Milano’s player Jeff Brooks is launching his own clothing brand, called Take Off Milano. With his first t-shirt « We’re all black when the lights go out », Brooks is shedding light on social issues such as racism.
Jeff Brooks : “Our brand is about the empowerment of the people, embracing their ambitions and awareness of social issues going on while mixing with excellent quality of apparel. We are sure people will enjoy our products and love what we have come up with. Our first collection is dropping soon.
We started with racism because currently so much is going on in the world. Not only in USA, where many people either don’t want to talk about it or ignore it. My wife and brother in law are Italians and they feel that enough is enough, in America, in Europe, everywhere. Any other players throughout Europe that have either played with me or against me, or we interacted off the floor, know that this is an ultra important issue for me being an African American and coming where I come from.”
Jeff comes from the city of Louisville, KY, a place that has seen the case of Breonna Taylor and many other stories that we never hear, such as children being bullied at school or individuals not getting the job they desire, all because of their “color”. Jeff is convinced racism comes in many different instances and for him and countless others, enough is enough. Jeff believes racism is stemmed from hate and that is a pandemic in itself. “In 2020, we should not have this problem”, he adds.
But it doesn’t stop there. No matter where you are from – China, USA, Serbia, Spain, Italy, Jeff warns that it can happen to anyone. That was the message on his first social issue T-shirt: when it is all said and done, there is no such thing as color, we are all people, we just originate from different places on this Earth. Jeff explains: “Color objectifies people and changes us into things, not human beings. No one should be generalized by their “color”, you are either a good person or you aren’t.”
Jeff asked his teammates to take par in this movement, to be leaders in the time of need when all of Europe should be aware of not just an American problem, but a global one. All Jeff’s teammates agreed to take part, no questions asked. They know that being professional basketball players on the highest stage Europe, they can use their platforms to spread messages against racism to the masses.
“I again thank my teammates for helping to spread this important message and I’m happy we all share the same ideals. Moving forward, we want people to understand that our brand is dope, fashionable and we want people to feel proud when they wear it. They will all be part of what we call THE TAKEOFF“, Jeff concludes.
The first collection will be available to purchase on takeoffmilan.com in the next to weeks !
