My Identity

WRITTEN BY Jailyn Mason

EDITOR’S NOTE: College freshmen often have a long list of items to bring with them when they come to campus ranging from school supplies, to clothes and even their favorite blanket when they leave home for the first time. Razorback Basketball freshman guard Jailyn Mason made sure to bring her collection of 30 pairs of Nike Air Jordans.

I feel like every kid needs something to identify with.

When I was really young, I collected snow globes until I was about 10 or 11. That was when my mom traveled a lot and she would get different kinds of snow globes wherever she went. When she stopped traveling, I said, ‘I need something else because I can’t collect snow globes any more. I need something else to show who I am.’

Identify

That was when I turned to collecting shoes.

When you get to that age, you’re still figuring out who you are and shoes did that for me. They allowed me to express myself. Instead of collecting only different kinds of shoes from strange places, a bunch of rare pairs or even shoes that everyone else has, I decided to get a mixture of everything. From then on, Nike shoes always helped me figure out who I wanted to be. Each pair of shoes I wore showed the rest of the world who I am.

When I first started collecting shoes, everyone I knew was also doing the same thing, especially the girls on my AAU team. We were all really into shoes. We’d often ask each other, ‘Who has the dopest shoes this week?’

I can still remember my first pair: It was the clunkiest pair of shoes anyone could’ve bought and I thought they were the coolest because nobody else had them. At my school, a lot of girls wore sandals, and if they had running shoes, they wore little Nikes.

Four Shoes

I was really athletic and I felt that my black, clunky, sporty shoes promoted my athletic side. I wanted something that highlighted that part of me because I’m not like every other girl that you would think of. Nobody else had that particular shoe, not even the dudes, so I took pride in my shoe game. Ever since then, that defined my attitude throughout school. I would say to myself, ‘I need more of these because no one else in school has them.’

When I got into high school, very few people had the same kind of shoes. I got a lot of compliments for wearing cool shoes and it all started with that clunky-looking first pair.

The three most significant shoes in my collection are my Razorback red Jordan Eclipses and two pairs of CP3s.

My mom bought these Jordan Eclipses for me when I committed to Arkansas. She said, ‘You get to pick out any shoe.’ She took the time out of her day to go to the shoe store and sent me a bunch of photos of different red shoes. She said, ‘Which one do you like? Which one are you going to wear all of the time when you get to Arkansas?’

I picked these and when I came home, she was so excited for me. When I called Coach (Jimmy ) Dykes to commit, I was looking down at these shoes thinking that these colors are where I’m going to be for the next four years. They have to mean something. These are definitely one of my favorite pairs.

I think Chris Paul is a really good point guard and that’s the position I play for the Razorbacks. I went to New York for my 16th birthday and the City is absolutely my most favorite place to go in the entire world. I bought this pair in New York and when I first saw them, I said to myself, ‘These are a must-have.’ This pair became even more important to me after I got a basketball signed by Chris Paul.

These are another pair of CP3s, but they’re special to me because I wore them during every game in high school. These were my lucky sneakers. Whenever I had a game, I always wanted to know where they were because I needed to put them on. My mom got them custom-made with my number and nickname, ‘Jaimai’. I wore them to school whenever we had to wear our travel gear. They became a part of my senior year and all the big, significant moments of it.

I think my teammates at Arkansas and I all have very big personalities. My shoes obviously show that. I think that’s why we get along so well. We’re always laughing and joking, but we also know when to get serious.

All of our personalities mix really well right now and it’s going to allow us to grow together like my shoe collection.