Leading a labor movement in a sweatsuit and sneakers
NEW YORK — On the morning of April 1, before the results were released from a vote that would mark the first union victory at Amazon, Christian Smalls dressed as he would just about any other day.
Smalls, the union’s 33-year-old president and a former Amazon employee, put on a black durag and paired it with a fitted baseball cap, hoodie and sweatpants — all in red, his favorite color. Over his sweatshirt, he threw on a pair of goldtone chains and a red Amazon Labor Union T-shirt to show solidarity with the employees.
But that day, as Amazon union supporters celebrated the results, Smalls stood out in the crowd — popping Champagne in streetwear and big sunglasses, a man whom Amazon had underestimated from the start. The monthslong battle he led against one of the largest corporations in the world wasn’t waged in a suit and tie — or even jeans, as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos often wears. Instead, Smalls did it in sweats, with sneakers on his feet and grills in his mouth.
“I’m one of one,” Smalls said in a phone interview recently. “I don’t like to be wearing the same stuff as everybody else.”
Smalls, who lives in Newark, New Jersey, described his style as a nod to hip-hop culture. The former rapper enjoys expressing himself through streetwear, even in the face of detractors.
“I read comments on my social media, and I see people taking shots at me all the time,” he said, citing critics who couldn’t take him seriously because of his clothes. “That’s the people that I want to prove wrong. That really motivates me to continue dressing the way I do because I want y’all to understand it’s not about how I look. It’s work that I’m putting in.”
But clothes have undeniably set him apart from management at Amazon. The day of the vote count, he stood in contrast to the company’s besuited lawyers, and even most union organizers.
“Chris is just unashamedly himself,” Connor Spence, Amazon Labor Union’s vice president of membership, wrote in a text message. “He doesn’t try to be someone he isn’t, and I think on some level the workers can sense that.”
Growing up in Hackensack, New Jersey, Smalls was often teased for not wearing the latest trends. It wasn’t until he was a teenager and had started working that he began developing his own style.
“It only stemmed from the fact that I couldn’t afford the clothes that everybody was rocking at the time,” he said. “Whatever I’m wearing, I had to make it hot. I had to make it look like it was worth a lot of money even though it wasn’t.”
Clothes have become a point of connection between him and those who have followed his story at Amazon. After the result of the vote was announced, many people remarked on his siren-red sweatsuit — a distinctive look for a leader. And when he speaks to students about labor organizing, he said they are often struck by his style.
“When they look at me, they see themselves in me,” he said.
Amazon fired Smalls in 2020, saying he violated a quarantine order by attending a walkout to protest the company’s safety conditions.
“If I was to run for president, I would look just like this,” he said. “I’d walk in the White House with a pair of Jordans on because this is who I am as a person.”
These days, however, he’s mostly wearing the union shirts he helped design, which come in an array of hues — black, white, hot pink, teal — meant to contrast with the shirts that Amazon gives its warehouse employees.
“We need to look like Skittles,” he said. “And I said one thing that’s going to help us succeed with this union is our gear is going to be way better than theirs. Our drip is going to be way better.”