Birmingham’s Laseter Brothers and the Business of Making Black History

Kwamell Laseter, left, works to screen print a T-shirt as his brother Raymond, right, watches. The pair are co-owners of Voltron Printing, a full-service contract screen printing shop and clothing store in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)
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By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times

Black History. Baseball. Business. For Raymond Laseter all three of his loves were on display last week at the Negro Southern League Museum in downtown Birmingham.

Voltron Printing, a business owned by Raymond and his brother Kwamell introduced Legacy Threads, a collection that pays tribute to the Southern Negro Baseball League during a one-day-only Black History Month pop up shop at the Museum.

“Baseball was my first love,” Raymond told The Birmingham Times. “It was something that I wanted to do and I always told my brother that I wanted to do something with Major League Baseball. When I got [to Brimingham], everybody was, ‘like have you been to the Negro Southern League Museum?’”

His love for Black History Month and baseball and the clothing business all blossomed into something much larger, he said.

“Negro League Baseball is my baseball. Those are my teams. Those are my people,” he said. “At first, we just wanted to do a pop up for Black History Month, but it has [grown] into something so beautiful. We want to give more visibility on Black baseball. Everybody wears hats, everyone loves clothes. I think the best way to show that is through dope fashion.”

Located at 5505 1st Ave. N. Birmingham, AL 35212 in Woodlawn, Voltron is a full-service contract screen printing shop that opened last September and specializes in building clothing brands.

The brothers were born and raised on the Southside of Chicago and for more than 25 years that’s where they sharpened their skills working with brands like Lifted Research Group (LRG), American streetwear brand, Akademiks Clothing, and Nike.

“Entrepreneurship was instilled in us since we came out of the womb,” Raymond said. “My grandfather was very adamant not working for anybody. He migrated from Kentucky, so his thing was like ‘fine something that you own because then you have financial freedom.’”

Kwamell Laseter co-owner of Voltron Printing, works at his screen printing shop and clothing store in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

“Where We Need To Be”

Leaving Chicago for Alabama was not a hard decision for Raymond, 45 and Kwamell, 44,

Kwamell was the first to make his way to Alabama with his wife, Anshaunee, during the COVID pandemic and said he did not have any idea what he was going to do in the Magic City. “I just knew that I left a [clothing] business back home and I wanted to bring it here. I wanted to bring the same energy here,” he said.

So Kwamell set out to find where he could do it and how.

“What I see in Birmingham, when it comes down to the culture, community, fashion, and the arts, it is here,” he said. “It’s just that it’s almost hidden in pockets. I feel like the music, fashion, and art are what actually pushes and ignites change.”

Raymond remembered working from home in Chicago during 2020 pandemic when he and his brother took a step back from the manufacturing business.

“We were looking for locations in the city and we just couldn’t find anything that we liked,” he said. “We took a sabbatical for a year or two from the industry to pivot and figure out what we wanted to do. We decided we should look to Birmingham. After my brother and his family moved down here, he used to call me and said, ‘I think this is where we need to be.’”

Raymond Laseter, co-owner of Voltron Printing, a full-service contract screen printing shop and clothing store in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

Although he moved to the Magic City permanently five months ago, Raymond said he is very familiar with Birmingham.

“The spirit brought us (Raymond and Kwamell) down here. It’s like a re-migration,” he said. “A lot of us moved from the South to the North. It was always something in us that was forcing us back to the South.”

Raymond said the Voltron is not in the city “just to make a dime. I’m here to build a legacy. I’m here to help and this is just my vessel just to do it. Voltron isn’t just me and my brother’s. It’s this community. If the community needs an event space to host coffee, let’s do it. Whatever is positive to change the narrative, that is what Voltron is about.”

Kwamell, left, and Raymond Laseter, are co-owners of Voltron Printing, a full-service contract screen printing shop and clothing store in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

“High End Fashion”

Since childhood Raymond said he felt fashion is where he needed to be. “I first got into fashion because of church,” he explained.

“I had a family friend from church name Willie Hayes. He used to sew Chaka Khan’s stuff. He did the Thompson Community Singers’ robes. One summer he was like, ‘Raymond, you should let me teach you how to sew.’ I said, ‘sewing was for girls.’ He was like ‘no man, you can be the only dude in a class full of girls.’ I said, ‘hey I like that.’ From 15 years old to 20 years old, he (Willie Hayes) was my mentor.

“I wanted to go into high end fashion. That was my dream. I never saw a lot of us in it, and the only thing close enough for me to touch that was tangible was streetwear stores in our neighborhood. The owner of Leaders 1354 (streetwear brand) use to own a store called Crew Sports. Another friend of mine used to own a store called The Success. I started going to the stores and sitting in them … They started becoming my teachers. They would let me come in the back of the stockrooms and see how they bought clothes. I was able to see the way people are dressed and different color ways.”

As the youngest of the two, Kwamell said he found his footing in fashion by following his brother. “I just walked in the trail that he blazed,” said Kwamell, adding, “I’ve pretty much done every sector in fashion, from sales, to distribution, to production. I’ve even helped with design. There’s not much about the fashion industry that I am not proficient in.”

For the Laseter brothers, Woodlawn is more than just a home for their business, it’s a community. “We call Voltron Printing a cultural hub. It’s about allowing the culture, from music art, or fashion to come here and be almost like an incubator. One thing in always say is that I don’t gate-keep. If you need my connections, if you need my skill, if you need my talent , we are here to give it to you,” said Raymond.

“Chicago raised me, “Birmingham accepted me,” Raymond said. “Coming from a big city, you don’t know it, until you leave that there is a different type of energy. It’s definitely a different type of energy being in Birmingham that I’m really like.”

Voltron Printing is located at 5505 1st Ave N Birmingham, AL 35212 in Woodlawn. Email: sales@voltronprintingcom.

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