 And they're like, we got the biopsy results, it's cancerous. And they're about to foreclose on my house. And I'm like, yo, what am I going to do? So I had to shut the store down. In terms of collabs, Sneaker Room has one door. We're 22 collabs in. I'm not known as Seraj Sneaker Room. It's Seraj the Philanthropist. What really is success? Right. Is it how much money you have? Is it what car you drive? Is it, you know, the clothes that you have? Is it this like, no man, success is love. And my son goes, dad, dad. I like to let everybody introduce themselves, how they would like to be seen into the world. So go ahead, let me know who you are. And then we'll talk about a couple of accolades. Seraj Kaufman, you know, everybody knows me as Sneaker Room, but I like to be known as a philanthropist. I'm a dude that came from nothing, made a little something, but then decided to give a little something, or give a little lot. Yeah, give a little lot. Give a little lot. Like that's a new word. Give a whole lot. Nah man, I'm just a regular dude, a father, a philanthropist, a mentor, someone who just wants to leave a legacy and leave something in this world. I feel that. Okay, so you've had collaborations with, all your collaborations with Nike? Yeah, yes. Okay, so you got sportswear designs, you got basketball designs. We'll talk about that in a bit. And then you have your store. How many years have your store been open? I mean, we started in 06 as a resale store. Okay. Then closed down and reopened. So, I mean, if you want to go longevity wise, we've been in the game for 17 years. If you want to go as Sneaker Room wise, it's about 12, 13 years. Out of New York. In Jersey, come on. Get it right, dude. Get it right, dude. Get it right, get it right. I'm on the left. Here we go. I still got everything I get, man. I see. All right, let's go with it. All right, so we're going to talk about all that. But like you said, came a long way. You got a lot to offer. You have offered a lot. And I always like to take it back. Paint that picture for me. What was it like that grade school, middle school era, family, lifestyle, finances? What did you know about finances? Wow, okay. Oh wow, you're going in. Okay, this is real. Yeah, I want to know like, you know, what was your, you know, how was your foundation built learning those things? And then obviously, yeah, we'll talk about sneakers as well. No, I like this all. Let's go. Listen, this is the part that people don't want to ever hear about. They just want to see what they see today. Right. They don't realize what it was before this. Yeah, I need the root. Okay, all right. So let's see. Grew up in Jersey City. Born and raised. Lived in the projects. Married in projects. 37 Dales Avenue. Apartment 625. Lived in the PJs. Listen, man. Made me who I am. What made young Saraj full in love with Nike or Jordan, if you want to say, was back when the brands did their thing and they told stories. So 92, you know what I'm saying? You know, Jordan's seven Bordeaux. Michael Jordan. Michael Jackson. You know what I'm saying? We're not going to talk about a funny story today happening at Jordan, bringing my son not, you know, trying to correct me when I said Michael Jackson, thinking I'm talking about Jordan, but I'm really talking about Jackson. You're right. You had the three mics in that area, too. Mike Tyson, too. Exactly. I mean, it was a good time. I mean, I was one year old, but. Wow. Okay. I do remember that era. It's cool. I was 12. So I wasn't that much older than you. Okay, okay. But basically I went to my mother, God rest her soul in the projects, and I was like, yo, Mike, I need these shoes. I need these shoes. And she's like, how much are they? You know, I'm thinking, I'm kidding them. I'm like, Mike, they're like 120, 130. And she's like, MF, you know, I rent this 110, you do the math. And I'm like, didn't get the shoes. Right. That's it. That was that's my story. Like everybody has a story. So with that being said, I always wanted shoes still because shoes have always been a staple. They've always been, it's not, it's like, it's not that it's respect. But if you had them, like people just nod your head when you walk by. And they'd be like, you know, they know, you know. So I never had that. So growing up didn't have that. Even, you know, going further, you know, listen, I had my first son at 19. My wife was 18. And we started very young. I don't have a college degree. I only have a high school diploma. And basically, you know, I was working regular jobs, just trying to pay for my kids to grow. Well, my kid at that time, my first son to grow up. And you know, here and there, I would buy a shoe. You know, I started working at a trucking company, dispatch manager, a water company, just trying to make ends meet. And I would buy a shoe here or there. So circle back to 2005, wife, he's pregnant with our second child. And she, she gets sick. And, you know, she's in the hospital and she needs some help. And you know, I mean, listen, she had a stroke. You know what I'm saying? It was crazy. We was about to lose our second child. And if I start crying, I'm going to tell you, you ain't have no, you ain't have no, you ain't have no, you ain't have no, you ain't have a snap, man. It's not readings, but I'm here for you. And, and she got sick. And, you know, listen, I thought, you know, wifey was paralyzed, half her body for a minute. So I thought life was about to end. So I took what's called the family, the family act. You can take time off for work to deal with your family. And, you know, they hold your job. So I'm thinking they held my job. Right. Okay. So circle back February, my second son is born. This is February of 2006. And I'm like, I cool bet, you know, like after he's born February 4th, I'm like, all right, I'm going back to work, like on the 14th. When I go back, they're like, yo, we eliminated your position. Right. And I'm like, what? Like, huh, I got like two grand in the bank. Right. I'm like, what the hell am I about to do? Right. New born, six year old, you know, like, sneakers are not even in the midst of what I'm thinking about. So then circle back, when I circle forward, February 20th. February 20th is the night before my birthday. So mom's telling me that she's going, she went to the dentist last week. And she's like, I got a system, I'm out. And she's like, I'm waiting for the results. So I'm the guy next day, February 21st, which is my birthday. I'm sitting there, we're having dinner at my house, my mom, my dad, you know, my two kids, and she gets the phone call, like we got your results, you need to come in now. So we go and we go to the dentist's office. Now mind you, I don't even celebrate my birthday because circle back to 98, my brother passed away February 20th, 11, 58 PM, two minutes before my birthday. Right before I turned 18, I lost my big brother, 10 year difference. So like, I never celebrate my birthday. Usually it's just in the house, you know, family. So we go to the dentist's office, doctor comes in, like three nurses come in, like, you know, there's not nurses, but dental assistants. And they're like, we got the biopsy results, it's cancerous. We're not sure what type of cancer is, but it doesn't come from the mouth. So you need to get to a doctor right away. You're right. Boom, next day we at the hospital, getting the PET scan, find out it's colon cancer. So I'm like, I like, and I'm telling this story because this is where the leads into sneakers. So we find out she's got colon cancer. And then, you know, getting laid off where you want to say they closed my job was the best thing that ever happened to me because I got to spend the next three months with my mother in my house with hospice before she went. Talk about that before you go. It ain't part of those moments, those times. My grandpa just passed away. And the last, like, I remember those times, like going to Palm Springs and just like, I'm on the move. He's like, you know, me, I'm traveling, I'm doing all these things. But like over these past few years, I'm like, whenever I get the chance, if I can go for the weekend and kick it with him, you know, he loves hot air balloons, loves to do these things, he's going to get on the tram and go have lunch or dinner. We don't realize how short life is. We don't realize that I'm seeing you today. I might not see you tomorrow. Like, that's what people don't understand about. Like, this sneaker thing is great. This culture is phenomenal. But we still got to understand that the word life is before all of that. And that's what people forget. Like, think about it. Like, I'm telling you that my son is born. I'm in a happy moment. I lost my job. I find out my mom got cancer. Like, what's going on in my life? So then forward, mom passes away May 25th, 2006. So I'm all messed up in the head. I'm not going to lie to you, man. I got a newborn. I'm trying to figure out life. I don't have a job, whatever. So boom, sitting in the house one day. Box comes in the mail. So I'm like, all right, let's go. And this is a story that we never... Like, we talk about it at sneaker room, but we don't really tell it to the public too much. Because, you know, it's like, if you come in and you talk to us, you'll know. Right. So I open up the box. It's one piece of Nike stock. And it's the actual stock. Right. And it's framed. Mm-hmm. And the inscription says on the little metal gold tag, two Shirage, a piece of Nike you won't wear out, love mom. Mm-hmm. My brother, I'm like, what do you do? Right. I go to my dad. He didn't know nothing about it. Go to my aunt. And she's like, your mom knew you love shoes so much, she wanted to leave you something. Mm-hmm. And that's what she left me. Mm-hmm. So, like, I have that on my arm tattooed. I never would put a company's name on my arm. Right. But Nike's on my arm. This is way before an account, way before anything. Right. Right. Just because that's what my mother wrote. Mm-hmm. So then, boom, I'm like, I gotta do something now. So now mind you, 2006, the resell game ain't crazy. Right. You know, you know this. Oh, yeah, this is, this is, okay. Yeah. So before we move too fast, before we move too fast. All right, yeah, yeah. Before we move too fast. Good. High school, you know, give me the Shirage in high school. You know, was you one of the homies, I would have been kicking away back in the day? Like, what's up? I wasn't, I wasn't into shoes because I really couldn't afford shoes. Okay. You know, I had here and there, like I remember I got my, I got my, my patent leather bred 11s. A lot of people didn't know JC Penney sold two back in the day. Yes. Okay. No, oh, 2001, that's you. Or you're talking about the original. Go back, go back, go back. I don't know if you were saying that. No, I remember the age difference. Yeah, that's right. I remember the age difference, that's you 2001. Okay. I'm prior. So I got them from JC Penney's because I took my dad's credit card and charged them without him knowing. So like, I took his JC Penney's card and got them because they didn't ask me for ID. No to kids. How to get sneakers at a young age. So you don't do it now. Like, don't do it. Don't do it now. Like my son is over here. He's watching us and he's like, yo, I got dad's address in the wallet. Like, no, but like, you know, like, that's what I, that's what high school was. High school, like, listen, man, if you knew me growing up to be very honest with you, I'm not the same person I was. I was a very quite, quite honestly, a very stupid ignorant child. Like I really, you know, like, listen, I'm half white and I'm half Indian. Okay. And I ignored that for a long time because I grew up in the projects and I didn't really even look at what race I was. Right. But I never took like my dad's Hindu culture and wanted to learn about it. Like he would invite me to go to India and I've only been to India once. I think it was the last time I was there. Well, I've been there now, but the last time I was there, I think it was 13 years old or 12 years old. And then like, you know, I didn't go. And I'm like, because I didn't want to. It was like, oh, that's a family that I don't know. Right. It's like a family you don't, you know, you don't talk to every day. So out of sight, out of mind. Again, circle back now. And I'm like, whoa, like I have family on another side of the country, like not even the country, the world. So I'm like, I want to know them. I want to see them. I want to know what's going on. Like that's why when I go to schools and I talk to a lot of kids at schools and I do a lot of mentoring, I'm always about them about like, yo, know who your family is supporting your family. Even if you got it rough, you've still got a family. Like it's that aspect. Like even with my staff, like my staff is my family. Like that's, that's, that's straight up. Like they know, like you might be my little brother. You might be the one that's like my son. You know, like I have different in my, in my, in my, in my family, I have two sons. I have a wife. You know, in my store, I have two little brothers. I have a little son. I have a grumpy old uncle. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like I have a family. So like that's what we do. You know what I mean? And that's what people forget because I'm so happy, man. Like now I'm really happy about this because this is not your normal podcast and I've done other podcasts. There's no, no, no, no, no shout out to nothing. But I've done them even on networks and it's never been about this. It's always been about the shoe. Right. It's always been about that. It's always been about the instant moment. