The Buy Black program is part of an action plan by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Devils and Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, that commits $20 million to combat systemic racism.
David Gould, the chief diversity and impact officer for the Devils and HBSE, said the genesis of the program spawned from internal conversations following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020.
"Our main partners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, sort of charged some of us on staff by saying, 'We want to be part of the solution, we want to do something meaningful … we don't want to just write a check and that be it,'" Gould said.
"So, we went through a planning process and what we came up with was, 'We're not a racial and social justice organization, that's not what we're built to do. But we do a lot of things really well and let's think about those things and how we can leverage them and position that in a way that targets the disparities that have been created as a result of systemic racism.'"
They came up with marketing and helping Black-owned businesses which have historically faced challenges that have gotten worse in the pandemic.
Research by the University of California, Santa Cruz discovered that 41 percent of Black business owners nationwide -- some 440,000 -- had shuttered their companies between February and April 2020 compared to 17 percent of white-owned businesses.
"So, we said, 'Why don't we work with some local Black owned businesses and offer these marketing services free of charge that are worth hundreds and thousands of dollars?'" Gould said.
Gould said the Devils are doing more than just marketing. Its partnership staff is helping forge business connections between some the team's partners and the Newark Paper Company and Flows Tasty Treats.
The Devils are also clients. They buy Flows toasted corn and peanut mix snack and sell it at Prudential Center concessions.
"I have supplied the folks there, this is like the fifth order, and it keeps increasing," Dennis said.
Dirty Soles Footwear Group, a Newark-based Black-owned design studio that makes custom sneakers, was among the Buy Black program's 175 applicants but wasn't selected.
But the Devils kept Dirty Soles on file and hired it to create a special New Jersey Devils x adidas "Third Jersey" sneaker to celebrate the launch of the organization's first-ever third jersey that players will wear 13 times this season, beginning Dec. 8 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
A pair of sneakers will be auctioned starting Dec. 8 with the proceeds helping to fund the Devils Youth Foundation.