Latest / Two Personal with Joy Taylor / The Untold Stories Behind Kobe, Jordan & Iconic NBA Jackets | Jeff Hamilton x Joy Taylor

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The Untold Stories Behind Kobe, Jordan & Iconic NBA Jackets | Jeff Hamilton x Joy Taylor · Two Personal with Joy Taylor

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like an artist that paints on a canvas.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: My jacket is my canvas, and more than anybody else
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: could be understood that.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Your brand is generational. That is not a small thing legacy.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It's very pretentious, but it's so very humbling. You're not
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: going to be here to see the result of how
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good that fruit taste.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: At the end, I mean, you came here as an
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: immigrant and are completely integrated in the culture of American society.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: The beauty of being an immigrant, and where I see
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: what the advantages that we have is we're hungry.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Do you think that the Kobe jacket is the most
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: important piece that you've made in your career?
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Hey, guys, welcome back to Too Personal. I'm Joy Taylor.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Make sure that you hit subscribe if you haven't already,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and follow us on all of our socials. At two
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Personal shows, I am so excited for today's episode. You
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: are going to love this conversation with Jeff Hamilton. Jeff
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: is a legend. He has an incredible story. He's an
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: iconic fashion designer known for his leather jackets that you've
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: seen in every rap video on every athlete, on the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: top seventy five and the top fifty NBA players, NASCAR, everywhere.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: He will tell you his incredible story. But I love
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: this conversation with Jeff, so we'll get to him in
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a second. But I have been dying to talk about this,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: so I don't know if you guys saw, but there
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: is a housing development in Ravendon, Arkansas, and the founders
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: say that in orders to live there, you have to
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: be white and heterosexual. It's called return to the Lands.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: They are call themselves whites identitarians. So one hundred and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: sixty acre compounds, which has about forty residents, including twelve
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: homeschooled children, and applicants to the community are screens with
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: an in person interview, a criminal background check, questionnaire about
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: their ancestral heritage, and sometimes photos.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Of their relevant relatives.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Now, of course, civil rights advocates are claiming that the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: group could be sued under the nineteen sixty eight Fair
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Housing Act and the US Civil Rights Act of eighteen
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: sixty six. I have to tell you I've thought a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: lot about this, and.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I think they should go for it. I'm here for it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: If these fucking weirdos.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Want to go out into some patchy lands in Arkansas
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and live amongst themselves and turn their family tree into
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a wreath. I say, let them have it. I don't
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: want to move to raven Den, Arkansas.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Send them there. For years, I've been saying.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Let's get them all together and send them somewhere. Ravendon,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Arkansas sounds like the perfect place for a white people
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: compound that don't want to interact with anyone else. Listen,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I have no desire to move to raven Den, Arkansas.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: These white people with their with their little compounds are
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: not changing my life in any way. And I have
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to tell you, while this seems troubling, it's really not
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to me. But the one thing I will say about
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: these white identitarians who have created this little village in
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the woods, I'm going to need them to fully and
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: completely commit to this racism and bigotry, because what is
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: exhausting me is this racism light and this bigotry light.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Stop serving up Greek yogurt racism when we know you're
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: really full sour cream babes. Your ancestors would be so disappointed.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You're just not going all the way. If you're gonna
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: build a compounds where you are screening people to make
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: sure that they are pure white. I'm also going to
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: need you to live off of the land. I don't
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: need you coming into the city and buying things from
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: stores where black people are working. I don't need you
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: buying vegetables from brown immigrants who have farmed them.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no no.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: If you're going to live amongst yourselves, if you're going
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: to go as far as buying a one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: sixty acre compounds and sourcing families of pure white heritage
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to come and live in this rocky patch in the woods,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I need you to commit, because this beta version of
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: racism is really corny to me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I don't believe you. I don't actually believe you.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I think you're up to something, actually, something much more
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: sinister than just racism and not wanting gay people around.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Because you have to live off the lands, Go be
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: farmers in Arkansas. Get the well, get your water, you
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: know from the little creek, grow your own vegetables, have
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: your little farm. But we don't want you back. If
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: you're gonna go and live in your pure white, identitarian, elitist,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: superior race, shit.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Prove it, baby, prove it. Prove it, because you're going
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: so light with this. It's really not enough. I need
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: to see you commit. Please. I don't want you popping
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: up a no Taco Bell. I don't want to see
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: you at a Taco bell. Baby, You're not going to
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: taco bell.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I don't want to see you at no restaurants with
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: any spice. All right, stay your ass in the woods,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: in the rocky patch, in the woods that you sourced out.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: You got plenty of room, and stay the fuck out there.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: We don't want to see you amongst the browns. We
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: don't want to see you amongst the blacks. We certainly
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: don't want to see you amongst the gays. You're not
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: coming in town for no decorations, baby, Stay.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: In the woods.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: This is a good thing. We are looking at this
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the wrong way. These people should be isolated. They should
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: have their own place in society where they can share
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: each other's views. And the reality is they just want
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to fuck their cousins.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: So let's just.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Send them into the woods and let them have their time.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I don't want these people walking around me. I don't
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: want them anywhere near me, and I would really like
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: signs to know that I'm not welcome. Oh did I
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: find myself in Ravendon, Arkansas. Time for me to turn around.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: They don't want me around here. Let me just go
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: ahead and just do a little u turn. Thank you
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: for the sign, Thank you for the sign. No Blacks,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: no Browns, no Spice, and no gays. They're nothing in
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  Speaker 2: there for me. Let me get the fuck out of
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: here in a hurry.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Baby, don't worry. You don't have to worry about me.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: But I want them to be serious because it's weak shit.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: You're Irish, Polish, French, British, Scottish, Scandinavian ancestors are are
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: are looking at you from hell wondering why you didn't
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: just fully commit to this white heritage shit, because.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: You're just not going strong enough. Of course I say
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: that because all white people.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: In the United States come from immigrants. Of course, I'm
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: assuming that most of the people who are going to
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: this compound do not read much, so they don't know that.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: But actually, this is not your ancestral land. Like, if
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: you have the ability to track your ancestors back that far,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you're gonna get a little bit of news. They're not
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: from the United States of America. They're from a place
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: called Europe. That's where white people are from but don't
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: let me bother you with any type of facts. Gone
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: and build a little rocky compounds. I hope the ground
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: is good because you're going to need some farm there.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: We don't want you over here, We don't want we
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: don't want you over here either. Baby, don't ask for
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: don't ask for no salt, don't ask for no imported
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: nothing from an Asian country. I don't want to hear
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: anything that you need from South America. Stay committed and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: say the fuck in Whiteville or what's it called?
