No Jumper - The Jeff Hamilton Interview: Becoming an Icon in Fashion, A$AP Rocky, Virgil, Kobe & More

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

The illustrious Jeff Hamilton talks about his amazing success story! Building the career he always envisioned by working hard and smart. Plus, his relationship with Jordan, Drake, Tyson, Asap Rocky, Dipset and more! 00:00 Intro 8:05 Relationship with Jerry West  14:22 Moved to the US with only 6K 18:14 Moving to LA was a game changer  19:30 Begged this guy for a job, called him 3x a day 25:04 Meeting a new friend in the building who turned out to be the creator of Guess: Georges Marciano 26:44 At the time Jeff wasn't super happy with his other job situation, his employer was kinda lazy and didn't believe in Jeff's vision so he wanted out  29:21 So he went to his friend Georges Marciano with a cool new idea 31:33 Jeff and Georges Marciano kinda fell off after a while, Jeff said declined to be a regular employee 32:23 Jeff built a new brand within the Guess brand which was the men's line  33:37 Jeff sold his first pieces to Saks 5th Ave, sent a friend to buy everything so they seem sold out lol  The rep called to order more, Jeff acted like he sold more to Bloomingdales to build up leverage 39:06 Key to success: hard work, work smart, focus on your god-given talent 44:04 Jeff was making more money than the actual partners of the company, so they decide to cut Jeff off completely 44:58 He invented the stone wash, Massiano was taking all the credits tho 46:16 Massiano was trying to blackball him from producing etc, so Jeff filed a lawsuit against him  47:47 Jeff was still giving them 2M royalty checks for doing nothing at all 53:10 How the Black community started to gravitate toward his brand?  55:11 Making jackets for Michael Jackson, met him many times, Madonna, George Michael, etc 56:15 Making a jacket for NBA player Reggie Theus, who then introduced him to Magic Johnson and then Michael Jordan!!! 57:10 Jackets have opened so many doors for Jeff, the White House, meeting Biggie etc 59:31 Did Heather pay 10k for T-Rell's jacket?? 1:00:06 NFL reached out to work with Jeff on a regular basis 1:02:23 The NBA sees the NFL jacket and comes knocking to have their own. At that point Jeff works with the Raiders, Bulls, and White Sox, etc 1:05:29 Meeting Mohamed Ali at his birthday in Beverly Hills 1:07:25 People selling knockoffs 1:08:33 Jeff now signs all his jackets, considers his jackets as art pieces 1:09:45 Camron shouted him out in "Get Em Girl" 1:13:08 Still able to do what he loves, blessing is the 4th element of success  1:14:52 Asap Rocky and Instagram played a part in Jeff's ability to keep his name around + Virgil called Jeff his mentor  1:16:56 Worked with a company in 2002, Jeff was making too much money 3M a year, so they decided not to pay him  1:18:11 His divorce left him miserable, and unmotivated, got in a terrible car accident  1:20:19 December 2019, Jim Jones called to say he's gonna do a Jeff Hamilton song 1:21:14 Asap Rocky DMd Jeff to go to lunch, they linked the next day  1:23:44 Jeff is still baffled by the attention and people wanting to take photos with him  1:25:10 Rocky wanted a custom jacket in a quick fast, Jeff couldn't at the time so they came up with Jeff loaning his own jacket he wore when he was with Kobe 1:27:08 T-Rell reiterates that Jeff Hamilton is important to the culture 1:28:10 The passing of Kobe, people started making the connection with Kobe's jacket, Rocky's jacket etc his IG blew up 1:30:49 Then Cov*d hit! People are stuck at home watching the Netflix Jordan documentary, his passion and inspiration came back  1:31:49 Jeff called the NBA while the players were in the bubble to maybe work with Lebron, posted a few photos, and was back in business overnight  1:35:32 Finally met Drake thru Giggs, Drake was so happy to meet him: "He gave me a hug with his big muscular arms", Jeff is on his second OVO collab 1:39:54 He only wears his jackets except Virgil's, he also made the "Virgil jacket" dropping soon  ----- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No Jumper, coolest podcast on the world. And today, we're having to sit down with a legend and icon and fashion and the overall culture. Jeff Hamilton is in the building. Thank you, my friends. Glad to be here. Yeah, man. I'm super excited to have you here. And for the real fans, they'll know that T-Rail right here got a surprise jacket gifted to him on an episode of At the End of the Day live.

And Jeff Hamilton was brought out. That's got to be one of the best gifts, I have to say, that I've ever seen a spouse. Give to their lover. Live on the show. On the show. The jacket and the man. And the man. And the man is like super, super monumental out here in the culture.

For real. Like, he's delivered jackets to, like, the biggest celebrities and the biggest athletes in the world. So it was cool to see him sort of stoop down and fuck with the common folk over here at no jumper, right? Let's not forget that everybody was all color coordinated also. Exactly. Exactly. Everybody in orange. Did she send you a note when she roped you into that deal? Like, you got to wear orange?

No, I was not wearing orange. Myself, I mean, I knew the jacket. I didn't know that she was going to wear orange. Everybody's going to wear orange. But, you know, I think it was kind of discreet that they were all yellow, I think. You know, so yellow and orange. Oh, it was yellow, yeah. But it still looked cool, you know, how a whole little honeycomb looked on.

Nice and warm colors. I feel like the man that day. You kind of were, yeah. I was watching that. I feel like the man. That was a cool. last moment. Yeah, that was a cool moment. Thank you, man. I'll never forget that moment ever in my life. Thank you for your purchasee. Definitely. So, okay, let's start from the beginning. Tell us a little

about your upbringing so we can hope to understand how you came to be. So I'm born in Africa. I mean, so I'm an official, a real African-American in case you want to know. Okay. So I was born in Morocco, North Africa, and left Morocco, was 10 years old, moved to France. and was raised in France. I went to school and did my studies. Do you remember being hit with a culture shock when you left and went to France? And what was that like for you at the time?

It was a little bit different. You know, I mean, just growing up, you know, I mean, I'm Jewish, you know, just being in France, it was not like, you felt like a little discrimination in the schools, you know, even some of the other kids where maybe two or three Jewish kids in the classroom. You know, they had to hide the fact that they were Jewish. because they didn't want it like, you know, there was like, we're talking about like probably

I moved to France in 1967, so I'm, for the record, I'm going to be 67 in a couple of weeks. So I'm waiting for delivery of a jacket at Tural if you want to now. Yeah, I got you. You're going to bring you a fitted hat. So I was, you know, so there was a little bit like a little challenge with in a way sometimes, you know, And it sounds maybe, I don't know, maybe difficult to understand. But sometimes adversity makes you stronger

and makes you want to be, give extra effort. The same way, like the immigrants, when they come to America, you see they double work, because they want to just try to find a way to get assimilated and get even better and just make a push. Even when you see every new first generation of immigrants to come to America, you pretty much you see them, I would say the majority gets successful because they really feel discriminated against

because of their upbringing and coming into a different country, learning a new language, new values. And so I basically went to school and basically was, I mean, nothing negative about it, but I was a nerd. I mean, I worked very hard. I mean, I wanted to make my parents proud. I mean, I wanted to make sure I had good grades. and I just focused a lot on my studies, which was math and physics. I was not a very social kind of guy. I mean, didn't party going up. I never heard about what weed was at the time or anything like that. Or drinking, anything like that.

I mean, it was just basically a good boy trying to hustle in work, but with a lot of big dreams. But looking back at that time period, do you see the creative spirit in you, or had that not been discovered yet? I don't think I did know. Maybe I mean I was I was painting for myself and everybody liked what I did but it was not I never thought I was going to be an artist or a painter or designer. I mean at that time and through through my growth I really wanted to you know basically being the Jewish doctor in the family.

The pressure to conform must have been far more intense than what the average American experiences in 2022, right? Yeah, but again, it's it's friends. It was not America's or everything, you know, for some reason you can be as intense as you want to be, but you can be, or you can be relaxed as much as you want to be. But France, it was that kind of like drive, you know, because, you know, obviously being Jewish, you know, you have the French who are pretty many, I would say the majority were anti-Semitic, and then you had the Muslim, which were friends in the school, but it's a big part of it, you know, but there was that, it was not as open that now, I mean, oh, my friend are Muslim or the Hindus or the,

And we really have a great, we get together very well. We get along very well. Then there was like that whole super political stuff that a Jewish and an Arab cannot get together. So there was always that, those tensions, you know. So I was really focused on working and my school and doing math and physics. I wanted to become, you know, a doctor from a doctor. I wanted to become maybe a pilot later. And then ultimately I set up my dreams.

going to become a CPA. That's what I wanted to do. My dream was to become a CPA. Who put you on to the attorney game? The attorney? Doctor. Accountant. Wait, what does CPA stand for? I thought it was corporate. Certified public attorney accountant. Right.

Certified public accountant. Right? Yeah, that's exactly what you say, Adam. Oh, okay. Who turned you on to that? No, my mother, my father was an accountant and my mother. They were not CPAs. They were accounting and bookkeepers.

And I kind of always had that crazy love for numbers. And I still do. I mean, I still love numbers. I still do my accounting myself. And I love numbers and something that's a passion for me. Like I can play games with numbers. And as long as my brain is stimulated, I'm a happy man. Right.

Okay. So what was the rest of high school like? When did you start to explore something beyond that? So growing up, I mean, I always had that dream of America. That was a constant after maybe at the edge of 11, 12 years old. And I really dreamt of America. For me, it was like the promised land, and I always dreamt about everything. So I had family that was living in Houston and in Ohio.

So I made sure they send me like the college T-shirt, and I would love to wear it. And I told him, I used to tell, you know, when I start meeting some girls, I told them my real name was not Jeff. You know, I was born Joseph, you know? And kind of switch right away my name to Jeff. So I want people to tell them, you know, like I have an American flair to me and things like that.

And I love, obviously, like, you know, much old than you guys. So for me, rock and roll is a big deal, you know, like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. and all the areas with Led Zeppelin and Cream and all. So for me, it was a big influence. I love music because, like I said, I was kind of a loner. It was not out there like Mr. Popular. And I also, and I love basketball.

I mean, I just start looking at basketball. We didn't have YouTube. We had fault. In fact, I had, at the age of 18, I mean, I had a TV, which was only a black and white TV, I never had color. And you'd be able to catch some basketball reruns here and there? Never. I never watched basketball.

However, I knew about, I went to a store, and one time I found a poster of Jerry West, and a poster of Will Chamberlain, a poster of Lou Arsendor. So for me, I had those sports shows in my world as inspiration. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I was with Jerry West, and I was telling him the story, and it was pretty kind of like amazing for me

to have dreamt about having that and me sitting with, with Virre West in his home and shopping it up, you know, about all the different things and basketball and all the dreams that I had and becoming a reality. So how did you initially end up making a way to America? So I love France as a country. I think it's beautiful.

