Meet Christopher Patire | Entrepreneur & Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christopher Patire and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I believe risk-taking is the number one thing you have to do in order to get ahead in life. If you stay comfortable and you stay doing the same thing over and over and over nothing will ever grow. The minute you make a bet on yourself you can’t loose! As long as you stay hungry, stay focused and don’t ever take your foot off the pedal, there is no limit in what you could achieve.

I used to work full time at t-mobile while building my Crispy brand. Literally all day long until 3 am everyday. Then one day I decided to take the biggest risk I ever did. I picked up and moved from NJ to Miami and left my full time income at T-Mobile to work on Crispy full time. I didn’t know anyone here but with the help of my hood friend Noel who showed me around the area and let me work in his shop, it was the best decision I ever made. When you have no other choice but to succeed and there is no plan B, your body goes into survival mode. You start making things happen that wouldn’t have if you still were comfortable around the environment you’re used to.

I believe a new environment, new people and new things could spark a new hunger that you never knew you had inside of you. My first month in Miami was our biggest sales month ever as we hit 28K in sales in one month. Is it a coincidence that the minute I decided to take a risk and make a change happened to be the best month ever? Only god knows. But I will tell you no successful entrepreneur ever made it big without taking a risk!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As far as I could remember, I’ve always been spreading positive and motivational messages. I love speaking to groups of people and getting everyone around me fired up. It’s in my blood. I don’t know how it came about but it’s always been like that. I love to see people succeed. And to be able to speak with the passion I have is an awesome feeling.

With my art and work, I am driven and laser focused. I will not let anyone or anything deter me from my ideas and dreams. CrisP the brand actually has a very profound meaning. The letter C means courage, R stands for relentless, i stands for integrity, S stand for self love and P stands for persistent. I believe when you put these together this is exactly how I love and what I preach every day! Every piece that I create has a positive meaning behind it. Growing up I was always into sports as well and playing basketball all the time. I had big dreams and basketball and sports always held a special place in my heart. So when I create pieces, I like to incorporate that atheistic feel to them as well just because I know how hard athletes bait their butts everyday to their craft. It’s just crazy that now I have really good friends in the NBA and NFL that love the brand and wear it to some of the games. It’s just the best feeling in the world knowing that your brand resonates with so many people.

The journey to where I am now was definitely one of the hardest yet rewarding times I’ve ever been though. When I first started CrisP 2 years ago it was my first time ever having my own business so at first I was lost and learning as the days went. But I always had the little feeling in the back of my head that I had to keep going and quitting was not an option. The end of my first year with the brand I made a whopping $325 total sales! Now keep in mind I was spending thousands of dollars on inventory, website creation, machines I didn’t even end up using, all sorts of money. And to end the year with $325 it could’ve been easily time to throw the towel in. But I believe in the compound of effect and the power of the universe. What you constantly say and do and think you will attract. So I didn’t give up. I kept pushing through the tough financial times. I kept telling everybody Crispy will be huge and athletes and celebrities will be wearing some Crispy fits soon! There were a lot of people who believed in me and then you always get those haters who do whatever they can to bring you down. You have to block out the noise and keep going

Fast forward to this past year and Crispy hit 6 figures of sales in one year. So when someone tells me it can’t be don’t I laugh and tell them to start believing in yourself! Whatever you want out of life is possible!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first place I would take my best friend is to the shop so we could get him crispy and fresh with some gear for the day! After that we would head down to Brickell. Brickell has to be my favorite parts of the city. It gives me back home vibes in New York City but with beautiful weather, beautiful people, and palm trees! There’s so much to do and the restaurants are top notch! After soaking in the energy of Brickell I would head out to South beach and get a little sun by the beach while having one of my favorite places wet willies! Once we’re done with south beach, we head to my second favorite part of Miami Wynwood. Now if we’re talking about art and cool vibes Wynwood is where it’s at! I love the vibe. And love all of the clubs. This place is for creatives like myself! For the week I would split these places up but for the most part those are my top spots in the city!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I definitely want to take this time out to shout out my son Christopher II. When he came into my life 8 years ago it is nothing but joy and happiness everyday! The love you have for a child is unexplainable. He pushes me to work harder! He’s such a smart kid that he understands the working of the business and actually gave me the idea to create a kids brand, called Crispy Kidz which is going to be releasing soon. Everything I’m doing and building will last forever and be a legacy to pass on to generations to come

Website: https://www.crispy-nyc.com/

Instagram: @bigdealcrispy  @crispy_nyc