ABOUT US

APRIL 2018
Risottini was founded by Daan and Merijn, the two founders of Our Icons, both from Amsterdam. During their bachelor hospitality and business, they were organising a dinner for their school’s alumni. At this dinner Daan cooked a mixture between a Sicilian Arancini and a Dutch bitterbal. Merijn saw how everybody was so excited about this product that he told Daan they should try to start selling this product to Dutch restaurants. So they did, and they started their business Risottini during their studies.

SEPTEMBER 2020
The Dutch restaurant were closed due to the pandemic. Risottini had been growing steadily but due to the lockdown the revenue declined to 0. As their business completely shut down, Merijn and Daan sat at their office thinking what would be their plan. A week or so later Daan saw an add on Instagram from an designer making prints of famous footballers. At first, he was interested in buying one but after scrolling down the website he thought by himself: I might be able to make these myself. And what if I don’t just make it for footballers but for all kinds of sports and music artists as well! Daan's first design was Mac Miller, shown on the right.

OCTOBER 2020
A Brand for everybody who has an icon in their lives, Our Icons is founded. At first it is a Brand for sport Icons but also famous music artists. The first collection includes famous artists such as Drake and ASAP Rocky, but this does not feel great. As Daan and Merijn are both into football, basketball and tennis, they decide to transfer it into a sports brand. Our Icons exists because we love sports. We want to recreate famous sports moments into a minimalistic design. The first print in sports is the one on the left: 'Live is Life'.

2021
The first year of Our Icons with ups and downs. A lot of new collections and paid ads. Merijn learned building a webshop from youtube which is getting better and better but also complexer and complexer. Customers are buying from all over the world, due to our printing partner who prints global and therefore ships local! Just great. In the first year Our Icons sells over 10.000 prints. Unbelievable! On the right is Merijn working on the website.

MARCH 2022
Apparel is added to the collection! Minimalistic as always, and therefore embraided small on the middle chest. Let’s see what the future brings to Our Icons!