Born in Quito, Ecuador in 1996 and raised there and in Wellington, where his father loved to play polo, Nicholas Calle always wanted to find a product from his native land that would appeal to the color-rich South Florida market and beyond.
This year, Calle created his business, Nico’s Pants, with the product he chose, a colorfully re-envisioned classic. “I sell Ecuadorian pants with a strong mission of doing good for Ecuador,” he explained.
At age four, Calle‘s family moved to Wellington, to a home in the Grand Isles community. “My father always loved polo, and soon after moving in, he started to play in the Palm Beach Polo Club,” Calle said.
Attending Wellington Christian School, Calle grew to love his adopted community, and over the next 15 years learned polo himself along with his older brother. Later they moved back to Ecuador for a time, returning to play the polo season and reconnect with old friends. In 2013, the family settled in Wellington once again, so Calle was raised in both locales with an understanding of the American market and a devotion to the products of his homeland.
In 2014, he graduated high school and, a bit tired of the heat, moved to Boston to attend Bentley College. “I currently study business as a senior, with a major in management, with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a minor in psychology,” he said.
Most summers and holidays, he comes back home to Wellington, where his family still plays polo. “I intern at companies such as Digital Bridge in Boca Raton or relax with the warm weather I now so dearly miss,” Calle said.
The idea for Nico’s Pants came from Calle’s life in Ecuador, as well as his life in Wellington.
“I always wanted to bring together these two important aspects of my life and found a product that could do so,” he said. “The pants are typical Ecuadorian Andean pants with a twist of color, which makes these pants perfect for a warm town in Florida, as they are very breathable. With this idea, I decided to create a company that could mix some of the Ecuadorian culture into the U.S. and help local communities that produce them. This way, my two worlds can help each other — Wellington can help the small town of Otavalo, Ecuador.”
Nico’s Pants are not only a fun, stylish brand for comfortable clothes. They are very affordable in the U.S., but the retail price is sufficient to pay a fair and decent fee to vendors in local communities in the economically depressed region of Ecuador from which they are largely hand-made by small family-owned manufacturers. The portions made by machinery utilize more than 50 percent hydroelectric energy. Packaging is natural and bio-degradable with no plastic involved.
“These cool and crazy pants are not only used to lounge on the couch, but they also initiate a positive change in the Ecuadorian community,” Calle said. “We have a duty to the world to make it a better place, and through something as simple as selling pants, we know we can make an impact!”
For more information about Nico’s Pants, or to learn how to get your own, visit www.nicospants.com.