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, like this. So listen, I don't know if you would like me D when I was growing up and I was in school. I'm gonna be honest. I don't, I don't know. I don't know if he would have been friends. I don't know if you would have liked me. I'm not gonna lie. Cause I wasn't, I wasn't the easiest person. I didn't go to the most high school, but I was definitely in the mix. So I grew up in the. You gotta remember when I was growing up, there was no social media. Right. There was no cell phones. Barely for me. It was like, we had a danger. Like, you know, we got a beep when we was running to the pay phone trying to call you back. So it was different times. So I think that also goes to be like how I was growing up or who I was growing up. The times have changed. Like now it's different. So now we go back. Okay. We back in 2006. Got the stock in the mail. So I'm like, yo, I wanted sneakers. So I'm like, let's do sneakers. So I go to my dad and I'm like, yo, dad, I need you to help me. I'm like, didn't go to college. Didn't have this. I'm like, I need some money to open up a store. Okay. And what was your dad doing? My dad, my dad always dabbled in dabble. Like he was in real estate, but like real talk. And God rest his soul because he passed away last October. We just celebrated his one year heavenly anniversary. He was just one of those people that he was always working and he just never made it. Like he worked hard all his life. Like my dad was one of those people that, you know, a lot of people say you never get a break. My dad never got a break. I think I don't know how to explain it from your perspective because I didn't experience your whole life or anything. But I talked to my dad about that and he's always like, I'm working my ass off every single day for you guys. That's what's the most important thing. So everything that he did is you're the reflection of his success, all those things. And just because it wasn't through him. Nah, I'll give you one better. You know what I'm saying? I'm his legacy. Right. Like I am him and my kids are my legacy. Like I don't write my, everything that I do, I don't do it for myself. Like just like you said, I do for my kids. And then hopefully they think the same way. And they're going to do it to honor my name. And you know, he never made it. So being that he never made it, like, you know, we're talking 2006 and he gave me 15 grand cash. Well, I was going to say cash, you wrote me a check. I think that was a way of trying to get me to pay him back eventually. So he writes me a check for 15 grand. And I'm like, you know, I'm like, all right, let's do this. So I rented a small store. I mean, it was 300 square feet. Like literally my store was the size of the studio that was sitting in right now recording. Maybe even a little smaller. The stock room and everything. Everything. 300 square feet total. The bathroom too. Like you don't even think of the bathroom. Like I'm just, I'm just like, basically, no, basically I was in the closet, bro. Like, and I put a buzzer on the door, which never worked. And then my security system was my youngest son, Destin, who at that time was like not even like what I want to say, eight or nine months by the time we opened up. And he was in the playpen in the middle of the floor. So I was like, if you going to steal in front of my kid, man, you a bad person. Like, you know, so I opened up this store. And the crazy thing is a lot of people never hear the story about where the name came from. So when I opened up the store, I had to think of a name. And my mom, when she moved in with us, when we had hospice, we had a three bedroom. So one of the bedrooms, I had my 20 pairs of sneakers in there, and it was like my kid's playroom because the kid shared the room. And my mother was like, I'm so sorry, I'm taking over your sneaker room. And that's where the name came from. Because like, let's be real, I'm gonna be real. Sneaker room is not the best name. I'm just gonna keep it real. It's a cool name. I think it's a good name though. But I'm just saying it's not the best. There's a lot of names that are good. But no, no, just, this is what I'm saying. I'm just saying, but it's because it has a meaning. It wasn't something that we went and we did research on. And we, you know, we did market travel and market things. And see what name people want to Google it there. But that's why you're still in the game. And they're not. Well, this is the thing, but we were almost not in the game. So 2006, we opened Ender 2006. And doing that two years, buying, like again, there was no resell market. Buying a Jordan for $175. Paying off the manager at the store, another 20 bucks. You had taxes out there too? No, we don't have tax out there. Okay, close. So I'm at $195. But then I'm selling a shoe for $220. Because that's all it was worth back then. Yeah, it wasn't. Like, you know, like, let's be real. It might have been like that one or two really. Bro, when I was doing that, like, I was selling, like, I had to connect. I'm gonna be honest with you. And I was getting SBs. Like, bro, I had at the time, like 150 pairs of dooms. 200 pairs of Savage Bull Pealers. That's what I'm saying. It was the golden era. I had ET's and then I scrapped them. But the thing was, it was the golden era. But there was no money on it. But we didn't know that. That's what I'm saying. So it wasn't the golden era. It would have been the golden era to have them now. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I'm selling these shoes, making 20, 30 bucks. You know, after doing that for two years, I'm like, okay, cool, like, they're about to foreclose on my house. You know, I had a small, like a small little three bedroom that me and my wife got lucky and we bought and we put all our money together. And plus real estate back then was, you know, a lot cheaper. And they're about to foreclose on my house. And I'm like, yeah, what am I gonna do? So I had to shut the store down. Okay. So I shut the store down and I went to work for another store that's out of business now, but it was called KD's in Jersey City. It was in the hood. It was on Martin Luther King. You know, I was out there. You know what I'm saying? I'm in these streets. They had a Nike account. I was doing the buying for them. I was working the store, like, you know, one of my funniest stories is a dude comes in and back then he's trying on the Omavi jeans, okay? And he goes in the fitting room, right? And all you hear is, whoa. And you see the hole in the wall in the ceiling. Because when he tried on the jeans, he dropped his gun. Like, I'm talking, we was in the hood. Like, I'm just letting you know, we was in the hood. He came out like, I'm good. You know, he came out like, everybody all right? And I'm over here like, yeah. Like, and I'm looking at the manager because I'm not even the manager. And I'm like, you don't see, we good? You know, I'm like, you know, so I did that. And then as I'm working there, they opened up a second store and they went into an even harder area. We went to Nork. Okay. So we in Nork and we on Clinton Avenue. Okay. So if people out there listening to you from Nork and you know, Clinton Avenue, Clinton Avenue. It's like the wall, wall, west. Still the same. Listen, they built a police station in. It's still the same. They said it might have got worse. It might have got worse with the police station. Like, to be honest, so went to work over there. But as I was working for them, I started meeting a lot of people from Nike because they had an account. And like I started helping them like do the taste maker events and stuff. Like when Nike used to do that back in the day. And with that being said, like one of the dudes was like, yo, you could do this. Like what you're doing here. Right. And I'm telling them my old story. And he's like, yo, you should open up a store. And I'm like, I ain't got the bread. Right. You know what I'm saying? So then I went to one of the homies back then. You know, I was like, yo, I need a partner. We partnered up and basically got the Nike account. So we opened up our first store in Montclair, New Jersey. Where your was this? This is, where am I? I think it might be 2006, 2000. You know, I'm bad with numbers. I'm not going to lie to you. But 2006, 2008, 2008, 2000. It was either 2010. It was probably 2010 or 2000. I think it was 2010 and beyond. Don't poke me on it. That sounds about right. Because we met like, I think in 2011. No, I think we met sooner. Because you met me before I had an account. It might have been. Like, we met at sneaker shows before I had an account when I was just flying around the country. That was like my senior year. I think you met me when I actually think I had the original sneaker room because that's when I was flying around all the Dunkin' Changes. Because I was trying to meet people and get connects to my sneakers. Right, right, right. Like that wasn't when I was doing it. Yeah, I think that was my senior year at high school because I graduated in 2010. So then it's about right. So about 2010, 2011. So we opened up the store. We called a takeover. I mean, we're doing really good. Small store in Montclair doing really good. We got really lucky. We opened up a second store in Jerry City. Partnerships are hard. I'm not going to throw dirt on nobody. I'm not going to send out there because it's nothing like that. We all go through stuff in life and everything that we go through makes us who we are. Me and him didn't. The partnership just didn't work out. So he kept, we talked about it. He kept the Montclair store. It's called takeover. He kept, you know, Instagram and everything. And I said, I'm going to go back to Jerry City. And I said, I'm going to start over. So I had a Nike account. But I called the sneaker room. That's my original name. Oh, okay. Rewind. A lot of people out there want to have a store. They want to have a Nike account. It may be different now. They got neighborhood accounts. They switched up the names. They've done all these different things. You remember, use the tiers or all the different stuff. Yeah, of course, of course. Explain to them what is a Nike account. Explain to them how you went about getting the Nike account. Okay. Because we got to remember, not everybody knows this stuff. I forgot. We're in the conversation. What is a Nike account? A Nike account is a gift and a curse. A Nike account is a gift and a curse. You got to buy the bag just to get the goods. A Nike account is a gift and a curse. Okay, listen. The reason why it's a gift is because it's a chance to have a business. It's a chance to create an identity. It's a chance to take care of your community. And it's a chance to fulfill people's dreams with the shoes that they want. The reason why it's a curse is not all product is made the same. Because you automatically think that you get these 50 or 60 or 100 pairs of this good shoe that sells out. And you don't realize for that 50 or 60 pairs of that good shoe that sells out, you get 120 of a shoe that's not supposed to sell out. It's supposed to live on the shelf and be a shoe for a month. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's the only reason I say, because listen, having a Nike account is a blessing from God, all jokes aside. It is not many people that can say they have a Nike account. It's like that's like a certain club. Like, you know, like one of those little clubs. Especially as they continue to cut them. Yeah. So, you know, it's like a little club that you have and you belong to it and you're like thankful that you belong to it. So it's great. The curse part is just that, like anything else, it's a business. So it's not, let me rephrase that. Having the Nike account is not a gift and a curse. It's a gift. The business aspect is the curse. Because that's not due to Nike. It's everything that goes on behind the scenes and not even from them with my company. With like, you know, what sells, what doesn't sell, what consumers want, what consumers are feeling, how the game has changed, how the resell market has made it worse or bettered it. So it's cool. And how you go about getting a Nike account, I mean, back then, I don't know about now because I haven't applied for one. Right, right, right. Some, you know, over double digit years. But back then it was like, I got lucky. I mean, I got really lucky. I'm going to be honest. I met somebody at Nike that just took a liking to me and was like, yo, you're doing, you know, I like your ideas. I like what you're doing. You're working for somebody else, but I think you could do this. And that's what happened. But that's how we got that. I think that also comes with having a bigger purpose too. Okay, wait a minute. Like when you have a bigger, like you said, you like what you're doing. You like where you're going. Like sometimes you may not have even said what your purpose was yet, but people can feel the energy. They just know what's up. That I think you're right about because when I first got the Nike account, I didn't have the purpose that I have now. I didn't. I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat it or try to lie. Like when I first got the Nike account, I wasn't doing community stuff. I wasn't giving back because I was just trying to start up a business and build a business. For sure. And that's what I was focused on. Now that we've built the business and established the business, we found what the purpose is and we found what works for us and how we do it. But back then, supposedly, from what I understand, like again, you were supposed to have a store not sell Nike, not resell, not anything Nike, and you were supposed to apply online for an account. Okay. And then they would come back and hit you up and say, if they wanted to check you out, if they didn't want to check you out. Which if you really think about, that's hard. Like how do you