybersecurity company, I mean just even a company, you know, people are kind of blown away because I'm 6' 4, I walk around looking like an athlete. If you catch me with a basketball, I'm probably throwing moves that look like, oh, that guy's been somewhere. So, and it's really just to really combat the narrative that basketball is not life. Basketball is the means to the life that you want to live. And that's what I always took from it and has helped me to continue to chase knowledge and know that, you know, I control my horizons and I can go as high as high as I want. So, yeah.

SEANA SMITH: Justin, I want to ask you about the tournament that's getting under way here in just two days from now. Obviously, it's going to be different this year than it has been in any other year, as is everything that's happened almost in the past 12 months. But when you take a look at the tournament now, being a former player, what's that going to be like in a different environment? And what do you think we could expect over the next couple of weeks?

JUSTIN DRUMMOND: Well, I'm sure you're going to expect the excitement. There's going to be a lot of energy in one building, and I'm just wanting to-- I know the players are going to be great, what Dove Men Plus Care is putting on with some of this off-court champ stuff after the tournament is over.

So I'm looking forward to that and that initiative, but also looking forward to seeing how some of these mid-majors are performing. You know, I'm a mid-major baby. So, you know, the underdog is always the person I'm rooting for. So I'm liking a little Chicago on this one. I'm liking VCU to get pretty far. So I'm excited, but yeah, mid-majors, let's go. Let's create a Cinderella story this year.

SEANA SMITH: Well, if there's one tournament where you see a number of upsets, it certainly is March Madness. Justin Drummond, thanks so much for taking the time to join us, president and CEO of Execz Suit Company.