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| MERRY CRISPA'S!, Print ad, 1962 |
The best holiday gift that CRISPA brought to the
Philippines in 1948 were its “shrunk-to-fit” shirts and underwear that were
soon to become the country’s most popular men’s wear in the 1970s-80s decades. The
brand CRISPA was derived from the combined names of founders, Pablo and
Crisanta Floro, an enterprising husband-and-wife team who sold their cotton
products in their shop, and distributed them to leading department stores
nationwide.
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| MERRY CRISPA'S! 1962 Ad |
The CRISPA fabric materials were subjected to a unique
“Redmanization” process, which made the cotton stable, and shrink-resistant,
even after washing. The early products included T-shirts, both round and
V-necked; briefs, with imported waistband,
and rib sando.
With its main retail store in Makati, CRISPA became
a byword in the 70s, and gained further fame and reputation when the Floro
son, Valeriano “Danny” Floro organized a basketball team in 1956 that
first participated in the Business Athletic Association, a minor league. The CRISPA
Redmanizers would rise to become a multi-titled Filipino basketball team of
the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) from 1975 to 1984.
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| REDMANIZED, SHRUNK-TO-FIT, Print Ad, 1963 |
By the late 80s, the CRISPA business declined,
leading the Floros to stop manufacturing CRISPA knitwear and to the
disband the basketball team. In 2020, Danny Floro’s grandchildren revived the
Crispa brand with the launch of a new T-shirt line, under VNF and Sons, Inc.
SOURCES:
Crispa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispa_(clothing_brand)
Crispa Redmanizers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispa_Redmanizers
