AMADOR FOREVER

Amador is an idea with only 3 days of existence. As a “seed”, this idea already grown into a first t-shirt, print and online store. My background could not be more “street” knowledgable. Both in the UK and Portugal. Amador is a very powerful concept as its a verb meaning “the one who loves”. It also stands for describing someone that does something for the joy and pleasure, not for the money. Back in the day when I was into skateboarding, there was a massive difference between the availability of ramps and skateparks from Lisbon – Portugal’s capital city, and my city Porto. By this I mean in Porto we didn’t have any access to ramps. Then we used to a have a sponsored National League Skateboarding Competition, that would take their own ramps from town to town, and then judge on 3 categories – starters, amateurs and professionals. I was never a good skater, but the rest of my friends never participate in the professional category. Because they didn’t have any sponsors or paid to skate, or practiced on ramps to be able to compete with the skater from Lisbon. We used to make jokes with all of this and say we would be always “amateurs”.

I have done a lot of stuff in my life and I know it was not always the best, but I sure had fun doing it. Recently, I got my self in a position that I have time to explore my creativity and find ways to give this ideias a visual presentation. Either through photography, video, drawing, arts and crafts, among other things. One of the things I been enjoying the most is lino cut printing and doing my own clothing. I love the drawing and creating subversive designs, the carving, the printing and the aesthetics that comes as a final result. Unfortunately, I can’t really afford to offer this stuff, but I would be honoured to see other people wearing or displaying my ideias.

My ideas are simple. I will work hard for a better future for the next generations. I respect everyone equally as a human being. I respect the rightful existence of all animals and nature as part the balance of our planet. My diet is omnivore, but I hope to become a vegetarian sooner than later. I do have any politic party but I feel very concerned with the rise of the far right. I do not have a religion. My view on religion is it will become an individual communication instead of a gathering. I recycle and I hate to see historic objects being destroyed. I drive a full electric vehicle and also own a classic sports car. I am married to my first girlfriend and have a son, now studying sociology in Southampton University.

My goal with Amador is to have enough audience and volume of sales to be able to source productions from a variety of manufactures across the world and various disciplines. I will always take in consideration the human conditions of everyone involved with our production. As well as the impact of the environment of the materials used. If Amador gets any further than selling a t-shirt, I can promised it will always be done for the joy and not for the money.