Enrolling at the University of Queensland proved a confusing time. Christopher found himself torn between pursuing a creative career or bowing to the pressures of expectation that dictated more serious vocations. He succumbed and started two degrees for Law and Commerce. He found however that most of his time was spent sketching shoes, clothing, automobiles and people. So in 2001 he dropped out of university and went in search of a career that nourished his interests and natural creative talents.

The search ended with footwear. Shoes appeared the most interesting, beautiful, useful and challenging of pursuits. Christopher set about building a design and manufacturing business that allowed him to produce unique shoes that flowed from his own ideas about male footwear. Most importantly he was free of design pressures from any other parties. He had no formal training and was free from any industry ingrown conceptions. Fresh-faced and naive, Vein Wear was born with just three styles, all in black.

The brand grew organically and quickly with a stong local following. By the end of 2003 Christopher was designing and selling a full collection in many different colours. He had a solid swag of independent boutique stores stocking the label and just picked up a high end chain store with 25 outlets all over Australia. Things could not have been better.

That was when it all came crashing down. The large chain store went bust. Christopher had given them credit terms and the payment was not yet due. The directors of the company, now criminals, fled to India. The liquidators illegally seized and sold any remaining stock and Christopher did not have enough money left to sue them. So he was left with no stock and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost, never to be recovered.

Back to ground-zero, Christopher was faced with a decision. Accept defeat and fall back into Law or Commerce, or fight a possibly unwinnable battle in the footwear industry. He searched his soul and followed his heart to build the greatest Australian men's designer footwear label in the world. He consolidated his design range to a tight and directional collection that would form the blueprint for all collections to come. Customers still loved his designs and the brand had notched up some hard knocks experience. Vein Wear was grittier and more real.

In the three years since then Christopher has focussed on building relationships with key clothing designers and doing joint parades on the Australian fashion circuit. Clothing labels have worn Vein Wear shoes on the runways of Australian Fashion Week, Brisbane Fashion Week, Melbourne Fashion Festival, Australian Fashion Design Awards and Fashion Exposed Showcase to name a few. Runway collaborations have included Morrissey, Kenzo, Hugo Boss, Leopold, Trimapee, Red Cordial, Subfusco, Tommy Hilfiger, Sand, Herringbone, Diesel and Arthur Galan to name a few.

In early 2007 TCB proclaimed Vein Wear as the country's best designer footwear label and offered Christopher a free retail store in their shopping centre located in the trendy Fortitude Vally. The offer included free rent, free fit-out designed by Christopher and free outgoings. The benefits to TCB are aligning their retail districts with the Vein Wear brand. Christopher accepted the offer and began a new chapter in his fashion career...retail.

The Vein Store has since won Best Fashion Store 2008 in the Business Achiever Awards. The award is a consumer nominated and independently judged accolade that was well deserved by the dedicated staff at the Vein Store.