have a store without selling Nike? And improve that you could sell it. Yeah. Well, I don't approve it because anybody could sell Nike. Kinda. Kinda. I disagree. I think anybody could sell Nike. I think some of that product sells itself. Let's be honest. But how could you stay in business until you get the account? Nowadays, I don't even know how you would go about getting a new account because I really, and again, it's just me being honest. I can't even remember, like in years, what was a new store that came about? Right. Like it's stores that are already in business neighborhood doors or chain doors or big doors, big box doors that are just moving on and opening more doors. Like I haven't heard of a new name in a while. It's like as I think about it too. Yeah. Then you got me thinking that, like what's the store? A lot of the stores now, you could almost name, like if you name a collab, it's like those are the accounts. As essentially, like if you think about it with the Nike account. So we're going to talk about collabs. And when we get into that, you know, some people don't like my perspective. Some people are not going to like my perspective, but I'm going to be honest. So that's where we were. We opened up the one door, opened up second door, then went back to sneaker room. And that's when I started, that's when I started going back. Like I started, you know, I went back to the name that my mom had given me. And I said, let's do this. So that's where we are now. I'm afraid of you because you got some good questions. Like I almost started crying. I'm going to keep it real. I might still, but when we started talking about pops and me saying that, you know, that he was the one that didn't, because think about it. You have to really understand, like most Indians, like I'm Indian from India. Like I'm not, I'm like, I'm from, I'm from the South side of India, which is crazy. He's like, nah, for real. I'm from the South side. Don't let it fool South side. But I'm from Chennai, which is the southern part of India. So like, you know, most Indians that come to this country that use work visas or stuff like that, you know, they're engineers, which my dad did have an engineering degree. But what happened was he got very sick, had a heart attack. And when he had his triple bypass surgery and I think I was in third grade at the time, that's when everything switched. That's when we moved into the projects. That's when we didn't have much because he couldn't do what he was trained to do. That's true. You know what I mean? That's where it was. And most Indians, if you know, are very successful, or at least not even in terms of success of being rich or anything like that, but they're not lower class. They're mostly middle class to upper class. There's not too many lower class, you know, Indians. And we were kind of the lower class. Like, you know, we didn't own a business. My dad wasn't, you know, after he lost, you know, because of the sickness, he wasn't an engineer. He wasn't into IT. He wasn't into software, not medicine, not pharmaceutical, like all the standard, not gas stations, you know, let's be funny, not 7-Elevens. Not for real. You know, not Dunkin' Donuts. Like, I always used to, I always used to be fun to my dad. I'm like, yo, dad, I'm like, how come we're the only Indian that don't own a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-Eleven? You know, God rest his soul, he'd be cracking up when he's like, you know. And like I said, when my store started to pick up and we started to do good things, the thing that took me and made me proud was my dad looked at it like, yo, I made it because I made it. He made it. And like, you know, like, if I had money in the bank, he'd be like, we got money. Right. And I'm like, what, what, what, what, what? What do you, but okay, so paint me that picture like that first time you remember being like, this shit working. Like he, he proud of me. Like I'm doing my thing. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I think, I think he was always proud from, even when I had the 3,000, the 300 square foot store, because it was a business. Like we started something, you know, I started with money. You're doing something, yeah. I want to say, go back to, I want to say maybe about 14, 2014, like right when I spelled my part and we went back to that, it's like 14, 15, 14, 15, probably 15 more like it. And I went to him and I gave him a check for 30 racks. Okay. And he was like, what's this? And I was like, it's your money plus interest. That was the moment where like his face changed. That's where it was like, wow. Oh shit. Like you did it. I was like, you know, you gave me 15, you got double. You know what I'm saying? And he didn't even want to take it. My dad was that good. Right. He didn't, he needed it, but he didn't want to take it. He was like, I'm good, but I gave it to him. He did cash it, he didn't want to take it. Is that, you know, I don't want to cash it. I think he actually cashed it the next day. Like I think it was like, yo, I'm going to cash it. So that was the first time. The second time that I ever saw my dad that I really knew it was different was when we did the, the Victor Cruz breast cancer sneaker. Because we had done three Nike IDs. Yeah. And we sold them, we raised some money and we donated some money. That's right. But again, my dad was the Air Max won the Pegasus and then the Air Force won. But with that, my dad still, even though I donated the money, he can still whatever, you know, okay. When we did the Victor Cruz shoe and then we did the event in the store. And again, he didn't even understand the shoe. Like the collab part, nothing. But when we gave the $75,000 check to the hospital and it was one of those big fake checks, he was right there standing when we holding it. Right. He was like, he's like, 75,000, giving it. And that's when, that's when I think he was proud. That's when I, that's when I at least, I'm not even thinking I knew he was proud. And then, you know, circle ahead about maybe 11 months and the waiting room at the Christy Care Center, at the medical center, the women's, the women's waiting room at the women's center, we cut the ribbon to the waiting room that we paid for with that money. And the fact that my mom's name was on the wall, that it was a memory of her from me and my family, not just from Saraj, it was the sneaker room and it was my dad's name, it was all of us. Again, my staff is my family. And we all were there and we cut the ribbon. That was the day like, I think I've only seen my dad all jokes aside. I've probably seen my dad in my whole life, whole life cry four times. Okay. And I seen him cry in 98 when my brother passed away. I seen him cry around 2001 or 2000. Like I said, I'm just so bad with him because you know, listen, the years have just flew by. Right. But when his, when his mom passed away, who was my grandmother? Okay. And then I seen him cry when my mom passed away in 06 and that's three. And then I seen him cry when we gave that check and he cut that ribbon and that was real. Yeah. And that's what life is. For sure. Like that's, that's where my purpose was. Like that was our first big give back project, but it just changed my life. Like I said, it changed my life. So you had these moments. Okay. Now, how did we get to these moments? You got the account. You got the store. Now talk about establishing the business, building the community, building the team, building the family, building the credibility within the community, all those things. How did you go about navigating that space? Because at the end, it wasn't heavy. Like you said, social media wasn't as big of a thing. You know what I'm saying? It was like, it was a Facebook groups or something like that. That was about it. Like, so what did you, what was your, you know, attack at growing the business? So basically, I mean, growing our business, that was organic. But let's start, like you said, let's start with the team, growing the team. The team was organic. The team, Jeff, who's our creative director, who I've known for years before I opened the store. Like I've known him since I was six, moved up from Miami to work with me as our creative director. Okay. So you're like, hey, bro, I'm opening the store. Come up and work for me. I'm not in Miami. Like, you know, come up and come up and hang out. And yo, you want to stay? And Jeff like packed up his suitcase and everything was like, yeah, you know what? I'll rock. You know, like, he's still with me. Yeah, you know, everybody else on the team is like, like local kids that used to shop with us, that joined us. You know what I'm saying? Some people have come, some people have gone. You know, Jen, who was with me for nine years, who was like, like my little sister from Miami, she worked with us. She left us to go to Jordan brand, which is great. No hard feelings, you know what I mean? My manager now Angel started with us. It was his first job five years ago. It was his first job he ever got. And now he's moved up, but he's the manager of the store, which is, you know, God bless. He's 25 years, running the store. That's my right-hand man. You know what I'm saying? My boy, my boy Hamlet, you know, that's my family, that's my Dominican son. You know what I'm saying? My boy Ivan, my boy Tony, you know, was from LA. And he's over here working with somebody else and it didn't work out. And he's about to go back to LA. Now I'm like, yo, stay. Right. Like, what's up? And he rocked. We just have that vibe. So like, one thing I will say that I do, I do compliment, like on us, is I think the synergy that me and my team have together, it's unpowered. It's, you just can't even compare it. Because other stores, people just go to work. Like people come, like they come to the store to chill. Like we work too, but we chill. I yell at them for chilling, but we chill. Like, you know what I'm saying? So it's a great dynamic. And with the community, it's just been organic. Like we take care of people. Like we've always given like $10 or $15 off a shoe. We've always tried to hold a shoe for somebody to help them out. We've always tried to do stuff that. And we've always just tried to treat people the way we want to be treated, which I think you should do at any part of your life, not only your business. Definitely. Like treat people with the respect that you want and you'll get the respect back. My life, to be very honest, is very crazy because today's partner is ShopDNAshow.com. Are you tired of wearing low quality gear? I completely understand. I made a personal mission to go out and find higher quality stuff and give it to you guys at an affordable price. And not only because of that, I have to wear this stuff every day. And I don't want to be wearing cheap clothing all the time. So I want to make sure that you guys know about it and our understanding that we have a lot of cool stuff coming out as well. Hit the link down below or pinned or wherever it may be. It's going to be ShopDNAshow.com. There's new drops every single month. I'm excited to see you guys in the gear. And now let's go ahead and get back to the podcast. It's really funny the things that happen to me all because I'm nice to people. Like just coming into Portland, I rented a Jeep Wrangler and I got off the plane and I went to rent it because the Jeep Wrangler was on sale for like $45. And I'm like, we're, that's cheap, let's do it. And I get to the airport and I go out. You know how PDX is, you go to the counter and you walk out. So the dude comes running up to me. He's like, I'm so sorry. It's going to be like 15 minutes. I got to get your Jeep Wrangler on the side. Like, can you wait? And I'm like, my man, it's got off a five and a half hour flight. Like I want to stand up. Like take your time. Right, right, you're good. And like he goes to run and he stops and he's like, wait, you cool if I take 20 minutes? I'm like, yeah, bro, go ahead. Like it's nine o'clock at night. Where am I going? Right. He's like, yo, you like this navigator? Right. I'm like, yeah, why? He's like, you want it? And I'm like, how much more is it a day? He's like, nah, just go ahead. Take the keys. I'm like, that, you know what I'm saying? That's like a hundred dollar upgrade, 75 dollar upgrade a night. See what I'm saying? Same thing with like, when I walk around the streets, like it's crazy. But nowadays, I'm not known as Seraj Sneaker Room. It's Seraj the Philanthropist. Like, you know, and I'll go into the titles that I hold, which is like crazy for me, for who I am. But that's what the business was built on. The business was built on relationships, caring, treating people good, and not looking at people or the interaction as transactional. Right. That's the key. It's never been transactional. Please take notes. Everybody who's listening and watching, whatever you want to call it, please take notes on this topic right here, because we're in the current market right now, especially with all the resellers. It's transactional for everything. We're not building a relationship. I go to Sneaker Con now and it's just like, it's a different place. Listen, I'm going to give you one better. I come to Portland every October for the Dornback Auction. We did that, you know, when we first started, then we were a part of the DB program. COVID changed a lot of things, we know it changed the world. So then we were in a partner, which is no problem. It's no hard feelings. But anybody else would have been like, oh, you know, we're not a partner, cool. But then we still come here every year to donate to the foundation, because I think that with the Dornbacker Foundation and Hospital Stance was amazing. Right, for sure. But now to use that as an example is, I'm a retailer that gets to go to Nike