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: What are they calling it?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: What's the official name of it? Return to the land,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: the lands. That's where you need to be. That's where
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: you need to be. And while I'm saying this a
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: little bit of jolly in my tone, I'm actually quite serious.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I don't want these people anywhere near me.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I have been hoping and praying for the day that
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: all these people will just go to an island. But
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Arkansas is good enough. Get the fuck out of my
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: face and go to this little corner of the earth
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and live there and farm and be amongst your people.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Be amongst your people. I mean, this is a brilliant idea.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: We don't want you over here. Fucking anyway, So go
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: live off the lands.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Don't come around here.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Ask them for no spices, nothing from any other country.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Get your shit together and prove your ancestors right. You're
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the superior race. Figure it out now. I have my
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: doubts that you're gonna be able to pull this off.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: But if you are fully committed to your white dum,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I believe that you're gonna have to do it. You're
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: gonna have to prove me wrong, because right now it
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: just seems like you know, you want to fuck your cousins.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: So that being said, let's get to Jeff Hamilton. All right.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I am so excited to have my dear friend, Jeff Hamilton,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: the legends fashion designer behind some of the most iconic
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: sports looks of all time, of course Michael Jordan and
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Kobe Bryants. His championship jackets. I'm wearing one, which I
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: got a compliment on immediately as soon as I put on.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I haven't worn to a heat game yet, though, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I do have an I have an exclusive Jeff Hamilton,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: which is which is really nice.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: But welcome to too personal. Thank you for coming down.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be here, so Jeff.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: One thing about Jeff.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: The first time that I met Jeff, I thought I
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: was selling a really cool story and I forget who
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I was talking about, but I was talking about the
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Rock or I don't know somebody. And every person that
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: you bring up Jeff has a cooler story, like a
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: cooler interaction than you have with this person. Guaranteed, no
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: one on the planet has more stories with more people.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: You have so many genuine friendships and relationships that span
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: across your career, but one of the more fascinating things
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: from a sports perspective is just the moments that you
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: have been a part of because you've made the jackets
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: for these championship teams.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: So well, I guess I'll start with the Kobe story.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: We can the Kobe story.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You know it is, it is kind of I'm still
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: amazed after doing over over forty years, forty five years
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I've been fashioned and I'm still amazed by the power
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of the jacket. Yeah, you know, it's amazing that I've
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: been able to basically have access to everywhere I've wanted
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: my whole life, you know, from the White House to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the guns and Roses studios to the locker rooms of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you know, of Mike Tyson or is training for his fights,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and being friends with Muhammad Ali and of course Michael
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Jordan since nineteen eighty six, and Kobe and Lebron and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: so it's been, you know, like a like a dream life,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: especially because I love sports and being around it, and
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: also have them look at me in a different way
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: than somebody else because I bring something to the athletes
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and the culture that they don't have. So it's kind
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: of they look up to me in a certain way
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: without sounding pretentious, and and it's but I'm still a groupie.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I'm still a fan. So for me, when I look
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: at it, I count my blessings every day you have.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, you just ran through a list of obviously
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: some of the biggest legends in all of.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Sports I think.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I think of your jacket, obviously the
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Jordan jacket, the Kobe jacket is like the image that
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: pops and like, you know, Kobe's leaning over the.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Trophy and he has it on. But your jackets have really.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: They've been commemorative of some of the biggest moments in
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: culture and fashion and music in sports. When you see
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: some of those old photos, do is it like take
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: you back to those moments.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: It has only it only hit me like only five
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: or six years ago when I came out of retirement
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: right before COVID. You know, I never really just did
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: anything calculated. I mean really, I was in I just
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it was an immigrant, you know, like moved in nineteen
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: eighty and with the wife and two kids. You know
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: at the time I married when I was nineteen years old,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and h and I just kind of like really wanted
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to hustle and I wanted to work to make money.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I really would. I mean, I was really passionate about
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: what I designed, and I really was a perfectionist that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't care if I lost money when I created
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a design, but it had to be something that I
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: would wear or something that would fit that There is
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: a choice that you do when you become a designer
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: or a host or anything like that. You put your
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: name on it. It's it's it's a reputation behind it.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: So you have to stand behind the quality. And so
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: even I made some jackets sometimes you know that I
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: didn't make any money, I lost money, but I made
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: sure that I did it and did it over and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: over again, Teel. I found it perfect. So and in
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the last five six years, I started looking at it
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and say, oh, oh my god, I can't remember. I mean,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine I did that like thirty years ago.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: And it's just like very rewarding for me. Not from
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: an ego standpoint, but it's just like, where did I
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: come with that idea at the time.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Well, when you're in the moment of it, all.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Right, you're just you're kind of just putting out your work,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: right like once you perfect it, and then you're you're working.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: And I mean I've I've seen your your space, like
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Jeff's working a lot, so you kind of don't really
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: come up for air to like appreciate all of it.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, I don't. I I really have made a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: decision like many years ago that I just don't. Really,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I ask cliche that it might sound, I don't.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I don't live in the past and I don't live
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: in the future. Really, it's just like really truly live
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in the present. I you know, I appreciate the past
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and it's great for storytelling and anecdots, you know, and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: the future is who knows, you know. So for me,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: it's I do everything with love and passion in a
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: moment and whatever happens after happens after. It's like blenting
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: a seed every day and maybe the seed will take,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: maybe the seed won't take. Maybe if I put the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: right amount of love and and and sunshine to that
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that seed, maybe a little twig will come out, Maybe
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a little trunk will come out, maybe a branch, maybe
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a leaf. Maybe one day a fruit will come out.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And when that freako comes out, I might not be here.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: But that's why I'd like to think that I might
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: have a legacy. So legacy, legacy has it's it's overused
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: by a lot of people, but legacies it's very pretentious,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: but it's so very humbling because who do have to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: do a thing that have a legacy one? And but
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: also it's like very selfless because you you're not going
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to be here to see the result of of how
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: good that fruit taste at the end. So who's going
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to taste it? Maybe my grand kids, maybe my family,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe the little kid that that that is listening
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to this show. And and it might be inspired by
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: by what I do, and and it gets motivated that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to try to follow some of the things that I do,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and and that would be the that's my biggest reward
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: for me. I'm I get fed from trying to help
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: out people and try to inspire others.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like you've done everything that you want
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: to do in your career?
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: No, No, that's that's kind of like the fear. That's
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: probably the only thing that's kind of I'm not gonna
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: say it haunt me, but it bothers me. I mean,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I just don't want to be on my deathbed. Who
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: knows when tomorrow morning or in thirty years from now
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And and and say, you know what, I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: did not maximize my potential. I mean, right now, I
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: have so much to to to give. I mean I have.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's like I have to control
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the faucet. I mean that by fire, I have to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: control it. You know. I don't want the fire to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: go out of control. It's just, you know, and all
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I do is, like I said, same thing with the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: seats a plant. Every day I create sparkles and people
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: around he tried to build up those sparkles and try
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: to build up the fire and then hopefully when the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: fire is built, I go and dance around it. But
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I just don't want the fire to go out of control,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: because it's just even as I now, I'm still working
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: ten twelve hours a day and people leave. People look
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: at me and they look that through my page and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Instagram and say, what, this guy is blessed? I mean,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: he's like everywhere. He's in Paris, one day, is in Tokyo.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: The next day he's there. He's there, he drives his
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: scar But really it's just, you know, they don't see,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: like you said, the backwork. And the backwork could be accounting,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: could be, production, could be but fortunately enough, I'm passionate
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: about all of it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that's important with art because being a
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: creative can sometimes push you in a space where you're
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: maybe only good at the creative part. And I'm sure
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: you've worked with people over your career that have unbelievable talent,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: but they don't have the focus and the discipline and
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: they don't have the fire, as you said, in all
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: areas of business, and to be as successful as you
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: have been for as long as you've been requires those
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: other things, or at least the awareness that you don't
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: have those skills, and to put the right people in
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: place so that you can build and like scale the
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: business because being creative is more than just having the
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: talent to make something beautiful.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: What really matters is the fact that through the journey
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: of life, you know, the most positive moments in my
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: life were my biggest failures. The more I failed, the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: better I came. I made better, I came up, you know,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the the you know, I became better at it, at
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: everything I did, because I kind of again, it sounds
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: so cliche, all the things I said, but it's just
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: learning from new mistakes, you know, and learning the discipline.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: And I attributed my discipline maybe to my education. And
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you know, I was a really good math student, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, because I grew up as a nerd.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: So for me, it was very important for me to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: know to be to try to be accepted. And and
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I learned that I refuse to procrastinate. I don't. I mean,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I don't want procrastination in my world. I mean I don't.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And also I don't want to be entitled. You know.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: When I came to America in nineteen eighty and nineteen
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: eighty three, you know, I just don't know anything about fashion.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I barely speak English. I learnt even to have a
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: green card. And but I ways to do things. And
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I knew about licensing, and it just got the first
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: license of Guest Janes the man. I found the company
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: for the of the Men's company as a license. See
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: next thing I do is next thing next year or
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: two years later. I'm like seventy five million cells and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I'm we're talking about the eighties, I mean, and I'm
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: in barely in my twenties, you know, And and you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: start believing you on BS, you start believing like I'm
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the man, I'm the one, and of course you built
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: up the confidence, and you know, you get the money
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and you get the reward, and you get also like
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the side things you know, like like But it's fortunately enough.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I never was into drugs. That was one thing that
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I had. In fact, you know, when I moved to America,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I never had a drink before, never smoked a cigarette,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and never did a thing, you know. So and you realize,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you know, those it took me maybe forty years to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: to to find out that thirty five forty years to
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: find out that really you cannot be entitled to anything
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: in that way, and you have to be grateful for
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: what comes in because whatever you have today could be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: done in a second. You know, it's just you never know.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, it takes you know, if if if it
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: took the growth the victory in a Semitic park, you know,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the old, the general, the grand old Psychoia tree. Right,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: if you take that that, I don't know how all
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: that tree is and you chop it up and chop
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it up and chop it up. And as many you
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: have millions and millions and millions of matches, takes only
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: one match to burn the whole tree. So that's how
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: how sensitive of life is, how we hold by a thread,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and we whether we are really and are religious, I
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: believe in the loss of universe, and we're basically nintendna.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: We are channeling what we are and through our process
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: we educate ourselves to be better. That's what we do.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: And we know more the right way to the right path,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: how to do it a longer, however long it takes
