We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Bolden and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Chris, how do you think about risk?
Risk taking is one of the most important things in life and business. With risk comes fear. In my experience. The best things in life are on other side of risk and fear. I entered the military and thought of it as a risk and i learned so much in my 4 years in the Navy. I also jumped out a plane and it’s the best feeling ever. The feeling of bliss and confidence you get from taking a risk jumping is unexplainable. With my clothing business I took a risk and brought a $200 shirt press to start and now I’m opening a store front next month and it only took 3 years.
What should our readers know about your business?
My business started after my little brothers untimely death in December 2016. He called himself the Iceman. My brain is named after him. Ice Ent Apparel. It all started with friends and family supporting me with shirts was selling with his favorite saying on them. “OOWWEE” which he got from a rapper Sauce Walka from Houston Texas. I like selling shirts so much that I expanded. Created a new logo and started to put my logo or sweatpants and T-shirts. Scrolling down Instagram one day I saw the phrase “Spread the love” With so much violence going on in the world I thought that will be the perfect phrase to put on a T-shirt. I then reached out to my friend to make a design we dropped a design six months after I started selling shirts and it’s sold out in two days. That’s when I knew I had something. I will research day and night to find ways to expand my inventory. Looking for the best quality and that settling it for less. That set us apart from everybody in the city. Everybody loves the quality of my clothes. I reached out to people for interviews to tell my story and also started having back to school drives every year and giving back to communities as much as I can. I kept re-creating myself looking for new ideas. It was not easy. I’ve lost close friends who I thought would be there but never lost focus of my goal. Ran into many problems but I never got mad. I got happy at mistakes because I was learning along the way. I always felt I was getting closer. Reached out to a few celebrities. Local and national. Stephen Jackson and Common gave me a Shoutout which helped my expand. I felt like God kept bring me people to keep me going. I would study manifestation a lot and it got easier. All while running my business my son who has epilepsy was in and out of the hospital fighting for his life. He added to my drive. To get him his own nurses I will pay for myself. We ended up in the hospital several times because of negligent nurses. He in the hospital now because of one and we’ve been in since September now because of COVID and not being able to get the right care as far as home nurses. All while battling everything I’m battling I have friends and family support who’ve helped me along the way. So I’m still going. My 4th anniversary April 2021. I even came out with my own sneaker. I’m now opening a store front on a popular street in my city and that was the vision I saw from the beginning. Closer to getting my son some nurses. I’ve learn to never give up. To train your mind with affirmations and that you have to know without a doubt things are gonna work out. I want the world to k on my sons story. Our story and that the more love you Spread. It comes back triple
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would probably take them to the Gogo. It’s a culture of music here in Washington DC. I like to go to DC improv the comedy club here. Downtown DC. I don’t go out a lot at all. I’m always working or at the hospital. I’m more of a home body. Of course if they would like. Take the to view the Monument and White house, all the main attractions.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My son..Chris JR. Who i started a kids clothing line for called Munchkins with brings awareness to epilepsy and also the reason I’m am working on a Non-Profit. He was diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 months and we’ve been fighting for 7 years. He my strength.
Website: www.Iceentapparel.com
Instagram: @iceentapparel
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pg/iceentapparel26/posts/?ref=content_filter&mt_nav=0
Youtube: https://youtu.be/kRznIg_xh80
Other: The YouTube is a song I wrote and and video is called Hospital Wars. I like to write music when going thru hard times.