Chris Printup, founder of streetwear brand Born X Raised, which has become a fixture on the Los Angeles fashion scene, died Wednesday morning at a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was 42 years old and lived in Los Angeles.
He died of his injuries in a car accident in Albuquerque on Sunday, a brand representative confirmed by phone.
Mr. Printup, known as Spanto, formed Born X Raised with Alex Erdmann, known as 2Tone. The brand was quick to attract the city’s creative class to events like the Born X Raised Sadie Hawkins Winter Formal.
“Born x Raised is like a love letter to the town I once grew up in that’s now gone,” said Mr. Printup, who was a Native American, on an episode of The Canvas: Los Angeles, a documentary series about the city artist. “That’s me. That’s what I always will be. And if you don’t like it, we don’t care.”
Mr. Printup was born on June 6, 1981 in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice to Butch Mudbone of the Seneca Nation and Cheryl Printup of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. As a child, he experienced poverty, cycling in and out of juvenile detention center and worked as a drug dealer, he said in the documentary. Eventually he ended up in a maximum security prison, he said, where he decided to start Born X Raised.
The label, Mr Printup said in the documentary, which took place partly on the set of a promotional shoot, was born out of a desire to “shed a light on the Los Angeles of his childhood,” particularly Venice before it was gentrified, which he called the Opposite of Tinseltown described. “I had an idea, a feeling and an emotion and made something out of it,” he said, adding that he never studied fashion design or dreamed of attending fashion events in Europe. “There was no plan, there was no business model.”
He then described his life, beginning with the difficulties of growing up in poverty and ending with the changes in his hometown. He worked as a handyman in the Local 33 sheet metal workers’ union, he said, adding that he founded the brand to “channel my frustration and anger.” In 2013, he and his partner began selling the line at Union, a clothing store in Los Angeles.
Shortly after founding the brand, Mr. Printup was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent chemotherapy and lost 100 pounds and his hair, he wrote in a post on the brand’s Instagram in December. He worked throughout the treatment.
“What I’m trying to say is that life is tough for everyone and I want everyone to know that it’s OK to feel discouraged or feel like life has given you too many handicaps. “You’re going to be fine and everything is getting better,” Mr. Printup said, adding that he’s been in remission.
Mr. Erdmann, the business partner, described Mr. Printup as a “tireless” force of nature who is gregarious and loved by everyone he works with. He said Mr Printup was in Albuquerque for a traditional Native American ceremony and that his father, Mr Mudbone, had also died in a car accident just two months earlier after a similar ceremony. Born X Raised is likely to hold an event in honor of Mr Printup, Mr Erdmann said over the phone on Wednesday.
“We won’t give up. We won’t stop telling this story. We’re just going to change the way we do it because we don’t have him anymore,” said Mr. Erdmann. Of Mr Printup, he added: “Every other day he had time to do things he would do.”
In addition to his mother, Mr. Printup is survived by his wife, Anna Printup; a daughter, Marilyn A. Printup; two sons, David R. Garcia and Carter Printup Woodpecker; three stepbrothers, Cai Printup, Casey Printup and Willie Mudbone; a stepsister, Zyanya Mudbone; and his stepmother Caroline Mudbone, a brand rep said.
In The Canvas, Mr. Printup remarked that he had always had self-doubts, but persevered. “When will they realize I’m not good at this?” he said. “I think anyone who is intelligent asks themselves questions.”
Christine Hauser contributed to the reporting.