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: to get there. But you you enjoy the moment because
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: you don't know if tomorrow morning you're going to be here.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: What is it like when you're interacting with young the
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: young people? Now, I mean, you've had a career that
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: has spanned so many different.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: What do you mean to say them.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: No, I mean I am they're young. They're young to me.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, like, you know you have.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is like your brand is generational.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: That is not a small thing. And you are in
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: these spaces and known and in songs and in videos
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: and like it's it spans generations.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I don't feel my age. I
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: mean I feel like I'm like I said, so, it's
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: like when you live in the moment and you you
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: stay relevant. You know the problem of people, even very
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: successful people, they get stuck in a moment in time
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: because there was a moment in time where they were
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: happy and they were successful. Maybe they had great girlfriend,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: they had a great boyfriend. Maybe they had that great
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: car and it was twenty years ago or so. They
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: still had that earring, they still have the long hair,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: they still have the do rag, they still have the
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: lower pants or whatever. Because I was they want to
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: there is that moment, and you don't want to evolve
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: with the time. You know. I choose to kind of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: evolve with my time and knowing and try to know
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: what's going on. I want to, you know, the minute
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: you want to start learning. That's why you start slowing down.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: You know, for me, I'm passionate about learning about AI
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: am passionate about learning about you know, educate myself. I
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: mean now I want to take lessons of I'm a
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: good accountant actually, but i'm and I'm not certified the
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: clients account But but I love it. I love numbers.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I love to learn new things and new techniques, and
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I'm always exploring to try to be better just from myself.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It's just that hunger makes you create the desire. So
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I always have the desire, always build up the desire
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: for everything that I do, and my passion drives all that.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not saying relevant is a It is a
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: tricky thing to do, but the quality of your work
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: always cuts through.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I'd like to think it does. And and and also
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like also you're protective, you know. I mean,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I want everybody that looks up to me to be successful,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: but I don't want anybody to come and compete with me.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So I mean, I mean, I mean a lot of
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: people want to compete with me, but but I kind
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: of always try to raser bar. I always try to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: reser bar. So when when people start copying me, or
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I try to get closer. I start because my name
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: was bigger than theirs. I start signing my jacket and
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I start dating them, or I start creating certain things,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: or I start creating a piece of art to go
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: with it, and uh, you know, but every so often
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I come up with something more to add to to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the product. That to the point that I don't sell
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: a jacket because you are cold, you know, I've used that.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Many say, you don't buy a Jeff Helmand jacket because
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you're called, Like you don't buy a rolex because you
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: know what time it is. It's kind of like it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: kind of a flex but also it's more flex for
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: yourself than for somebody else, you know. I always tell
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: people like I have flex, I mean certain things, but really,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: if I was not flexing myself for myself first, there's
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: no there's no purpose. You know, you have to feel
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: good in your skin with you certain things, you know,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and in life, I think it's it's very important to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: be as authentic as you can, you know, so to
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: that extent, you want to people to read you the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: way you you really are. And but we all have filters,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: you know, I have my filters I have my glasses,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I have my tan, I have my beard, I have
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: my hair, I have my jackets. Those are like my
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: security blankets that I have. But I'm aware of it.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: And like a woman goes out and she she puts
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: her makeup and she puts our high heels, and she
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: puts her bag or so we have to have certain
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: things that make you feel good. When you look at
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Steff in the mirror, you feel good. Then you build
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: up the confidence you know, and I think it's important
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to the ultimate goal is always to try to be
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: as authentic as you can be, and nobody is really
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent. But if you can do that, I mean,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: that's where you can control your destiny. You know, you're
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: not depending on on the boss to tell you what
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to do, or or a banker to tell you have
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that much line of credit and this and that, and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and you're independent, whether it's financially or or intellectually.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: What do you get inspired by?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: My life? Every moment? Everything inspires me such But it's
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: also it's not as sexy as we could make it
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to be. And it's just not like I wake up
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night and I put my
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: finger and I just start thinking at like painting on
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: a piece of paper and waking up, and it's just
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: like you know, I've done it so much that we
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: know we know the road. I mean, you've come so
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: many times to the same destination that you know how
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: even if you don't take the main road, you can
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: take the side street. You're going to get to the destination.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: The point is for me to get to the destination
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: at all time, and I don't care how long it
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: takes me. And so in that way, we are mechanical
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: in a way. But it's rather than mechanical, is experience
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and knowledge that we have. It's like you when you
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: do an interview, you know what sensitive point to take,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you know what research you need to do. It's every profession,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: every art form has has his own direction.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Have you had a point in your career where you've
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: had a lull or a lack of inspiration?
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: You had to break through very much?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yes, I Ah, I was very successful up
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to two thousand and two. Sold my company, made a
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: lot of money. Ah. And that was a CEO of
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: a big public company, the company about me. And and
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: again the entowments, you know, sets in and you know,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: starts spending the money and living the high life and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and uh, being successful has everything in life is balanced.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: So being successful has this advantage and the perks and
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: it has also did this is it's by points, you know,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: so it's it's it's a blessing that occurs. So when
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: you're very successful and you're young, and you you know,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: you move better than the people that bought the company
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: from you, and you're more famous that they are, and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you're getting the attention. You know, there is like in everything,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: every relationship that you have, business, personal, there is any
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: time there is something emotional that gets in the middle,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: it affects the relationship, whether it's jealousy, whether it's like ego,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: any kind of it's very hard to control egos or
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: emotions like that or jealousies. And I was too successful
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: for those people, so they did I was making too
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: much runny, and so they tried to find a way
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to push me out so and I didn't care. So
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, I kind of like left
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the company. They didn't pay me the rest of the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: money they owed me, and then we got into the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: American system of the legal system with the lawyers and
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: this and that which they all made the money. But
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sad. I don't have to worry, so
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I keep on not changing my bid in my life.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm still being on Beverly Hills and on
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the Rose Voices, and then then the Shelby and the
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Viper and the Bentleys and and the Travels and all
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: over in San Tropez and this and that and that
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: so and and then you realize, like you know, Favier
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: had gone by, you know, like a lot of your
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: capital has gone down, and and you just you're not relevant,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: you know, you don't even know what's going on. And
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: then you try something. It's decide, you know what, I'm
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: going to go back and try something, and it's not working.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: And he said, you know what, maybe I'm sober up
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: because those people I've had so much jealousy in my life,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: of people that try to take my energy. I call
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: them vampires. You know that that's a real meaning of vampire.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: People don't want you your blood, people who want to
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: take your energy. And uh, and I really didn't want
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: to be in the fashion business. I didn't want to
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: use my name Jeff Hamilton, and everything I was doing,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I kind of like wanted to. I just wanted to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: switch to another business, I can, you know. So I
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: got into private equity, I got into into art, you know,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: and because I'm an artist as well. But then I
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: wanted to I create an art art fair. But nothing
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: was really working. I mean, because you're dealing with people
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: that that really were so needy and so entitled and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: so and I could not babysit people. I could not
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: do things like that, so to the point that basically
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: I kept deploying parachutes after parachute. You know, when I'm
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: in a parachute, selling a home, you know, selling this property,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: selling my memorabilia collection, which was like over two thousand
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: pieces of everything from the championship belts to the seventeen
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: jersey of my Call and jerseys with Kobe and championship
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: rings and this and that, and you know, and I mean
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: I can't even tell you how much I but you know,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: you start selling all the stuff and the properties, and
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: then it comes to point you said, you know what,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I'm here, like, you know, six years old, and and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I cannot make I cannot survive with that going out
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and working. And you start you following the depression, which
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: is a great feeling. By the way, I mean you
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: feel the depress it's just like it's like you start
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: feeling for yourself, sorry for yourself, and then suddenly you
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: try to get out of it, and you try to
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: get out of it, and it's like you fall. You
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: tried to get up and you cannot think, and ultimately
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: you get up. And when I got up or five
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: years ago, and it was like for me and miracle,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't even expect it. I mean, that's kind of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: like got all the universe telling you, you know what
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: you paid your dues now. Because I never was lazy.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I never was, you know. I really wanted to work,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: but I just could not find my way. I had
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: lost my mojo. I honestly didn't look at myself in
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the mirror. I didn't like myself. I didn't want to
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: have anything to do with it. You know. It's just
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: like my family. My family fell apart, you know, just
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and and it was a very very trying time for me.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, I did not I didn't want to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: be around. And then I got got into a car
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: accident in twenty nineteen, broke my arm, broke my my wrist,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: my elbow, my shoulder fracture, my shoulder fracture, my stereinum.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was like five d in a hol
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: hospital and like at all. I've never done drugs, you know,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to start taking pills and pills and pills and smoked
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a little weed. Like maybe ten fifteen years ago I started,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: which I don't have a problem with that. I don't
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: do it a lot, but occasionally I don't mind. The
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Only reason why I don't do it because it makes
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: me lazy, that's but I enjoyed the feeling. And but
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I was overdoing everything like that. But I was not
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: doing like hard drugs, you know, just like pills, and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: suddenly it's just like things start opening up. I didn't
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: understand why in twenty nineteen I had a million two
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: a million three doAnd followers. I had no idea why
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I did not get it. I mean I never posted
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: anything new because I didn't like myself. I only posted
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: like a picture of that's on Mandela I wear in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: my jacket, or or Michael Jordan or Kobe or Guns N' Roses,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Martley Crewe, pictures of me when I was young riding
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: my bike and then my cars, and you know my home.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Stuff like that made me feel good. I didn't do
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: it for and certainly like like, I start getting a
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: different energy. And you know a couple of rappers you
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: know from you know, I did the original dip set
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: stuff with Cameron and Jim Jones and Jos Santana that
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: you know. Jim Jones called me. I said, you know
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: him and Vado do we want to write a song
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: about you? What would you? In my mind, you know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: what would you? Who cares? Really? And uh so you
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: have jackets? I said, I really didn't have any more jackets.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: I mean I had maybe ten jackets left, you know,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: in my closet, And said, would you learn it to
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: us for the video? Want you to come and say,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to go to New York and spend
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: two or three thousand dollars just to go for a video.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: And I don't care. You know, nobody's gonna here to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: start with. So I sent them the jackets and and
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: they tell back to me, of course, And then another
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: day I opened they wrote a song called Jeff Heilton,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: you know, and everybody's just saying it, you know. And
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: but in the meantime, also when I went to different places.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: You know, people said, you're Jeff Hamilton, legend, legend for
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: what you know, and and you're twenty years old. I mean,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Kobe was was was was when he won the championship?
