Starting with you Tim, for anyone who might not be familiar yet, how would you explain what Patta is as a brand — and where the foundation fits into that wider story?
Timothy: Patta started out as a store more than 20 years ago, and from there it naturally evolved into a brand. That’s really how everything we do has grown — it’s been a natural process. We plan a lot more now than we used to, but in the beginning it was just organic growth. As the brand grew, we also started thinking more seriously about the values we’ve always stood on — things like “got love for all” and “each one teach one”. That’s where a lot of the wider community work came from. First it was the running team, then the cycling team, then the Academy, which gives young people opportunities to develop. The foundation sits within that same story. It’s another way for us to give back, and to support people who already have a strong idea and want to make something happen in their own community.
Lenny and Glemiel, as young people in Amsterdam, how did you first interact with Patta?
Lenny: I’ve always been close to Patta, partly because Edson (Patta co-founder) is my uncle, so it was never something that felt distant to me. I was always in and out of the store when I was younger. People there would even help me with school presentations, so I spent a lot of time around it. I’ve basically seen the brand grow from close up, and now it’s nice to see younger kids coming into the store in that same way and building their own connection to it. It feels like that energy has just kept going.
Glemiel: The first time I really clocked Patta was in the film Dope (2015). I’d seen it around before, through family and friends, but that made it click in a different way. I was really into American films, so seeing Patta there made me think, hang on, there’s a real link here. Then I started looking into the brand more, and I realised it wasn’t just that it had Surinamese roots — there was also something in the names, in the story, that made it feel close to me. It felt like something to look up to. Not in an idol way exactly, but in the sense of seeing something that felt connected to where I come from and thinking, yeah, this means something.
How does that mentoring side of the Patta Foundation actually work in practice? Is it something formal that you apply for, or is it more about having elders around you that you can go to with an idea and ask for guidance?
Glemiel: It felt very natural, to be honest. Patta is really… if you’ve ever been to the headquarters, it just feels like home, even if it’s your first time there. Everybody is really nice, and it has that family feeling. I started through the Patta Academy, and when I graduated, I already knew I wanted to do something for Suriname. Every time I was there, I wanted to skate, but there was nowhere proper to do it. So in my head the link made sense straight away: Patta is a Surinamese brand, so it should almost have its own skatepark there. When I came back from Suriname, I brought the idea in, spoke to people about it, and then sent Tim an email. From there, it grew quite naturally. Since then, Tim has kind of become my mentor through the whole process, and he’s helped me a lot.
Before we get into the skatepark itself, Suriname is obviously central to Patta’s story. For a lot of our readers in the UK, could you explain the cultural importance of Suriname to the brand — and maybe the wider exchange between Suriname and Amsterdam too?
Timothy: For us, Suriname is where we’re from. My parents were born there, and my partner was born there. Me and my brother were born in Amsterdam, but Suriname is deep in our hearts. And it’s not just an Amsterdam thing either — Surinamese culture runs through Dutch life more broadly, whether that’s Rotterdam, Den Haag or Eindhoven. To put it bluntly, without Surinamese people, the food here would be tasteless. My mum always says that when she first came over, there weren’t even showers in the way we’d understand them — people were still going to bath houses once a week in the 1970s — so Surinamese people changed hygiene, changed food, and then of course football as well. You look at Gullit, Rijkaard, Davids, Seedorf, Kluivert — we could keep going. That influence is huge. For us, when we talk about Amsterdam, we talk about Suriname, and we talk about hip hop. That’s basically what Patta is. Suriname is one big part of it because, for us, it’s home.
Lenny: I’ve got Surinamese roots as well, so I grew up around Surinamese culture. It’s probably in my work subconsciously more than anything — when I start making something or trying to come up with an idea, that’s often one of the first places my mind goes.
Glemiel: For me, it’s simple — I actually want to live there. I told Tim that already. The only thing missing for me, honestly, is a skatepark. The whole country barely has one, and the one that is there is tiny, while the Netherlands has hundreds. But beyond skating, there’s a lot in Suriname that feels familiar to me. There are loads of things in common with Amsterdam and with Dutch-Surinamese life more broadly, so the connection has always felt natural. That’s why this project made sense to me straight away.