campus, right? Not many people do, but it's not built on, hey, what can you do for me? Or can you help me get more shoes? Or can you help me do that? Right. It's built on, we've worked together before, and it's just relationships. Right. Like everybody that I met with out here this week that I've been out here, can't do nothing for me and my business. Right. Like they can't change nothing, they can't fix something, because to be honest, I don't want to fix something. I like where my business is. Mm-hmm. And to be honest with you, I'm satisfied. Like I don't wish for more. Like when you keep wishing for more and you keep wanting more, and you keep hounding people with that, to be honest with you, they don't want to mess with you. Right. Like they're like, oh, this person is needy, this person, all he wants is this. Mm-hmm. So like it's so dope that I've been in Portland now since Sunday, and today is Thursday. Mm-hmm. And pretty much like today was like the first meal that I ate at a restaurant. Because my relationships are so good, because I'm at people's house and they're cooking for me. That's amazing. Yeah. Like you see what I'm saying? Like that's not normal. That's so funny you say that because- Like that's not normal. I'm the same way, like I know so many people at Nike, Adidas, all the different things. And it's like, I be trying to tell people and they don't be believing me. I'm like, I know they're kids, they're wife, they're this, I'm going to go over to the house. I've had dinner with them, with my wife, or my wife was out here. When they come to New York, I have dinner with them, with their wives. Right. Like because the thing about it is like, listen, the problem is, everybody thinks that when you meet somebody, it's all about what they can do for you. If you take that part out, we can be friends. It's hard, don't give me one corporate world because everybody's wondering what you're doing or whatever. But if you really think about a man, we're just humans, and we're just trying to have relationships. That's it. Like realistically, we're not trying to build on anything else but that. You know what I mean? Like I sat with, you know, listen, we sat with people last night and it was like, yo, like there was not, we didn't talk about Nike. Even though they work for Nike, we talked about how's your kids. Wow, it's a Raj. Destiny got so big. Like, you know, all right. Prime example, prime example. We went to DNA today. Like I'm very fortunate that we are allowed- Oh, oh, tell them what the DNA is. Oh, you can tell them. Okay. Department, wait, I forgot the end. Of Nike archive. There you go. Department of Nike archive. I'm like, well, I forgot it for a minute. Remember, it's laid out here in Portland. I'm still on East Coast time. You know, DJ was like, Siraj, what time is it? Oh yeah, it's like one in the morning. It is, I'm looking at it. I still got East Coast time. So we went there today and I told my son and angel who's out here, my manager, I was like, listen, I'm going to get you guys a tour. Destiny was lucky. He's gotten a tour before. So I'm like, I'll get you a tour. So we go to the tour. So this is the funny thing. Crazy. So, well, first of all, like a lot of people don't know, like you just can't walk in the DNA. No. Like even employees can't walk in the DNA. Like it's, it's special. It's very special. So we got our first tour when we were part of the program. That was like the gift and it was amazing. So I had my kid with me that time, my wife and my kids. So here's the thing. So when my son, Destiny, went to DNA the first time, I know I'm sitting down, but he was this big. Okay. Then the second time he went to DNA because he got a second tour, he was about this big. Okay. So today we walk in and there's a guy there that works there, that's been there for 20 years. That manages the whole thing. No names now. We don't even worry about titles. But he's met my son both times and he's met my son even at like all-star weekend when they curate projects. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he walks and he sees me and he's like, and I'm like, give him a hug. And then he looks behind and he's like, like, that's, it's this big. And he gives him a hug. Right. And it's just, it's, it's there. That's what it is. That's the relationship. You see what I'm saying? That's DNA can't do nothing for us. DNA can't give us no product, but that's there. Right. And that's what we built. Then the crazy part was we're in DNA. We're looking at the rooms. You know, we're chopping it up, you know, and we walk into the basketball room. The basketball room. Okay. Hold on. What is that? I'll let you drink your water. So the DNA is like, like I said, the archive, which basically they have rooms with photos and sneakers, just curated on these walls, just loaded with history, literally the history. It's not like the sneaker that's like all recreated. No, it's like, that's the shoe from the thing. Originals. Well, what they do is they use that, which is great when people are working on new projects to see where the history is, see what our lineage is. And they got all the blueprints and the paperwork and everything inside of there. We're looking at the best. We saw a couple of rooms that I, you know, I'm not going to talk about all the rooms because some of them you can't talk about, but like, and that's the respect. But there was a basketball room because that's, you know, just a broad category. Yeah. The only thing that was crazy to me was I'm looking around and there's, you know, there's crazy stuff. And again, not talking about anything. And my son goes, dad, dad, dad, like, and I didn't even look and I turned around and there was the Kyrie mom last one that we did on the wall that's fire and said sneaking room collaboration like 2021. And I'm like, like I shed a tear. Like I was like, I was like, like, yo, because to me, I've done a lot of cool stuff. That like that kind of like solidified. Like if we never do nothing again, that kind of solidified that in the DNA and the archives of Nike there is a shoe that me and my team designed, sold, donated the money. And the real truth fact is has my mother's name and birth date on right in there. Right. You know, like, Bruh, like, that's like who could not many people could say that. Like I know there's a lot of people that have done collabs. We're like, this is a kid from Jerry city. I'm, I'm excited. I'm happy. So like it's great. That's fine. It's great. That's fine. Okay. Speaking of the collabs. So tell me about the time you got the first call and you're like, I'm about to get my own collab. Yeah, it wasn't even like that. First time. No names. Met somebody from Portland in New York at an event. Was like, you know, what do you do telling about my my breast cancer project? Tell him that we didn't like these. And I think I'm slick and sometimes I get myself in trouble. So I'm like, you know, talking about it. And then I'm like, don't talk about it. Be about it. Right. And then I left. And then they were like, you know who you did that to? And I'm like, nah, why? And they're like, hey, you're done. And I was like, I'm like, I got a phone call, got my number and was like, yo, if you could do an issue, what would you do? Like real talk. And I was like, you know, at that time we had just done like that day that I met the person, we had just done the Victor Cruz release at my store for Victor Cruz trainer and then it was our homie. So just out of the blue, I was like, I would do the Victor Cruz trainer. I was like, all right, let me see what I could do. Boom. Colored it up, designed it, did it. All right, we got you. 50 pairs. That's it. 50 pairs. Right. Your name's not on it. Don't say sneaker rules. One color or three colors? One color. Okay. So you guys just did the one color. Yeah, it didn't have our name on it. Like it was just like nothing. Like you basically just gave me a pink shoe. Okay. Then we were like, all right, we're running with this because it's ours. Nobody else getting this shoe. That's our shoe. Right. $75,000 later, check in the, to the hospital. Oh wait, these guys are onto something. Right. Like we did something. Then we continued the conversation, continued the talks. Wait, so what did you do with the Victor Cruz shoe when you got it? What do you mean? We sold it. You sold it for how much? We basically sold it. Like we were like, what you want to pay. Oh, okay. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. And it was like, yeah, okay. I remember now. So it was like, honestly, we sold them for anywhere like I would say about a G. And then we made other money from like shirts and like stuff in the store in the event that we had. Right, right, that's right. So for $75,000 for 50 shoes was like incredible. Crazy. So then we went. So they seen that and they're like, oh, you have to sell them. And then we went and we were like, yo, like what would you do next? You had to go Jackson, as a trainer. And they were like, all right. And we were like, wait, we wanted the three colors. Okay. Let's talk. We met the sportswear team started cooking it up, cooking it up pink one fire. My mom got those two. I told her he was coming over. She was like, man, I gotta find my box. I got to have him sign it. Oh, that's so far. And I was like, ah, it's too late. Like she was like, cause she got so many shoes. White pan leather. Yeah. Fire. Well, I mean, the pink ones right there. Oh, that's right. The more money, the more money they drop her. I tell you, see, I'll be out of it. Okay. Yeah. Wow. All right. So it's the same story though. Yeah. We get there. Well, they said, they give me the shoe actually. Not like, yeah, I'm lying. Okay. Second shoe was Victor Cruz and then a second she was more money. Okay. But they give me the shoe because they were about to bring that out of the archive. It hadn't been out again, since it's original. So they let us lead the story telling with it with the breast cancer project. So we did the, we did the pink one, of course, is always the, the GR release, if you want to call it. The white one was the special with the white and pink, but the black one is always the, it's the joints. It's the top dog right there. So we did that and we did them in price, we did them in prices. I'm not even gonna lie to you, I forgot what the price is. I think it was a, it was like, it was like a package price too. It was like, I want to say 150 to 25. 150 to 50 and 500 or something like that. Yeah, somewhere around there. And then, you know, we did them and boom, we sold out again. We raised like a hundred or something thousand dollars and we donated that. So then it was the conversation. At that point it was like, what shoe would you do? Okay. Wait, sorry. So there you go. I'm glad, I'm glad Angel's here because Angel got me. The part, so essentially Nike donates the shoe to you. No, no, no, no, no. So how do they go about the manufacturing costs in the? They make the shoe and just like every shoe that comes in the store, we buy it at wholesale price. Okay. So you buy it at wholesale price? So we buy it at wholesale price. So let's just say, So then that's kind of like your actual donation towards it as well because that's your purchase of the wholesale price. No, no, no, no, no. Because the way you would look at it is this, if a shoe is 150, just like when we buy a shoe from Nike now it's 150 and say we pay $77 for it. Right. You can look at that at anything, it's not a donation. It's just, it's the cost of doing business. Okay. You know what I mean? Okay. So then the profit on it would be, you know, we're looking at $73. Okay. So that $73, we donate that, we donate 100%. So that's our donation. Okay, okay, okay. So like let's just use a simple mathematics, even though it's not 50%, let's use a simple mathematics. If the shoe was 100 bucks, we would pay 19 to 50 bucks and 50 would be donated. Right. Even though that's not the exact number, it's higher than we pay. Okay. But that's what we do. That way you can cover the cost of product and then take all the prices. Just like anything, when you do business, you sell it and that's your gross sales and then what's your net sales. I mean, this is your, yeah, this is your gross and what's your net. Right. You know what I mean? So our gross would be selling like say 1,000 pairs at 150 would be 150,000. But then the net donation would be minus the cost of the shoes. Right. Okay. So we do that with the more money and the next one was like, what do you want to do? Bo Jackson, Bo Jackson. And we did it. Again, going back to the pink colorway, the white colorway, but this one flipping it with cotton leather. And then we went to the black one with the pony hair. And the black one was the cool one and it meant the most because we did pony hair for the women that lose their hair when they go to chemo therapy. And it was fire. Yeah. Again, sold out. Internet went crazy. Raised another hundred or something, a thousand dollars, don't need the money back to different charities to different organizations. Then came the last one. And it was like, this is the one we want you to do. That react element was on fire. I was kind of, all right, so I was salty because I wasn't salty because everybody loved it. You were a 13 or 14. I'm a 13. But you could wear a 14. I could wear a 14. On the element? Yeah. I could wear a 14. So, I might, I'm not saying, there might be like, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, you didn't do it. I said it. Okay. Because you got to say, I'm honored that I came here to do your podcast and your show and my joints are there and they've been there because I've seen your podcast. Yeah. So again, like I said, it's not like I came here and you put them there. I know that you rock with them. I think there