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Was was eighteen years ago when you were two years old?
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: How do you know of me? You know? So suddenly
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Instagram opened the door for me for people to re
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: understand the body of work I've done before. And didn't
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: realize that I had that behind me. And then one
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: day I opened my my DM and there was a
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: somebody that that came as you know, I'm a big
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: fan of yours. You know, I love what you've done
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: with all the athletes, and I'm from Harlem, and I
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: love what you know with the athletes and and and
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and hip hop, and you've really made a mark in
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the culture. And I'm a big fan of yours. In patential,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: thank you, my friend. I've always always answered at the MS.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I don't care. I have five hundred MS today. I
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: answer every single one of them, whether it's an EMOGI
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: or little Heart or something, but I always do. And
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and I said, thank you, my friend. That's it. And
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the guy goes on and say, well, if you ever
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in Beverly Hills. Let me know, I'd love to take
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: you out to lunch. I'm not working. I mean, let
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: me see who is. And I look at the page
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: and honestly, I didn't know who was. I knew the name,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: but I had no idea who was was Asa Rocky
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: At the time, it was like, you know, the end
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, end of the probably the nineteen they
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: had like fifteen sixty million followers. He said, sure, I'll
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: go for lunch. So we went, we had lunch, and
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: I said, you don't know what you mean to us.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: You know, we saw us with with Cam and Deep Set,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and then what you did with with all the with
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Co and Michael and we you know, for us, you know,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: it was always the holly grail to get a Jeff
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Hamilton because you know, obviously, I mean, and you know,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I appreciate all the other brands like the Vanson's and
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the Avior Eggs and the Pelotpealay. I mean, they always
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: did a great job, whatever it did. But but I
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: was three times four times a price. So you could
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: buy a a pilet pal for four or five hundred dollars.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Mine was two thousand and three thousand dollars a jacket.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: I'm talking in ninety eight, ninety seven, ninety six. And
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: we loved it because we could not afford it. And
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: we loved it because also my work was different. There
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: was more detailed to it, and we had more you know,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: there was more investment to the product. And and I say,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: you mean a lot to us, and you need to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: come back again. And you know, just we're always speaking
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: to with Virgil, we're speaking with down't see about you
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: all the time, and you inspire them to do what
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: they are doing. And for me, like it's all news
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to me. I mean, how come everybody around me never
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: supporting me? Like here like a whole new generation of
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: young kids like I appreciating me. So he said, I
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: really want to make a jacket for me. I said, sure, Honestly,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't have any idea of how to make a jacket. Again,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I didn't have the factory, I didn't have the workers,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't have anything. And I said, anyway, there's no
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: way I can make a jacket in two weeks. It
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: was for Yam's Day and Brooklyn Center. Ah. So I said,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: but if you want to loan, you want to my
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: jacket and and he said, sure, but I want you
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: to come and bring it to me. I say, I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: really don't want to go to New York. I mean, like,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I really don't want to spend the money. I didn't
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: want to be there. I really didn't feel good in
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: my skin. I still had like my big slip and
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I had my cast and I was like in pain.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: And you know my beard was big like that. I
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: just like and I died it like black like this.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I just like, I just hated myself. And uh. So
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: he convinced me to go to to so. So I
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: was on the phone when he asked me to come,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and I hung up the phone. Ten minutes later, I said,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm Rocket's assistant. So we have a first class
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: ticket for you to New York. We have you staying
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: in this hotel. We'll have a car service picking you up.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Rocky really wants you to do and bring the jacket.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: So I didn't have the jacket that he wanted, which
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: was a young Borghini jacket, so we did. I told
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: him I would loan you the Kobe jacket and the
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Kobe jacket that I had. Nobody knows, but it was
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: the actual first one that was ever made before I
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: even made the jacket for Kobe, and it's called the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Kobe jacket, but this was the jack jacket at the
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: same time, So when need the Kobe jacket? Nobody That
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: was kind of like my sample of how I tried,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: like the colors that change and I played, because before
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: we didn't use that much. We were not as we
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: didn't have that many graphic and graphic artists where we
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: could visualize. I always have that gift of being able
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to visualize an idea and see and projected in my
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: mind of how I would see the product finish, just
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: by knowing what the project is. And so I got
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: lean in the jacket and then they came out, and
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: so I ended up going there. I was backstage and
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: suddenly like out pouring of love from everybody from two
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: chains and from from from who was like Lil Yati
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: and Rihanna. It's just when it started going out with Rihanna.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: So I had made some jackets for her over the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: years in between when I stopped in two thousand and
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: five till twenty nineteen, I still made jackets. One here
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: when for Rhianna I did drakes When when when Kobe retired.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I did a couple of pieces here and there, but
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: really was not you know, it was not a business
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: for me. I really wanted sometime to come back, but
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to. I went. I was attracted, but
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I was trying to push it myself, because that's just
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: what I had been hurt so much by my success,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: hurt me, hurt my with my my family, with with
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: with my friends, you know, because I was that was different.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: And uh and after that, I mean the next stage,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: so I was there, I shouted my name out on stage,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: you know, I was with him on stage, and there
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: was sixteen thousand people, and Virgil was there. Everybody was
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: at the next day, Supreme post Me, Virgil post Me,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and just like I don't know, since we've got like
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand more followers. And then just next the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: next week or so after that, and suddenly everybody and
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: everybody legendy is legend legend for what I'm just making, Jack,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm doing. I invented like a rein surgery
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: or like like a cure for for for cancer. And
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: then then but they ignited that that flame in me,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: you know that as a combination of people showing me
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the love and as the songs, as seeing the audience
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: of my Instagram engaging with me and mean more. And
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I really my fire got engaged and get more. And
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: maybe from an ego's standpoint, because I lead, they knew
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the name Jeff Hamilton, which I was trying to push
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Awaven when in during those tough years, I came up
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: with another brand. I didn't want to use the name
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Jeff Hamilton. I didn't want people to know I was
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: even behind that brand. And and I think it might
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: have been the best designs I've ever made in my life,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: but people did not did not understand it. I was
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: probably ten years too early for that. And then then
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I started. A friend of mine gave me an office,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: a desk in one of his warehouse, and I start
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: going and working every day at least like I had
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: a purpose to do something. I didn't know what I
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: was doing. I was doing the list, I was making emails.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Then people start calling me, people want to do collaborations
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: with me, and that's just like within the first two weeks,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and then the used tragedy, you know, Kobe dies Janney
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: twenty six. Then suddenly we all devastated you know, because
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: he was just meant so much to us, you know,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: especially when you I mean, I'm not going to say
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: specially assentage. I think he hit everybody across the world,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: whether you knew and personally or didn't know him, It
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: all hit us in a very very strong way, and
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: especially the way the trategy happened. But in a way
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: somewhere I think I have a blessing of Kobe. So
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: blessed Kobe kind of bless me at that moment because
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the whole world suddenly realized that they connected him with
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: him with that jacket, that moment, that sad moment when
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: he was in a shower, and we all know we
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: might not know why at the moment why he was
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: sad at that moment. You know, he was in Philly,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: he won a championship. He grew up as a Philly fan,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: you know, and that played for the Sixers, you know,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and people booing him the whole night, and then he
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: had a falling out with his parents as well during
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: that time, and then he was like he needed that
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: moment to meditate and have that alone moment, and that's
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: what he was sad. He was really in a trance
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: when it happened, But that picture became the most iconic picture,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: and that jacket became the most famous piece of fashion
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: in sports history. Has been voted that much. It's not
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the most famous picture in sports history. I think the
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Sonny enlisted picture might be might be more famous or Jordan. No,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: but it's going to that. And suddenly, so certainly Instagram
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: start blowing after me, and I'm getting people say I
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: need to get the jack I need to get the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: two thousand, and it doesn't want it doesn't two. I