I mean, it's so much beautiful culture. I didn't fit in it. I mean, I just didn't fit in it not only through as I evolved, you know, like not through through the problems I had. school I was young, but really I didn't like the whole family dynamics, you know, like even the Jewish families, you know, they were very controlled, not my parents, but like all the rest were controlling. There were a lot of jealousy.

There was never a way. I knew there was no way out for me. Either I was going to become, even if I became an accountant, I would have a job, a nine to five job, I was going to be. And I really, at that point, it started becoming super ambitious. You know, I got, I met my, my first wife when I was 17 years old. And I got married and was 19. And so even though her parents were in business,

they were not majorly successful, but the father was in business. They were doing some stuff. So he kind of opened an eye for me where I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to do things. I just wanted to have a car. So as soon as I was 18, I mean, I went out.

And for somewhere, by hustling and doing swap meats and buying frying pans and selling frying pans and all kind of like hustle and doing different things. I ended buying a Mercedes when I was 19 years old. It was like, listen, it's not the Mercedes that the way we have here, but it was like an old beat-up diesel Mercedes. But for me, I had a Mercedes was like the symbol of it. And then I said, you know, I don't care.

You know, I don't have a lot of money. So I opened a jeans store, actually, when I was 19 years old, 18 years old. I opened a jeans store in a small neighborhood of Paris. Making your own jeans? No, no, I was buying Levi's and Wranglers and Lee and other brands, you know, and local European brands. And listen, I was making a living, but I was not making any money. But I love the space. I love the fashion, idea of it.

And I always felt like I had good taste for some reason. I mean, that's my own personal feeling. I felt like I had good taste. I knew that to put things together. But never thought I would be a designer. So I started dreaming about become a designer. I started trying, like tracing paper, buying magazines, fashion magazine, and tracing the shapes and creating my own jeans, my own shirt, my own sweaters,

and painting over with, like, markers. And it was like kind of like, you know, I wish I had this thesis everywhere because those are amazing. And I dream about having a gene brand in America that was great. thing, you know, I just want to do it. And I made the decision was when I got married, it was like 20 years old and that I didn't want to live in America. I wanted to, I didn't want to live in France. I wanted to move to America. You know, of course, it took me a few years back. You know, I moved when I was 24 years old. Again, and building up my resentment for people trying to restrict me and try to control me, not being able for me to succeed. But I, at that point before I left, I was hustling, had like 10 different. in spaces of sweat meat. I had the store in Paris, and I was just basically doing whatever. And I gave up my schooling. I went first year to become a CP,

I have to graduate from math and physics schools. And I really wanted to be an entrepreneur working. So I decided I was going to make the move to come to America. So I came to New York with a friend. And just a side question. I feel like as a designer, in particular these days, maybe it wasn't like this so much then, but you kind of have like a customer in mind

or a subculture in mind that you sort of want to be your target market for what you're selling. Who did you feel like you were designing for at that time, just the everyday person? Definitely not for the culture. I mean, for me, I didn't even know what it meant or anything like that. In fact, like my first brand when I came out,

the first idea that the idea I want to do it, I really felt like I'm not a homosexual, but obviously I have no issues at all with homosexual. But I felt like at the time during that, what was it, the group like village people, I felt like there was such a big trend with a disco and the whole thing, that I really felt like my first gene, there was a gene called, oh, la la. Of course, Sassoon took that after that. It was, oh, la la.

And the idea, I really felt, even the logo, it was like in my mind was a whole California. in California dreaming with the sunset and the sun coming down and all those colors, like the OP color, OP colors, ocean pacific colors. And the idea of the gimmick on the gene was when you bought a gene, you had a bandana, like a real bandana attached directly to the back of the gene. Oh, he does that too, yeah. Yeah, but it was, you would go. No, I don't.

Oh, he'd know. Oh, he'd know. On the left, on the left, on the left. So that's kind of like ideas that I wanted to. And so I came to, so I basically made the move, pissed up the whole family, took my two kids and my wife, my first wife, and came to America. I had $6,000 at the time when I came, which is, you know, you can see it's a lot of money. It was not a lot of money. 1980 when I moved in, still it was not a lot of money.

Not a lot of money to transplant your entire family to a new country. And listen, I mean, even though today you're going to get an apartment for like that two, three grand, whatever it is, I assume. I mean, I moved to Tarzan. My apartment was $675 rent, you know, a month. You know, you have to get first and last and I had to buy a car. And they're buying an $800,000 Maverick, you know? And you come over here and is it just like the most overwhelming, confusing shit on earth? Or did you just fall right into it?

No, completely overwhelming. I mean, like I didn't know nothing about anything about it. Right. I mean, I said I need to make money. Nobody wants to hire me. I mean, I, my goal, my, my, my motto was, I'm moving to America. I'm not coming back. Even in, and my idea, during the time of the movie Car Wash,

I say, I'll go and wash cars if I have to. Right. I work as a car wash, you know, car wash if I have to. Whatever needs to be done for me to make a living and support my family was there. I remember, like, spending money for my kids. And I remember going downtown and tried to find, I knew that my budget was a dollar day, you know, for me to eat. So, I mean, I would go to one of those Mexican bodega and just get like a burrito with beans and rice and just eat it.

That's it, you know? I love that. Can you still do that? I could do that. I mean, I wouldn't have nothing is above, you know. I'm not better than that. But I'm just picture in my head, like, when I first went to France, you know, it's overwhelming. How the fuck do I get around?

What should I eat? Like, you know, never mind the idea of having to get an apartment and figure out how to make money. And you have a wife and kids. Like, I mean, you must have really wanted it so bad that you were willing to go without. I mean, I had some friends at the time that I had met when I did my travels, you know, which I met,

they kind of direct me. I mean, keep in mind that I spoke a little English. I didn't speak English. I'm not saying that speaking well, but at least you kind of understand me. Right. But I came completely illegal. by the way also. I didn't have a green card. I came in on a tourist visa. I was 100% illegal.

You know, like, and I say basically I'm coming in and I'm crashing. And, you know, and if the immigration find me, they'll deport me. That's super interesting that you come from Paris, France, where, you know, and it seemed like you don't, you didn't have a lot of background, you know, in fashion. Like, you super self-taught. And this is like the super, the motherland of fashion, like where all the fashion houses are, where all the creators are. you know what I'm saying? It's like it breeds fashion. But did you think of it that way back then? I mean, it was in a different circle.

I mean, different things. Keep in mind, I mean, like from a very humble lifestyle. My parents were very, my parents were very honest, hardworking people. We lived very modestly. We didn't have any. I don't remember going to a restaurant maybe once a year. We used to go and have a little lunch somewhere, but most of the time was on meals at home.

There was never even going out and getting a coffee in a rest in a bar. And I feel like you have that idea in your head. Like America is a place where you can make it from nothing. You can build something. Whereas like out in Europe it's more austerity. It's more like it's understood that you're not going to just rise to a way, a different level in society. Whereas at that time in America, that was the dream.

I'm not sure to what extent that dream is still alive for people. And I still think it is. It has not changed. You know, so like I said previously, my first goal was to go to New York and I started going to New York and I was overwhelmed with New York. Loved it, everything. I felt like the energy and Deft decided to go. But then at the time, I made my first wife come in with my son. He was the only one I was bored.

And I started walking with the stroller in the street, walking, walking through Fifth Avenue and the people. I didn't see one kid. I didn't see one kid for like 10 minutes and I said, is that the way I want to raise my kids here? Right. Or am I going to go to the suburbs and take a two-hour train every day in the morning, two-hour train?

And so I kind of give up the idea and decide I'm going to California. I came to California and I felt like I don't care. I don't care if I don't have, if I'm not successful, as long as I can support my family. Just the beauty of being

driving and going to see the ocean and having the sunshine and having the comfort and the big cars. And I really felt like there was such a connection with me in California. And I loved it and I still do. Sorry, yeah. I just wanted to say, what kept you motivated in fashion once you came to California? I had no motivation of fashion right at that stage.

You know, at that stage, I wanted to work. If somebody to give me a job as a bookkeeper, I would have taken it. somebody gave me a job as construction, I would have taken. I mean, for me, I need to, my first priority was just to go out and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I really tried for, like, three, four months, to try to get a job. I mean, I moved in, actually, February 14, 1980, to America. By June, I couldn't find, and finally, I met somebody that was in a clothing business, and I said,

I kept on begging and begging, pretty much calling five, six times a day. And just to say, get me a job of any kind, you know? And ultimately the guy answered the phone and said, you're so persistent, you know, there's there must be something out there. So once you come, I can't give your job? But if you want here, I have a bunch of close-outs, sell them.

So I got really excited and I just basically started going up and down every single store that all around downtown around all the areas, making phone calls, and just try to sell as much I could. I sold out everything like very quickly. I went to get my money and he said, wow, we're not shipping the goods still September. So when we ship the goods, then we pay your commission. So that was a big disappointment.

But at that point I really had infiltrated like the streets. So I knew the stores, had the developed relationship with different people, some French, some Jewish guys that they had. But that in a different, nothing to do with fashion, mostly with clothes out and jobbing by an old end of series. And so I started going and start hustling. I mean, I went to somebody that was a printer that was making T-shirts, and I said,

well, here, I know this guy has those shirts from that store. I know this guy's a printer. I'm going to get those shirts and printout and sell to this guy in the middle. And I make $1, $2 a piece. You know, I make $50. It's $50. And I started doing like that.

And one thing led to the island, and I started hitting a couple of really good deals. And actually, I end up making good money. I mean, like in 1981, 1981, 1982, I started making really good money. To the point I even bought a house. And I mean, the house was $260,000 in Encino. I mean, they came up with at the time $26,000, which was amazing. I bought, I had a friend of mine who had a Mercedes, you know,

when we took over the lease was $350. I took over the lease. I bought my ex-wife like a, like a wealth bag. So I felt like I was already making it, you know, but not one dollar in the bank. But you're making a lot of money through having a store, or just because you're doing so many of these? Just hustling in the street. Right. No, no tax returns, no nothing like that.

It was all kind of like everything in cash. I make money. I go in, I pay for it. I'd be young. But, you know, at the time, I mean, you could buy a house. You didn't have to qualify. I mean, I think I probably took over. an existing loan that was existing from somebody.

At the time, you could assume loan. If somebody had a house, you take over the loan, you make the payments, that was it. So I end up doing that. And then I open, and then open like an actual office in downtown Los Angeles, actually. I don't know where the Ace Hotel is. That was a building.

There was nothing but manufacturing, like all Mexicans and Korean manufacturers there. I have a 412 feet store where basically was my base for me just to go out and buy close out, sell them. And at that point, I had actually an office. Was this before, after you came, the creative director for guest jeans? I was not a creative director. I was the owner of guest.

