On this last day of Black Business Month, News 12 introduces you to two Yonkers-based clothing manufacturers.

Mecca Ern and Walter Johnson started their company "3 Fingers Manufacturing" after hitting some hard times during the pandemic.

Both were out of work and had the idea to look into selling T-shirts.

But after some COVID-19 related manufacturing delays - their first launch didn't go as planned.

That's when they decided to invest in themselves and manufacture their own clothing line. "I didn't  plan on doing it, but it just fell in line. COVID hit, the layoffs, looking for a way to make it happen - it fell in place,” says Ern.

Being a fairly new business comes with some challenges as Ern and Johnson continue to learn and grow the business.

But one advantage of being a smaller startup? It allows them to help out the community. "We do it for the people, like people who can't go to big companies because they only want one shirt done," says Johnson.