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: need to do two back. I needed to repeat. So
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: I cannot make those jackets. I don't have a license
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: in the NBA. I call the NBA and just you know,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: and I always had an amazing relationship with the NBA,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: all the way from David's turned to to it. I
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: am silver or too, And since nineteen eighty eight, you know,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I had designed the fifty greatest players in the NBA
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, I call them. I said, I
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: don't know what to do. I have people on the
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: jacket and again I still don't know how to produce
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: a jacket. But I have an idea, you know, and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the people I was doing for me I mean, they
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: were charging me four times the same pride that they
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: charging me fifteen years ago, you know. And so he said,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I'm selling that jacket for two thousand dollars, I have
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: to sell at six seven thousand dollars suddenly, you know,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: but I don't find the resistance. People want it. It's
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: like a part of part of history. And so the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: NBA said to just go ahead do it. You know,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: if it becomes a real business, then then then we'll
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: talk again, and then then we'll address it. Right now,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: you just go ahead and do it. Do they get
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: me also the blessing to do that? And suddenly I
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: start doing it. Then there is the All Star Game
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: in Chicago, and obviously and the Super Bowl in Miami,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: where you know it was actually sick. One Barklay call
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: me and he wanted to wear my jacket, and Obj
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: wore my jacket too, So they all calling me. I'm
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: loaning them those ten same tan jackets. I'm kind I'm
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: floating them around. And then at the All Star Game
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: and sent one to Dave East and want to lu
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: lu Lacris and want to check as a rapper. And
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: you know, all the studies economies say what do you
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: have for us to wear? So I really want to
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: have the present. But I'm still not going to Chicago.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: I'm still kind of like still holding back a little bit,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: but I'm starting to build up my whole are and
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: energy into me, and I say, now I want to
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: work because I feel an opening, certainly like COVID hits
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: now suddenly shut down, and I say, this is a
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: moment for me too. This is the sign of God
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: that I need to come out even strong enough. When
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: everybody's going to be on their bed watching MSNBC in
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: my case or other people Fox, I'm going to be
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: working and I'm just going to be very careful because
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: obviously I want my family, you know that, to be healthy.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get sick. So I believe in science.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: So any opportunity I had to do vaccines or being tested,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I did it. So I was speciically tested once a week.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: I never quarantined one minutes in my life. I never
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: had COVID up to now. And I still I say,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: when people will wake up from their comma, I'll be
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: a hundred miles ahead of them when they woke up.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: I was ten thousand, ten thousand miles ahead of them,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, And that's that's kind of like I
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: took advantage of that thing for me to rebuild where
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: people were standing seals, so I could run ahead and
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: get a head start for that. And I decided I'd
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: also changed my whole perspective of ah I wanted to
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: run a business. I said, I want to be authentic.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: I don't care to scale my business like I did
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: in the past and the multi you know, millions of dollars.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm not complaining, but I I'd rather be
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: smaller but controlling my own destiny. I don't want to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: know that I have my mortgage in my house. Towards
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, my mortgage was thirty eight thousand dollars a month.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: I mean like I was not working. I mean how
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you come up with every month? And I was stressed
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and stress and stressed. I don't have I want to
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: live a stress free life. And if I don't have
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: it in my pocket, I'm not spending it. I'm not
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: gonna spend a great card. I'm gonna spend if I
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: don't have a car. If I have my car, I
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: own it. If I have a if I buy from
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: a supplier. I pay in advance. I don't care if
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: I have six months credit. I still pay it when
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I use my card and I have thirty to pay
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: up in the next morning. And in a way, that's
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: me try to build up, letting go of everything. And
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: just if I can eliminate any source of getting a problem,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I can focus completely my life into my baby, which
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: is my business and my passion. And and I rediscover
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: my passion. I rediscovered that I really love to do
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: what I do, and I really enjoyed the process of
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: creating and and and be around people. I mean, that's
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: my most rewarding. I mean, I love working, and I
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: love being behind a computer. But really where I think
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I'm better artists just when I'm on the road, when
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: I'm when I'm at an event where I meet people.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I'm non transactional. I like the idea that you know.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Of course, I love I want to be financially successful
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and and but I love the fact that I don't
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: want to chase anything. I don't chase money, I don't
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: chase I don't want to chase anything. I mean, I
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: love to put all the right energy. The same way
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: I told you the analogy about that. See that you
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: plan on the ground is I just want to give
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: all my best right here. Let the tree go grow
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: of its own and let the leaves go up and
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: let the fruit come out of the end. And that's
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: the way I chose to live my life. And I'm
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: very happy. I mean, there is it's very tempting because
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: there is a lot of great opportunities coming in. But
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: that means I have to scale up my business, and
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: that means I have to take, you know, investments, I
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: have to take partners, and you know, of course, it's like,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: you know, short term, it's very enticing because you say, well,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm cashing in and doing it. But at
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, I said, you know, I
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: have not a plan that I want to ever retire.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I don't care if my last day in my life
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: is on my desk or or on the phone. I
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: don't mind. I mean that I'm okay with it, you know,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: just as long as I'm doing something out of I love.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: Jeff is the best. It was interesting on the planet
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: to church. I'm back.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: I'm like, listen, I'm writing a book right now. Jeff's
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: just repeating all the lines from it.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: That's that is really a well, it's the first time
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: I've heard that story from you.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: For lots of very interesting stories for you, which you
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: kind of touched on a lot of them anyway, you see,
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: like casually just mentioned Nelson Mandela. Yeah, like just cat
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: I Managager for Nelson Mandela very casually. Your story is
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: incredibly inspirational because that moment specifically, I think I think
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: everybody goes through some version of that, but speaking just
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: specifically to creatives, you can lose your way and you know,
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: you say you have you have Kobe's blessing. I believe
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: it like you you have the moment of clarity almost
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: That's what it sounds like. That puts you in a
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: place where you could dig in not just professionally, but
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: also emotionally and spiritually into yourself and pull yourself out
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: of that space. That's an amazing thing to have happened
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: in your life.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: One of the things that you know, and I just
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: don't want to be that kind of touched on it earlier,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: is just like often when when when when I do interviews,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: want to speak to people, and when I even think
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: about it, you know, it's obviously I try to be
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: spiritual and learning about it. But really the key is
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: not about learning about spirituality and is try to apply
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: to everyday life. If you can really apply spirituality in
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: your everyday life. I mean, this is where this is
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: a hard part. I mean, we can all preach all
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: we want and all stuff, but if we don't act
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: like what we're doing then And I'm not saying I'm
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: the perfect human being and I'm I do everything about
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: the rules. I mean I try my best, you know.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: But one of the important things that I realize is
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: because I went through the dark times. And I often
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: say it's when people say, what was the best time
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: of your life? If you had to think back like
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the last you know, six seven decades almost, you know,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: what were your best part of your life? The best
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: part of my life where it's not like youth, it's notarking,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: of course, you know my first kid, you know, when
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: you had this and that, and you know the first
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: million or not even that. I mean, it's just the
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: best part of my life. Was the darkest starting of
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: my life when I was doing the darkest time, when
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: I was on top of that building and it was
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: all dark in the room and I was in a corner,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: curled and depressed and feeling sorry for myself because you
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: think about that time you look through the window, nobody
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: can see you. You can see the world clear moving
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: around and you see all the moving parts, whether it's
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: your family, whether your friends with it's the world at large.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: And you kind of if you get the inn strands
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: to to to to evaluate that and take that as
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: a lesson. It just motivates you to to just come
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: out even stronger and and also give you the perspective,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: you know, the perspective. Listen, if would we see probably yeh,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: but which would we see Michael Jordan play every single game?