are 13 or 14s in the crib. I think so. Okay. I'm just telling you, it's not a flop. But I'm not, trust me. I don't have a lot of truth. It's still there. No, but it's still there. It's not my word. I'm sending them. I appreciate it. But the thing about it was, like, that shoe was crazy because we did again the three colorways. But on that one, it was hyped. But on that one, we had a fourth colorway and that was the Friends and Family. We had never done a Friends and Family. And the Friends and Family had the Swarovski crystals on it. And it was like, oh. They're so clean, bro. It was like, oh. It was like, oh. What are you doing? And we did them. And then the project just stopped. You know, nothing bad. It was not bad. But like Nike, you know, Nike is an organization. Things change. The way you do things change. So it was like that. People on different teams. Exactly. People that, you know. People you're working with. They can be working on a different team now. We don't, we don't listen. We don't even ask a question when they say we're not doing stuff like that no more. Cool, no problem. You know what I mean? Like, it's okay. But then we started doing the Kairis. And that was a funny one because I had talked to Nike basketball. I was like, no, let's do it. Let's do a charity shoe. And they were like, all right. What shoe you want to do? And I was like, I mean, I'm from Jersey. Kyle's from Jersey. Let's do it. What was your relationship with Kairi during that time? Was it like, you just happen to be from the same place? Or did you already know each other? Rock with each other? Like, Man, we happen to be from the same place. So you happen to be from the same place. You never met Kairi. And you had a collab with his shoe. Yeah. So what happened was, they're like, yo, tell a story. So I'm like, all right, let's tell a story. So I did some, I did some bullshit. I ain't going to fight. Yo, Jersey shoe. This is that. I'm like, and then my man Sadat, who's an Eakin at the time, and he's like, yo, bro, because I don't want to take credit with something that's on me. He's like, bro, you get an opportunity of a lifetime. That's what you're doing. And I was like, damn, hold up. Like, and then he was like, go into further. Look, like do some research. Even though you ain't talked to Kyle, you never met him. Do some research. So started digging that. And I'm like, man, he lost his mom at a young age. I lost my mom at an older age, but we both lost some others. No one ever honored their moms. Like we need to do a mom show. And when I pitched it to them, that's when they went to him. Because everything needed to be approved. And he was like, bet, like, let's go. So then again, the first shoe that we did, I still I never met Kai. So we designed it near my team and we did what we thought was good. And one of the things that we always thought was dope was like, whenever you Google the picture of Elizabeth Irving, his mom, one picture always popped up with her wearing a polka dot blouse. So that's where the polka dot on the inside came from. And that was our nod to him, to give him something that was from him. Because we had to talk to him. Right. So they told me he rocked with it. They told me he loved it. And I'm like, OK, cool, whatever. You know, I don't know. Cool, you know. Still had not met him. Hit the call one day. Yo, Kai's playing in Brooklyn. Yo, his shoes hadn't released yet. But we had just got them. He's wearing them tonight on the court. Fire. So I'm like, damn, Stubhub. I remember that. Y'all was posting all the pictures. So I'm like, Stubhub, I'm looking around. Tickets like four grand court side. I'm like, all right, we're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to make a moment. What the ticket. Kai comes out on the court. I'm like, you know, like I'm to shoot that. My team and me design, but it has my mom's name on it, on an NBA court. I mean, I made it. Especially Kyrie at that time. Yeah, and I made it. And after the game comes over, we had talked maybe like once or twice during the design stuff. It comes over and gives me a hug at the end of the game. Well, right after you finish playing it. And I'm like, and then he takes the shoe and he sees a woman in uniform that had done the flag before the game. Takes them off and gives them to her. Fire. And I'm like, yeah, even though I really wanted them, not a lot of it, but I was like, fire. Yeah. Like I got it. I'm not going to sit here and try to tell his story. And I was like, fire. And he gave him to her. And then that from there just, it just started. Like it just really kicked up. Got to meet him. Got to meet his dad, dread. Got to meet Asia, you know what I'm saying? And it kicked up. And then from there, we did the second one, raised money, donated, boom. From there, we did third one. Third one was really dope because we used Asia to shoot them with us. It was fire. And then the last one that we did, we flipped it because the first three were all similar, white, black and red, white, black and red, a little bit of gold, a little bit of gold. They were dope, all different, but they were similar. So the next one, we was like moms. Mother nature, mother earth. And that's where we went with that. And it was the elements. And it was what we get back. And that's where we went with it. And they were great projects, man. A lot of money raised. A lot of money donated. A lot of people, you know, got help from those shoes because of everything that we did. And it was phenomenal. And we saw every gang, again, every time we wore them, we went to a game, we saw them. So, you know, in terms of collabs, Sneaker Room has one door in Jersey City. At one point, we did have two doors, one in Bayonne, but we closed that down to go into a bigger space in Jersey City. We have one door. And I mean, a lot of people have done collabs. But if you know how Nike works, collabs are, you know, what style number. Everyone has a style number. So for one door, I mean, we're 22 collabs in. That's pretty crazy that there's 22 styles. So there's the Victor Cruz is one. Right. There's the three Airmore moneys. That's four. There's the three Bo Jackson's. That's seven. Right. There's the four elements. That's 11. The first 11, right? The first Kyrie, we had two. That's 13. The second Kyrie, we had three. That's 16. The fourth, the third Kyrie, we had another three. That's 19. Wait, wait, I lost my mouth now. Hold on, no, no, no, hold on, hold on. All right, we got 11 on the, we got less than, this is how you know it's real. So we got 11 on breast cancer. Yeah. One o'clock a.m. We got to know we got 11. No, we know we got 11. Don't stop. Everybody's trying to be like, they all sending me notes and stuff. My phone's buzzing like, no, no, listen, we got 11 breast cancer shoes. Okay. Now Kyrie, first one had two. Okay. Second one had three. Okay. Third one had three. Okay. So that's eight. Yeah. That's eight, right? Now the next one, you had two. That's 10. But there was the Friends and Family. Oh, that's what I'm saying. The Friends and Family. And there's only three pairs of those. Yeah. But that's still a style number. Oh, which one? On the, on the mom ones, the last ones. On the last ones. The lavender ones. The lavender, like, not a people we've even seen though. It's only three pairs in the world. So have you got some pictures? I mean, I don't have pictures really, but I send it to you when I get home before you edit. So that makes 11. So there's 22. Okay. So there's 22. So we've done 22 shoes. And the proudest thing about those 22 shoes to me is that we donated every single dollar we made. Right. We didn't keep a dollar. We didn't move forward with it. We donated everything. And that's where it is. We have the waiting room at the hospital. We have giraffes in the NICU at the hospital. We have the food pharmacy at the hospital that we've opened. We have the Tigers then at Snyder High School that we've done. We're building a zen den now. Like we're continuing, even without collabs, we're continuing. I mean, we've done a back to school block party with money from that stuff going on every year. Oh yeah. I was just about to ask you about the block parties too. We do, we do the turkey drive every year. We're like lumpy Johnson out in the streets handing out turkeys. So what's that looking like? How do you guys prepare for that? Because I'm, I have like this it's like this size, this room at the other house that's like loaded with clothes and stuff. And I'll be doing it every year and I just go out and hand it to the homeless. We don't really like make a lot of videos and stuff. But I'm like, I need to start doing it to like promote and like get more people involved. That's the word. Don't use promote. Use the word. You want to inspire others. I need more help. Well, that's the thing about us. Like when you see me on Instagram on my personal page, like sneak room is sneak room. And you see everything that we get from the store. You see everything that we sell and you see every project that we do. When you follow me on my personal page, you see me and my family and you see every philanthropic thing that I do because I don't do it to boast who I am. I don't do it to get accolades for what I do. Right. I do it to inspire others and it's worked because other people have come to us and said we want to work with you. We want to collaborate with you. We want to do what you're doing. And that's a blessing. You see what I mean? Like if you're if you put it out there for the right reason, people will receive it. Yeah. And that's like me and my dad were talking about that on the podcast with me and him. Like so I've been giving away shoes literally since when I was in grade school. We go like I was just talking because we do remodels home remodels. Of course. So we got the plug at Home Depot every year we at the last week right before Christmas. Okay. The lady show just give us trees for like a penny or like 10 cent or something. So we'll just load up the trailer and go get Christmas trees and give them to families. What we've done in previous years is we'll go on Instagram and we'll say if you know anybody that needs a tree with decorations hit us up. And people will hit us up like from domestic violence centers forced to home. Yeah. You'd be so surprised how many people just that Christmas tree they need it and then like it could change so much for them. But the other thing about is when we put up that we're asking for trees right then people start hitting us up like yeah you need gifts for those people that need the tree. Right. So it's a domino effect. It's like you put up something and something else comes from it. Like you know what I'm saying like like last year we started I mean we started a Christmas parade in Jerry City. That's fine. We did the first ever Christmas parade that was us. That's dope. Like we did that. Like there's something happening next month that I can't talk about. But if it goes like wow mama I made it. And it's not a shoe. I'll tell you right off the back this is nothing to do with a shoe right. But it's just with the stuff that we deal with the philanthropy. And I'm like yo like like listen man like all jokes society like I'm just happy to be here. Like and I'm not talking about you know happy to be here just with you. I'm just happy to be alive man like every day I wake up and it's truly a blessing like I you know listen man I lost my mom my brother in in 98. I lost my mom in 06 and I lost my dad in 23. And like not many people are 40 I'm gonna start crying. Not many people are 43 years old and lost their whole family. Right. You know what I'm saying I don't have a mom I don't have a dad to call. So like this thing that we call life is the most most cherishable most enjoyable most most promising most anything that we have like every day I wake up man and even if I'm having a bad day because I have a lot of bad days. It's like yo like I'm just happy that I wake up. Like I'm happy that I get to see my kids. I'm happy I get to see my my dog. I'm happy I get to see my wife. Like going to my store I really don't have to go every day because my staff is wonderful. But I go there to be honest with you just to see them. Because I love them. Right. Like I genuinely and fullheartedly love life. Like everything about it the good the bad you know everything I just I just like we take everything for granted man like we talk about collabs we talk about a store we talk about success but like what really is success. Right. Is it how much money you have is it what car you drive is it is it you know the clothes that you have is it this like no man success is love. If you have love you have success. Like you could be the brokus mf out here you could be the poorest mf out here. If someone loves you you still have success. That that's real. Like that's that's genuine and like that all this other shit no matter like I love this beautiful wall. Right. It's like worth a lot of money. It could be gone at any moment I'm the same way. No but not even that I've been like but no not even that that it could be gone in a moment because that's true but I walked into your studio today to see you and I got to see your mom. That's dope. You just talk to me about your mother. That's dope. That's you're talking about your father. That's dope. Like you haven't even talked about one of your one of your expensive shoes. See what I'm saying. That's life. Yeah. Like that's that's what this that's what this is about. Yeah. Like again like I came out to Portland and I got to see all my old friends not Nike people. I got to see old friends. I got to kick it with people that I might not see and literally just last week I was supposed to have lunch with him on Wednesday yesterday. Just last week one of the homies passed