The Folklore Group, a Black-owned e-commerce company, has partnered with Nordstrom to introduce wholesale fashion and lifestyle brands founded by Black, Latinx, Asian, and other people of colour using its Folklore Connect platform.

For Folklore, which launched in 2018 and provides software for more than 100 brands to manage and scale their wholesale businesses and retailers, the Nordstrom partnership is one of the largest retailers with which it has partnered.

“As a lifelong Nordstrom customer, I have long admired and shopped their incredible curation of products, and I'm excited to be teaming up with the legacy retailer in their ongoing commitment to supplier diversity,” Amira Rasool, founder and CEO of The Folklore Group. “The Folklore Connect partnership with Nordstrom will now allow their incredible buying team to connect with even more diverse brands from around the world and give customers an experience to shop fantastic brands they could not easily access online or in stores.”

For Nordstrom, the partnership represents a piece of its $500 million commitment to sell clothing and products from brands owned, operated, or designed by Black and Latinx individuals by 2025.

The company also signed the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an initiative created to encourage retailers and major corporations to dedicate 15 per cent of their shelf space to Black-owned and Black-led businesses. Nordstrom customers can access more than 250 brands, a statement reads.

“Nordstrom has a long history of curating new and emerging brands to offer an ever evolving and relevant product assortment for our customers. They expect that we deliver a sense of inspiration and discovery with high-quality products from diverse brands,” Brian Roberts, vice president of brand programs at Nordstrom, said in a statement. “We are grateful for our partnership with The Folklore Group, which provides us with additional resources to discover and connect with new-to-Nordstrom brands in support of our ambitions to address marketplace equity.”