October 2. 2013
Minority & Small Business Week
Sneakerhead’ Turns Love into a Brand
Portland
entrepreneur
starts own
fashion line
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Setting foot in the city of sin
turned out to be the start of a dream
for one Portland man. A 2009 visit to
Las Vegas for a street wear fashion
trad e sh o w
sh ifte d
D avid
Jefferson’s whole career path.
Jefferson says the show was the
inspiration he needed to take him
from being a local retailer of various
big name brands in urban fashion to
his newfound passion, selling his
own clothes.
It wasn' t long after he returned to
the Rose City that he launched his
own brand called Mr. Exclusive. He
took the name from his nickname,
but the clothing line failed almost as
soon as it started.
“I wasn’t really all the way seri
ous the first time around. And like—
I didn’t know what I was doing you
know what I’m saying. So it made it
tough to get support. I think I was
being a little bit selfish with the
continued
on page 10
^on0f Jeffp rS^ , n S
h apparel b
hrand’ stackin ’ Kickz’ has become one o f the m ost recognized s t a i t ^ p \ T s ^ o n T n ^ n P o d ^
longtime Portlander says the brand was birthed out o f his fanatic love o f the “sneakerhead” culture.
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