SK STUDIO OUT + ABOUT | POWER BRUNCH WITH DAVID "BIG PAPI" ORTIZ

**PHOTO CREDIT | Paul Farkas/SONY Alpha**

Earlier today, Paul Farkas and I made our way to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a Power Brunch with MLB’s Red Sox Designated Hitter, 3X World Series Champion, 10X All-Star, and Hall of Famer David “Big Papi” Ortiz! You’ll be able to read the full interview in the MAY ISSUE #124 of Athleisure Mag which drops May 29th!

Many know, that I am a longtime Yankees fan; however, there are a number of players that I like that aren’t on my favorite team and Big Papi is definitely on that list! He is passionate about the game, bringing good vibes, and is such an ambassador for the sport! Of course we also talked about what baseball stories we should be looking at as he is an analyst for FOX Sports.

Rum is one of my favorite spirits (defintiely in my top 3). When I was first introduced to rum I had a number out of Puerto Rico that were my go-to’s! On my first trip to the Dominican Republic, I stayed at the RIU in Punta Cana and fell in love with Dominican Rum. Where Puerto Rican Rum is molasses based, rum from the DR is sugarcane (fun fact: everytime I am in DR, Mexico - I love that Sprite and Coca-Cola has sugarcane and when I drink a Coke at Tacombi, Los Mariscos, or Los Tacos No 1 or my favorite taco spots here in NY, I will always go for a Mexican Coke). When I started working on my Kimmie Smith X Sebago shoe line, we designed in Santo Domingo and I went there a few times over the period of 2 years to design the line, see it come together and I got to know even more about the 3 B’s (Brugal, Barcelo, and Bermudez) and I was hooked on Dominican Rum and have been since 2011/2012.

A new spirit that was founded by Big Papi is now in my rotation, Ozama - which has 3 expressions - Anejo, Gran Anejo, and Blanco. You’ll find out more about this in our upcoming issue, why he created it, his passion for DR, baseball, his legacy and being on FOX’s Masked Singer - you can hear a bit about it below!