J.R Smith has had life truly come full circle. It was just 5 years ago he was playing alongside Carmelo Anthony trying to win an NBA title for the Knicks, and falling short, and being blamed because of his lack of commitment, and his lifestyle. After being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, J.R Smith’s mentality changed, making him more focused on winning an NBA title along side the king himself LeBron James and this year they finally achieved that goal. J.R Smith has gone through a lot to make it to where he is now, and is now taking full advantage of being at the top.
Smith is now pursuing a childhood and lifetime team by opening his very own sneaker store. After going shirtless throughout the championship parade and being told by the President to stop, Smith is using his t-shirt business to catapult his sneaker store. According to the NBPA’s Jared Zwerling:
Now, starting with a vision that father and son had together years ago, Smith will be opening his own Team Swish lifestyle store, which is slated for the end of the month. The store, which Earl himself began building five years ago, features apparel, footwear and accessories, one of which is Smith’s upcoming signature backpack with Sprayground.
“The store is very special,” Earl told the NBPA. “It’s a long time coming. It’s been 15 years since I’ve been working on this project here. And then with J.R. winning a championship, everything came full circle.”
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While I had been working on it for a while, it was just the matter of when was the right time. So it just so happens now it is, with the championship, to open my own sneaker store in my hometown of Millstone Township, N.J.
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Ever since I was a kid, I always dreamed of having my own sneaker store. When I was growing up, this was when Michael Jordan was in the prime of everything. So a fresh pair of kicks was always everything. No matter what else you had on, if you had a fresh pair of sneakers on, you were always the freshest guy in school–no matter what your pants looked like, no matter what your shirt looked like, hat, whatever. It was always about the shoes, so I got attached extremely early.
Although Smith has created a store in his hometown of Millstone Township, New Jersey, that does not indicate he will sign with the Brooklyn. Don’t get ahead of yourself Nets fans. Smith is slated to return to the Cavaliers to chase another title with LeBron James and the city of Cleveland, and now he has a sneaker store to develop along side. Cleveland has really changed J.R.
