women in fashion: Michelle spiro

Spiro and Mathelier. FURI Sport.

BY REYA KHANNA

Maya Angelou once said: “​​You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” This quote certainly applies to Michelle Spiro, the founder of Furi, a tennis gear and clothing store. Spiro has faced many ups and downs while creating her business, but they did not stop her from becoming the entrepreneur she is today.

Surrounded by fashion, Spiro realized her interest in fashion at a young age. Her dad worked for Bloomingdales for 40 years and her grandfather owned a sweater brand. She also had fashion jobs in highschool and college. After college, Spiro started working for well known brands such as Ralph Laurnen, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein. In 2013, she left corporate fashion to fulfill her dream of living in Paris and New York City. While she was there, she gained an interest in streetwear. 

Spiro was quite fond of how it does not matter what gender, color or age you are to sport streetwear style. To her, streetwear was like a community where everyone understands each other. Paris and New York, known as the best spots for fashion, have many brands for streetwear such as Vans and Supreme.

As Spiro’s love for streetwear expanded, she decided to take her passion to new levels. She started off by researching many renowned companies that were known for making urbanwear. As she discovered these companies, Spiro noticed that the majority of them, including Vans, Supreme and Palace, were for skateboarders. Other companies such as North Face were geared towards extreme outdoor sports. As a result, Spiro wanted to create a business that was not limited to only those activities.

In 2014, Spiro met her business partner, Eric Mathelier. Mathelier is a first generation Haitian American who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He started his tennis journey when he was 10 years old and was a very hard worker, he also played in many tournaments, one of which led him to a scholarship to be a D1 athlete for college. His tennis career influenced the rest of his life. As they both started collaborating, they realized that they both had the same idea; they wanted to take tennis “out of the country club” and make it much more accessible. After some brainstorming, they decided to combine both of their passions: Spiro’s love for streetwear and Mathelier’s love for tennis.

The two of them ended up creating a line of tennis clothing that was streetwear. They decided on naming the company Furi, which is a Japanese word that represents the passion that athletes have to keep moving forward. Their clothing has very distinct patterns that are created by Luis Santos, who has worked as a designer for many well known individuals.These patterns also represent the community that can be built from this type of fashion. Later, Spiro dropped a line of excellent tennis rackets, followed by bags, strings and grips.

Michelle Spiro created Furi to form a community of people who are passionate about tennis and fashion and prove that tennis does not only have to be in the country club. Spiro not only wants to keep passing on the inspiration she gets from the previous generations but she also wants to change girls’ lives.