Willow Smith is one of the few people in the world who could make a pair of socks look dope.
The child prodigy has recently found herself a muse for Stance sock company's latest sock wear campaign, which lead to her collaborating with them on her own line of socks.
To be clear, Stance's socks aren't anything like the socks you would find on a Walmart shelf. They're a durable brand of foot coverings that merges bold colors and artistic flavor with technical innovation, to create eye catching designs. In other words, they won't shrink or shrivel in the dryer, and they'll keep you warm while making you look fly.
If it seems like the collaboration was right up Willow's alley, then you'd be correct in that assumption. Willow had this to say to Vogue about what collaborating with Stance meant to her:
“Designing socks is very interesting because they are items of clothing that aren’t seen a lot. For me, socks can emit energy through you—even if nobody sees them. They have a message on them that radiates through your entire being . . . at least for me they do.I wanted to work with Stance because the company’s creative values resonated with me, and we both have the creative mind-set of forward thinking and pushing toward the future. I choose the projects that are going to push unity and expression into the world in the most intelligent and artistic way possible.
Willow's "Miss Dazey" collection features 12 sock designs in an array of pastel colors, trippy patterns, stripes, and geometric designs that appears to have an LA-based design inspiration. But according to Willow, the designs reach far beyond fashion and the City of Angels, to outer space. She had this to say to Vogue about how the world around us has impacted her designs,
“I just learned that each time we see a full moon, it’s one-quarter of a centimeter farther away from Earth!” she says. “That just inspires me to show the world that crazy shifts and happenings aren’t just occurring on Earth. Things are going on in all corners of the universe.”
To promote her Miss Dazey collection, Willow flexed her modeling chops in Stance's Punks & Poets video campaign, which shows the brown eyed beauty surrounded by flowers, hats, and a hot beat while she rocks out with her socks out.
The Punks & Poets video is truly amazing. It's so easy to get lost in it, that you could actually forget that she's modeling socks. Now that's a fashion impact!
Stance was also pleased to work with the wunderkind fashion rebel. The company had this to say about collaborating with Willow for their new collection, which is slated to drop at the end of the year.
“It’s an honor to work with Willow, she has such a strong creative point of view and her unique take on the world illuminates everything around her," said Candy Harris, senior vice president of the women's division of Stance. "She epitomizes our Uncommon Thread mantra and will undoubtedly play a role in inspiring the next generation of creative visionaries.”
Willow joins Rihanna, James Harden, and Big Sean, who were once muses for Stance, and were also featured in their Punks & Poets video series.
Take a look at Willow's Punks & Poets video campaign below, and catch more of her amazing photos in our gallery.
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Shaina, who has held roles at companies including ESPN and the NBA and has taught strategic sports marketing at esteemed institutions like Georgetown University, officially launched the network as a business in 2019. Since then, it’s hosted high-impact events like the Toast to Black Sports luncheon during Super Bowl weekend and built student chapters at both HBCUs and PWIs to pipeline underrepresented talent into the industry.
She shared with xoNecole more on the early days of launch, the turning point that made her realize she had a platform with real influence, and what keeps her going. With 17 years of experience across agencies, teams, and networks, Shaina is proof that grassroots efforts can turn into transformative change—especially when backed by passion, vision, and community.
xoNecole: How did the Minorities In Sports Business Network come to life?
Shaina Wiel: So, I just started the group chat and added a few of my friends who work in the industry as well. We were all kind of in New York at the same time working in the sports space… Very quickly over the next few years, the chat grew to over 800 individuals within the chat. Then, we had over 1000 individuals.
xoN: What was your ‘aha’ moment to expand?
SW: I noticed a bunch of employees from the Big Four leagues— NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB— within my group chat had all started posting roles. And when I asked, 'What is going on? Why are there so many posting jobs within the group chat?' I was told that HR had sent a note to their Black Employee Resource Group and had told them they had heard about this group chat.
That's when I realized, ‘Okay, this is more than, you know, my little friend group chat. Let's see if we can turn this into an actual business. And then in summer, 2019 I decided to do this full time.
Brittany Dacoff
xoN: What was the transition like growing the group chat into a full platform offering membership perks like access to job listings, networking opportunities and more?
SW: I was working at an agency, and the agency had lost their account. It was the account that I was working on. So they were like, you know, we can try to find another or we can separate. I decided to leave. And then, as we know, COVID happened, which actually was a blessing in disguise.
I was able to really focus on building the vision with this group chat and turning it into an actual company, seeing what works, seeing things from an events and a relationship standpoint, in terms of like, how we were interacting with different partners from different companies, and actually turning that into something substantial that could last.
xoN: Speaking of events, talk more about what inspired the Toast to Black Sports event you held earlier this year during the Super Bowl. Why is it important?
SW: This was the second year. There are so many dope people of color, specifically Black people, who work in this industry who are just doing the work behind the scenes. They’re not getting their flowers. I took it upon myself to say, I want to celebrate you. We’ve honored Kimberly Fields, Esq. of the NFL, Kevin Warren, CEO of the Chicago Bears, sports executive Jason Wright, sports and entertainment vet Carmen Green-Wilson, and NFL coach Jennifer King—all of whom have made major contributions to the industry.
xoN: What do you enjoy most about your role today?
SW: I think the work that I enjoy the most, honestly, is with our college students. We have 12 chapters across different colleges and universities. We help eliminate some of the barriers a lot of us had coming out of college. What I love seeing is that we have students who are now looking at roles they never even thought of.
xoN: What’s a bit of career advice for women breaking into the sports industry?
SW: I would say, build relationships. That’s really it: Build authentic relationships. Make sure it's a give and take and that you're supporting other people because once you're building those relationships, then it's a lot easier to either get into a space or to have those conversations when you want to do something.
And always be willing and ready to do the work.
Featured image by Hosea Johnson