I know you've seen Jersey Champs before, they've gotten shout-outs for their custom designs and they've been sported by Soulja Boy,
Dwarf Mamba, The Game, YBN Nahmir, 21 Savage, Supreme Patty and more...
Before Jersey Champs had a massive social media following over 50K on Twitter, 80K on
Facebook and another 1.8 million on Instagram at the time of this recording.
Before the company's founder Sean Kelly went from being a broke student to building a multi-million
dollar business all by the age of just 20.
Jersey Champs went ahead and made me my own custom Jersey.
It's actually kinda a big deal.
I've seen a few celebs having to do shout outs hoping to get one.
Huge thanks to them.
There is actually a really interesting story behind the business and it's creator Sean
Kelly.
If your someone whose looking to change their fate, make some money and use social media
as a way to change your life you're gonna wanna pay attention to this video.
Sean Kelly was like any other college kid.
He was drinking, partying, enjoying time with friends, and he had a love for Jerseys.
Out of his dorm room he started making custom designs on trending topics like Harambe, Donald
Trump, Long Neck, Wide Neck and the world quickly took notice.
Today the kid is sitting on a gold mine with celebrity endorsements coming out his...
Instagram.
But it was a bumpy road to the top including a near death experience.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Jersey Champs founder,
Sean Kelly here for you of course on Before They Were Famous and this is a sponsored video.
If you guys want your very own Before They Were Famous Jersey you gotta go and follow
me on Instagram and Twitter, send me your DM and I'll randomly pick 3 winners.
We'll get your name printed on the back just like they did for me.
Michael McCrudden #1.
You'll be 2, 3 and 4.
Also be sure to give Jersey Champs a follow as well.
Aright, let's get into this video:
Sean Michael Kelly was born on February, 14th, 1997 in New Brunswick, a town in New Jersey's
Middlesex County twenty-seven miles southwest of New York City.
He grew up in Bridgewater Township.
Both of Sean's parents are immigrants.
His mother Fei Lou is from China, while his father Michael Kelly is from England.
Fei worked in sales and marketing for the telecommunications company Ericsson, while
Michael was a computer programmer.
For work, his dad had a book business and would sell books over eBay and Amazon.
The apple didn't fall far from the tree for this only child, something that's apparently
quite uncommon in his hometown.
Sean's parents had a massive influence on him growing up.
He states that his mother taught him to be a hard worker and gave him a great work ethic.
As for his dad...
well he told me
“My father introduced me to the computer and internet and I instantly fell in love
and became obsessed with it.
I type 180 words per minute since I have been using computers my whole life.”
As for celebrities he admired growing up, Sean cites LeBron James and Eminem.
Sean attended Bradley Gardens Elementary and Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and High School
He admits to being an average student with a 3.2 GPA.
Sean couldn't stand going to school.
His lack of interest in learning resulted in him failing English several times as well
as getting a D in marketing.
The only class he really enjoyed was gym.
Despite his disdain for school, Sean claimed to have been the class clown early on.
During middle school, his parents got divorced and Sean's behaviour changed drastically.
He described himself during this period as depressed and shy.
On top of that, he would often be bullied by other kids.
Being of half-Asian decent, his classmates always expected him to get good grades.
When kids found out he didn't, he was called stupid, dumb and labelled a failure.
In an instagram post from 2017 Sean wrote: They used to make fun of me.
Now they wanna work for me
look at him now kids, look at him now.
Being a bit of an outsider led to him becoming a stoner in high school.
Nevertheless, he remained highly athletic, keeping himself busy in Baseball, Basketball,
Tennis, Soccer, Track & Field and Cross Country.
Surprisingly, he was voted Life of the Party in his Senior year.
This didn't stop several of his haters from also voting him most likely to fail.
Some even went as far as to say he was going to be homeless and in jail within seven years.
Touching on this he told me:
“Being doubted on was the best thing that ever happened to me because it gave me a chip
on my shoulder and motivation to prove everyone wrong that doubted me.”
Sean had an eye for sales as a young kid.
He would often help his father ship out books for his online business.
In seventh grade, he began selling candy. Legit, not drugs, we're talking candy.
One day he made over twenty bucks.
Walking to the bus from school, a teacher saw him with a bag of money in one hand and
a bag of candy in the other.
She sent him to the principal's office for selling candy which ended up getting him suspended from school.
Looking back on the situation, he stated:
“In actuality, the school was upset because I was affecting their vending machine sales.
They made my mom come pick me up and I had to stop selling candy from there on out.
My parents did not know I was selling candy.
I would often sneak out of my house when they went to bed around 10 or 11pm to buy more
candy when I ran out.
I would bike or run 3 miles to my local Wegmans.”
Despite being a troubled student, Sean still managed to graduate from high school.
He moved onto nearby Rutgers University in New Brunswick where he studied marketing,
the same subject he got a D in years before.
Getting only a 1.7 GPA, he was placed on academic probation.
He eventually dropped out of the college six weeks into his Sophomore year.
Before that, he stated that he sure like to party.
We're going streaking.. YEAH!!
Well maybe not that crazy, but he states that he did drink and he did do drugs on the regular.
He states that at one point, he was smoking and drinking everyday.
One afternoon, was hanging out on the lounge floor with a few of his friends, when he felt
a weird pain in his chest.
Getting up and turning the corner, he collapsed.
Crawling to his room, he describes this as the worst experience of his life and the beginning
of his battle with anxiety.
To help his mental health, he began taking Xanax.
Clean from alcohol and other substances, he was consuming Xanax every day for two months
before stopping.
Going through a heavy withdrawal, Sean had a seizure that nearly claimed his life.
He was only nineteen at this time.
Soon after, he decided to go full time on his own jersey company.
This was around May of 2016 when he was 19 years old.
Starting in his dorm room, he paid a local designer $250 for a jersey concept and put
the design up on online for people to preorder.
His first big hit came in 2016 with his Harambe jersey being released as the meme was at
it's height in popularity.
When I say trending, the kid isn't messing around.
He's got jerseys for the dancing hot dog, tide pods, cash me outside, the Juul, Bud
Light, Ashad Khalid and every rapper & influencer you can think of.
The company quickly gained traction online with people from all over requesting custom
jerseys.
As for the future of Jersey Champs, Sean has pretty big plans.
He's been in talks with Long Neck, Wide Neck, Adrien Broner, Alex Wassabi, Ben Baller and
FATBOY SSE to discuss sponsorships.
They also plan to be the #1 jersey supplier for eSports Athletes.
He has had a few obstacles with company behind the scenes.
Two of his former partners as well as a his former best friend stole money from him while
they were starting out.
During the holiday season of 2016, there was also $100,000 dollars locked into PayPal.
This caused Jersey Champs to be backordered.
Customers ended getting their jersey after the holidays.
They had to do a mass refund but not the worst story I've ever heard.
Sean's been traveling the world living his best life while growing the brand.
Jersey Champs are currently killing it.
When asked how he wants to be remembered, Sean Kelly states that he wants to create
a jersey empire and revolutionize the sports jersey world.
As for the rest of the story, well we'll have to wait and see because this is Before They
Were Famous.
My name's Michael McCrudden and if you want your very own Before They Were Famous jersey
you gotta give me a follow over on Instagram & Twitter, also be sure to follow Jersey Champs!
Thanks to them for the sponsor, thanks to them for the jersey, i'll see you guys in
another video.