The summer of J.R. Smith continues. After the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship in June, we started to worry that J.R. might never get fully-dressed again, and the situation got so dire that President Obama nearly had to sign an executive order to get him to put on a shirt. That doubled as the birth of a glorious new meme, which itself resulted in the production of that magical, shirtless J.R. Smith T-shirt.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHNHYRhjaK2/
Now, you can purchase that shirt — along with other boutique shoe and apparel items — directly from the source. In an interview with Jared Zwerling of the NBPA, Smith announced that he’ll be opening his own lifestyle store, Team Swish, in his hometown in New Jersey at the end of the month.
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.
***
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.
One featured item will be his new personally-designed Sprayground backpacks, 400 of which he will donate to local school children in the coming year. An avid golfer, Smith also hopes to one day design his own golf shoe and is also hosting his 10th annual golf tournament, which likewise benefits underprivileged youth in the area. Huge props to Smith for using his entrepreneurial endeavors to also give back to his community.
(NBPA; h/t Pro Basketball Talk)