He was the owner. I was a creative director of the men's, but I own 100% of the men's company. I was a founder of the man's guest jeans for men. That was before. So in that building, as I was going through the building, I ran into a guy that was always so. super well dressed and it happened to be French. And at a time, you know, I start building confidence at that time.

You know, at that time, I started building confidence. You know, I'm starting suddenly to kind of look better physically, you know. I'm not as much the nerd I used to be growing up in France. Well, you're getting used to America. I'm getting to use to ladies giving attention to me. I never was into drugs, never smoked, never drank a drop of alcohol, never gamble. Wow. But suddenly, listen, growing up a nerd, you see like those supermodels, like in a fashion district that are looking up to me and, you know, kind of falling in a trap as well.

They want to drink. We're drinking. But as long as I'm, but I'm dressing well. I'm dressing well at that point. You're talking about like 82. I'm wearing like pink sweaters with the matching pink socks and the loafers and really cool jeans. But I'm not at all a designer. I'm basically a customer with the...

the capital age, selling, close out, whatever it is. I mean, I don't care whatever it has come from. I don't know. So stuff is real. I don't know if it's counterfeit. I don't care. I want to make a living at that point. I mean, there was not that many guidelines.

Even though I grew up as a super straight up guy, like honest. And for me at that point, I wanted to succeed. There was no, if I sold some referendum knockoff shirt, at the time, the polo shirt, so be it. I didn't care. I mean, I didn't want to go too deep into it. to know it, that it was making a buck.

So I was going in the elevator up and down, and I saw that guy, and it was just starting becoming friends. And what do you do? Bama, do this. I'm starting a new clothing line, which is a shirt. And I find out that, of course, that guy was George Marciano, the founder of guest jeans, of the whole brand.

And he was by himself at the time. He was not even this bronze, which weren't part of it. And he had started a woman's line of just white shirts only, but like different beautiful shirts. And he just had left France, moved to America, because at the time they had, the whole family had huge, they had 15 store. They were successful in France, very successful in France, like fancy cars and homes and all the stuff. Even when they moved here, they had beautiful cars and Beverly Hills, places, and all that stuff. But they were to allow money to the taxes in France.

So they had to, at the time, they had to run away from the country because taxing authorities wanted to grab them. Right. So him and I became friends and we developed a friendship. That's it. You know, nothing like that, but just politely friendship. And certain circumstances happened that his brother, when his brother came in, one of his brother came moved in. His kid was in the same school as my kid.

And my ex-wife and his wife became best friends, who became really super best friend as a family. At that time, my two kids, and he had a son or daughter, I had a son or daughter. My son had three days different with his son. His daughter, my daughter had a one month's difference with their daughter. And we were basically five, six days together, having dinner, having dinner at my home,

at their house. And I was not happy doing what I was doing with the jobbing thing, because I had a partner that I had the eye of the tiger and the rage to succeed. At that time, 1980. I'm like 26 years old, you know, like 26, 27 years old. And my partner at the time was 42, 43 years old, 45 years old. And he came in from a job of being a rep in a clothing business.

Very nice guy. But suddenly, we started making some money. For me, it was not enough. But we started making money. So he buy himself a nice Mercedes convertible. But the guy is like already a season. lazy person. I mean, I don't know to be negative in that way. But the guy was, he wanted the good life already.

You know, for me, I didn't want a good life. I just wanted to continue working until I started living the life. And so it was like three days in Palm Springs. And every night was like the poker games. And you come in at 12 o'clock in the morning, at 12 o'clock. I was 8 o'clock in the office. It would come at 12 o'clock. So there was a whole big thing.

Like, you know, and then I come in for one hour, he will tell me the whole story, or I had that hand in poker, and I did that. And for me, I was focused. I just want to work. And I wanted to, during that time, I tried to develop a brand called golf, GOLFF, which was kind of like a knockoff of the Ralph Lauren shirt,

but instead of the horse, the poor player was a golfer with a swing. And that time I had a vision to actually trademark that stuff. And, you know, he didn't believe in it. You know, I wanted to just really go out and sell all the department stores and be an alternative to the Polostro. Polostrook with $32 a whole retail a time. I want to sell mine for like $15 retail, you know, but really make a volume of 25 colors, 30 colors.

I didn't care. So going back, fast forward again to Marciano, so I became friends with a friend. And I was really tired of this partner. So we kind of decided to break up. So I told him, either you buy me out, either I buy you out, but I cannot go on. And I'm glad that he bought the business.

me out because otherwise I would and what I mean buying me out I think it gave me $10,000 for me to to walk away from the company which the company in last two months after that because I was still the heart of the company without sounding like a to pretentious there but and and approach the marchionos I said I really want to do something you guys do get started already you know so so the transition from the shirt they started the jeans and the only one started the jeans because George himself had, his three brothers had boutiques, which became the guest stores, but they had only two boutiques, one in the Central City, and one in Beverly Hills,

and Santa Monica Boulevard called MGA. And so he was making jeans to sell to them. He said, I already have my brother going to buy jeans for me, so at least I know I'm, I have a guaranteed production already. And the gene came out spectacular. They came in with a real trend, with a zipper on the side, and it was like a really amazing wash, amazing fabric. Very talented.

I don't get along with them at all. I mean, we don't like each other. I mean, I could say, I'm not going to say we hate each other, but on my end, I don't hate it, but we really dislike each other very much. How many years since you talked? It's been on and off. You know, like with George, you know, I love George, actually. I still do because, obviously, for me, I,

I always look up to him as kind of my inspiration of how I came about becoming a designer and learning a lot from him from all the things. So I'm like my first Osmar Pigge that I bought in 1982 or 83 was like because I never heard of Edmar Pigge before I heard from him. And I knew it like the only thing that turned me onto it was like only for the people who know. So I and I have and I still wear that's my original. I mean I have a lot of watch but I wear that one is kind of like very symbolic to me. And it was like they were very, because they made so much money in France originally, they were very rounded in culturally. I was very well educated in all the sense of knowledge, but I was not culture. I was not sophisticated.

I didn't know about the good things. I didn't know about the designers. I didn't know about art. I mean, I knew some of it, but not as much as, and I learned a lot from George. Why did you guys end up severing ties? Sorry? Why did you guys end up like severing ties? Because I came in, I started at that point in 1983.

So basically I went to them, I said, you know, you guys are doing $2 million a year in a woman's. Why don't you do men? Say, why don't you come and work for us? And I said, you know, I have never worked for anybody. Even when I work as a salesman to the guy, the other guy at the first job, I was like independent, you know? So I never worked for anybody. And I just want to be on my own. on my own. And I really have not worked for anybody in my life since. So they say we'll give

you, I'm talking about 1982, 1983, we'll give you $2,000 a week, which is probably the equivalent of 20 grand a week to work. And I said, no, I'd rather take, I'd rather do it on my own. And so I knew, I knew the concept of licensing that was not very well common practice in America. You know, people know at a certain level with Bill Blas and Pierre Cardin and some of the brands like that. That was way before the Calvin Clines and the Georgia of the worlds and things like that. So I knew the concept of licensing. I told them, why don't you give me a license? And I'll, I'll do it. And through convincing and some stuff like that, I was able to get the licensing. So I founded the man's company. I own 100% of the licensing company, but they owned the brand.

I didn't come up with the name. Right. Okay. They own the brand. I licensed a name from them. At that point, I started a company with $22,000. I lied everybody. I told them my $80,000. That was a big lie. In order for me to make my financial statements to look like I could get credit. Right. You know, I played all the tricks in the books for me to try to make it happen.

And here I am. I have my four or 500 square feet in the same building, by the way. And gas is in the same building at the time also. We all in the same building still and in the old A's building. In fact, if you see like the original, guest label. He has 801, 803, which is the sweet number to where they started the business. So how big do you grow this?

So I started a business with $22,000, and here I am. I have no knowledge. I don't know what I'm going to do. I have never designed a thing in my life. I mean, I knew about ideas, and I would take, like, the polo shirt and give it to somebody. I'd say, make a polo shirt for me. I want it in 10 different colors that I could do. But me, manufacturing from scratch and knowing about washes and I didn't even know you needed a pattern for to make too make clothing. So I hired the guy there used to be the freight elevator operator. He said, I know fashion, I'm a pattern maker, I know to do this, and I had to make samples. So I hired him and basically start working

and designing it. And there was a big hype by the name guest, even though they were very small, they had such a hype to build up the brand. So what I did was I went and really, reach out to Bloomingdale's because they were very successful with the women's and and Sacks. And I finally convinced Sacks to buy 24 pieces from me. And that was March 1990. And I started a company January 15, 1980. And so I summed 24 pieces, you know, it's not a lot. You know, I mean, the gene went not 300 bucks. They were at $24 a piece at the time. But I want to make sure that they sold out. So as soon as I shipped the goods in the store, I had buddies on mine in New York,

body of the mines in Beverly Hill. We went out, we cleaned up. We bought everything at retail. So we had the amazing truth. So the next morning, the buyer, I remember his name was Mohammed, like a Pakistani guy. And he calls me and said, Jeff, you know, 7 o'clock in the morning. You know, I want to talk to you. We just put the goods in the store.

and we're a pretty good sell through. I mean, you know, it's okay. We're not like, you know, perfect, but. But you already knew they were completely sold out. No, I didn't voluntarily make for that. Right. In size 28, I left it open. And size, I left it open.

So nobody but the big side and small. You know, they sold maybe a couple of pieces, but I end up probably buying out of 48 pieces, probably about 35 or 40 pieces, you know. And so we'd like to maybe test it maybe on, at the time they had 50 store or something like that. We'd like to test maybe like in 50. in stores and we'd like to give you another 80 pieces.

I'm sorry, I would love to, but I'm completely sold out. Right. So I say, wow. And suddenly, like, they think they're doing me a favor. And, you know, so I say, I'm sold out. I only took a big order for blooming out, which was not true, by the way. So. Right.

And, but, you know, how about we buy, we buy for all the stores? I give you $1,200 pieces. I said, but I already sold out. I kind of cheap you good still, till, deal. June or July. And to make a long story short, I say, well, you know, let me see what I can do. You know, bam, blah, blah, blah. I might, I might have to take it from Bloomingdale's and give it to you. I said, but what we'll do is we'll put some ads in the New York Times. You're going to do this. You're going to do that. And fast, you know, obviously they gave me a 1200 piece order.

That obviously took over. So July, April, I did 17,000. By August, I was doing already $150,000 a month. Uh-huh. Like by August, 1980. January, I was doing $600,000 in sales. Wow. That January 81, 84. January 85, I did $5 million. And so how long did it take?

And 1985 did $75 million. How long it take before they started regretting allowing you to have this much control? Right away. Because this is like an unheard of thing that you would never imagine any fashion brand ever doing again, right? You just like kind of almost invented this model in a way? I'm not saying I invented the model, but there's no good question. But don't keep in mind, I'm 27 years old. I'm super egomaniac.

