Born x Raised Co-Founder Chris Printup Dies In Car Accident
Born x Raised co-founder Chris Printup, aka Spanto, died in a tragic car accident on Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
In order to honour and defend their Venice, California home, Spanto and Alex “2Tone” Erdmann founded the well-known Born x Raised brand ten years ago.
As shown in the video below, one of their earlier designs said, “Gentrification Is Genocide.” Numerous L.A. sports teams, including the Lakers, Dodgers, Kings, Rams, and LAFC, have collaborated with prominent brands including New Era, Converse, Babylon, and New Era.
In 2013, one month after launching Born x Raised, Spanto received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He celebrated his cancer-free status in 2018. In a grateful Instagram post from just six months ago, he reflected on his life and health journey.
“I just want to take a moment to take a long, hard look back and what has happened over the last ten years,” he wrote in December 2022. “I think if you would take a peek at my instagram and see the highlight reel and think it might’ve been easy – but.. from where ive started (like in the early years of my life).. growing up my dad was homeless and my mom was mentally ill – I spent a lot of time in and out of the system from an early age from central juvenile hall to many years spent in the county – I decided to create a clothing brand while the last time I was incarcerated – I cooked up bxr while I was in the hole at supermax.” He went on to say that “from 2013 until now I’ve been battling cancer, did 4 years of chemo lost 100 lbs and my hair numerous times – what I’m getting at is life is hard for everyone and I want anyone to know, that if you’re feeling discouraged or like life has given you too many handicaps – ITS OKAY. you’re going to be fine things will get better.”
Spanto continued, “I’m cancer free, I’m not incarcerated and my family has a house to live in and I want to look back at all that has happened and say THANK YOU – because just 5 years ago I was in the worst place in life I’ve ever been and just this last week I’ve been in Vogue, NY Times and a bunch of other places that I am extremely grateful for. If you would have told me 10 years ago I would be hosting a dinner with Nike on the roof of Soho house for 100 of my friends I would’ve never believed you. So I again want to look at all the beautiful gifts life has given me and enjoy all of it.”
A profile published in December 2017 mentioned his cancer battle’s early stages. “2Tone would bring his laptop to the hospital, where he and Spanto would discuss concepts from the comfort of the latter’s hospital room. At one point, they even shot an early lookbook there. Even though chemo’s “injections of hot lava” devastated his body and mind, working on Born x Raised with 2Tone helped Spanto maintain his sanity, according to HighSnobiety’s Kevin Cordon.
2Tone would later recall this as the hardest part of getting Born x Raised going. “It was just running [as] fast as possible doing whatever it took to make shit pop,” the co-founder shared in 2016. “Fast, dangerous, and dirty. It’s still the same now.”