away and I mean we're in Portland I'm sure you read about the story Christian Deaton and his wife Michelle passed away together last week in Cali and like that just goes to show you. Right. Like look at that. Bro like we were supposed to have lunch. We talked three weeks ago. We're supposed to have lunch on Wednesday and I get a call last Thursday that Christian's gone. Right. Like wow. Yeah. Like wow. Yeah. Yeah I know it's definitely I know it's not even for it's a higher percent chance of seeing people losing more people at like your age compared to my age. Yeah. Right. So like I've been seeing it so much more especially through COVID and everything with people that's in my parents age range and like seeing them going through it and how much more they even cherish every moment being with me being with my wife being with my sister all those things. I left on Sunday and I text my wife Monday morning all jokes aside I text my wife I say I see you got a really good staff and even though they're my staff. Yeah. Yeah. But you're like you got two minutes to look at. But I text my wife on Monday and I was like yo I already miss you with my kids. Like I really do because like genuinely not even trying to be funny like I guess like since I lost my dad now he was like the last part of my family. I kind of have anxiety like when I'm away from my family I have anxiety like my son moved to Grenada my oldest son to go to med school and like let me tell you I cry for a week straight I took them out there I dropped them off I was just talking to Angel today and I was like and not Angel my son I was talking Angel my right hand and you know in my company and I was just telling him that I'm like yo I miss Angel and he looked at me he goes I know you do man I know you because I do like you know what I'm saying like my boys you know down in the Caribbean and like I went to see him like put it to ways we went down to see him last month meet my wife and my son Destin and yo like everybody was like damn that's so dope because our family's in comes to us right like I wound up taking him to his new homies out to dinner right right because they was just like we want to come with your with your parents right that's so funny because so when I was in when I was in college you know playing football it was the same way like family affair like when I lived in Boston out there it'd be like I'd pull up like all my roommates they'd be like bro y'all be having a turnt up like we everybody be up for there my dad you see everybody like and they'd probably enjoying your parents as much as their parents because it's like home my dad would pull up they'd be like yo dad barbecueing or what and you know your dad's gonna pay for dinner so everybody know I'm gonna be free food we've been on a journey DJ we've been on a like listen the DNA show was the right name for this show because you done took it from the start to to I'm not gonna say finish we ain't finished yet but you took it to the start around everything like how it started family like this is real well for me I think a lot of people see like on the channel I care about shoes but I tell people why I care about shoes and all different things stories behind them you name it but if it wasn't for my family getting into it all the different things there's so many things that tie into it and my DNA is always like what am I interested in all these different things yes I'm not just a sneaker person I'm not just a real estate person I'm not just a football player I'm not just that you're not just a giver I'm interested in all these things you're not just a giver since you know you said yo I'ma give you a son a pair of size 12s right you said that right I want to see all the listen all the pockets you got four people under the bus to see what they say you see I try to lock them in I say you know I see that I gotta shoot the reviews you see I was like I was just that's why to be honest with you I really genuinely wanted to get up with you because I've known you for a long time I've watched you grow over the years just like my business growing I've watched your career grow and I remember meeting you at shows and you running around with a small bullshit camera just trying to get videos and we've always said we're gonna link and we never really link we talk but we never get the actual sit down and do it and I made it a point that on this trip I was gonna talk to you and get with you because I just think that realistically I've been interviewed on a lot of different things you know what I'm saying and they always just want to talk about the transactional relationship right the shoe the business that's it they would probably be like so how was it with Victor Cruz did so how was it with so and so so after the first one how did it work with Kyrie like when you meet Kyrie and you talk to Kyrie like when you see him because bro like don't get me wrong those are phenomenal moments in my life but they don't define me what defines me is everything we talked about the giving back the hospital the schools like bro like so all right kid from the projects no high school diploma first son at 19 years old second son 25 because he was born a couple this one birthday okay ready Saraj owner and founder of Sneaker Room cool check right Saraj was on the Jerry City Medical Center Foundation Board for five years Foundation Board's cool it's about helping getting runs and all that right oh two months ago Saraj moved from the Foundation Board to the actual Board of Trustees for the hospital okay people that know what a Board of Trustees at a hospital is that's a step right that's a step right Saraj County Prep and High Tech High School which are the like very prominent high schools in Jersey City well I should say Jersey City in Hudson County business advisory board sit on that board cool Jersey City Economic Development Corporation which is something that has to do with UEC funding and you know state funding and it's for small businesses SID zones and all that Saraj on the board oh wait Saraj on the board and Treasurer you see what I'm saying like I've taken what we do in terms of sneakers and the store and turned it into what else we can do in life and how we can help people like I go to schools I talk to kids I'm in I'm in the middle school which is the bilingual hub of Jersey City Number Seven School I'm in that school at least once a week like I walk around the hallways like I'm the principal even the principal's my home girl Jamie shout out to Ms. Barnaska as you know but we walk around and you know like they say hello to me they talk to us two of my staff members Angel my manager and Ivan my logistics guy right they went there and graduated there and now they go back with me and we give back at their at their grammar school it's so dope it's so dope last year at the graduation like I spoke with the graduation and I gave two scholarships out to kids in my dad's name at that school so dope you know they're doing 150th anniversary of the Jersey City Board of Education they called us in and we got involved and we're giving gifts away collabing with the city to do that you know block party rocking with the seniors we work with the Jersey City Police Department heavy you know our mayor Steve Fullo great guy we work with him heavy like we are we are we're not a store in the community we're a community in the store like that's what we are like you know what I'm saying we rock we're having you know we got the mayor wearing Jordans right like he's rocking he's rocking right he got Travis Scott so you can get those from us though but you got Travis Scott you know what I'm saying like all right so think of this way I'll give you one better sorry to interrupt the podcast but I had a quick question are you guys interested in taking your shoe game to another level but you just don't know where to start I built a full program just for somebody like you the six figure sneaker head it's a eight week program that takes you through all the steps that you need to know we have a full community where you can engage with everybody else that's going through the same program as you have monthly live meetups where you can connect with me and other members on the inside and we set goals for each other and held each other accountable also we give away a free pair of shoes every single month with different challenges if this is something that's for you or you're looking to take your game to the next level or even flip your sneakers to turn that into real estate this is the place where you need to be I can help you with finding loans and remodeling properties and getting yourself on the right path to become a millionaire if that's something that you desire if this sounds like something for you hit the link down below in the description and get signed up today this is more than just sneakers I want to see people grow and succeed in all aspects of life let's get back to the podcast my man busy you know part of cactus jack real good dude you know he's younger than me so I was big bro when he was growing up okay okay he he did something really good he's cactus jack utopia drops okay the week that utopia drops we're in the projects where busy grew up in jersey city you know the where we're all from I'm from a different projects but we're down in the projects my son Dustin and we got travel chase oh I saw that yeah hanging out in the projects with the kids right no security this is in a summertime right no cops this was just when utopia drop was a couple months ago yeah this is like the end of summer you weren't supposed to talk that was that's what we got no but the thing was it was right before schools out and we had Travis Scott in the projects with us that's right Rocky with the kids signing Jordyn I was like that is on your story just random like what is going on here like you see that's that's community like it's not like like it's not calling busy up and saying yo biz is there any way we can get trapped because it's a big ass can we get trapped to come to the same room no we're good we're in the projects we're in the streets like let's do that like let's have some fun we do the Puerto Rican day parade every year in Jersey City we rock out with a float and I'm not even Puerto Rican we do it because like I'm pulling that well A we are not but A we have a big enough community that does it and my wife is Puerto Rican so my kids are Puerto Rican okay okay like you know what I'm saying my kids are by racial children you know what I'm saying they we got a very good mixture welcome to the club we got a very good mixture of family like we're minorities like listen you gotta understand like we're a minority on business bro I'm Indian like we are the original mud boys like we come from the ground you know what I'm saying and that goes to show like we had talked about early about being stupid and ignorant and thing but if you follow on the gram I don't even like the word follow let's not get into that I'll tell you why I don't like the word follow I know I hate that too support on the gram well that's the thing I always say that well no no when we were young when we were younger right when I was my kids were younger I always used to tell my kids I'm sure you dad used to tell you this don't be a follower be a leader right so why is it okay with Instagram and social media become a follower right so like I wish that we and a user well I wish we could I hate that word users that's a good word I didn't I'm not even gonna lie to you I didn't even go that far into some of it oh I hate that but imagine if we change the word follower to supporter so like when you meet somebody you almost support you on a gram now I'm gonna follow you on a gram right right so you know if you out the Instagram and you see this you heard it here first change the word all right Swaraj October 26 well 27 whatever 2023 change the word supporter no but the thing is like damn I lost my train of thought now where was I wait hold on so you got me with that once you got the Instagram follower thing you got me and I'm going okay but it's just like I said it's just about giving back it's just about doing stuff like having traveled in the store and I'm not saying we could ever get it but it wouldn't have meant as much as having traveled with the kids and busy did that and that was phenomenal and I'm just happy that you know that's the homie and I'm a part of the family that we were there with it you know what I mean I need you to help me okay so oh damn I everything that you said I could see myself doing okay everything that you said I'm interested in okay I'm moving towards but I'm doing it by myself okay I don't have I have a team don't get me wrong no just for the team listen let's go but I don't know the right steps to get so let's talk in the the direction I need to be so let's talk so right now I currently pull up to middle schools and I have a presentation that I put together about building a brand in a business through social media okay and I teach them about how to use social media in in a good way positive way compared to just being on it or being the internet bully right you do it the right way so this is how you can do it this is how you can monetize this is how you can follow your dreams this is how you can do all your things so I do that right now I'm planning on going back to my high school already I talked to the school I want to do something like soon like in November we're going to do something and then at the end of the school year I want to do something I don't know what it looks like I just want to go do something I want to just be helping out and providing information and give away I want to give away like vlog kits and stuff and like help people build their stuff go ahead don't do November because