Un/Dn Laqr, the nail polish brand founded in 2021 by Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly), has brought a new partner on board.
Jalen Green, who has taken an equity stake in the business of an undisclosed size, is the brand’s first-ever ambassador. In addition to investing, he will also design his own collections for the brand, the first of which is launching this year.
“Style is a big part of who I am and how I express myself,” Green said in an email. “I started to wear nail polish on my pinky finger around the age of 18. There wasn’t a reason behind me wearing nail polish… it was just something that I did organically, and it soon started to trend, especially in the basketball world.”
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Baker started ideating the brand based on his own experience wearing nail polish. “He didn’t really identify with any of the brands in [nail] at the time,” said Candy Harris, chief executive officer and cofounder of Un/Dn. “He decided the best course of action was to build his own brand.”
To that end, the customers skew between 30 and 40 percent male. “We’re very much an all-gender brand, but we do put a lot of men at the forefront,” Harris said. “It’s based on self-expression and the way we bring a bit of edge and attitude to everything, from our imagery to our copy — it has just made it more approachable to a broader audience.”
Thinking outside of the box allowed Harris to look across culture for a brand ambassador. “An athlete makes so much sense for the brand, when you look on the influence that sports have had on culture overall,” she said. “Sports, fashion and music have always been intertwined, and Jalen, like many of the rising stars in the NBA, are very young. He’d been painting his nails since he was in high school.”
That also meshes well with Harris’ goal of broadening the brand’s reach. “You’re going to see us venture into new distribution, we’re going to approach wholesale retail for the first time,” she said. “We’ll be getting into new audience groups, and having them discover the brand in new ways and through new ambassadors. We will have multiple new faces come into the brand this year, and Jalen is the first.”