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: If every time he got the ball and he shot
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: it from everywhere in the court, he would make it
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: with Steph Curry, we don't want to go see the game.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be interesting. What's interesting is the fact that
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: once in a while he misses, and it gives you
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: the perspective of that. And it's just and to give
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: another analogy of Michael Jordan. You know, when I talk
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: about the passion, if Michael Jordan was not the biggest
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: icon there is, you know in sports right now and
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: after forty plus years and and and it was not
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: worth the money that he's worth. I mean at sixty
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: three years old, sixty three years old, he'll be in
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: his backyard shooting hopes and then being happy because that's
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: his passion. And that's that's the way. I'd like to
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: think that if I was not designing, I will be
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: doing some kind of art stuff, which is what I
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: did when I was out. I was, I was creating
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: art and I was I wanted to be in a
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: creative space in anything because it needs to get out
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: of me. I mean, I need to just go out
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: and I have the urge of doing it. And that's
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: the reason why it's my biggest fear is not being
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: able to maximize my potential. And I want to be
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: whenever I'm channeling from God or the universe, I want
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: to be able to put it out there as much
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: as I can. And that's why there's no time to
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: sleep right now.
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: You definitely don't sleep. I don't know how he sleeps.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: You are in a three different countries and in a
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: week speaking of you have a partnership with the World
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: Cup coming up, and you have this incredible I mean
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: kind of always evolving brands like you have all these
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: new partnerships. I mean, if you don't follow Jeff on
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: social media, should go follow me. Always has something do
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: coming up. But has there been anything that you've worked
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: on recently? I mean World Cup is obviously a massive,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: massive deal that's really been an extra boost of or
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: just like something that you weren't expecting to come across
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: your place.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: There is a lot. I mean, you know, obviously, you
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: know World Cup is amazing. You know obviously growing up
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: in being born in Morocco and being raised in France,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, like I always had been a basketball fan.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: So for me, basketball was like like a dream for me,
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Like I always wanted to play basketball. I was a
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: good player when I was a kid in France. When
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: I came to America, I was not that good of
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: a player. Uh, But I had a poster of uh
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: World Chamberlain and lu Asendor and Jerry West in my
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: room when I grew up, and and little I knew
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: that was going to meet all those people and create
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: for them and then befriends them. So basketball is always
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: kind of like my go to for for for that
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: excites me, and and I believe the basketball is also
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: the seed of a culture of a current culture. I
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: think with that basketball, there's no sneakers, there's no Michael Jordan,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: there is no Alan Iverson and streetwear and there's no
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: street art. And I believe that hip hop everything is
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: all interconnected. And then through through that, and then that
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: evolved all the way to to to to the big
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: luxury brand La Lui Vito and Balanciaga and and and
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Pride and all intertnected that. But I believe that basketball
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: is the seed level for that. So but having said that,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: soccer was very important for me because that's all we
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: watched on TV when I was a kid and growing up,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: so it's for me. It's also kind of what we
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: were talking a little bit earlier, walking back getting back
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: to my roots. It's it's kind of like it's going
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: back to my roots just going to soccer and and
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: going to to to Zurich a couple of weeks ago,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: a couple of months ago, I don't even know where
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: it was, and and uh and being in the FIFA
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: headquarters and see all that history and the pellet and
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: and and you know, like just like Maradonna and just
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: all those Michelle Platini and just all those beautiful moments
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: stuff and and the history of it is so so strong,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: and going through the museum and going through all the
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: archives and and being able to be able to get
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: that contract with that and again, and that's something that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: in Chase, they came to me for that. So it's
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: overly flattering and very reward for me to be able
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: to not take that opportunity and not to be able
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: to to do the best I can with it. So
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I have that. You know, we're probably working on one
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty different projects. I mean literally between a
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: hundred to two hundred projects at all times. You know,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: there is so so we have a couple one hundred
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: and fifty to two hundred projects at all times. It
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: can revolve it, so we work from right now. We
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: have a couple of jobs with Supreme that are coming up.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: You know. One of the projects I'm really very interested,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: most interesting for me also because it's also going back
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: to my roots and I grew up dreaming and loving
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: it was Holom globtroters. So I start working with them.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm designing that the new it's one hundred anniversary.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: You have the glob chtrots Holm glob Chorters and obviously
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: again also in hip hop. We believe I believe that
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: the culture's hip hop starts in Harlem. So it's kind
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: of like growth Oders basketball, Harland, you know, Red white,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: and Blue in a way that we love it. Being
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America next year,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's just everything is just all all the
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: alignment is there to just to be a beautiful, creative
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: moment and then hoping for better politics in our world.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, we are, we are. I mean you you talked
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: about it earlier. I mean you came here as an
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: immigrant and have built an unbelievable legacy and business multiple
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: times over, and are completely integrated in the culture of
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: American society. And it's you know, it's very not that
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: we have to get political, but you brought it up.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: It is sad for me to see the growing hatred
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: towards immigrants because there's there's so much beauty and all
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: of our you know, I mean gather diversely.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, like you know, I mean Mask is an immigrant,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: his wife is an immigrant. You know. I mean it's
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: just like, you know, we're not going to go there,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: but like, but it's just like the beauty, the beauty
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: of being an immigrant, you know. And and where I
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: take advantage of where I see where the advantages that
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: we have is we're hungry. We come mean, we want
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: to be the best we can. We want to elevate ourselves.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: We want to rise above what we had for better life,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: for for our families, and and and you want to
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: be the best at what you do, and and and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: we're not users. We fit into a system, but we
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: want to excel at what we do to try to
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: bring it. And one of the reasons I think I
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: succeeded in culture is because I watched the American culture
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: through a different lens. I mean, I looked at the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: varsity jacket when I was a kid, and it was
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: a big dream for me to have a varsity jacket.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: So when I came in nineteen seventy four for the
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: first time in America, and I had one hundred and
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: twenty bucks for a whole month, I walked to UCLA
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: and I just paid eighty dollars and about the varsity jacket.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: I had no money for the rest of the other thing.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, I believe that the sleeve were made out
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: of plastic. I mean I'm not plastic like full leather.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: They were actually plastic, kind of the plastic he used
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: for the Halloween costumes, you know. And but you know what,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: I put that jacket on and I felt like I
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: was two feet taller and about myself that set skin,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: and that's where I felt building up my love for that,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: even though I was not a taller designer. I had
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: no dream of becoming designer. I had no dream of
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: fashion and then liter on after I discovered, you know,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: after I succeeded with Guest Jeans as the first lescency
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: of in the men squear and I left Guests, I
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: didn't know what I was going to do. I was
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: going to do a fashion another fashion line, but I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: really started gravitating through more through jackets because you know,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: I mean I was I thought I was a hot shot.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, in my twenties riding Harley's with
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: Billy Idol and Martley Cruze and and James Kahan, so
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: we would write with felt like we were rebels in in
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: in Malibu, and you know, but you also, I wanted
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: to look good. You know, my hair was after my
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: shoulder looked like a downtrom here. I was red earrings
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing, and and so I started making
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: jackets for myself, and everybody's going quite crazy, said, did
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: you know I even I made them, I would tell
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: my sources, get the piece of leather and make it
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: like that and just aplicate put it like, I don't know.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: It's easier for me to make it out of leather
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: than to make it in embroidery. And I discovered new techniques.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: But as I was going through the process doing that,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: and when in left to the other people start wanting
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: to buy the jacket. So those are one of the
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: most important part of my happiness and in my successes
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: is that I was able to be relatable through my jackets.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I was able to send a message of the jacket,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: like when somebody puts one of my jackets on, the
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: feel a little bit different, can confirm. And it's just
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: it's amazing that I've been able to get that much
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: of a following just by people just going out and
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: getting that feeling. And that's the feeling I feel. And
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: I will never design something that I would not wear myself.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: So I don't care if somebody gave me twenty thousand
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: units of a style, and I felt good, and I
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: was simply doing for the money. I wouldn't do it,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: and as I would not do certain things. I mean,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: I was invited to go to the Red House five
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: years ago. I turned it down. I am not for
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: sale and I'm happy the way I am.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: Well, we're grateful you're here. Jeff. You have unbelievable, unbelievable
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: stories and you do. You are a legend.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: I know you don't like to hear that, but you
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: are a legend. I I don't know.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: Speechless for the first guessing got me speechless.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 3: It really is.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: It's just fascinating you have, like you're just casually talking
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: about riding bikes in Malibi with Billie Idole.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: What do you mean.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: So?
