1987 Juices started out as a hobby for Lakeasha Brown, who said that when she started juicing, it served as an outlet to step away from her job.
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“I started [the company] as a way to make incorporating all-natural nutrition into your lifestyle, convenient, and accessible,” she says. “I started juicing for myself back in 2013 as an alternative to medicine to assist with my skin, gut, and anxiety. Like many people working corporate, I had little to no time to consistently think about my nutrition due to always being on the go.”
To help alleviate stress, she began teaching workout classes on the weekends and keeping herself healthy through juicing. Brown told Travel Noire in an interview that during her time teaching Zumba, Kickboxing, and HIIT workouts, her students noticed how juicing was transforming Brown’s body from the inside out and started asking for it.
It became so popular in demand, that Brown decided to take a leap of faith.
She moved away from her job and transitioned over to pursuing her juice business to launch her company, 1987 Juices: an all-natural, organic cold-pressed juice company.
In an interview with Travel Noire, Brown discusses more about starting a successful business from the ground up.
Travel Noire: Can you tell our readers more about what inspired you to start 1987 Juices?
Brown: 1987 Juices was inspired by necessity. I healed myself of chronic acne, and digestive issues brought on by stress and my body not properly breaking down certain foods (bread, pasta, etc.). I put myself on a raw food diet and only drank fresh juice and alkaline water for 30 days. The impact it had on my body motivated both my family, friends, and students. That then inspired me to create the same experience for them.
To start, 1987 Juices was called “LaKeashaFit,” the same name that I go by as a wellness coach. It was my way of introducing myself to new students and for labeling my bottles in class. It has since grown into a community of creatives looking to start and maintain a healthier lifestyle.
I never thought about selling the juices, so I remember just putting them in gallons and putting my name across the front of the bottles.
But then it started growing, and people started coming to my classes just for the juices, and people kept saying, “okay, you got to take this seriously and turn it into a real business.”
The name 1987 is the year I was born, but it really is just a message to our customers that every year is your year.
Our tagline is “where creatives come to sit and sweat.” We provide juicing options such as one to three and five-day cleanses and wellness programs for our community.
Travel Noire: What does 1987 Juices look like 10 years from now?
Brown: In 10 years, I hope we have 87ers across the country, incorporating our juices into their daily health routine. My goal is to make juicing habitual, accessible and relevant to the on-the-go creatives and entrepreneurs who have taken the time to put their health first, all while leveraging our juices to do so. Juicing shouldn’t be a luxury; it should be habitual in resetting both the mind and body.
Travel Noire: How have you all transitioned your business during the pandemic?
We’ve opened up our production space to offer nationwide shipping. The goal is to create a space for 87ers across the country to be able to experience our product and what it can do for their lifestyle.
As a nation, we’ve adjusted by pivoting, creating, and maintaining the best way we know-how. Often times, we forget to incorporate the proper nutrition due to time. During the pandemic, the goal is to help make it easier to get our proper servings of fruit and veggies in without having to adjust our schedules or go out of our way to do it.
You can find 1987 Juices on Instagram or check out the online store by clicking here.