Jaysse Lopez: A Journey Of A Homeless Sneakerhead To A Million Dollar Man

A lot of millionaires have overcome a lot of hardship and obstacles but there are a special few who have overturned what would normally be an insurmountable adversary for most people. One such name is Jaysse Lopez who overturned an investment of $40 into a $21 million dollar sneaker empire.

Lopez has seen some extremely low points in his life but now has overcome them and then some. Now the proud founder and owner of Urban Necessities Lopez, read more about this sneakerhead’s journey from rags to riches.

Life Before Starting Urban Necessities

Jaysse Lopez moved from New Jersey to Las Vegas in pursuit of a better living. He found it extremely hard to get by in Los Angeles. For 6 months in 2000, he was homeless and couldn’t make ends meet.

Jaysse Lopez was panhandling, sold water and even his own clothes to get by.

Similarly, he also sold his friend’s couch and lived in a motel. Then he put his shoulder to the grindstone and struggled for a fair bit before achieving the success he is famous for today. He said in an interview:

“I think that the fear of failing is what stops people from learning or trying,” Lopez said, later adding: “No two paths are the same.”

After this, he saw sneaker resale in the mall he learned a lot of techniques and process about the sneaker selling business.

He got a job at a cell phone company and left it in 2012 due to an illness. In the same year’s November, he met his girlfriend Joanie Barangan. After looking for various other jobs he started reselling shoes.

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Grinding To Make Urban Necessities A Success

Lopez had to sell clothes to get by but while living on his friend’s couch, he persuaded some of his former customers to buy and sell shoes at a trade show.

With his then-girlfriend Joanie Barangan’s help, he purchased 18 pairs of shoes and sold all of them for $200 profit.

At a show in 2014’s summer, he sold around 400 pairs of sneakers. After this, he met a representative of Boulevard Mall who gave him the idea of opening a store.

Then he signed a lease with the mall.

“The day that I signed the lease I had $40 to my name,” Lopez said. “By December 31, I did a million dollars in sales.”

Then he got really serious about reselling and started learning everything about reselling.

He then tried to increase sales by creating and operating a website to resale shoes. He sold all of them for about $60 on average.

Current Status Of His Shoe Business

In 2015 Urban Necessities made more than $4 million in sales and then in 2019 sales reached a record of $21 million. As of January 2020, the business also sells streetwear and accessories through their two store locations and their online store.

During the struggle to get his business up and running, he had split with his girlfriend but eventually, the pair got back together and are married to each other as of January 2020.

Jaysse Lopez’s Net Worth

Taking a $40 business to make more than $21 million in revenue per year is not an easy task and this must have made him into a multimillionaire.

In addition to his revenue from shoe sales he also owns the YouTube channel Two Js Kicks which is worth $98,000 as per data from Statsmash.

His net worth is only projected to grow as the reselling market could be around $6 billion as of January 2020.

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