You know, I'm like, you know, I'm flunting it, you know, and I'm pulling any other time. I'm the first guy who has the silver American Express car. Forget about the black one. And it didn't even exist yet. I just go in, I go to Terry York here on, and Ventrudeau-Bavrake put it in. I say, here, I want that rose roads.

I'm paying 110. The price was $110,000, $10,000, $10,000, $10,000. I want to pay $10,000, $10,000, $1,000. I want to have 10 minutes. I mean, it was very cocky and very arrogant. And because I felt like I was entitled, and I felt like, you know, I earn it. Nobody else did it.

It's me. I mean, you know, today as I got all, I mean, I feel like that. The only reason why I'm successful is because, you know, whether you're religious or not, you know, I believe in the blessing. of the universe of God that you have a certain talent but you know God or the universe directs you and you're

channeling those talents through through and because at the end of the day even if you are incredibly talented incredibly gifted beyond almost anybody else out there you still just got lucky kind of you know like you you you didn't choose to be born this way

no I don't I don't believe in I mean I think again And luck is, it's not the word. For me, it's the blessings. So again, as far as principles of way of life that I have, for me, the keys to success are for different levels. You know, for me, there is, you have to work hard. The good thing about working hard is that nobody can take that away from you.

I mean, you can be broke, but you can work hard. And myself, I work hard, even when I went through, I went all the way up and I lost it all and all through the years I always work hard. I didn't care. I mean, even if I was cleaning my office or filing papers or doing whatever I had to do. Number two is, and that you learn as you mature, is it's not about working hard, you have to also work smart. You don't have to run and try to become all the way on top.

It's okay. If you can walk slowly and you know what you're doing and you be careful, who's around you, who you trust, who you don't trust, you're going to make something. So that's the two keys of things. Number three element is that you have to know is you have to really pinpoint where is your, what is your God-given talent. What is your talent? Are you a musician?

Are you an interviewer? Are you a designer? I mean, you have to figure, you might be a, have a squeegee on, in a corner and cleaning up the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, you know. windshield, but you are the best one at what you do. And you're passionate about what you do, and you make it perfectly. So discover what your talent is. And of course, I'm exaggerating a little bit, taking extremes.

And those are the three elements. You have the three elements. You're going to be successful, one way or the other. There's no way that you cannot be successful. You're not going to be a billionaire. You're going to be a millionaire. But you're going to have plenty of food to live. You're going to have enough to support your families

and your friends and leave. a decent, comfortable life. But the difference between you and the squeegee guys, that the squeegee guy is really just performing a task. And, like, you were able to see something that the world wanted and needed before they had, you know, communicated that. And he actually made $75 million.

And then after you made that $75 million, did they come in and say, you know what, we're going to cut you short. Yeah, how long were you able to maintain this? And that was before that. They came before that. So what happened is, so the first, First, I go in, and the error was, and I don't speak about it, but I'm just telling you, I don't care, because of the truth. Now suddenly, George is by himself, and he brings his brothers with him.

So he owns 60% of the company, his brothers own 40% of the company. The brothers are getting challenged. They want to get more ownership, blah, blah. They make some kind of split, you know, where he owns only 40%, and the brother are on 20%. So they're like, they're only down to George only. only 40% of the company. Now suddenly they're hot, hot, hot, hot.

George has come into the picture, say, we want to buy the company from you. And at the time, they're doing, you know, like I said, two, three, four million dollars a year. And Georgia offered them to buy the company on the base of $10 million. They offer them $5 million. So George, basically, out of 40% gets like,

you know, I don't know if that maybe, I think he's still at 60%, so he owns like, he gets $3 million check. And each one of the brother gets, 600,000 dollars. And they're very happy. I mean, it's a big, but they don't realize that they suddenly quickly realize that it's a bad deal because the company

now the second year, when I did, when they did 2 million, my first year I did 2 million, they were already at 25 million. When I did 30 million, 30 million, 27 million in second year, they were at 80 million dollars. So they realized they made a bad deal with Jordan. So they started getting into lawsuits with them. and all stuff. At the same time,

they realized that even when I made $27 million in 1984, my tax return was $6 million. I'm talking like, this is real money today, $6 million years of the money. Imagine 1984.

They're giving you a way bigger piece of the pie than any fashion brand would ever expect to give a design. I'm writing a check for me, like my payroll check as a CEO of my own personal company which I own 100%.

I'm writing a check for $43,000 a week. And we're only starting with computers. And there was not such thing as a payroll program to write that. The only payroll program we had was a payroll program that existed for the NFL players. And the maximum check you could write was 19,99, below 20 grand. So I would get three checks a week to do that. Plus the bonuses I would get my $100,000.

I need a hundred grand. I need to buy that building. I get $2.50. I write. I take from a company. I'm making money left and write. $6 million. tax return, official money.

I mean, at that point, there's no more Mickey Mouse or anything like that. Because obviously I'm under licensing agreement. I need to keep up everything by the rules and, you know, because I'm getting audit. And I start seeing the... So, in essence, when I'm making $27 million, I'm getting 100% of my pie.

When they make $80 million dollars, they make $10 million profit, their individual share, I'm making more money than any individual of any. So there's three partners on one side of Georgia and there's four partners on the... on the side of guests with the seven partners like divining a pie where I'm by myself like the 27-year-old kid that has all the beautiful girls and all the the rose voices and the porches and and and

and I'm flashy and I'm like I'm already some mingling with celebrities and you're only 27 at this point yeah oh my god and I'm with the celebrities you really managed to figure shit out in America pretty fast there I was totally thinking you were way older okay within we I told you I moved 1980 by 19 1984 my text return was was six and six and six and six and six million dollars and change. So they decide that they want to cut me off completely. Right. And so from 1984, they never, obviously every design that I have to do of me, because are familiar, you have to get approved by them. They will not approve anything anymore. Okay. So I was able to do $75 million in $1985 million in 1985 with, just with my old

designs that I made in 1983 and early 1984. Wow. And because ultimately you built like respect and the fashion world doing guests. Not really. People didn't know who I was. No, still. People didn't know who Jeff Hamilton was. Well, because it wasn't like a high-end fashion thing at that time. Was it more working class?

No, no, it was still. The only game in town at the time was Levi, stranglers, and all those brands. Then the second generation became Sergio Valente, Jordan. Sassoon jeans, chardon, all kind of like odd brand, but made in China. They're still a cheap brand. Our stuff, we came in, we invented the stonewash. But you're saying that the fashion world hadn't necessarily figured out that you were the ones sort of pulling the strings on all this? The new guess was.

And George Massey was getting incredible, which at the time, it was not that important for me to tell everybody it was a designer. Because I even considered myself a designer because I only designed out of necessity. I learned that to become. I became an accountant by necessity. I became a production manager by when you need to do it, you do it. And so I became a designer by necessity. At the beginning, I had somebody that wanted to help me, and I just could not do it. So I went to my closet and I said, I like this shirt, I like that pen, I like that thing.

Let's put a zipper here. Let's put a cut here. Let's do a flap here, whatever it was. And I kept on adding and evolving and basically being inspired by other people and tried to make it my own. Right. And that's really where I really start hitting the culture. Like suddenly, like the inner cities, like the Detroit and the Chicago, you know, I'm in, I viding with my design because that's the way I feel.

You know, so I'm starting to come up with jackets, denim jackets. And I come up, I'm the first one who came up with the idea of mixing leather with the denim. And you guys are way too young, probably to remember guests at that time. But maybe you were not even born probably. And we're almost 40. That was 79 years ago. So, and I start vibing with that stuff. So they really decide to try to cut me off in any way.

They're blocking me from me not to producing, all kind of interference, but whatever it is. Let's not get into the negativity. So basically, I have no choice just to go and start filing lawsuits against them. Right. At that point, we're not even talking. You know, and, you know, I mean, to be fair, they approached me to partner up with them and be 50% partners with them. And I just didn't. I say, well, if I'm, again, my ego and my bad advice of lawyers, if I'm good enough to be your partner,

how come up and be good enough to be on my own? But keep in mind, I'm giving them, when I do $30 million second years, I'm giving them $2.1 million of royalty for them to do nothing at all. I mean, it's like, I'm doing all the work, I'm investing, it's my own money, I'm just writing them a check of royalties, you know? So they really becoming very, and we're getting into a nasty battle. I'm talking about 1984, I'm spending $100, $200,000 a month in the journeys. Wow. And is it just consuming your life? Like, you can't really, you can't be creative, you can't do other stuff.

No, I couldn't be creative because I could not design anymore. And it's not like you can start your own brand, right? Because you're probably under some kind of. Of course, it was in my mind to do it, but, you know, it was not. not right now at that point was asked. So basically they tried to cut me off. I won. They could not stop.

But basically I had to finish my contract, which was three and a half, four years. I finished my contract. And then, you know, just the lawsuit, I already spent $3 million. I could not have, I mean, even though as much money I made, I could not survive it, you know,

because obviously at that point already. But I'm talking about 1983. I bought a $2 million a home in Beverly Hills, which was probably $10 or $15 million else today but a building downtown which is like 150,000 square feet up another building about like all kind of crazy stuff and I'm living life also I'm you know traveling the world and and spending money like like it's there's no tomorrow right so how do you how do you get back into the groove or how did the lawsuit end so so we we basically decide that you know

which each each party was going to go their own way and that was the end of it but in but in a way I was a loser because I had spent so much money in my stuff. And then they took over the company, and they already had like a shell of a men's company that was already doing $75 million a year. So it was very easy for them to carry on, which they never, I don't even know if they did that much at the time. For the next 10 years, they never even got closer to me

because they really tried to adjust. They didn't understand that I thought fashion at the time I had become a designer by necessity, but I really felt the vibe of what, the market needed. And then that's the key also to be a good designer. It's not only about being super talented and having something crazy. You have to be relatable to as many people as you can.

If you can make a T-shirt that's pink, you make it out there. It's not only because you like it. For sure, you have to love what you do. But also, you have to feel that you're going to reach as many people as you can. They're going to have the same vision of the time. at that moment in time. You could make a beautiful design and then you're not relevant

to the time. Or you can make an amazing song and amazing beats and amazing music, but it's not what the market needs at that time. You are there. I mean, you know, take the Vincent Van Gogh syndrome. You know, the guy is the biggest artist I ever made paintings of the cell for 500.

and $600 million, the guy in his lifestyle never saw the one painting because of timing or because of not knowing how to, you have to know how to market, you have to do everything together. So let me regress. So at that time, once we finish, I said, I have to go do something. Keep in mind, I have a huge overhead at that point. I have a 50,000 square feet warehouse. I have like, you know, one point of time. I had 200 employees there.

