By Demetrius Dillard
The global health crisis the nation is facing has particularly devastated Black businesses disproportionately worse than others. However, many Black creatives have had the fortune of using this difficult time to start businesses that largely inspire and impact their communities.
Nic King, a businessman based in Darien, recently began what quite possibly is the only Black owned cereal company in the United States.
Some of the principles that define King’s life purpose are establishing a legacy for family and challenging others to do the unthinkable. Those values were some of what inspired the Stamford native to create a unique cereal brand named “Proud Puffs,” a product of Legacy Cereal Brand, LLC.
Growing up, King was exposed to Black business ownership first-hand as he got to witness his parents operate businesses. His mother ran a daycare, and his father had a carpet company, he said.
“Pursuing entrepreneurship has kind of been a big thing for me. My background as far as family — my mom and my dad both own their own business so it was kind of like a no-brainer for me to be in the same space,” King said, adding what he felt is the importance of Black businesses in today’s contentious social and political climate.
“Regardless of – systemically – what is being done to us in the Black and brown community, we can still overcome that. So that space of ownership and something that you can actually pass down generationally is huge right now.”
King was an avid cereal eater growing up – from Honey Smacks, to Pops, to Corn Flakes, to Raisin Bran Crunch in recent years. Developing a cereal with packaging that had positive Black representation was a central focus. On every Proud Puffs cereal box are images of King’s sisters, nieces, nephews, and son.
“I thought about how great it would feel for a young black boy or girl to be walking down the cereal aisle and to see kids on a box of cereal that looks just like them,” King wrote on his cereal’s website.
“The whole box has meaning from the characters to a two-parent black household, to the positive affirmations on the back of the box, as well as the facts on the side about influential black figures that helped shape our culture.”
Proud Puffs, which launched about a month ago, has garnered extensive media attention and support through social media platforms. Though this is not King’s first entrepreneurial venture, it is his primary focus at the moment, he said.
Several months back, King searched for Black-owned cereal brands and didn’t find any. He is still gathering data to ensure there are no other Black-owned cereals besides Proud Puffs, but in the meantime is embracing the opportunity to be a model of cultural representation in a $35 billion cereal industry.
“When i researched that and I realized there was a lack of representation in that space, and just knowing that ‘wow, I can do so much to represent a culture.’”
Proud Puffs are chocolate-flavored cereal puffs that appear in the shape of fists (symbol of Black power and solidarity) and is the first of what may be many products of the Legacy Cereal Brand. King said he has three more cereal products in mind but wants to focus on the steady development of Proud Puffs for now.
King has seen success in marketing his business through social media, which was also used for crowdfunding to mass produce the cereal. He hopes Proud Puffs makes it to grocery shelves one day but is content with conducting business through online sales for the time being.
Though Proud Puffs is Black-owned with intentional, pro-Black imagery and messaging, King hopes to reach all cultures with the overarching theme that ‘representation matters.’
With the positive feedback the King has received thus far, his business is on pace to make an immense impact in the coming months and years.
“I have tons of different ideas that I plan on rolling out within the next two years to make a really big impact,” King said. “I’m just getting started, but I’m excited about the journey overall.”
Updates can be found on Proud Puffs’ Instagram page and orders and/or donations can be placed on its website.
