“There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things and I feel like if you’re gonna step into someone else home you should probably take your shoes off instead of being so brazen about it.” (Printup C, Words Uncaged TV, 2018)
“Spanto was born on June 6, 1981 and raised within the Oakwood section of Venice inside the same house his great-grandparents purchased in the 1930s. As Spanto detailed in an interview with Throwing Fits, his great-grandmother was from the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona and his great-grandfather hailed from the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation in New York. They were among many Native Americans sent to federal boarding schools designed to eradicate their Indigenous heritage. They migrated to Venice less than 30 years after real estate developer Abbot Kinney opened the neighborhood in 1905. Spanto’s hometown, Oakwood aka “Ghost Town,” was a working-class neighborhood; originally inhabited by African American employees and migrant workers hired by Kinney to construct a neighborhood that the developer envisioned to be the “Coney Island of the Pacific.”
During the party, Spanto walked Rodriguez to the trunk of his car to give him one of those first T-shirts, which featured a Native American head and a slogan reading “Gentrification is Genocide”—inspired by “Relocation is Genocide” graffiti Spanto saw when visiting his father at the Big Mountain Navajo Rez in Arizona. Spanto’s first graphic aptly expressed the discontent Venice natives like Rodriguez felt about the gentrification of their neighborhood, which also drew in the brand’s co-founder, 2Tone.” (Takanashi, 2023)
What Spanto asked himself that I thought was so powerful was how can I connect two things I am passionate about to tell our stories? He said how him and his friends talk about how the brand is endless because it is their lives and they will only continue to share it with the world.
“Born x Raised’s Spanto Honors His Late Father With a New Levi’s Collab
Spanto—found himself in Memphis shortly after his father, Butch, died earlier this year. “The day after he passed, I flew to his home and was laying down in his bedroom, looking at all of his things and drawing inspiration from the iconography of his personal belongings,” says Spanto. When he came across one of his dad’s old jackets, the Indigenous streetwear designer had an idea: What if he used clothes to pay tribute to his father? “I found this Levi’s denim jacket that he used to wear a lot when I was a kid and immediately knew I wanted to dedicate a project to my father’s memory,” says Spanto.
On Friday that idea will become a reality when Born x Raised releases its new collaboration with Levi’s, honoring the memory of Butch through style. Spanto put his own unique take on the heritage denim label’s key pieces, such as the classic 501 jean, the denim Trucker jacket, and graphic tees. All the pieces—which range from $180 for the jeans to $325 for the jacket—are screen-printed with a special graphic print that represents Butch “watching over him.” The Trucker jacket also includes the phrase “Born x Raised, In Loving Memory” embroidered onto the back. “Everything is a result of [Butch’s] life and teachings, and it’s all a spin-off of his actions,” says Spanto.
He adds that designing the new assortment evoked a sense of community within him. “I was able to travel back to our homelands [in Arizona], visit the home he grew up in, and visit with relatives,” says Spanto. “With this project, I’ve been able to learn a lot more about myself and my family’s history.” He hopes anyone who wears a new piece from the line can feel that special spirit.” (Allaire, 2023)
Chris “Spanto” Printup was a trailblazer in the streetwear industry when it came to speaking up on the issues of gentrification in Venice and the displacement of the Indigenous community. He felt that through clothing he could create a voice for the two communities. Because although he has an Indigenous background he was speaking up for locals and their families generations before, that lived in Venice their wholes lives and were forced to move because of false gang injunctions. Venice has a history that is slowly disappearing as the people cannot afford to live there either. Spanto’s uses his brand, Born x Raised as a platform to give prominence for issues marginalized communities face.
Sources: Takanashi, L. (2023, September 13). Spanto Forever: How Chris “Spanto” Printup Became A Streetwear Folk Hero. https://www.complex.com/style/a/lei-takanashi/chris-spanto-printup-streetwear-legacy
Allaire, C. (2023, June 5). Born x Raised’s Spanto Honors His Late Father With a New Levi’s Collab. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/born-x-raised-levis-collaboration-indigenous-style
Printup, C. Words Uncaged TV. (2018, June 21). The War For Home [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqXkTJre1sU