I mean, I can start firing everybody because I could not keep the overhead. And I said, what's the natural thing to do? because all my stores knew the company under Jeff Hamilton, In, DBA, Guess for Men. So even though my business card didn't have my, my real name is Jeff Bobaut. That's my legal name. And so I said, you know, we're not trademark the name Jeff Hamilton because people already can relate that to guests and they know me. And so I decided to basically do a lifestyle brand with jeans and shirts and

and that's spending a lot of money in advertising. I'm talking like 100 grand a month in advertising. Really? I have billboards on Times Square in 1986 and GQ and Esquire and interview magazine and all the magazine to publicity. So the name is out there. But again, I mean, I don't have a structure also to create the whole line from scratch even though I had it.

I'm starting to run out of funds and castros. So at the time, I was like, I used to run around with like James Cahn and Billy Idol, which is like the biggest thing at the time. And I started riding Hollis and my hair was up to my shoulder. And I just wanted to create certain things for me. I had the money, but I would go on radio drive and I could never find like a really cool jacket that I wanted to wear.

So I started making my own, which I didn't know how to make it, but I made one at a time because it was, I didn't care how long you would take me, but we started creating new techniques of cutting leather with scissors, forget about knives, and stitching them together, and putting it together, and everybody wants to create you that. Why do you feel like black people more so identify

what your ideas and your creations as far as the style? And is it seeing, does it take a Europeans view of the culture to really be able to create something new? It's kind of, I wonder if... I think it's a little bit much, much more organic than that. It's not a calculate process. It's not a calculated process. It's just, it's me.

It's me. I mean, again, I mean, again, and not an ego thing. It's just the way I vibe, the way I feel, the way I'm comfortable with. Obviously, I mean, there is, with the black culture, there is that lack of inhibition. I mean, you wear something, you feel good, you wear it. You can be flashy because you're very comfortable

on your skin, and that's the way it is. You know, I mean, and myself always been like very flashy. I mean, look at me, I mean, I'm 67 years old and I'm wearing like all crazy. I mean, and I turned down to everything because I'm going out to dinner since. I'm going to wear black, but I had a big right, a python red jacket this morning. And I felt like really for me,

it was an audience that really related to me, but really not calculated. It's not like here. I'm going to design something because I want black people to buy for me. Or I want to design something because I want Latin people. It is what I did. I decide something. I want to design for me first.

I love something that I vibe with and then I put it out. And organically, it built like that. And obviously, you know, as I made the jackets and I started making that, people want to buy it. I said, I don't know how to make those jackets. So I started raising prices because you know how to produce it. And some stores say we don't care. We just, we're not going to sell those jackets because they're too expensive. However, we would have put them in a window, they're going to be such a conversation piece that people are going to walk in the store and buy other things. Long behold, people stop buying those jackets, you know? And people say, like, if I don't

said it, I'm still going to wear the owners because they still loved it. And they start selling it. So one thing led to the others. I said, one thing that I get to make Michael Jackson, to make some jackets for him, make jackets for Madonna. I mean, we're talking about like me to late 80s. Did you ever get to meet Michael Jackson? Oh, many times, yeah. And pull up on him and give him a jacket. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. And even better than that. I had made enough money that I bought a house in Beverly Hills on the hills. on the hills and just didn't want to live because it was too expensive for me to live in the house yet. So I rented it to German Jackson.

So I rented German. German became friends. I became friends with Germain. I became friends with Jackie. And then every time there was a family function, I was invited with them. So I got to meet him. But I met Madonna the same thing. And then I got George Michael to start wearing my jackets.

Now, suddenly, everybody's going crazy. I mean, from that, it gets you, I do dice clay. We get, even before, I even start really getting head into the jackets more as a production stuff. I mean, one of the basketball players, Reg J. Theas, just knew his girlfriend. And he said, he wants to make him. He was moving from Kansas City Royals to Sacramento Kings.

At the time when they moved the team, so he wants to make you an NBA jacket. So the NBA car players came to me. Then he introduced me to Magic, and I became friends. I'm talking about it in 1986 now. And Magic introduced me to Michael. And so I started making jackets to Michael in 1986. And then at that point, 1988, 89, I had a friend of mine,

and I was wearing all those crazy jackets, say, how crazy would be if you could make a, could you make me a Giants, New York Giants, jacket because I'm friend with the owner of like Steve Tish from from the Giants. I want to give it to him as a present. Hold on. So why are we, why are you, let's go back to these stories. So you making jackets from Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan.

Like, where are these initial conversations taking place? Are you? Because they was partying heavy and crazy. Like, were you at those parties or in those houses or anything like that? No, I was not in those. in those big in those small parties and stuff like that. Now, I ultimately end up going to a lot of parties, but like more toned-down parties with Arsenio and stuff like that.

So, you know, I used to be very close with Arsenio also. And later on, like in the 90s, you know. Like the jackets, the jackets got you that initial conversations to be like and build those relationships. You know what I'm saying? Jackets have opened the door to me to everywhere. I mean, I'm talking to the White House, to Nelson Mandela

to, I've met all those people just because of jackets, you know, big and smalls, everybody. But you were just focused on business? You didn't get lost in the sauce of the drugs and the women and everything like that? I'm not going to say. No, at that point, I mean, at that point,

I met somebody and broke up with my first wife and just, you know, And I was with this girl and I've been with this girl for 38 years. Oh, wow. Congrats. But, okay, compare running guest men's and selling, you know, I don't know, thousands or millions of pairs of the same jeans or the same designs. Compare that to doing these one-off pieces for big celebrities and stuff.

It feels like that's almost the polar opposite of what you could be doing fashion-wise, like making individuals sick custom pieces versus mass market. The money was not there. To be honest, I mean, the money was not there. I was barely making my over-ed. I could not even make my overhead. But there's a lot of prestige associated with it too. There was a lot of prestige.

And, you know, kind of like fast forward to 2022. I mean, those are like the roots that I build. They were so strong and so solid that obviously that's how I've been able to keep up my name and be consistent through the 35, 37 years of doing the same thing and keeping very true to my integrity of this. design to do it. So for me, isn't as of today, I mean, somebody comes in wants a one-of-one jacket. I'll make. And obviously, the prices are crazy. I mean, I make jacket with 10, 15 grand right now, one-of-one. But I make it. But I make it, you know, it's not like, you know,

you better appreciate her. Yeah. So, and, you know, it was not 15 grand. Oh, you took it easy on that. Don't, don't go through the American Express card and do that. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to give any secrets anything like that in case you pay for it I want to make sure She spent my money to get a jacket

for me on my birthday Yeah No, so but So I I started basically getting involved With a

So I did that And that Giant's jacket And the NFL reached out to me And said, You know We still a jacket

It's fucking awesome I can't curse on No, of course So it's awesome And it's just like And at the time The jacket If you see today

It's like The ugly jacket. It's not like the lamb skin stop with like pig skin, very thin, like look like fake leather, you know? But if I were you, I would have been thinking the opposite of like maybe they're going to come down on me for copyright infringement at some point. No, no, no, no, no. I was authorized by the NFL when I did it. Oh, even when you started.

Okay. Even when I started. Somebody from the NFL, a licensee asked me to do that. Before showing it to giving it to the owner of the Giants, went to the NFL, say, he's my buddy who did that jacket. Look at that jacket. At that time, they sold only Kmart, Walmart, or whatever target. There was no licensing business was not a prestigious stuff.

So they came to me and said, we want to give you a license to make jackets. I said, really, in my mind, I said, nobody's actually going to buy a jacket for a thousand-dollar retail. At the time, it was a thousand-dollar retail in 1988, 1989. However, pretty cool. I mean, you're dealing with about 14, 15-100 players. you know, 1,11, 1,200, 1,200 a block, you know. They get the styling, you know, the athletes, they have a lot of income. So let's assume if I sell 200, I mean, there's a lot of owners, I have a lot of money,

the lot of sponsors I have a lot of money. Let's assume I sell 200 jackets a year. You know, that's 500 bucks, that's 100 grand. So even, I'm not going to make money, I'm not going to lose money, but on my leather head, that's pretty cool to say that I'm associated with the NFL. Right. And the way that people would think of it now is like you build other stuff, other parts. You sell T-shirts.

You sell trucker hats or whatever the fuck associated with it. My stuff was like focused only on jackets. I didn't get licenses too. I didn't want to do T-shirts. I didn't want to do shirts. I didn't want to do jeans. I want to do jackets. That's all I want to do.

I did a couple of hats also. I was the first one to do the leather hats in the 80s. You know, so I started doing that. Like, obviously I started showing the jack. Everybody started loving it. When I do the trade show, the magic shows and stuff like that, the NBA come to me and said, you know, we wanted, what deal did you have the NFL? I said, they just gave it to me.

No money up front, paying 10% royalty and I do it. And obviously at the time, everybody, we saw only, in the NFL, we sold only one team, but it was only Raiders. 90% of the business were Raiders. Okay. The rest, the Cowboys are a little bit here and there. But you're talking about like NWA, all the, all the, the, get a rap, and all the stuff that wanted all the black.

So we sold only that. We saw Chicago Bulls. Forget about Lakers. And we saw in baseball, I sold white socks. And in hockey, I saw the Los Angeles King. All the black and white colors and Chicago Bulls. And I start getting licensed. And I start making that.

And I start getting building it. You know, people say, well, we cannot afford $1,000. We need to come up with different versions. I came up with the younger, a less price jacket with $250 retail. And what year did that come out? 1989, 1990. Okay. And that started flooding the market with that.

Those are in the malls and everything? Those are in the malls? In the mall, we had like a thousand stores, you know, like we're buying across. And never became as big as gas. But I was doing more than $20, $20, $25 million and sales. Right. How did it make you feel like we're having so many iconic moments, like, in the culture like Michael Jordan, you know what I'm saying, wearing your jacket, and especially Kobe, like that iconic picture with Kobe, like, how did that start making you feel like, you know, as a designer?

At the time, I didn't look at it like that. I mean, you know, today, in retrospect, today, I mean, I'm just like looking at it. I say, wow, I just kind of believe. When I start talking about the things that I've done and where I have been, it's just so amazing. I mean, like that I've been so lucky to be in the locker room with Kobe or always shaking hands with Nelson Mandela or. or being with President Clinton having dinner with him. You know, I mean, things like that just because I make jackets. But I never really calculated that. You know, the only thing I can tell you is, the first celebrity I ever met in my life, and I think it was Ken Norton, the boxer,

and ultimately I end up becoming best friends with Muhammad Ali. And obviously, I'm still friends with Mike Tyson, one of my favorite human beings on Earth. But from the first celebrity I met, I still felt like the little kid that was 10 years old in France that my legs were trembling. And today when I met a celebrity, I have the same feeling. I'm still very humble when I meet somebody because it's like, not necessarily a celebrity, but a celebrity is very easily you can identify because it's just somebody that has been able to elevate themselves. because of their talent that they have, one way or the other, and they shouldn't have an aura.