November is right around the corner don't do December because that's Christmas okay yeah there's like no school in November do it in January okay and I'll fly back out here and I'll go to the school with you okay and I'll talk to the kids and I'll tell my story because my story is one that they understand and I'll figure out how that we give away a couple prizes too okay that's how we can collab on something to start okay and do that and then from there we can do other things and talk about other things and try it whether it's teaching kids how to build their own company we're making no money by starting a t-shirt company and doing pre-orders we can teach them that we can teach them a lot of things because that's the thing about us is we don't just want to do stuff just in Jersey right because we want to become that other you know thing so I will help you with that off the air we can talk and I'll even like I said I'll buy the plane ticket I'll fly out here and we can have I got an Airbnb you can stay at too that's cool it's free yeah oh see I got it to say I got three rooms I just listen I got wait wait you got three rooms three rooms at the house it's a three bedroom house yeah but like if I'm staying there I'm not staying with other people in the other rooms yeah as long as you're not like spooning which is under anything we're good no whoa whoa yo yo D D it's got serious what I'm saying there's a room for him no no what I'm saying is no that's not even one no what I'm saying is when you hear Airbnb and you see your three rooms that means he rents each room out and you have no no it's the whole house I'm saying that I want the house because I don't want nobody else staying with me no it's the whole house it's the whole house okay that yeah D you took it there I'm not gonna the D&A the D&A show almost turned up we almost started wrecking stuff we're almost y'all job A we from Jersey get it job A now it's not Angel no more you see I'm not calling them Angel I'm calling them chops that means it's getting real no but like the fact that you want to get into it I'm down let's get into it together because like well I really do wish when I was starting off and I did this there was somebody that would help me and I didn't have help and I didn't have guidance now I've been meeting the right people I've been talking to the right people and that's the thing I want to I want to give away give away or give my knowledge away to whoever would like to take it not saying that I know everything because I'm still every day I'm still a student right every day I learned something new from somebody I love when we learn from younger people exactly that's the best part because like I've been learning a lot too like a lot how to how a lot of the younger people navigate with their merch brands like on TikTok and stuff and I'm like this is interesting like it's a whole big stuff it's just a moment then we made more maybe it's crazy it's a bigger moment than we might make ever in our life and people would be fullest to be like oh they don't know what they're doing like you gotta go learn I remember what I was talking about now so what's up so we were talking about how ignorant child American child didn't want to go back to you know India didn't want to have a family dad passes away right in October went back to India for the first time and oh yo in forever probably 30 something years connect with the family but now I see how it is over there now I know so now what we're working on in India it was really crazy we're trying to put it together solar powered water filtration systems in memory of my dad so that we can give clean water to the villages that don't have clean water so you see what I'm saying that goes back to why I'm saying like I would love to do something here in Portland with you because if you really think about it like even though I'm not from Portland like a lot of my business is because of Portland right no so it would be kind of dope to do something back here to talk to the kids back there to inspire them because right when you go to kids schools and talk to kids don't you ever realize that kids just want anyone here to talk about things that they've done to get where they are right that look like them right for sure and two they just want to talk back and have somebody listen for sure like you know what I'm saying like you know it's compared to this is the only way you can do it do do do do it like I'm here that's why I like to have plenty of time for questions at the end of the at the talks because I'm like that's the most important like I speak I speak at I speak at career days and it's funny you'll have a cardiologist you'll have a lawyer You'll have a doctor, what cardiitis is a doctor. But you know what I'm saying, but you'll have a senator. And then I come up, I do my thing. And the end of it, when it's questions, they're all for me. And like the senators walk in, I'm like, I'm not doing this no more, you're here. I don't even get a question asked. And I'm like, I'm a little cooler than you. You know what I mean? But don't let it fool you. I also teach the kids like you see my arms are sleeved up, but I tell the kids in high school that they shouldn't get tattoos. I tell them that you should wait till you have a career. You should wait till you know what you're going to do in life before you go get something on your forearm. Man, especially on your face. Yeah, all these tattoos that I have came after I had my own business when I was still working. They were all above my shirt level. And I'm not saying nothing bad about tattoos because, again, I have them. But I'm telling you that you need to make smart decisions in your life until you know where your life is going. That's all I'm telling you. You want to get your chest, you want to get your face tattooed, cool. Just make sure that aligns with what you want to do. That's all I'm saying. Make sure the alignment is there. I feel that. When did you get your first tattoo? Oh, 98, when my brother passed away. It started with a small little line here. And it just said, rest in peace, Omar, you know, to 2098. And then it turned into the whole thing for my brother as I got older and I had my career. So I wear my brother here. I wear my dad here. I wear my mom here. This is my Catholic side for my mom. So it has the Mary and the religious cross. This is the Indian side for my dad. So we have Ganesh. We have Lakshmi and Indian gods. And that's what we do. Damn, this was good. I was just thinking about it too. I got my whole ribs tatted for my grandma. And then my mom, she had two of my siblings didn't make it. So I got both of them on my back. They got my back. They got your back. So I put them on my back. Well, you see, that's the thing. When you go into a school, they have Pokemon on their arm. Betty Boop on their arm, Batman on their arm. And I'm just like, yo, when you're 35, you still want Pokemon on your arm? Like all my tattoos have a meaning. I could tell you the story of my dad, my mother. I could tell you everything. You just told me the story of your grandmother and your siblings. I'm about to get a hot air balloon on this side. That's for your dad. See, but again, I listened to what you said. That's for your dad. I already know what it's for. Meaning, not Pokemon, not Charmander, not Pikachu. Yeah, I know my stuff, Destin. You told me right. You told me right. You schooled me, you know what I'm saying? That's the thing. I have the Bordeaux 7 tattooed on my leg. I did VH1, Black Ink with Caesar. Season three, I did it because of the fact that that's the story that my mom and I couldn't get the shoe. So every tattoo that I have has a meaning. I don't have anything that I can't tell you the story about. Or that's just a smurf. You kids don't even know where a smurf is, never mind. So what up, dude? What up, dude? You got me for a couple minutes before I run out this door. Even though I almost ran out the door when you did that, you said that little comment, we're gonna let it rock. It's not gonna, you know, I'm still a little upset by that one. You know? You know? Okay, so anyway, so all right. Let's wrap it up. I know you need to get to see it. It's almost been a long week if we need to. We have a fire round at the end where we go over the questions that I always get asked. So I'm like, let me ask them to everybody else to see what they say. I like that. How many pairs of shoes do you have in your collection? Last time I counted, it's probably like a little bit over 1500 pairs. Okay. Like that's where it's at. I like that. A little bit over. So what's up? Can we do the collection tour or what? I'm gonna be honest with you. No. Well, ain't no because I wouldn't let a camera in my house. My wife is adamant about that. One thing that I've learned in life is the home is your sacred place. For sure. It's where my wife and kids sleep. So we just keep it a little bit private. That's all, nothing bad. The other thing is we'd have to take trips because there's not only in my house, you know, a storage office. I mean, I'd have seen it all your story before. Like you'd be posting every now and then. Let me keep it real with you. You see your collection, how great it is? My collection's not that great because I never got into the PE game. I never wanted to pay X amount of money for shoes. It's crazy. My collection is more so a lot of stuff that we've sold at the store because I keep pretty much everything. Like I get high on my old supply every day. Oh, for sure. It's more so stuff that like right now, like I'm into this phase, Angel. My boy Angel's 25, man. I keep talking about because he's an old soul. And my boy Jeff, the creative director at the store, you know, he's into comfy. I mean, they got me in Valmero's now. Oh, cute. Valmero's, Valmero 5, P6,000s. Like yo, I'm in comfy shoes. Like I put a pair of Jordan 3's on there then. I was like, yeah, what am I doing? No, for real. I was like, yo, it was the first thing. I was like, what am I doing? Oh, man, we can talk about that first. Okay. So I got, I got 15 hundred dollars. The transition of the shoe game, like people buying stuff for purpose. Wait, I thought you guys could give me a question. I know, but I just, okay. What do you want a question about that? What you think about the shoe game and where it's going to go? Because like you said, everybody's looking for something comfortable. Everybody's looking for something to style the changing. The shoe game is interesting right now in general because not only is the style changing, the market's changing. Now the shoes are not selling for what they used to sell. People are not buying. So that means that they were never buying for themselves. Oh, for sure. Like it's nice to see now when someone comes in to buy a shoe because being that it's not really reselling for nothing. It's like, where is this? There's no where these. Like it's nice to see people actually coming in. And it's also nice to see people that actually used to want to buy shoes that couldn't get them coming in like, oh, you got these. Yeah, what's up? Like not have to, you know, fighting somebody for them. So it's very different times. And I think it's going to be interesting because I don't even know what the companies are doing further on, you know, a year from now or two years from now, even though I'm part of the, you know, the program, we don't know until we see it. So I'm actually on the same page as you and I'm interested and I'm waiting to see what's going to change and where it's going to go. You know what I mean? I want to see. I just think that comfy shoes are in right now. Like you do want to be comfy because you're like our feet hurt, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and you can get that from like with the remastered stuff like Jordan's doing. They're remastering the tooling, the materials and the comfort. Like, because they know that back then what you were wearing to now is not the same. So like with that name itself remastered, I think we're finding out new stuff and finding out new technology and putting it in old stuff. Right. I like that. Okay. So next question. Yeah. What is the most you spent on a pair of shoes? I don't even know. My man is Destin. Destin probably because that's my account then. Am I my street keeper? 2100, right? I think the most expensive was 2100 on the off-white. What made you have to pull the trigger? So I liked them when they first came out. I loved them because I'm an Air Force dude. That's one of my favorite shoes. But I didn't want to spend the money at all. I'm not gonna lie. I feel that. And then Virgil passed. Yeah. And I have a really sentimental story with Virgil. So being that that's the one to me, like I'm not really an AJ1 person like that. I like them, but that's not my go-to shoe. Airforces are. So that's why I pulled the trigger on that. But my story and why I sentimental, why I didn't want to spend that much money was when complex kind of first hit in Long Beach. I think it was the second one. Yep. I was there. We were both there. It was the second one and they had that Nike set up in the middle. The Nike 100. And you were able to dye the shoes. The Air Force ones. We were there that morning together. And we were talking to Virgil together. Actually, I think at the same time, we were both together. So people happened. So when I walked in, I had a pair of the original 1090s. Okay. And I brought them with me. And I went over to the Nike booth and I was like, yeah. And I was with a couple of Nike people because at that time that's when we were doing collabs. And they were treating me, you know, nice and all we ever. And I was like, yo, could you dye these for me? And they were like, no, we're only dying Air Force ones. Right. I was like, hi. So boom. And some girl comes over and she's like, I like what you do with the breast cancer shoe. I'll dye it for you. Okay. And she dyed it for me. Okay. So boom. So they said, come back in like three hours or whatever because they got to dry. They hang drying them and all. So I walked back over and as Virgil, holding the shoes. And he's like this. Taking the pictures, shooting the video. And I woke up and yo, he was very humble. Like he was a humble guy. I walked up to him and I was just like, yo, like, wow, what's up, Virg? Like, how are you? Hey man, how you doing? And I'm like, yo, he's a crazy. He's like, yeah, like, yeah, like I like this color. And I'm like, can I have my shoes? And he's like, what do you mean? And I'm like, go to the mine. He's like, where? