Urban Necessities
We've teamed up with Las Vegas, Nevada sneaker retailer, “Urban Necessities,” and its owner / sneaker collector Jaysse Lopez, (@twojskicks). Jaysse worked with us to create a Run Tab performance sock inspired by his Puerto Rican heritage.
The Urban Necessities style features reflective Puerto Rican flag, and Stance logos on the back of the tab’s. The socks also feature an embroidered Coqui frog on the ankles of the socks, which are native to US Island. 100% of profits go to “Make Them Smile PR,” (@makethemsmilePR) which is a charity to help rebuild schools in Puerto Rico. We sat down with Jaysse Lopez to ask him a few questions about his business in the sneaker game.
Not to be cliché, but what are your top sneakers ever and why?
Black Cement 3. It’s one of the first shoes I remember seeing on foot back in the day that just caused a emotion and reaction I just didn’t understand. Was blown away that sneakers could look so cool.
Paris Dunk. So much history there and almost impossible to find. A shoe that has dodged me for a lot of years and I finally landed this year.
Air Max 1 University Red. The AM 1 is the most iconic air max ever and I think this is by far the best color-way they ever dropped, a very timeless shoe.
It’s so great that you choose to give 100% of proceeds to help rebuild schools in Puerto Rico. Why was this so important for you to do?
The reason why this was so important to donate the proceeds is because I don’t get the opportunity to create the outlets to give back as much as I’d like to. You guys (Stance), have a much bigger platform then I have. Your presentation is a lot better then what my giving resources allow, and I always like rooting for the little guy. To be able to team up with people, and a brand that has a lot of the same core values as we do I think was the most exciting part. I want to build this relationship and keep it moving forward, and find creative ways to build awareness to things that are deserving. This is going to allow us to put a little money into a program that’s intentions is to build schools in a island that can use all the help they can get. I’m really excited to show that to the masses.
You have so many things you are currently working on for yourself and Urban Necessities, but where do you see everything 5 years from now?
I just hope in the next 5 years Urban Necessities, (Urban_necessites) becomes the retail standard on how sneaker consignment is done. I hope that the community continues to support it the way that it has these first 6 years, and I really look forward trying to figure out creative ways to keep us relevant. I want to say in the next 5 years I have more than 1 location, but its kind of hard to un-peel that onion, when this first layer of it is so amazing. I’m really stuck in the moment with it and just trying to enjoy everyday. I just hope I have the opportunity to still conduct business 5 years from now.