When you get into that aura, you feel like very humble to it. I mean, even though it's a jacket, we hold your name to, like, such a higher regard because of the people, you know what I'm saying, that's wearing it and the respect they gave you, too, you know, like, even you bringing up Muhammad Ali, like, damn, can you, like, tell us a story about, you know, being with Muhammad Ali, you know, and giving them a jacket? Imagine, you know, again, you always have to see where I got started. And, you know, 10 years old, and you know, Mohammed Ali is the biggest name in the world.

People didn't know about Michael Jordan or anything like that at the time. So, I mean, the time they already, when I met him. So one time I met a friend of mine who actually was a bodyguard from Michael Jackson, which had met, you know, he was taking me to all the... Every time I was on Michael Jackson's show, I would be on the... Basically on stage, backstage the whole time for like six days in a row. I remember going sports arena. I designed the outfit for the victory tour, you know, for all the Jackson.

So he introduced me to Sugar Ray and introduced me to Muhammad Ali. So first of my mom, I had Mohammed Ali was his birthday. You know, I don't know if you remember you guys are way too young, but they had a restaurant called Chasins on Beverly Boulevard, which was like the hottest restaurant in Los Angeles. I'm talking old school, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, all those big old stars and movie stars had been there for like 30, 40 years. And that's what they had the birthday. And I met him and kind of like, you know, after that, you know, every time there was an opportunity to be around him, I did. And then he wanted me to do some jacket for all his family, for all his kids.

So we did that. Then I licensed out his name to do some jackets. And I made the limited edition 100 jackets of his. And so it would come to my office. and he would just sign autograph to all my employees and do his magic tricks to all the people. He was like a wonderful, beautiful person. In terms of what you're building,

is it ever shocking to you just that your stuff seems to stand the test of time given that in fashion a lot of stuff that was cool two years ago is laughable now? Do you dwell on that much or think about how to maintain the relevance? And then again,

It evolved organically to that point. But the way I look at it is, is, you know, once I put my name on the label, I said, there's no way I can go and do shortcuts. I'm not going to break the integrity of my brand to make a buck. You know, I mean, that is, you know, as I evolve, much more and more and more, I'll leave by those principles. And then there was a lot of knockoff, a lot of people trying

to do J.H and not Jeff Hamilton and different things like that. You know, and so I really try to kind of elevate myself where I really don't consider myself like necessarily just a designer. Myself, I really, again, I feel myself more as an artist. And I kind of realize that point where when people came to me and they say, oh my God, Jeff Hamilton, you know, I own three of your pieces.

Why don't you say I own three of your jackets, you know? And you only refer to pieces when it's referred to art. So I kind of like say, how can I elevate my brand into making it more that it's so personal, there's a connection. So in 1991, I start signing every single jacket I make. Not only the jacket, all the high end. As of now, I sign every single jacket I make. I don't care if it's a $300 jacket. There's not a $300 jacket for $50.

My cheapest one is $850. But every jacket that I do, I sign every single jacket. Right. Every jacket is packaged in a certain way. On the high-hand jacket, like the 5,000, 10,000, I actually create a piece of art which I print, and then I all hand in hands, and I sign it, and I put a seal.

So whenever you get the Jeff Hamilton jacket, you really get an experience. But also a very, very important show. Like even in 2000, I used to ship the jacket with my signature, but it was not actually a hand sign. It was embroidered in my signature, where now I physically do it. So the idea is, I want, we're talking about it also an era that there was no social media.

There was no Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or anything like that. It was all from the buzz that goes out in the street. You know, obviously the word of mouth. The word of mouth. And you get like, when you see when Cameron shoots me out in one of his songs, I mean, you know, everybody knows what it is. And it's bigger than God at that time in 2000. Did you know they had Jeff Hamilton jackets on and dipset?

I guess it probably wasn't cognizant of who designed them at that time. If you look at it, I mean, when he mentioned, my name in that get them girls I mean and and I talk about three four years ago I watched a video and hey what did I see on the video Virgil is in the video dancing the video Kanye is in a video I mean all those people are in the video like that and then they were not nobody knew Kanye was at a time right in 2000 nobody who canier was and he was only like a great producer made amazing beats and people was but that they grew up together from you know I got to ask this question but they were they went they were coming to Harlem to try to get the

I got to ask this question, and of course, God forbid, but do you spend time thinking about what becomes of the brand once you're gone? Yeah, so I'll get to that, you know, because I really want to tell you where I'm at. So, and I'll get to that right now. So for me, like today, again, giving you always my, and I don't mean by my precepts of how I ran my business and my life, is I have three major, three major things that make me happy today. Where I work for, which is something that when you're young, I never felt I would get those rewards. I felt like the only reward when I work is money.

And unfortunately, when you're an entrepreneur, only cares about money. And there's nothing wrong with it. You know, we need money. We need to have money. I need to have money to pay my bills. I need to have money to support my family. But beyond that,

if I don't have a Louis Vuitton parachute or a prize, or Prada or whatever, it's okay. You know, you still can be okay. You know, you're still going to survive. So at this stage of my life, money is very important, and I work for money, but it's not my priority. I'm going to say not only because it is a priority. The number two priority is to finally discover

because I went through many ups and downs, and I only came back to work two years ago. And it just caught on fire like crazy. What were you doing during that hiatus? And how long was it? I was retired and I was doing art and I got involved in different ventures, not successful. Really? And really just like realize that, you know, can I afford anymore like $38,000 a month

a mortgage on my house? You know, I'm bleeding every night. I'm thinking about it. And at that point I'm already into weed and alcohol and all that stuff. So to try to appease my pain, you know, I went through nasty divorce with my first wife the last 19 years, spent $7,000 attorneys. So the money is like, you know, and you still think you're there and keep on living the lifestyle.

So the whole thing is, you know, still driving the Bentley, still driving all my cars and still having the watches and the lifestyle and people still think I'm like a big shot, but I'm not. And so at that point, you know, so the realization I came when I came back was, I'm so blessed. to know that I can get to work every morning and I get to do something that I love.

Like when I told you the blessing of the universe give you that. And when I said that's the reason, luck is something. So when I was telling you earlier, like the three things, work hard, work smart, and find you your vocation of what it is, the fourth element that really puts the whole thing together and enveloped and put the sunshine and the aura is what you said, luck, which I call blessings.

It's like the element. Luck is not luck. It's going to come in. Blessing are going to come and go. But basically, the universe can. And I know what sound like I'm religious, which I am, to a second, I'm better. But I believe in the rules of the universe.

And I believe that the universe can come and take everything from you and can give it to you back. And I'm a living example of what that's happened. And because of my constant work always has been there doing all that stuff. So the second thing I was telling you, I'm going to say is money is like priority number one or equally. Number two is, and I'm getting to the point of posterity, identifying what you love to do

as a living, going to in the morning, waking up and knowing that I'm excited to do, knowing that I'm going to design, whether I'm going to do accounting, when I'm going to be work, do something that I'm going to make a difference out there. And then number three thing is, is legacy. You know, so it's a new element that came into my life only to three years ago. And I realized that suddenly people know who I am. You know, thanks for Instagram, of course. Yeah, you've got 5 million followers.

Yeah, but it's like, but again, when I was not working, I had 1.4 million. You know, I understand why. Why? I had not posted one picture of new content in years. It was all old pictures, like all history and stuff. I was verified in 2014. in. Then ask anybody to be verified.

And suddenly, like the whole thing started building in, you know, when I had to come back, you know, ASTAP helped me a lot. Rocky, I went to Yamsday, you know, I was with them, you know, just with the whole ASEB and Virgil, you know, Virgil kind of referred to me as his mentor, you know, even though you know, was not that close to him, you know, Don C mentioned that old, you know, gave me a trophy telling me I was with me his mentor. And obviously they grew up in the 90s in Chicago where the biggest thing that was there was the bulls and she and then Michael Jordan wearing nothing but my jackets. And the most iconic jacket that made my life.

So I realized that legacy played a big part. Like when I'm not here, my name, I want my name to stay around. I mean, I want my name. I don't have any plans per se as far who's going to carry over the company. and who's going to be there or whatever. I really, I have kind of some plan, but not everything very clear, you know, because I, you know, who knows if I'm not going to sell the company before I go away and retire, you know, or continue running it but not having to want it.

And I'm going to that direction. If you're an entrepreneur, even me, I'm 38. I mean, it has to at least cross your mind at times, you know. If I get fucking hit by a car tomorrow, what happens? I do it. Of course I do it. Of course, you know, so I have certain things in place, you know, just in case something happens. Definitely. It's interesting when you say that you like tried other things and then came back to the root

because I feel like a lot of us are kind of constantly facing those questions in life. Like there's, I could sit here and do interviews every day and I know that they're going to make some money and there is going to be an audience for it. But sometimes once you've done a million interviews or you've made a million jackets, you start to think, maybe I could do something bigger. Maybe I could do something different. It wasn't a bit different. You know, just in 2002 I sold my company to a public company, and I sold for a lot of money. And I started making a lot of money.

That was making a lot of money just working for them. I was making $3 million a year. I was a salary, whatever, between the salary, the bonus and the, I mean, I'm in 2002. And then I sold it on top of it. And then they decided not to pay me. They start to cut down everything. And I was making too much money. And I was too much of a shiny star into a corporate world that they tried to push me out.

And they basically push me out. And again, lawyers and lawyers. So technically from 1984 till 2007, I was with nothing but lawyers. I'm talking about 20, 30 million dollars in lawyers my whole lifetime has been. And I was burnout. So the divorce took over everything with my wife, even though I won the divorce. I spent $7 million in the attorneys, broke my relationship with all my kids. And it was miserable.

I didn't want to, honestly, I didn't want to be around. And it's just, you know, like I said, maybe the spiritual person in me didn't allow me just to cross line any time. And I was totally burnt out again and then to the point where in 2019, just didn't want to do anything anymore. They don't want to wake up in the morning. I was like, like I say, wake up in the morning and drinking and take to Xanax and smoke weed and not want to go, not want to work,

even though that was against my precept of me, my discipline. And getting into fender benders every day, sold my cars because I just couldn't afford anymore, sold the house. And I started getting like a safe. Fender Banders still like got into a really bad car accident, which happened to be not my fault. Maybe it was not my fault, but for some reason, you know, I just, if I had better reflexes at the time, I would have been better. I was not under, it was in the morning. And I was five days in the hospital.

I fractured my chest, broke my arm. And I was like, who was there to take care of you through all this stuff? It was just my wife and my mother. You know, at that time, it was separated with my wife. Even though we're still together, we're not, you know, my wife had been with her 38 years together, so she's always going to be around with me, and I still, she's still number one in my life. And my mom, you know, and so I start taking care of my mom, and my mom is 89 years old, so it's kind of like they were taking care of me. And at that point, you know, I just like really just didn't know what to do. I couldn't even get up in bed after the hospital.