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, what are they? And I'm like, there, your shoes died. Right. And he's like, yo, you got that. Right. And he's like, you mind if I take a picture? And I'm like, what? Not of me, but of the shoe. And I'm like, bro, go ahead. So then I go to him, I go, you mind if I take a picture? And he's like, go ahead. So we take picture with him. He starts video, we start video in it. And then he's like, what's your name? And I'm like, Siraj. He's like, how you spell that? I'm like, S-U-R-A-J. And he's like, boom, Air Siraj. Virgil was here. And he signed them, just like he signed the celebrity papers. Right, right, right, right. And like, yo, like the next day, I didn't post it yet. Yeah, I did post, but not yet. The internet got it or somebody was watching it. And everybody was saying that that was the next, that was the next 90. And like, we had to go back and tell people like, no, it's not like that was just a diaper. But the internet for a minute was buzzing, trying to figure out what this pair was, who was gonna have it, but it wasn't. It was my pair. So that's why like, I wouldn't mind, I don't mind paying 2100 for something from him because I met him and I've met a lot of celebrities in my life. But he was authentic, he was humble, and it was cool. Because a lot of people, they're not that cool. So like, I have no problem doing that because just off of that one instant with him. That is so funny. We were there, we were there. Yeah, I have my horror story from that. Mine was a horror story. Okay. So I met him, talked to him, and then they were like, hey, do you wanna get the Air Force One? Cause they were dropping off a complex kind of Air Force One. I didn't get it. Don't talk about it. That's my horror story. Okay, see how they get it even. We literally could have, remember? I'm not the guy who took pictures with my shoe, but I couldn't buy the shoe. But we were there in the, Well, I remember, okay. So they were like, hey, do you wanna buy the shoe early? You can get it now. I wasn't actually when they said that. Okay. So I don't know, I was with somebody about Nike. They were like, you wanna get it now. I'm like, okay. I think I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna hop in this line over here for the Air Max 97, the undefeated one. Cause I was just crazy at the time. I was like, I'll come back and get the, I'll come back and get the white. It's a white Air Force one. Yeah. That's what you're doing. Go over there. They break the wall down, cause the riot, no release. I come back, I'm like, hey, can I get those forces? Now everybody rest over there. Yeah, cause that's it. The 97s were gone. So everybody was on the air. So now they're like, you can't cut all the people. Not right now. Maybe if there's something left later, by then they're gone. There was none left, so. All right. And then RIP Kobe, he pulls up. And then Kendrick. I remember that because Kobe was sitting on that thing. Vic was there at the time too. Cause Vic was wearing his mids that they did for him with the straps. That was the golden era of complex time. Yeah, that was crazy. Well, I mean, I mean, no, I mean, for us the golden era was when we released the mom's shoe air and we had the boot. So we had some time. That was, you know, listen, like I said, again, not trying to be funny. Sneaker room, one door, one store, one team, 22 shoes, complex, com release, national. Just saying the little engine that could, could. It's like we are here. Just saying it, just throwing a little bit out. You know, just some knowledge about it. You know what I mean? Okay. Next question. What is the greatest shoe of all time? Damn, that's a hard question. No, it's not. Why don't wear that for us once? Oh, okay. I didn't say it in the most comfortable shoe. Just throw it out there for me. It is, it is. But it's the most, yeah, listen, man. 82, baby. Yeah. 82. That's it. Like it still is relevant. It's still there. It still sells. It's changed. It's had multiple colors. I mean, you got a pair right there. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's that to me, that's the shoe. Sorry. Like, I know a lot of people going to say the AJ-1, but again, like- Or the 11th. I heard the 11th a lot too. The 11th shoe, but the Air Force-1's a me, bro. It's the most iconic shoes, the shoe that you can wear with everything. It's, it's, I mean, listen, a business was built off of that. You know, it's, it's, I mean, a business was built off of the business, was built off of the AJ-1, too. Let's throw it out there, but it's Air Force-1. That's, that's me. Okay. If you could have one shoe for the rest of your life, what would it be? Ah, man. So, I kind of would say the white on white Air Force-1, but now that I'm getting older, I would just want a white on white color code 111, Vomero 5. Right? Why you say it like that? Like, I gotta, I gotta change it. Cause people are gonna say, yo, you're crazy. You picked the Vomero 5 for the one shoe of forever. But I'm like, I just needed color code 111, cause it has to be white, cause it has to match everything. Right, right, right. But it's going to be the most comfortable shoes. So my feet ain't going to hurt. Like I'm going to be walking on clouds for the rest of my life. So yeah, I might not be as cool as everybody. Yes, I want to wear a Vomero for the rest of my life, right? Matter of fact, I'm going to be honest with you. All right, Vomero, maybe it might be a P6000 cause they comfortable, I'm wearing them today. So it's something in that running comfy level. That's it, okay? I like that, I like that. All right, that's the final thing. What would be the final statement you would say to your 16 year old self or the young person out there that's listening? Do everything the same exact way that I did it. Don't make a change. Don't change nothing. Cause you're going back and telling this person what they should do from 16 to change whatever they want to do. Nothing, follow the path. That's it. I'm not going to tell you a trick. I'm not going to tell you a cheat code. I'm not going to tell you back then to care about life and cherish life. I'm going to tell you do everything the same because I truly believe that we're put on this earth for a purpose and the good, the bad, we find the purpose. Like, if my mom, if I didn't lose my brother, all jokes aside, I don't think my oldest son would have been born because when he went, that's what I was missing when I lost my brother. I was missing my brother. And the worst thing I've ever seen in life was, and it goes back to your mom, is when a parent loses a child. The circle of life is turned. My mom was destroyed. You know what I'm saying? No parents should have to bury their child. So my son being born only came because my brother passed away and we needed another life. We needed to be circulated, the life to come back. Then my wife getting sick, even though as horrific as it was, there was a purpose because I got the time off for my mom. My mom passing away as horrific and how much as it still hurts, I needed that to happen. Otherwise the story don't happen. You know what I mean? If the story doesn't happen, then the stuff and the stories of my dad doesn't happen. And then as much as it hurts in it, and I'm telling you it hurts still like a year later, if my dad doesn't pass away last year, I don't start like really, really, really understanding life to how precious it is. Cause I was with him Friday night with my family, having beers at the race track and he had dinner at my house and he was gone 18 hours later. So like, don't change it because everybody's gonna go back and say, change this, do this, because they want to have all the success without the faults, without the losses. Same thing with business. I had a partner. I don't have a partner. Don't change it, just do it. Cause I think that's the main thing because what do I want to do? Go back and turn the clock and say, do this. So I have more money or have a bigger house or I feel more successful. Key word, feel more successful. No, bro, like my success is every day I see my wife and kids. Every day I go see my store, my family that's in my store and my success is talking to you, talking to everybody, don't change shit. Like we tend to have so many regrets in life and we tend to think that that's gonna make it better. Like you go, oh, if I could change this, it would be, but why do we want it better? Cause who knows if what we think is better is really better. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I'd give anything right now to have my mom back, to have my dad back, to have my brother back, but I don't know if my life is better because they're back or is my life better because they're gone and I grew. It's a rough one, man. That's a rough one. And that's a, that's a phenomenal question, but the answer to it is Saraz, you're 16. You think the world is against you. You don't have money right now. You're still doing stupid shit, right? Just follow the path that you're still on because it didn't turn out that bad. There's a lot of hurt down the line and there's a lot of sadness and a lot of grief, but it'll get better eventually, but it's still better than you made me cry. I said I wasn't going to cry on the last question, man. Like, that's phenomenal, bro. You good, bro. Yeah, all right. All right, he did it. He did it. All right, guys, dude. Tell the people where they can find you. We'll have everything linked down below as well. Yeah, listen, man. Sneaker room, at sneaker room. You know, spelled out the word sneaker and the word room, so there's two Rs in the middle. The other Instagram is at the T-H-E, real, R-E-A-L, Saraj, S-U-R-A-J, 201, because we're from Jersey, not New York. Get that crate. Get that right. I got it, thank you. And then at sneaker room foundation, which that's where we're just starting to build now because the nonprofit has been, it's been up and running for like four years, but we're finally starting to take it serious because the other thing about it is, is like running a foundation and a business and a family. Shit's hard. Like, it's a lot of stuff going on, man. Shit's hard. Like, you know, like you start doing it, but that's how you get us. D, listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for inviting me to your studio, to doing this interview, to being on the show, to letting me tell my story and letting it not be fully about sneakers. Like, that's what I just want people to know. Like, and hopefully, like as you go further in your career, which I see a very bright future and I wish you all the luck and I'm always here to support you. Truthfully being the show DNA is a dope name for one reason. It's not some bullshit about the sneaker podcast or what's hot podcast, the doom, you know, whatever. It doesn't even have the word sneaker in it. You are changing the game because you wanna talk about what's really from the start to finish of who it is. I didn't, I've seen it before and I've watched it, but I never really thought about it too deep. Like, this was real. Like, you know, like this is real. Like, like somebody needs to put this on TV. I'm gonna keep, no, I'm genuine about it because like, bro, like who's really talking about real shit? Everybody just wants to talk about, oh, I got this $10,000 shoe. No, man, like, cool. Like if you got that $10,000, God bless you, but I don't wanna talk about that. No, this was fun, man. And I'mma hold you. Hit me like in November. Let's talk about January. I'll come back out. I'll spend a couple of days now that, now that you offer me a free Airbnb, it's even better because that's $1,000 already off the trip. I still gotta give an airfare, but we're good. But no, I think genuinely, like, we should talk and we should do something. Maybe even if you wanna do something like around February because that's my birthday, I don't celebrate it like I told you. But maybe we could celebrate it together by doing something for the kids here. And I like, whatever it is, I don't care when it is, I just really wanna do something out here with you. Because I just think that you're a young individual that's younger than me, but I see it. Like, I see that you, listen, when someone's already doing so much and they're like a philanthropist and they're trying to get back, right? They see others and I can know when someone's bullshitting. Just like when I talk to somebody, they know when I'm bullshitting. Like they'll be like, you're surraged, you ain't really do that shit. No, I really did. You're there. The fact that you even asked how to do shit, we're there. We're there. It's a DNA show where they don't have, they don't have tissues for you, but they make you cry. They, you know, you're a tough guy with tattoos and all that stuff and they break you down. Okay, they break you down. He broke me down. All right, hit the subscribe button, download the app. I don't know what it's called on these podcast things. I'll see you guys in another one. We out. Peace.