SEATTLE – In April, Washington announced a 10-year partnership with Adidas that will pay the university north of $119 million over the next decade.
The agreement, set to begin in June 2019, was the result of focused research done by UW athletic director Jennifer Cohen, who noted the innovation and attention to detail of the German-based company when it comes to the quality of product for athletes.
Coincidentally enough the two traits sought by Cohen one current Huskies already possesses.
Sean Vergara, a senior defensive back from Selah, Washington who walked on in spring 2015 at UW, has been honing his craft as an artistic sneaker head since he was a sophomore in high school.
“I grew up an artist and a sneaker head. When I just combined the two it grew into a business,” Vergara said after practice on Friday, smiling while adding a slight laugh as he detailed the beginning of his hidden talent.
“It’s a passion. I did entrepreneurship and visual arts in college. That’s what I graduated with and that’s what I hope to pursue in the future. It’s just something that I love to do and like, I’ve met a ton of cool connections out here.”
Having three former teammates, Kevin King, Budda Baker and Sidney Jones get drafted to the NFL during his time at UW has certainly helped Vergara get more notoriety. Baker, a second-year safety for the Arizona Cardinals, recently received a delivery from his former teammate and posted the pair of shoes on his Instagram story.
However, Baker is just one of what has become an increasing number of customers.
Since Vergara resurrected his first pair of shoes in high school that he purchased off EBay, as he described them, “some beat up shoes” that became a mirror image of Louis Vuitton's, the product quality has steadily improved over the years.
That was high school.
“I’ve grown a lot since then. It’s come a long way,” Vergara said, when asked how much his process has evolved since high school. “I’ve done hundreds, maybe upwards of 500 pairs of shoes. I’ve done a lot. I’ve gotten better with each pair of shoes. “
Better indeed, to the point where Byron Murphy had a friend in his home state of Arizona ask him to recommend someone for custom cleats and gloves. He pointed him towards Vergara.
“So one of my best friend’s dad he was a professional boxer. He came out with a little clothing line called What the World. So he hit up Sean,” Murphy said. Then he shared his own Vergara story.
“He actually made me some Louis Vuitton Jordan’s,” Murphy added. “Sean, that boy, he’s creative. He can do anything.”
UW head coach Chris Petersen agreed with the assertion after practice on Friday, when asked if Vergara is the epitome of what he wants in a player.
“He’s awesome. Sean is great. Everybody on the team loves him,” Petersen said. “He works his tail off. He’s a really good athlete. I mean, he’s a good player – you’ve seen him make plays out there. I think he had two or three, two picks himself the other day when we were off site. And then he’s super, super talented with this art and drawing. He’s super creative.”
Petersen continued to praise the senior walk-on while concluding with an important distinction, when it comes to each player finding his own niche outside of football.
“I think yeah he is one of those guys. To me, this is what you’d like the kids at Washington to be about,” he added. “That they’re really talented in football but they got unique other skills too. He’s just found his before a lot of these other guys found their other passions and talents.”
Much like the coaches he’s learned from over the past four years at UW, and given Vergara has already earned his degree while still having his fourth season of eligibility to use in 2018, no matter who the task is for the quality remains the same.
“Well I mean every pair I do is special. It depends on what the customer wants,” Vergara said. “Those are my boys, but even if it was a customer I have never had before, I want to put that quality into the shoes.”
