Draft:Teddy Santis

Teddy Santis (Θοδωρής Σάντις in Greek; born June 16, 1986) is a Greek-American creative director, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and creative director of Aimé Leon Dore, and is the Creative Director of New Balance’s “Made in USA” footwear line. He currently lives in New York City.

Santis’s first entrepreneurial venture was an optical store in Manhattan, which he opened with a childhood friend in 2010 while working at his parents’ Upper East Side coffee shop. Santis has no formal fashion or design training, but his work attempts to capture the ’90s aesthetics he was fond of as a youth. As “a leading figure in today’s contemporary fashion and lifestyle landscape,” Santis has an “innate sense…[of] the spirit and history of New York City,” which he puts “into Aimé Leon Dore’s products, experiences and campaigns.”

Santis started Aimé Leon Dore in 2014, with a key reason being that his family thought they may have to close their diner on 89th Street during construction of the Second Avenue Subway Line. Santis first opened a temporary Aimé Leon Dore pop-up in New York before moving to a permanent location in 2016 on Mott St. in New York’s Nolita neighborhood, which featured an ever-changing interior and “mysterious” exterior. In 2019, Santis moved Aimé Leon Dore to a larger storefront on Mulberry St. The new store better showcased the brand’s products and included a living room-style interior, an installation from New York artist Tyrrell Winston, and an attached coffee shop. The shop is mediterranean-inspired, with outdoor seating, harkening to Santis’s Greek roots.

In 2021, Boston-based sports label New Balance announced that they were hiring Santis as the creative director of their premium “Made in USA” line. In April 2022, Santis unveiled his first collection with the brand. On June 16, 2023, the duo released their third season of the Made in USA collection. In addition to shoes, releases sometimes include new designs for sweatpants, hoodies, crew neck shirts, mesh tank tops, nylon tracksuits, and other clothing. The second and third releases launched November 30, 2023, and include shoe models (990v4, 990v6 and 996) in neutral tones with soft pastels, and a green, yellow, and white style.

Inspiration & Aesthetics

Santis has garnered a “cult following” with his “nostalgia-soaked” fashion style. In naming his brand, Santis was denied a trademark for the word, “Aimé” (an amalgamation of the French word for love), which was a core inspiration for the brand, but decided to add “Leon,” his father’s nickname, and “Dore,” which is the final syllable of his given name, Theodore. In his role at New Balance, Santis “re-imagines” New Balance’s old styles.

Santis was not formally trained in arts or design, but rather picked up his eye for fashion through experience, and by keeping up with local designers and artists. "I never knew I would get into fashion. I've always had more of a business mind," Santis says, "but there was always a love for fashion, good product, good story and good design in general." In particular, Santis is deeply-inspired by Ralph Lauren’s brand, as well as Supreme. “I’m super-inspired by Ralph, but I feel like there was a void that didn’t exist within Ralph that I thought I could speak to, which was my starting point,” Santis said. Of Supreme, he stated that he “built a case study around that brand for two years straight—not the product, more so how they spoke to their consumer.”

Collaborations & Partnerships

Porsche. In February 2020, Aimé Leon Dore released a first-of-its-kind custom 1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4, restored with the blessing and support of the company—the first time the company ever officially backed a vintage 911 restoration. The vehicle has a fully custom interior, with Schott sunflower leather and Loro Piana houndstooth, a top-grain leather dashboard, steering wheel and door panels, and reverse suede leather covers for the headliner and sunroof.

Woolrich. For Winter 2023, Santis and Aimé Leon Dore collaborated on a seventh installment of outdoor fashion, which includes "two distinct versions of parkas and pants, each available in both solid and Woolrich archive-inspired camouflage pattern."

New Balance. To date, Aimé Leon Dore has collaborated with New Balance on three seasons of designs, the first of which was released in April 2022 (and the most recent release November 30, 2023), with updates to shoe silhouettes from collections that include decade-old design revivals.