Challenging Racial and Social Inequities with Chase My Creations

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Photo: Chase My Creations - Facebook

Chloe Longmire - Chase My Creations

Chloe Longmire - Chase My Creations

Chase My Creations is a business whose mission is to challenge racial and social inequities through art and apparel. Owned by Chloe Longmire, the brand features a range of products including (but not limited to) shirts, hoodies, caps, totes, buttons and coffee mugs with messaging pertaining to topics such as Black History Month, Pride, racial justice and women’s empowerment. They refer to their supporters as Justice Chasers—folks who bring Chase My Creations’ messages into their spaces and get people talking.

Chloe Longmire launched Chase My Creations in 2018. Having both an artistic background and experience designing shirts, she wanted to create something that her daughter Chase—for whom the business is named—could see herself in. “I really had no choice but to do this work,” Longmire reflects. “Becoming a mother really prioritized what my daughter needs and deserves, and what she deserves is a strong example of a Black woman who is willing to stand up and not just do nothing.”

She began putting justice-oriented messages on more apparel and Chase My Creations eventually took off; Longmire is now a year and half into being a full-time entrepreneur. “It was very organic,” she adds. “This didn’t all happen on purpose but it’s definitely something I wouldn’t change.”

One of Chase My Creations’ first shirts read “White Silence is Violence,” made for a group of mothers after George Floyd’s murder. Longmire recalls feeling it was a moment of empowerment, saying, “People were really gravitating towards these messages and were willing to hear them. I can remember a time when you couldn’t say anything like that openly or you’d be shunned. Being a pretty candid and straightforward person myself and seeing what’s been happening to Black people all over the news and social media, I knew that this was something that I wanted to keep doing.”

Mission Driven

Chase My Creations’ intersectional, mission-driven nature has several facets: uplifting and centering the voices of Black people and People of Color, building awareness around systemic oppressions, and advocating solutions regarding these societal flaws. “Preserving and promoting the voices that need to be brought to the front but have typically been silenced or not feel so inclined to speak up is what our work speaks to,” Longmire elaborates. “Taking these topics and infusing them with art and culture is a powerful way to bring people together and start groundbreaking conversations.”

Longmire designs her apparel with an intentional and instinctive approach, often influenced by what is going on in the world at that given time. Chase My Creations’ most recent drop has been their “Ban Guns” shirt, released in March as a response to the influx of mass shootings across the US.

Additionally, Chase My Creations released a line of shirts and totes themed around women inspiring women earlier this year in collaboration with Milwaukee-based women’s association Professional Dimensions. “We want to bring women from all sectors together and move the needle,” Longmire said about the line’s goal. “I jumped at the chance when Lauren Feaster, the Professional Dimensions CEO, reached out wanting to collaborate in some way. We had so many shirts about women’s empowerment already, so it felt like a good fit.”

Chase My Creations is often found vending at street markets, festivals and pop-ups around Milwaukee. Their merchandise is also stocked at local businesses such as the Riverwest Co-Op, Spruced57, Swoon LLC and several Outpost Natural Foods locations.

In Suburbia

Longmire tried a different approach with events this summer and brought Chase My Creations more out into the suburbs in places like Oak Creek, Whitefish Bay, Franklin and Mequon. She explains, “We’ve done a lot of the same markets this year—and we still love them—but I didn’t want to get too saturated in one area. The whole mission means taking these messages far and wide, and we’re not always sure how people feel about what we’re doing in those neighborhoods, but that’s the point.”

They have been present at out of state events in Illinois and Minnesota as well, hoping to take it even farther next year.

Chase My Creations hopes to keep growing and start adding more employees as time goes on. Longmire does not have aspirations for a storefront; rather, she wants to have a sort of mobile store and take the brand on the road in the future. She also plans to do more mentorship opportunities. “I’ve been asked to speak at a couple schools, and kids have really loved hearing about who we are,” she said. “This generation of kids is the generation that’s going to really take us places, so that’s something I’d really like to focus on.”

On the biggest things she’s learned from running Chase My Creations, Longmire shares, “On the administrative side, bookkeeping is important. I’m very much an artist and a creative…but there’s so much that goes into the business side. 

I’m just now getting to the point where I’m able to have someone keep my books for me on a monthly basis. Trying to do it yourself as a small business owner seems like something you might not be able to handle at first, but it will help you out in the long run.”

She continues, “You have to stay true to your brand; this mission is very much a reflection of who I am as a person so it’s easy for me to do, but it can be challenging when you’re starting out and trying to find where your voice is and what that looks like. I went into all this thinking “if people like it, they like it and if they don’t, they don’t,” but I appreciate that people are realizing that we’ve got to do more, because what we’ve been doing has not been working.”

Chase My Creations will be at Bodega Fridays in Madison on July 21, Whitefish Bay Farmers Market on July 22 and 29, Oak Creek Farmers Market on July 29 and Black Arts Fest MKE on August 5. Visit their website at chasemycreations.com.