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: But it's like, Jeff, when you say things like that,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: you don't think that's crazy.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: May I mean it is? It is what it was.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: I mean for me, it was like I looked at it,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: my heart was palpitating orders around them. It still does.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, like I've known Michael Jourdan since nineteen eighty six.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, m one hundred times at least, but every
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: time in Miami, I kind of try to find some
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: kind of excuse to go to Growth twenty three. You know,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to show you somefing not not
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: to him, to his people. I have a new thing.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: I we just made those jackets, we made that sample.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: I want to show you where to get your thought.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: I end up going just to be around Michael, and
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: there's nothing but love and humility from him. People don't
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: see that from him, you know, because we go back
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: for so many years. But still I'm gonna be with
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Mike on Wednesday. I mean, Mike Tyson. It's the same feeling.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, I just collect. Those are people that my
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: heart beats every time I'm around them because they have
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: such an aura, such an energy. I feel like I'm
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: a two year old kid going to this land for
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: the first time and see Mickey Mouse, and I have
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: that same feeling every time. And I just love that
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: energy that I have from from them, and I'm that
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: drives me all the time. So when I had guest
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: jeans I was buying, I came up with the idea
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: of putting leather on denims at the time in the eighties,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: and you know, there was a guy that was selling
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: me the leather, so and there was everybody I was
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: buying leather for whoever wanted to sell me leather because
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I couldn't buy I couldn't find enough leather to do it.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Who were selling, you know, twenty thousand pairs a week
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: of jeans? So this is this kid used to come
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: and you know, Skinny, it was my age, you know,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: but I was a kid. So and it was coming right,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: Harley and came and delivery middle and just show me
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: the letter. Would I'd rather give the orders to him
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: because I was relating to him rather than and all
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: white dude from from Connecticut that was selling me like
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: from an old tannery, you know. I mean they were nice.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: I was giving them business, but I'd rather just support
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: somebody that was kind of like I could relate to.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: But it would come. So I started getting the love
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: of bikes and things like that. And then he decided
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: to start his own company. And so I said, I'll
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: finished guests. Can I borrow you, Harley? I'm going to
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: do a photo shoot on the harlest I took a
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: photo shoot and when in Malibu, like like like in
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: the countryside, kind of like there was an in dirt
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: road and I'm riding the holly and my hair flowing
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: the wind with my fringe's jackets and things like that,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: you know. And and that was like one of the
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: pictures that when I finished Guests and you know, uh,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: the magazine started publishing because now Jeff is free as
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: a bird, that he can do whatever he wants to
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: do now, and it was versed. This picture is very
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: symbolic for me. So actually somebody just did a painting
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: of this one. And it's not that it's not an
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: ego thing, but it means a lot to me. So
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: it's in my office, not in my office, in my studio.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: And and and that kid was when he started his
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: company was Chromehearts, and so when he came out, I
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: just went out and I want to support him. I
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: wanted to support it because I I love the kid.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: It was a nice, nice guy. So I started buying
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: from him. So I probably have the first of the
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: first five at ten belts that were ever made of Cromharts.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: And I've been offered stupid money for it. I would
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: never sell it, you know. And over the years I
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: probably lost most of all the stuff I had from him.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: And and he's been obviously very successful, and I'm very
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: proud of his success because he was he was always
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: a great guy and he deserved it.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: So it's so casual all that.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: It just like, you know, but.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: It's like you you have mentioned Nelson, Mandela, Michael Jordan,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: Kobe Bryant, Brianna Drake, Like I can't even remember all
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: of the people that you mentioned today. It's like your
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: your influence is uh, it's and now you're saying that,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: you know, you just were at the beginning of Crumbheart's.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: I was out. That was all the credit to him.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had nothing to do with it, but
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: he was like you know, I mean it was he
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: was already in a leather business.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: It's not like, uh, but your influences a lot in
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of places.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: I you know, listen people that work for me over
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: the years. I mean, if I give you names of
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: people that you know, I mean, I'm not going to
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: say something that has not been said before and that
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: but you know, don't see. Dancy was Virgil's partner and
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: he said it on camera that you know, he wrote
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: me gave me a trophy one time. He said, you
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: know you inspired us. You were our mentor growing up
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: in the nineties, Virgil and Iron and Kanye, which I
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: will not do business with. We were inspired by you
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: because in the nineties in Chicago, there was only Jeff Hamilton,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: it was only Michael Jordan and that's all there was.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: You know, every year we had six championship. Everybody's going
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: crazy over the just those jackets, and everybody needed to
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: have one of that. So were we're following. We were
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: following you through through those years, through the fifty Greatest Players,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: through Cleveland in nineteen ninety seven, through through even so
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: it is what we wanted. And for me, I mean
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know those things still three four years ago,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know that when Cameron did get them girls,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: and you know, I knew he mentioned name like Jeff
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Genesis at the time, you know, I mean that
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: was the song. You know, I knew that, I mean
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: mentioned in many songs, But I did you know that
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: Kenye was in the video and this guy was in
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: the video and Virgin with the video. Dancy was in
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: the video like in the back in the background, like
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: like all like like the posse, you know, and Cameron
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: was wearing nothing but my jackets. Then you know a
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: few years later, I mean, like last year or two
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: years ago, Drake had a concert at the Apollo Theater
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: and and and then and Dipset came out and Cameron
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Lone name all those jackets and he actually Drake shouted
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: me out like on stage, look, I'm still have the jackets, Hamilton.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: So so I never realized that. So the people from
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: from true religion, you know, I won't put a time
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: when when I was I guess you know, I mean,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: I they couldn't get certain dnams. I would seldom my
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: dNaM because I had access, unlimited access because we were
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: the big dog at the time. You know, the people
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: from j brand, the people from uh, the brand Casablanca
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: for instance, you know, I mean it's one of my
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: dear friends that I founded the brand. And I'm I mean,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: obviously you always see me wearing Casablanca and I'm I'm
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: a big fan of the brand because it really took
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: it to a different you know, it's something that I
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: I just I love and I appreciate because it's just
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: getting to a different level. And the guy is just
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: thirty years younger than me, and he's born in Casablanca,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: like I'm born in Casablanca's Muslim I'm Jewish. But you know,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: we have that brotherhood that you know, that's the beauty
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: that we have in Morocco, that we have no separation
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: between religion, rich or poor. We all we're very proud
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: of our heritage, you know, and whatever religion that we have.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: You could be walking in I could be walking in
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Morocco and and and here him. I'm on top of
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: a most calling for prayers, and it resonates with me
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: when I get my heart, I get bidding because I
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: feel the sensitivity and the love that there is, even
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: though from a different faith, and it's just And he
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: told me, I said, you know, I was in a
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: club business. Ah, and I was. You know, we always
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: loved you know, we loved the Kobe jackets. You know,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: we saw those jackets, you know, And that's what I
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to do. I want to do something that inspired me.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: And then you don't know, but I was inspired by
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: you when I want I started my company. I said,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't know, I'm inspired by you, by what you're
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: doing right now. So we ended up doing collaborations together.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: We're doing We did a collaboration with with Bidding Ape.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: We did collaboration with with with being in this Boys Club,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: just finished something with Pharrell, so we really are pretty
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: much all over the world. So we're doing something right now.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to Tokyo in ten days from now, and
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: you know, we have like four or five big projects
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: ongoing that that you know, hopefully we will do it.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Then we're going to Korea, you know, so we're planning
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: to open storage in Korea. We already have the frog
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: plan to to to basically open a hundred storage in
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: China within the next couple of years. So it's just
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: it's it's there, it's moving, it's just not like you know,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: it's just not It's a passion project for me, and
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: I want to keep authentic to that. But it's also
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: building up in a way that it's okay, we can
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: build and and and and be happy with it, you know,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: as long as I'm I'm not there making every sell
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: in every single store.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: Well, we started asking about Kobe. Do you think that
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: the Kobe jacket is the most important piece that you've
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: made in your career. There's a tough question because about
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: everything that you've just thought, well, you.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: Know, it's every design of mine for me has a
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: special meeting, but from a commercial and the most famous jacket,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: without any doubted the Kobe jacket. My most favorite jacket
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: is probably the Michael Joran jacket. Repeat the three bit,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: because it's kind of like really opened the door to
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: understand that the jacket is more than just a bit
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: of clothing. It was the actual trophy. When you win
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: a championship, and you've been your whole life in sport
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: with your family and you understand sports, the biggest achievement
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: that you have when you win a championship is at
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: that championship rink. So you win a championship in June,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: you have to wait till October. End of October for
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the season, when it's ring night, that's
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: when you get the validation. We live in a world
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: of instant gratification. We just don't want to wait. We
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: want to see things right away, you know, we we
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: we're anxious. Time is shorter. So in ninety eight, that's
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: a radio over thirty years ago. Close to thirty years ago.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: We when I made I did the first jacket ninety one,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: so it's actually thirty four years ago. So I I
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: didn't know what I was doing, but I guess it
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: got a channel to the point where when the athletes
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: start wearing that jacket. When michaels I wearing the jacket
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: ninety one, it didn't become as public till it became
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: really hit heavy in ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: ninety eight, it becomes the validation. So on anneya jacket
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: there was six trophies. It showed the record that they
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: had of this year. They had the finance logo on that.
