Good Steward Apparel Owner Al Howard Is Changing The Culture Through Stewardship
Durham, NC – Being a ‘Good Steward’ means the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. For Al Howard, CEO of Good Steward Apparel and lead designer of Good Steward Apparel Brands, his life’s goal is to leave this world empty…to exhaust all the gifts, vision, talents, and influence entrusted to him to change and guide the culture.
“I was born in Durham NC but grew up in lots of different cities in various shelters. I bounced from family member to family member. While my childhood was particularly rough at times, my family did impress upon me a legacy of stewardship,” Howard explains. “Heaven does not need anything, so I want to use all I have been blessed with here on earth.”
However before Al Howard could change the culture, he had to be willing to make some changes.
“When the Holy Spirit initially gave me the idea of Good Steward Apparel, I sat on it for a year. I had never wanted to be an entrepreneur and the idea was scary. We had 2 kids and I had a good job working as an Occupational Therapy Assistant. However, God pressed upon me a sense of urgency, and it definitely was not the optimal time to start. Our 3rd child was coming. However, I knew it was important to be obedient to what God was telling me to do. I worked day and night. Even while we were still in the hospital after having our 3rd child and when we got home. I would take care of my family and work on my business in-between,” says Al.
Al Howard, known to his friends and family as Al the Great, has always had a love for fashion… “even when I searched through donated clothing to find something to wear as a child in the shelter. When I lived with my grandparents, I shared clothing with my cousins and sometimes acquired my grandfather’s clothes to repurpose to be different. Fashion is not just clothing. It’s an expression of mood, identity, individualism, a vehicle for change, and a way that I could express my newfound bold faith at the time.”
Good Steward Apparel was born in 2015 and is currently based in Durham, NC. The company is comprised of three brands: Good Steward Apparel, No Robots, and Be Athletics Unlimited, each offering causal and unique fashion pieces that are a mix of classic edginess and modesty.
“Good Steward Apparel is not just a clothing brand or a company,” Al Howard – fashion designer, business owner, and advocate – affirms. “We are a movement that invokes stewardship. We want you to feel great wearing our premium brands and feel amazing in knowing that you are also helping others when you purchase. When you buy our products we use a portion of the proceeds to invest back into local communities through two Good Apparel initiatives; Stewardship 101 and Young Mogul University. Together, we can change the culture of selfishness, self-gratification, and self-edification. A culture of ‘me’ to a culture of ‘we’.”
Stewardship 101 uses grassroots strategies to coach, service, influence, and encourage others to become more “intentional” with their service toward others. Young Mogul University is committed to closing the minority wealth and achievement gap by empowering the next generation of young moguls with successful entrepreneurship and business practices.
Good Steward Apparel’s logo, which Al says was revealed to him, is a dove, “a universal symbol, but most importantly, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It is where the initial idea came from and every other idea, design, and brand expansion after came from. The dove serves as a representation of how God took me from a kid in the homeless shelter with a love of fashion in donated clothing to a maker of fashion with 3 clothing brands.”
Al started out just selling t-shirts and hats. Customers and supporters called Good Steward Apparel a t-shirt brand, but Al knew God showed him a clothing brand. He started to do countless research on brands, always looking for new vendors and manufacturers s to make the processes better and to have better offerings. He became part of numerous networking and business groups in which people imparted knowledge and motivation. He studied his bible to keep his spiritual hearing open to hear what God was saying.
Along the journey, Al has partnered with 2 like-minded entrepreneurs: Nia Lawson and Jonas Richards.
“They brought their ideas, passion, faith, and helped push me to be a better business owner. Together, we are Good Steward Apparel Brands. Doing our part to change the culture.”
Learn more about Al Howard and Good Steward Apparel, visit goodstewardapparel.com/ or on social media:
facebook.com/GoodStewardApparel
facebook.com/NoRobotsStreetwear
facebook.com/BeAthleticsUnlimited
instagram.com/goodstewardapparel/ I
nstagram.com/norobotsstreetwear/
instagram.com/beathleticsunlimited/
Check out more fashions from Good Steward Apparel (all photos courtesy of Good Steward Apparel):
