Kobe Harris, a college student at Loyola Chicago, saw how dirty his surroundings were. He claims that trash was “literally everywhere.”
“Living in a major city has its advantages, but one of the negatives I continually noticed was the amount of waste everywhere. According to his website, rubbish can be found even in seemingly clean buildings, streets, and parks.
Inspired by the pollution in his city, he founded a personal care brand using simple ingredients and compostable packaging.
He tells Bulk Apothecary that he founded the company in his undergraduate dorm room in Chicago, Illinois. “I wanted to design a better-for-you product that doesn’t require you to guess what substances are in your products and why they’re beneficial. With my love of bees and the outdoors, Kobees was off to the races.”
His company, KOBEE’S, is now known for its lip balms, lip scrubs, and cuticle butters. As an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys hiking, outdoors, and bees, selecting the ideal name for his organization was not difficult.
“I was researching packaging and bees at my university around the time the company was founded. When we were all hanging out one night, one of my friends randomly said, ‘Why not Kobees?’ And idea just stayed; I started developing labels and items the next day.”
Essentially, his goods are all-natural and handmade, and his most popular beeswax lip balm contains only four ingredients: beeswax, sunflower seed oil, mango butter, and coconut oil.
“KOBEE’S Lip Balm has all-natural ingredients, is cruelty-free, handcrafted, and, most importantly, is totally compostable. “We want anyone who supports KOBEE’S to know that they are making a difference for the environment,” the business writes on its website.
Indeed, with KOBEE’S, Harris hopes to help clean up the environment, including lakes and oceans, plant trees to decrease deforestation, and offer cleaner air for future generations. And he accomplishes this by donating a portion of KOBEE’S sales to charities that support his values.
“We know that almost everything on Earth is comprised of plastic, so it can be difficult to know where to begin on your sustainable journey. With a simple transition to Kobee’s balm, you can already make a difference. “One balm is all it takes,” Harris claims.
Harris is one of the few black-owned businesses making a difference in the environmental area, resolving several environmental issues through better use of sustainable products and resources.
A 2022 analysis by First Insight and the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that consumers are demanding more sustainable items.
It discovered that consumers of all generations (from Baby Boomers to Generation Z) want to spend more on sustainable products. Two years ago, only 58 percent of customers of all ages were willing to pay more for sustainable alternatives.
“Every purchase you make supports not only your initiative to start living more sustainable but it gives back as well,” Harris said of the items he sells. “When you buy a Kobee’s product, a little portion of the profit goes toward ocean cleanup, tree restoration, and air pollution remediation. By supporting Kobee’s, you are also helping these three worthy causes.”