Chris Pfaff grew up in Akron Ohio and moved to Los Angeles when he graduated High School. Chris’s second cousin is Rob Dyrdek (another incredible entrepreneur) and Christ got the opportunity to be a character on Rob’s show. Building off that, in 2009 Chris decided to launch his own clothing brand called “Young & Reckless”. He started this idea with no experience in business and fashion but still had enough faith in his product to launch the company. This brand has grown into one of the largest clothing brand in the nation and has distribution in more than 3,000 stores.
In an interview with Chris he explained how is original dream in life was to be a professional skateboarder. The whole reason why he moved to Los Angeles was to make it big in the sport. However, Chris had gotten into a skate boarding accident and fractured his skull and was in a coma for four days. After this injury he decided he would no longer try to make it big in the sport. He decided he would take a new perspective on his passion and go into a brand associated with the sport. I like this story a lot because even though it seemed he was at the end of his skateboarding days, he didn’t let it hold him back from finding an area in that sport that he could still participate in.
This story illustrates that our best ideas sometimes come to us when we are at our lowest/worst stages in life. Chris was able to make the best out of a tough situation. He made lots of money by giving up a dream he was passionate about pursuing. Great story!
I like how Chris was able to take advantag of the resources that he had. His second cousin was Rob Dyrdek and instead of just being able to tell other people that, which is what i would probably do, he actually used it to help launch a very successful business.
This is a cool story that I think really demonstrates how to turn negative situations into something positive. Also, it was impressive how Chris had no experience in fashion or business, but he was able to make such a successful brand. He knew he had a passion for skateboarding, but was able to use it in a different angle, which I think is very important.
As someone who owns clothing from this brand I absolutely love hearing how it got started! I remember hearing how he got injured and decided to “switch engines” so to speak, and it has clearly paid off for him!