Alife's Rob Cristofaro and Treis Hill

Alife’s foray into relevance has a complex beginning, originating with four founders — Arnaud Delecolle, Tony Arcabascio, Tammy Brainard and Rob Cristofaro. The group met working together at Sportswear International, what was then an influential B2B magazine. Outside of work, the four would continue to work on side projects, which eventually turned into Alife, an abbreviation for Artificial Life. After years with Sportswear, the group rented a small storefront space in the Lower East Side and began their company with a $60K USD deposit. Unprecedented at its time, the store consisted of niche art supplies, footwear and an amalgamation of collectibles with the second floor serving as a creative agency. While Alife’s creative entity worked with brands like Mass Appeal, their focus into footwear began after Nike experimented with the shop’s consumer base by showcasing the first Air Woven sneaker in the store. Following this early foray into footwear, the team opened their sneaker store, Alife Rivington Club, in 2001. A restructuring of the co-founding team came after, leaving Rob as the originating member who was later joined by Treis Hill in 2005. Among their expansive network, Treis and Rob served as liaisons between brands like Nike and HYPEBEAST, further hallmarking this subculture of streetwear hype. Additionally, feel free to hit Jeff on Twitter, @jeffstaple, or via email at questions@businessofhype.com, and he may answer your question on a future episode. For more: htt