by Nima Zarrabi / @NZbeFree
When Jared Jeffries was drafted by Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards in 2002, he had a simple plan: convince the G.O.A.T. to sign him to an endorsement deal with Jordan Brand. Jeffries was already a Nike client at that time, but his friendship with MJ quickly netted him his desired result. Two thousand pairs of sneakers later, Jeffries is closer than ever to his Beaverton, OR, distribution channel as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
SLAMonline had a chance to converse with Jeffries for a few minutes while he was in L.A. for the Blazers’ road tilt against the Clippers.
SLAM: Everyone knows you have one of the best sneaker collections around. Still have it going?
Jared Jeffries: I do. Everything, man. I’ve been blessed to be with Jordan for 11 years, so pretty much every pair of Jordans for the last 11 years, I’ve been blessed to have at least one pair of them.
SLAM: When you guys were in Toronto this year, I saw you wearing those official US military boots out there in the elements. Discuss the range of your collection. Are you into boots too, or strictly sneaks?
JJ: [Laughs] You saw that? Everything, man. Anything Nike comes out with that I like, I’ll get a pair of them. Brand Jordan does a great job of giving us everything. They give us everything and then we get our own shoe during the season. I’ll go through eight or nine different pairs during the course of a season, with my own custom logos on them. Man, I have everything from when Mike was doing dress shoes and boots—he even did alligator boots one year! So I do have pretty much every pair of Jordans—dress shoes, sandals everything, all of them.
SLAM: What are your favorites that stand out in your collection?
JJ: Last year when the Space Jams came out, everybody was all over those. Me and Melo were on the same team and we were some of the first guys to have them. I’ve always liked those. Any of the patent leather Jordans that they do I love. I think the brand has done a great job with the retros, bringing out edgier colors. This year all the different range of colors in the retros has been awesome.
SLAM: How do you organize and store your collection?
JJ: I have a storage unit in my house where I live in Florida. It’s probably half the size of this locker room, with all shelves and in the boxes, so you can look at them.
SLAM: How often do you go in there and rearrange or pull sneaks?
JJ: Every time I get a big shipment in. The shoes that I want to wear, I’ll take out and put in my house closet. And I take the other shoes and put them in the boxes and take them in there.
SLAM: Sounds like a wonderful problem to have.
JJ: Yes it is [laughs].