I mean, I was in tremendous pain, could not sleep. broken wrist, all the thing, broken elbow, and pills and pills and I've got kind of like, I opioids and just like, was not even myself, and he didn't want to even dress up and look at myself in the mirror. That was December 2019. December, November, December, Jim Jones and Vado

decide to, they call me, they say, we're going to do a song called Jeff Hamilton. Wow. And why? Like really in my mind. I mean, like, I don't think. I mean, I'll call J 10 years before. So then, you know, you've very big part of the culture.

I said, well, is he smoking? Is he the world? What does he mean? I don't, I've never done anything intentionally to be part of anything. I just did it from my heart with my feelings, my trying to be as creative as it could be. And so they came up with that song and, you know,

I didn't have any jackets, actually. I wasn't even working. So I had only my personal jacket. I loan them on my personal jacket. They wore them in the videos and stuff like, ah. And they want me to fly to New York to be in the video. And I say, if I go to New York, to the cost me a couple of grand,

I don't have to grant to waste into going there. So I didn't do it. As a follow up of that, I get a call from ASAP. I'm going to look at my Instagram, and I get a DM. I get 600 DMs a day. But I answer all of them. As of today, I still do. Whether it's a little emoji or little art or a little comment.

And so I see this guy. I said, I'm a big fan of yours. I grew up with you in Harlem. And I love what you've done with the athletes and the deep set and this and that. And I said, thank you, my friend. I even look who he was. You know, I mean, I don't look.

And he said, well, if you're in Beverly Hills, I'd love to have lunch with you. If you ever come to the Beverly Hills, I'd love to have lunch. So I actually live in Los Angeles. I believe in Beverly Hills. You want to do tomorrow? I can do it.

I mean, I'm not working anyway. So at that time, and say, sure, tomorrow works. And then, and then. And I said, who wants to invite me lunch? I mean, the guy is the guy is a fan. And they look at it, of course. I mean, Esap Rocky. Honestly, I didn't know who Esap Rocky would.

I mean, I knew Esab Rocky. Isn't as of today. I mean, I know about Esab Mob and all the stuff, but I sapiens. But I don't know, I'm friends with Ferg, but I don't know even the music. Right. And, but I knew the name because obviously being him in jail in Sweden and being out of stuff. So I knew it because of the news.

So he was super great with me. I mean, told me he was friends with Virgil and Don C. And they talk about me. At the time, he even talked to me, so we need to resurrect your brand. You know what you mean to the culture, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I mean, where does that come from? I'm part of the culture?

I mean, how so? I mean, I've always done something that I love, and I've made a living out of it. I never did anything intentionally to try to create a hype around it. I mean, there was never anything conscious about that. isn't enough today. There's nothing concerned about it. I mean, I'm a little bit more selective when I do a collaboration. And it seems like you haven't fully embraced it as far as being in a culture because, yes, you are like in the history book. Like you stamp. It's nothing you can do

about it. Like, you can't go nowhere. Like, you can't even say I don't want to do it. But today, today I'm loving it because I'm able to, after two years and coming back bigger than I ever was. I'm not saying I'm doing $75 million a year in sell, but I'm a, I'm up there doing really well, again, with the three elements, building my legacy, building, doing something I love and making enough money to be comfortable. But you know, there's something new that just happened. You know, you walk into, I can walk through the airport, I can walk in the streets. I mean, I can go through the streets of New York and say, oh my God, you're Jeff Hamilton, you know, can I take a picture with you? I was a raffroy in restaurant in New York. People saw,

oh my, I'm such a big fan. I mean, big fan. I saw. I mean, make jackets. I mean, make jackets. I mean, I'm not like a, I'm not a celebrity. I'm not anything. Like, I never looked at me as a celebrity. And I never, and myself, I'm like, it's not the ego side of me that, that, you know, of sure, the ego side must love that. But how blessed I am that somebody gives me love. So I want to give them the love back.

If they feel like me giving the love back by taking a picture, it's very rewarding to me. Well, you know, part of what's interesting about it is like in the 80s. If you saw an iconic photo of Michael Jordan wearing a crazy leather jacket, you think it's dope, but it's not like you can just hop on Google and figure out what it is. Whereas these days, it's easier for people to be more intense with their fandom. So it's like, it's just easier for people to figure out like, oh, this dude is the fucking dude who designed all these crazy jackets. It's easier for them to get into it. All that still was in evolution.

So Instagram obviously made aware of it, you know, like the songs and people are mentioning song, whether it's Benny the Butcher and putting me in his videos and stuff like that. And I naturally build up relationship with all the hip-hop world, the sports world, the art world. And so I go to, so Iraqi says, you know, I want to come make me a custom jacket for like 10 days. I said, there's no way. At that time, I don't have manufacturing capability. I said, there's no way I can do a jacket, a custom jacket. We're going to, we did the Jan Borgeny jacket, you know, with all the ESOP and the picture of yams,

with the kujis who had another whole thing. And I said, but if you want to, you have a concert, I didn't even know that it was Yams, it was Yams Day. I thought he was doing a big benefit for Drew's World because he had just passed away in January of 2020. So, but he said, I definitely want to wear a jacket to the concert. So I say, well, I have my personal jacket that I wore that I wore when Kobe was holding his trophy,

but the one I was wearing, if you want, I can loan it to you. He said, great. I would love that. So I said, OK, give me an address. I'll say, no, no, no. I want you to come. I don't want to go to spend the money again to another few thousand dollars to go to. I'm really, I'm not making money.

I'm, I don't want to. And I didn't ask, I didn't say nothing. I said, but so I'm going to call my assistant. My assistant is going to call you, that's her name, Bambhap. She's going to send your first class ticket and a hotel and car service for all the time for you to come in. Come for three days. want you to become the constrict.

So I went to the concert, you wore the jacket. You know, obviously, I had made already a jacket for Rihanna. Rihanna was there. That's where he started going out with her. Drake was there. I didn't see him then, even though I had made jacket for him. I had not met him then. Everybody was there, like a little yachtie and two chains and everybody was there.

And everybody gave me nothing but love. I said, Jim John, I was in backstage the whole time. I was on stage. You know, like A'sap always giving me love. And the next day, Virgil posts on his page, the Aesop with my jackets. And, you know, I don't know if you're kind of like dumbing the down, but you, it's the sound like you really have and really and fully embraced it

and you don't know what you really mean to us in hip hop and the swirled. Like you, you are like, like, you need to get in touch with it. You should be like, you know. You know what, these people really love me. It's more than the jacket. It's just the feeling. It's like music. It's the way it makes us feel.

Like you say, it's like it just gives us that certain feeling. And, you know, a certain stature. You know? I have a difficult time to grasp it. Again, still, why, listen, it's not like I do brain surgery. I'm making jackets. I mean, I make stuff that I love to do. But I touching a sensitive cord in,

a big group, bring it to a big audience. So it's like when you make a music and a certain music, and like you said, but I really am still puzzle how me as a person, people are starting to like me before that, you know? So let me, the evolution so goes out, so I have tremendous success, big buzz, I mean, you know, Instagram's like keep on building and building, and unfortunately, January 26, Kobe dies.

Now suddenly, the whole world now knows Kobe for being one of the greatest players ever, but also he's known for his jackets in the locker room all those years, and especially that iconic picture with all the trophy. So now people start putting it together now, now that's the moment you start putting it together, it's up rocking the jacket,

the Jeff Hamilton jacket, now that not my Instagram blows up. Really? Everybody wants to buy the jacket. I don't have the NBA license at that point. So I don't know how to produce, so that jacket is five grand. You want to buy the jacket? I was gonna sell my own personal ones,

originally. I said, let me just sell. I have like seven, eight, ten jack. I'll sell all that's money. And so I called the NBN and say, you know what? I'm getting overwhelmed with people buying jacket. I'm taking like selling five, ten jackets a week at the time. And I don't know how to produce them. So, I mean, I found right away the factories and people to do it. So I, so I called the NB. I said, you know, I'm doing those jackets. I just don't want to do anything illegal. So I said, just go ahead, do it. You know, it's okay. You know, you're a friend. friend for 30 years, so I do it, and everything takes off. Then two weeks later, the week later, the week after the

Kobe dies, it's a Super Bowl. So Sequin, Barclay calls me and said, you know, through his stylist, I wouldn't wear a Kobe jacket. Can I borrow a jacket from you? So it gets tremendous publicity of him in a press conference, I'm wearing the Kobe jacket and this and that. There was in actual locker room, but bam, publicity. The week after that, now I'm trying to get the upper hand.

So I basically reach out to everybody. I reach out to Dave East. I reach out to Jim Jones, to Vado, to who else was it like? I mean, Chance, a rapper. I mean, all those people, my 10 jacket that I have in my warehouse, in my bedroom at the time I don't have a warehouse, I said, I want to loan him to you. You guys wear it as a loaner, and you give it back to me.

So they're all wearing. So now everybody's seeing on the court at the Chicago Allstar game, which I didn't go, but everybody in my stuff. And of course, like from there, and everybody's like contacting me, like big company, like Chinatown Market, Converse, we want to do a shoe with you, we want to do this with you, we want to do a collaboration with it. And like suddenly the bus are building up and I'm working. Hit, then COVID hits big time. You know, I mean, there's like five cases and then suddenly everything's up building up of that. At this, same time, there is a Netflix documentary of the Last Dance, Michael Jordan.

And now suddenly, like, my jackets also, I'm in the video. I mean, the thing, like with me and Scotty, I'm with them in Paris, I'm in the locker rooms. Now, all of the hype goes in. And now I'm, now I'm really build up the confidence. I'm still having pain with my arms. I'm still doing surgeries in my arms and all of stuff. But I'm still, I'm not missing one day of work.

I never quarantined for one second in my whole life. I mean, I went to work when, because I didn't have an office, but a friend of mine gave me an office. He said, just, you know, here, take that corner office, you do whatever you want. And I went there every day at 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock the morning. And again, I didn't care whatever work I had to do, I would do it. I mean, but I just want to be busy. And I was passionate. I started rebuilding and building.

And I started going in and hiring a couple of people working with me. And then he has no substance. So ultimately in July, when the NBA went into the bubble to win the championship, I call the NBA and I said, you know, there's no argument that the three most iconic players, I'm not saying they're the best players, but they might be, but there's no doubt that three most iconic players in the NBA are Michael Jordan, Kobe, and LeBron. You know, I mean, of course, I love Iverson and all those guys, but, you know, the most iconic cultural wise are the three guys.

