Entrepreneur Jae Tips visited Manhattan University as part of the school’s Founder Speaker Series. ZENDRA BONNICK / THE QUADRANGLE
Zendrah Bonnick, Staff Writer
On Oct. 8, Manhattan University welcomed guest speaker Jae Tips as a part of the Founder Speaker Series, after being invited to speak by Winston Peters ‘02, an adjunct professor of business and the program director of MU’s Entrepreneurship Center. Tips came to speak on the story of how he went from being fired from Footlocker to winning multiple awards such as the Footwear News Achievement Award (FNAA), Collaboration of the Year Award with Saucony Originals and Nice Kick’s Global Sneaker of the Year Award.
At the event, Tips discussed the hardships, successes and life experiences that brought him and his business to where they are now.
Tips is the founder of Savior Worldwide, a business that started in 2019, where he re-sold T-shirts and hats. In 2022, Tips was put into a position where he was pushed to make his own designs. He described increasing attention on his work through his collaboration with StockX, and a situation with the New York Yankees and collaborator “New Era”.
“I was taking all these Yankee caps, and putting ‘Savior’ on them,” Tips said. “They [The Yankees] said, if you continue to work with him in any capacity, we’ll think we’re going to come for you…I took it as a challenge to make my own stuff, but it wasn’t easy. I lost my warehouse. I had to let everybody go.”
After facing this hardship, Tips continued work on his business, moving to creating pieces with his own logo and design. He began to incorporate his personal experiences into his art. Describing his experience being from the Bronx and feeling underrepresented, he is now working to represent his experience by way of his art. Tips mentioned he had been socially anxious growing up, and saw clothes as a way to connect with people.
“I feel like it’s two things that can automatically help you start a conversation,” Tips said. “That’s when you know a lot about sports and know a lot about clothes… and I was never really the person to walk over say, ‘hey my name is Jae,’ so instead those kind of started the conversation for me.”
Tips explained that while things like the 2 train, hip-hop and the Yankees are part of the story of the Bronx, they’re not where the story ends, but are simply where the stories are most often told.
“I did feel like my community, people like me, didn’t have a voice, a mainstream voice outside of just the community, so I always felt that representation was key and if it could be anybody, I’d like it to be me,” Tips said.
Attending the event was Jaden Ruiz, a junior at MU, majoring in finance. Ruiz discussed how Tips’ discussion of feeling out of place stood out to him as an important message about continuing to compete even if you feel you don’t belong.
“I thought him talking about his upbringing and his insecurities that came with that was very interesting,” Ruiz said. “I think a lot of people feel displaced in corporate areas like what he was talking about, and I think talking about it really normalizes it and just takes away that stigma. And that way, maybe people who come from different backgrounds will know that insecurities aren’t anything different or new, and they can rise above.”
Melody Flores, junior and president of the entrepreneurship club, commented on the importance of Tips’ message of prioritizing your own goals.
“He [Tips] said to not focus on other people’s successes…he said a lot of people tend to fail because they look at it like ‘this person is more successful than I am,’” Flores said.
After the event, Peters made a final statement.
“My hope, and a key takeaway from Jae Tips’ talk, is that students learn it’s completely acceptable not to have all the answers at the outset,” Peters said. “What matters most is the willingness to figure things out along the way, and Jae’s journey exemplifies this resilient approach perfectly.”