This interview transcript has been edited. To hear the full interview, listen to the discussion with Alex (he/him):
Meet Braxton Fleming (he/him), CEO of Stealth Bros & Co, a company that specializes in luxury dopp kits for home or travel that can hold your medical supplies, such as gender-affirming hormone therapy. The kits were created by Braxton, a Black trans man and nurse who understood from personal experience how important it is to have medication, needles, and syringes on hand. We sat down with Braxton to talk about what inspired him to create Stealth Bros & Co; why health and safety go hand-in-hand for trans people; and finding his way in the transmasculine community.
As a special gift, when you sign up on the Stealth Bros & Co website, you’ll get 10% off the whole store. It’s free to sign up!
Plume: Can you tell us a bit about your gender journey and how that led to you forming Stealth Bros & Co?
Braxton: Honestly, I was a very late bloomer. I was 27 years old when I realized I was trans. I had been dating a woman for seven years prior to that, living a “lesbian lifestyle,” but I always felt something was missing. I felt I had to portray a role and live my life a certain type of way. And once I did come across a transgender individual online, I just went so deep into it. And I just was obsessing over videos and things like that.
Meanwhile, I had been a licensed practical nurse for seven years. While I was watching the videos [of other transmasculine people], I was lowkey taking assessments on everybody and realizing that people had their needles everywhere, it wasn’t safe. When I started my medical transition I realized that I, too, had the same issue with where I needed to place these needles and syringes.And I was like, you know what, one day I’m going to create my own bag—just talking shit.
Maybe eight months later, I was just in a really bad place in my life and I felt I wasn’t doing anything. I was happy about where I was going, but I wasn’t happy, and I wanted to be part of the community more, but I didn’t know how. I was like, I’m just going to create these bags.
Plume: In the current landscape of owning and claiming our transness and identities, there’s still very much a reality of violence in our communities. How do you strike the fine line between being seen and surviving?
Braxton: Yeah, this is hard because I feel it’s not even just my trans identity, but just being a person of color too. I’ve already lived with that—even though I always tell everybody that I had a very fortunate upbringing and I didn’t live in those types of environments where I was subjected to being discriminated against. I had a very privileged life, but at the same time, I’m very aware of the violence that is happening.
I’ve just been fortunate enough to live a life where I can just move freely. And I try not to really worry about that, because violence can happen to you no matter what. People can not like you because you’re too little or too big. I try to just not put too much focus on that aspect of my trans identity or my Blackness or whatever you want to call it. I just feel you just have to live day by day. I mean, you’re going to die from something. I mean, I don’t want to die because I’m Black and trans, but.
Shit happens. I just try to stay positive, move forward.
Plume: What’s the origin of the company name? Where did that come from?
Braxton: Stealth Bros & Co pretty much came from the idea of keeping your items stealth because so many people are judged based off of who they are. There’s a lot of LGBTQIA+-owned businesses that like to promote rainbows and everything, and I wanted to create something that was personal to me because that’s just not the type of person I am. I wanted the items to be stealth. I wanted you to be able to move about freely with those items. And then the “Bros” is obviously the foundation of the company, because it’s the brotherhood that really brought me to this. The “& Co” is all the allied companies that we keep, such as the other communities that we are trying to tap into and serve as well.
Plume: What kind of impact do you wish to have, as a trans company?
Braxton: I just feel reciprocation is key to life. So many transgender individuals pushed me on my own personal path, which led me to founding the company and to my deeper self. The impact I want to have is making people know that I care about them and that I’m not doing this just because I just want to build a business. I do this because I genuinely want to help people, and I really care about people’s safety altogether. I just want people to know that I see you, I hear you, I feel you, and I want to make products that help serve you.
Plume: Can you talk more about the Stealth Bros Support Fund and how that contributes to your overall vision?
Braxton: I felt it was necessary for me to give back to those who helped me get my top surgery and things like that. I felt it was necessary to have that part of the business just so buyers know that you are spending to help me and my family, but you also are spending to help somebody else and their family as well. I want people to know that this is a family-based business. Even though I want to go corporate-big, at the end of the day, I want us to be a tight knit family. And I know that keeping that at the core will keep that vision clear.
I want to get out to the community. There’s so much out here for every single one of us that there’s no reason for us not to uplift each other and to help each other out. I’m all for it.
Plume: Who is one person that inspired you on your journey?
Braxton: I’ve had many influencers in the trans community. At the same time, I have really great parents who are both entrepreneurs. They’re always a huge inspiration, but ultimately my walk with God and my faith and my spirituality, that is my main inspiration. That’s what gets me going every day. If I have to give it to one person, I give it to God.