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: It showed the map of the kind of Chicago he had,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: the red, the black, he had, the basketball material, he
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: had whatever it was in you know, it was in
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: the seventy six. I kind of picked up the pattern
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: leather shoes that he was wearing and I put some
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: accent on the things with It's kind of like an
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: artist that paints on the canvas. My jacket is my canvas.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: I'm able to tell my best storytelling. Rather than do
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: it on a piece of canvas, I can do it
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: with something that people can put it on and tell
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: the stories. So and more than anybody else could be
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: understood that because he was such the way he revered
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, the way even the way he spoke, the
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: way he can herod himself, and and I think he
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: took it to another level, you know where even in
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: his game where he was so dedicated just to be
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: the best at and then creating the home mentality that
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: we say, but he was really focused of being the
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: best and and but even off the court when that
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: jack when he won the championship, that was very meaningful
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: to him. And even even Lebron. When Lebron, you know,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: was interviewed for TNT during the twenty twenty two seventy
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: five Greatest Players, he said, the only thing I remember
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: during the fifty Greatest Players, I mean it was like
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: I saw all those great players, you know, like all
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: coming out with those leather jackets. I mean that's kind
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: of like I want to be one of those. And
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: it's just we don't understand how success is only through
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: our lenses, through other people's lands, you know. And just
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: to go back to to to what we talked about
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: it as to my point of an immigrant, when look
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: at it, I see the beauty of America. I see
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: the beauty of of of of the western stuff. I mean,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: I see the beauty of the cowboy hats, I see
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: the beauty of of of the vintage stuff. Of the
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I just did a jacket for for for
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: for for. I'm promise you I'm not flexing, and I'm
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: a train name that you say, oh my god, you
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: did No. I just did a jack for for for
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: n g K for for for his new album, and
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to be Americana, and what was Americana?
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: So we kind of two the look of the Marlborough cigarettes,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: you know, and kind of like let the jacket around
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: the same theme without coping better inspired by that, you know,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: so those are I love. And his album is called
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: Last Americana, which is exactly where the space I want
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: to be. I love. I love the tankers of that
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: are all full of chrome, and and then the old
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: vintage cars and and you know, just that for me,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: that's that's how I get high, just by looking at
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: that beauty. And I was in I Spen like a
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago and looking at the beauty of
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: how beautiful America is and and and the beautiful things
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: that we have, and and we have to be appreciative
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: of the good stuff and not for the negativity that
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: we have. And and you know, like every every night
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: or any the dark time, we'll have a morning and
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: a bright time. So I believe we stay the course,
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: we don't give up, and we always will be If
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: we do everything right, everything will be right.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know how we're gonna top this one, Jeff.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: It's really really tough. I really appreciate you coming down.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: You're the best I know. This is like fifteen percent
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: maybe of your STUF can't confirm, but I really appreciate it.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: And you being so open about about your story here.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: And then it's an hour to be with you and
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: talk to you openly. I was just I have no
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: no holes bar here.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: Well that's so you got to go to Personal and
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: two Person. Thanks for coming down, Jeff, Thank you. That
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: was amazing. So grateful to Jeff for coming by and
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: blessing the pop with his amazing story.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 3: Make sure you go and follow him at Jeff Hamilton.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 3: I can't keep up.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: With all of his announcements, but he will always have
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: something going on over there, so go and check him out.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: All right, sign for Never Too Personal. If you want
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 2: to be a part of the show, you can email
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: us at two Personal Podcasts at gmail dot com, or
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: you can send us a DM to Too Personal show
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: on Instagram. This one says, I'm still having PTSD from
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: a past relationship. It's been five years, and I still
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: find myself in flight mode at a sign of anything
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 2: I don't like. Nobody is perfect, and I'm sure it's fear.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: How do I reset going forward? Well, well, look, it
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 2: sounds like that relationship was pretty stressful and toxic.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 3: Reset going forward is tough.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: I have to tell you, I deal with this a
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: lot myself.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 3: PTSD is a very real thing.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: Obviously, as I do with most things, I suggest therapy.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 2: I did very intensive therapy after one of my more
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: traumatic relationships, and it definitely helped prepare me to be
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: in a healthy relationship. It helped me identify the issues
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 2: that I was having, and personally, the issues that I
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 2: was having was I was very.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 3: Bad with boundaries.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know, obviously, what it is that it allowed
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: you to be in a situation like that and what
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: it was that happens. Obviously, I'm not saying that is
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: your fault, but when I left that relationship, I found
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: a pattern in myself that I wanted to heal, and
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: obviously I also wanted to process everything that happened to me.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: So I don't know on a I don't know how
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: to reset going forward. The best advice that I can
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 2: give is to continue to try and find pockets of peace,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: to be still, find things that do not trigger your.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 3: Your emotions in a negative way.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: Don't surround yourself with people that are toxic because they
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: will also trigger you. Definitely find your version of therapy,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 2: whether that is working with a therapist, whether that is
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 2: going to a group and working in group therapy, reading,
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 2: listening to materials that are about healing, and you know,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 2: processing trauma. It's all just it's all just a journey
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 2: to move on from something that is incredibly traumatic. And
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 2: everybody has a different way of processing trauma and it
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 2: can in some cases take a lifetime. So again, I
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 2: don't know what your situation is. I know for me,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: I'm still processing and I'm still healing, and I definitely
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: know the feeling of being in flight and it can
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 2: be exhausting. Sometimes you want to just relax, but the
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: fear and anxiety of putting yourself in a situation because
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 2: you have let your guard down of another traumatic problem
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 2: or traumatic person is a lot. But as I always say,
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: professionals have great tools to help you with this and
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing is to also be easy on yourself,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: like be kind to yourself, don't talk badly to yourself
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: or about yourself, reflect on the situation in a positive way,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 2: identify if there are any patterns for me, there definitely were,
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: and you know, just be kind to yourself and source
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 2: the things that make you feel like.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: You are entering a journey of healing.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 2: But it can take a really long time in some cases,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: and you shouldn't put a time limit on yourself.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 3: Obviously.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 2: It can feel exhausting to be going year after year
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: without feeling like you can exit that situation, but sometimes
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: your body and your spirit needs that kind of time
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 2: to feel at peace again. So I hope that I
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 2: hope your journey is positive and wishing you the best.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for writing in.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: If you want to be a part of the show,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 2: to Personal Podcasts at gmail dot com or to Personal Show.
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much to Jeff Hamilton for joining us
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: this week.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 3: Make sure that you hit
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 2: Subscribe and follow us on social media at too Personal Show,
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 2: and we'll catch you next week.