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product & event photos by Zaul Zamora
The year’s ’95 and the setting is a casino on the strip of Sin City. While the Roc-a-Fella Records roster is in town to watch Tyson take on McNeely it’s not Iron Mike or even Shawn Carter that’s the man of the moment either in the city or at the table.
It’s Emory Jones — known from that trip on as Emory “Vegas” Jones.
While the Vegas strip and Tyson fights have a dark history in reference to hip-hop, the mood is light if not over joyous on this particular 1995 trip for Jones, the Jiggaman and the rest of their team. Adding weight to the “still spending money from ’88” line in “Dead Presidents II,” the Roc boys are living the high life all the way out in Nevada a whole year before Reasonable Doubt debuts and dominates New York. It’s a safe assumption that everyone was having fun, but it’s clear over time that Emory was making the moment and the moment was making Emory.
“We came to Vegas for that Tyson fight – me and the whole original founders of Roc-a-Fella,” Emory reflects 23 years later in the same city. “It was my first time in Vegas and me being me, I hit the crap tables. I used to gamble a lot then and I won $20,000. I looked at the table and thought, Oh, it’s a free trip! I went shopping, almost missed the fight because of the time change from New York, and when we get there I’m wearing a silk Versace shirt with gold satin pants. I was just in the moment. All my brothers were like, Man, you’re walking around here like you own Vegas. In that little period of time, I realized how the city worked and I acted like I owned Vegas. When you hear “Can I Live” and Jay says ‘Viva, Las Vegas, see ya, later at the crap tables/Meet me by the one that starts a G up,’ that was me in that moment: crap table, the minimal bet of $1,000, a bottle of Cristal, a bottle of Dom Pérignon, chick on one side, chick on the other, it was the moment. That day coming back they said, Your new name is Vegas Jones. We came off that trip and realized it was time to really do Roc-a-Fella.”
While the journey of both Emory and the Roc are well documented, the origin of both Emory and the Roc are represented by the Emory Jones x PUMA “Bet On Yourself” Collection. The $1,000 bet at the craps table may have made him Vegas, but a bet on himself a decade prior made him Emory.
“This collection is more personal to me because I wanted to tap into the root of who I am,” expresses Emory in a candid conversation outside of Feature Las Vegas. “The collection and the box has a patch that explains everything about me in that patch. My journey of coming from a small town in Maryland of 12,500 people to moving to Brooklyn on my own when I was 15. From 12,500 to 2.3 million people. To be able to wake up and say, I’m gonna take a chance. I woke up and knew when I did that it was for all the wrong reasons but I knew I had to take myself to New York to get where I wanted to go in life. This collection is really wrapped around all that.”
In addition to “Bet on Yourself,” the second theme of the collection is “Simply Fly,” a motto Emory wears well. “For me, I don’t base collections around fashion. Clothes are clothes,” says Emory. “It comes and goes 360 and every trend cycles and comes back around. To me, it’s always about the conversation to me.”
With that said, Emory is still keen on fashion being the way that conversation happens.
“I’ve always been the fashion guy. I feel like there are three universal languages for me: music, sports and fashion. For me I like to speak through fashion. When you find someone that’s comfortable in their skin, that’s what makes them cool and that’s what makes the message of your clothes come off the right way.”
While in the city that made him Vegas in ’95, it’s clear talking to him in ’18 that Mr. Jones is very much Emory. Before our convo he’s FaceTiming with his daughter and afterwards with his mother. The road to success has seen more peaks and valleys for him than most but all the more gratitude and willing to take risks the same. The recent run in footwear and fashion came from placing a bet on a brand from Germany at a time when both were looking to climb back up.
“I’ve been consulting with PUMA for like seven years. I took a chance and they came back to me with the offer for the collection,” reflects Jones at the pre-launch of his second PUMA collection. “People aren’t just buying into the clothes, they’re inspired by who I am and what I’ve done. And the product is still king, it’s still good and it’s dope.”
The gamble appears to be a win for both Emory and PUMA. While heritage is at the the heart of the product the story is deeper than just selling two established names. “I didn’t want to just do something off my name,” Emory says on early discussions focused around his Vegas persona and following. “And then it dawned on me to flip it. I’ve got the Vegas name from a part of my life when I was doing all the wrong things. We were betting on all the wrong things, so now why don’t we take a chance on ourselves? I just flipped it. It all went together when you think of gambling in Vegas and gambling on the streets to then taking a chance into doing something positive and real. That light clicked and I was like, That’s perfect.”
Bet.
Look for the Emory Jones x PUMA “Bet on Yourself” Collection to release on September 22nd at select PUMA accounts. Preview the offering from the pre-launch at Feature Las Vegas below.
