Preston Davis is one of this generation’s most exciting young African-American entrepreneurs. Like so many of his peers, he has a keen ability to hone-in on the trends that are defining his industry right now while devising a unique approach to their problems, creating something great in the process. His company, Young Professionals, offers unique, limited edition fashion products that blur the line between professional utility and popular fashion.
Davis formed Young Professionals with the help of his friends Zachary Kor and Sam Rosen, and with guidance from his mentor Marquett Burton. He was able to get his company up and running in less than a year, bringing his extraordinary idea to fruition quickly and efficiently. Davis was excited to get his product to the market because he knew that people would want to have their own backpack-briefcase hybrid.
Davis’s Young Professionals brand sells hybrid backpack briefcases that look professional and stylish, but at a reasonable price. Many products like this are sold at a luxury price, often leaving them out of reach to those who would benefit most from having this type of professional accessory. These people are still at the early stages of their careers where this type of expense might be a luxury they cannot afford.
However, the backpack/briefcase product made by Young Professionals fills a unique gap in the market that makes it a winning product. The design is sleek, made of faux leather, and comes in black, making it a product that is always in fashion. The ability for users to swap between the two modes with ease is also a significant draw; the retracting straps allow it to look great as both a backpack and a briefcase.
The goal of Young Professionals is to bridge the gap between high-end designer fashion and streetwear. Recent trends in the fashion industry have seen collectors take an interest in apparel outside of the legacy luxury brands. People are willing to pay top dollar for clothing and accessories that look modern and cool, and Young Professionals brings that market to a broader scale.
Young Professionals primarily targets working professionals between the ages of 20 and 30. Davis came up with the idea for the product while working in a luxury store, so he came to it with an understanding of what makes luxury fashion so appealing, but also with a unique perceptiveness and eye for the practicality that makes his products functional and exciting. As a young professional himself, Davis knows exactly what others are looking for in their fashion.
Davis hails from Oakland, California, and believes that this product is uniquely fit for the culture of the Bay Area. It’s an area full of young people looking to enter the professional arena, so the city is at the intersection of the formal demands of the business world and the stylistic leanings of today’s youth. San Francisco is known to be a backpack city, so this product will fit right in. But Davis does not believe that the market for this product stops in the Golden City—there are young professionals in every part of the country, and they, too, will benefit from having a product like this.
For now, Young Professionals has produced 250 of their backpack-briefcase hybrids, but they plan to revolutionize the fashion industry with their approach. There is an intense demand for limited edition products, and Young Professionals is entering the market at just the right time to fulfill this need. Even though this product is primarily being used by professionals in these urban centers, the appeal of these ideas stretches far beyond those regions.
It will be exciting to see where Davis continues from here. Like the best products in the fashion industry, the Young Professionals backpack-briefcase hybrid is practical. It fills a need, but is also stylish and something that people will want to use. This blend of utility and fashionability has allowed the product to see much success so far, and will continue to draw interest towards it. As Young Professionals expands the availability of its signature product and begins to offer additional products, movers and shakers in the professional world should look to the company to fill their needs for unique and stylish professional goods.
