I grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the time I was growing up with my father - before it was gentrified - it was a very rough neighborhood. He felt that if I got into or started embracing the rap culture, I would be one step closer to being on the streets.

If you put the collections together, whether it's Rick Owens, Alexander Wang, or whomever, sometimes they do streetwear, but they're never called that. They're always called 'sportswear' or 'high-end' or 'luxury.' I feel like I'm tossed into that streetwear category so that I don't exist in this space.

Financing is always the hard part, especially if you don't have friends or family to back you, which was my case and the case for most designers.

I was going to college on a full scholarship. I graduated summa cum laude. I was always on the dean's list. I was never a kid that started any kind of trouble.

I'll never forget this memory: I was at home, and suddenly my father came home with 10 footballs for me. I lived by a football pitch, so every day, I'd take the ball and practice shooting.

Manchester is a sensational venue for football but an awful place to live... the winter, the cold and the dark nights. It's very hard for a young Brazilian.

I would hope there would be a greater appreciation by casual sports fans of the incredible skill and passion of our players.

You get a world-class athlete like Hershel Walker, who was a Heisman trophy winner and did some amazing things, but he had a martial arts background. He did kickboxing. He had a combat sports background. It was just rekindling that training and that martial arts workout ethic. He got back into it and did quite well.