And I said, you know, I was in locker room with Lebron, with Michael. I was in locker room with Michael. I never did anything with LeBron when it was in Miami or Cleveland. And even though I knew LeBron's, before he got even drafted, which was in the high school, actually gave me his high school jersey, and I made jackets for him when he was in Akron and in San Marys. So I said, how amazing if I just drew the championship jacket, if the Lakers happened to win, how great would be?

So the NB said, yeah, we'd love that. So they gave me a licensing agreement. Unfortunately, I could not get into the bubble because it was so straight. But the next day when he came back from Orlando, Rich Paul called me. I said, you have the jacket. Say, yes, he won't cover the come of the house and drop it off. And then I say, well, I'll come in about two hours.

You say, no, no, just come now. So I go there. And there's a big table. King James in the center, you know, and AD with him. and all his body's all drinking and enjoying. That was a Tuesday after the win a championship on Sunday. But that Sunday, I already had a design approved and the jackets already made.

Some of the championship jacket made. I posted on Instagram. And I had 4,000 comments. I don't know, maybe 100,000 like or 200,000 like. At the time, I might have, I don't know, a million, five, million six thousand, 600,000 followers. And I opened a website that night and that week. flooded the first month I think we sold probably half a million dollars in in orders which I didn't deliver one jacket was all prepaid and half a million dollars in the bank without even selling one jacket yet wow and everything just got like immediately just flooded back and went back in business overnight that's insane and so and and since then things are continuing and it just up building up and being a little bit selective of some of and I don't want to offend any brand that I'm not doing with but but I got all the big brands

involved, you know, like, I don't want to say the name, but the shoes that you're wearing that, you know, the collaborator with Nike there, but that one is dropping in next month, which is going to be the most expensive jacket that they have ever done. It's going to be retail for $15,000. So Jeff Hamilton Times, can I say it? No. Okay, so Jeff Hamilton, so that's crazy. No, we have NTIAS on us. So we have that. We do stuff with a couple of brands. I think the fans might guess it. Like Italian brands. They know. Some big Italian brands. Also, we can say the names.

One of them, one of the Missoni, the other one is another big Italian brand. Like your bag, for instance, you know, we got brand, but we don't want to say the name either. They're going to get that one to. They know what bag I got right now. And then I just made a deal with the NFL. I didn't deal with the NHL. We're doing things with Tyler the Creator right now. We did the weekend for the Super Bowl, which was amazing.

Now we're working on our next project with a weekend and another drop. You know, finally got to meet Drake, which was amazing because, you know, again, that's another. I get to meet him. I made the retirement jacket of Kobe when he wore. When Kobe retired in 2016, the last All-Star game, I made a one-of-one Kobe jacket for farewell to Mamba. It's one of the most famous jackets I've been made in my career. But then we got to meet Drake. So, you know, gigs, the British rapper, invite me to his birthday.

And he said, you know, Drake is my best friend. And Drake is throwing a party for me. I know you never met him because through, I don't know if you know, AJ, the manager of Davis, they said, you know, that would be a great opportunity for you to meet Drake. So I went there and I turned around and Drake is right there. like behind. And I said, wow, I just want to say, Drake. I want to say, hello.

I'm Jeff Hamilton. Like, my mind is say, who'd I feel is this guy, you know? But that's not what you think. When he's back up, he comes close, put his arm up, and just give me a big hug, like with his big muscular arm, and squeeze me and start talking to my ear. And say, you don't know what you're present to me. Since I'm a kid, I've been loving your jackets,

and I cannot wait for you and I to be friends just for us to do, to go through the archives and through the stuff that you have. And so from then, came on, we did the idea. We're on our second OVO collaboration with his team. And we're an amazing relationship with them. So a lot of really cool stuff going out right now, a lot of amazing.

Like we just finished, like I told you, the Tyler, the creator, the golf wang one, we're a drop in September. And amazing, amazing collaborations right now. That's incredible. It must feel pretty bizarre to sort of be at the high of your career so late into your career. It is.

And for me, I mean, it's, you know, I, I almost like to be like the one of one. You know, I like saying like, how many people can you say that there were 64's when it started from scratch and made it back, you know, at 64? That's rare. But, you know, like, let me tell you. I'm supposed to do that when you're 21. I'm actually 67. I'm actually 67 next one.

I started. Is he known this person has been here? Shit, quite possibly. I don't know. 60. But, you know, I don't feel like I'm 67. Right. I don't, I feel like I'm, in my skin, I feel like I'm 30 years old.

I mean, I act like a 30-year-old. I mean, I tell go to the clubs and I'll do the things. I mean, I'll do whatever needs to be done. I'll be until 3 o'clock in the morning. I mean, tomorrow night I'm going to Soldier Boys' Birthday Party. But before I'll be at an LV event in on Road Road Road Drive. And, you know. But do you have to pace yourself?

at this point in your life because even myself at 38, you know, I feel it where I don't necessarily want to be grinding super hard 16 hours a day or if I do have to do that one day, I'm probably not trying to do that the next day. No, no, you know, I grind as much as I can. I look at it as every opportunity I have is something that I'm not going to have tomorrow. So I want to maximize my potential. So if I can be hustling as much as I can, listen, I'll have time to rest. I mean, for me, it's important for me to do the things.

things that I love and be always on top of it. You know, it's just, you said you as close friends with Mike Tyson, you ever smoked a blend with Mike Tyson? No, not yet. You know, I'm going to be, I'm doing his podcast soon, but I never did that. And I, listen, I, I, I never smoke with anybody but myself. I just, I just, I smoke, I don't smoke like, like, like,

like, like, I would not. I smoke when I go home, I really have no smoke, to be honest, for the last couple of months. I have so much weed at home because everybody gives me that. I've done stuff with Burner, I've done stuff with all the big guys. But I don't really, I smoke only at night when I'm at home and I want to relax. But lately, I found out it was making me a little lazy in the morning and wake up with a big head. So it has to be really, like last time I smoked, I was in Puerto Rico and I knew I was not going to work the next day and I was having fun.

So it's cool to relax. But I would not go out. I would not smoke in a club. I like to, I like confinement of my own room. I got to ask this question. What is your attitude at this point in your life on your own personal, personal sense of style and fashion? I embrace everything. I appreciate everything.

I mean, I wear, you know, I'm not like that kind of design that wants to wear only my stuff. You know, I mean, it's a little bit difficult, to be honest. I mean, when it comes to jackets, I only wearing my own jackets except Virgil's. I mean, you know, when Virgil's passed away, I mean, you know, obviously I'm, you know, big fan of his and just you know I think he really broke so many barriers in the high luxury brands for him you know just for a kid of Chicago to become the head of of Louis Vuitton it's just an amazing accomplishment and and all the the flowers he got while he was alive was well-deserved and it's just very sad that he went away at 41 years old when there's

so much talent that was going in and in fact I just designed a new jacket but it's not I call it a Virgil jacket for me, but it's not, doesn't say Virgil. Virgil seems like somebody who was working as if he knew that he might not have that much time. He knew the last couple of years. You did, huh? And nobody knew. By the way, nobody, even closer to him didn't know that. So the jacket I made, it's not a lot.

I'm going to drop it probably by next couple of months. It's kind of a jacket. That's a varsity jacket. And I put like L-O-N-L-O-N-G-L-L-I-V. long leave and I put a big V on the back and I called the Legacy Jacket and I basically kind of like took a bunch of different quotes from different writers and I created my own basically I wrote it's called the legacy jackets I put Legacy and it and I said legacy my definition of legacy is planting flowers into a field without having an expectations to ever see the flowers fully bloom. So that's what it is. I mean you when you have kids you know you you you you know you you you're you're you're you when you have kids you know you you know you you you you're You want to raise them. You want to do the best for them. You want to groom them in a certain way.

You might not see them being married and having grandkids or grandkids, but you want the best for them. The same thing, when you do it like something without any, it's pretentious and humbling at the same time. I don't know how to really explain, but it's basically you give it, when you love somebody, you give it without, you do something, not without an agenda. How great it is to be good and giving love to somebody,

a friend or a partner or family without expecting that they're going to give you something back in return. And it's just because it's the goodness of you doing it. And you know knowing that that love that you give or the energy that you put in are there, it's going to stand this test of time and hopefully we'll stand a test of time. Powerful shit. Yeah. I'm not going to lie too. I got pissed so goddamn bad.

It's over with, baby. Jeff Hamilton. What do you want the people to check out in terms of? what you have going on at this moment. Basically, you know, I mean, on my Instagram, that's where I have all my action that I do and my lifestyle. And it became

some kind of a lifestyle where people say, what's the next thing? Are you going to be on a private jet? They're going to be on a boat. Are you going to be in the Hamptons? They're going to be in Paris. Are you going to be in a, you know, if I tell her what I'm doing next week and I'm going to make you guys jealous,

I'm not going to tell you. But, so there's a lot of like, so people kind of like love the way I live my life. the way I dress, the way I'm out there. But it's my life. I'm maximizing, like I said, my potential. And if it's 17 hours a day to be the 16 hours, I'll do it.

I don't care. I mean, I'll find the energy. I drink a little less. Like I say, I don't smoke. I mean, I try to eat healthy. I try to eat healthy. I don't necessarily exercise, but I try to be healthy. And I try to do things that I'm driven by passion and by energy.

And my passion just drives me and my motivation. knowing that, you know, like sometimes, you know, you sometimes you're on the ninth inning. So, and I'm not saying, unless 67 is still young, you know, but, but who knows? But I'm like on the back night, like you say, right, or, you know, on the back, that's what you said. You know, so that's the right expression. So, so you feel like, let me maximize everything. Let's not procrastinate. If I can do something today that I'm not going to, you know, I just don't want to be pretentious to think that I'm above,

God and the universe that I'm going to be here tomorrow to wake up tomorrow to do it. So if I can do something, let me just do it now. And also the thing is I just don't want to feel entitled that everything I have I deserve. No, it's okay. If I have it, I'm lucky. I'm blessed every moment to do it. I'm blessed to be with you guys and being able to share my story. And hopefully if I can inspire somebody or I don't need, it's not like I'm doing it because I want to sell jacket.

But if I can speak my mind and speak my soul and you can see what I feel about life in general and obviously being a designer in the mix and it can inspire one person, I'm lucky right there. I'm inspired. You inspired? I'm inspired. I think they're inspired too. They made it this deep. They're definitely inspired.

I've been inspired since I was fucking 10. There you go. Jeff, we appreciate your time for real. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. And if you want to see, like, everything from my stuff, just go on my Instagram at Jeff Hamilton. That's where you follow up all the new collabs

and all the new drops and all the new things that we come up and the lifestyle. And you can always hit me on DM. I always answer my DMs. Fire. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Jeff Hamilton, No Jumper, T-Rell. Coolest podcast of the world. Check us out on YouTube, TikTok, Patreon, Instagram. Like, comment, and subscribe. Nojumper.com. If you want to support, appreciate you. page.