About Us

Hi there. Welcome to my brand, GRIT & GRATITUDE. My name is Tristan and I'm an elementary school student. I’m into cool fashion, graffiti, YouTubers, gaming, streetwear and skate culture, but never can find any T-shirts that don’t feel childish. So here I am trying to be an entrepreneur between hockey practices, playdates and homework. 

The name of my company GRIT & GRATITUDE comes in part from a saying my dad tells me every night before I go to bed “you can do anything you want to if you work hard”. That’s GRIT. My parents also talk to me about being appreciative and grateful for what we have and to give back when we can. That’s GRATITUDE. This is why I will be donating 10% of all my sales to Backpack Buddies, a program that fills the weekend hunger gap. Children who depend on school programs for breakfast and lunch may not get anything to eat all weekend, so Backpack Buddies ensures that the bags of food they provide help kids get through the weekend without going hungry. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through a day let alone a weekend without food and I want to help these families in some way. 

I’ve been working on this for the past 6 months over the weekends. I started by looking at references, getting ideas from around the world and talking to my friends about what they like in clothing brands. While my parents are helping me to set up this Shopify site and my Instagram, I selected the graffiti artist, selected the design, art directed the ninja character, chose the colours and even created the logo by picking a font that I thought looked modern. This really is MY business! I’ve tried a few different ideas that didn’t work out (even tried to do my own graffiti) so I am really thrilled with what I’ve come up with. I have three collections so far; the Graffiti Ninja series, the SoCal series and my latest called Tokyo Love!

I’m excited to launch these designs that I collaborated with two artists on. I borrowed $300 from my parents to start this and have already paid them back! I've also made a $500 donation to Backpack Buddies and I hope to do another before the 2021 Holidays. Check back often to see new designs, or follow me on Instagram @gritgratitudeco