Today we’d like to introduce you to David Gomez Ramirez.
Hi David, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
SISU was founded in June 2022 by my niece Karina and me, in Brownsville, Texas. SISU is a Finnish word that speaks to the strength you find in yourself when life gets hard and you still choose to keep going. When we came across that word, it just connected with us. It felt like something we already knew and had lived, we just finally had a name for it.
Before SISU, I spent 13 years in banking, so building an activewear brand was definitely not the obvious next step for me. But for the first three years, Karina and I just kept showing up. We didn’t have a storefront. We did pop-ups, CrossFit competitions, community events, traveled with the brand, knocked on doors, introduced ourselves, and built relationships one person at a time. A lot of SISU was built simply because we refused to stop showing up.
Opening our doors this past March came during one of the hardest times our immediate family had gone through. A storefront was always part of the plan. It was on our goals, and we were already working toward it. But life shifted very quickly for us, and suddenly we were having to figure out how to keep moving while dealing with something very personal at home.
And I think that became one of the biggest tests of what SISU actually meant to us.
We could talk about strength all day and build a brand around resilience, but then life gave us a moment where we actually had to live it. So we did. We kept moving forward and opened the doors.
It was bittersweet because we didn’t get to experience that moment with everyone we had pictured being there when we first dreamed about it. That part will always stay with us. But it also made opening those doors mean so much more.
For three years, SISU was something we talked about, wore, shared and encouraged other people to find in themselves. In that season, we had to find it in ourselves too.
Those three years of pop-ups, traveling, knocking on doors and constantly showing up are what built the foundation for where we are now. Opening the store was a huge moment for us, but it also made us realize how much more we still want to build.
SISU has already become bigger than just activewear for us. It’s become community, movement, and something people have connected their own stories to. The storefront gave that a home.
And for us, it still feels like we’re just getting started.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of the biggest challenges has honestly been keeping up with SISU as it continues to grow, while still being such a small team. For the most part, it’s really just Karina and me managing everything behind the scenes. That can mean website updates and inventory one minute, then logistics, events, marketing, photography, design, customer experience or community outreach the next.
As the brand has grown, the demand has grown with it, and I think one of the hardest parts has been learning that we can’t carry everything the same way we did in the beginning. When you care deeply about something, it’s easy to want to have your hands in every part of it. But that can also become exhausting very quickly.
A big lesson for us has been learning how to prioritize, when to let go of certain things, and when it’s time to bring in more support. We’re still figuring that out as we grow.
I’ve also learned that building a business can’t only be about how much you can get done. If you’re constantly running yourself into the ground, eventually something gives. We want SISU to grow, but we also want to build it in a way that we can actually sustain and still have a life outside of it.
That balance is something we’re still learning in real time.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the Co-Founder and Creative Director of SISU. I help bring the brand to life through our creative direction, marketing, photography, storytelling, events and the experiences we create around the community.
What I’m most proud of, though, is the people we’ve been able to reach. SISU started here in Brownsville, but we’ve heard from people across the country and even as far as Germany who have connected with what the word represents. For me, that makes all of the work worth it. When someone opens up to us about what they’re going through, or tells us that SISU reminded them that they already have the strength and grit to keep pushing through life, that stays with me. Those moments are very human. People allow us into vulnerable parts of their lives, and I don’t take that lightly.
That’s why I do this. The clothing and the creative work are part of it, but ultimately I want SISU to help people recognize something that was already inside of them.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
SISU has never been just Karina and me. A lot of people have stepped in along the way and helped us build it.
Matthew Ramos, a creative director from Houston who became a friend through this journey, helped us elevate our visuals early on and has recently come back to help us continue developing the website.
Our family has also been a huge part of it. Cindy, Karina’s sister and my niece, and Frank, Karina’s husband, are always willing to step in when we need them.
And honestly, so much credit goes to our clients and the small business owners who have believed in us, collaborated with us, opened their spaces to us, and helped introduce SISU to more people. A lot of SISU has grown because people chose to believe in what we were building and carry a piece of it with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sisufitwear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sisufitwear?utm_source=qr
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgomezramirez77
