Dave Jeff is a 16 year veteran in retail an fashion and simply, a cultural architect of this age.
I am Dave Jeff and this is My Block South side by the lake, Hyde Park all day.
Describe what you do for a living.
When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I build brands. I’m a person who can definitely make you hot, hot in a sense to where you like, whatever you need I can definitely get to you, get for you to help you succeed in whatever you’re trying to do when in comes to fashion, marketing and entertainment.
Describe the moment where you came into your own as a professional.
The moment that I came into my own professionally was when a family here in Chicago that did sales, independent sales for a lot of major footwear brands, the mother of the family asked me did I know anybody that would be interested in doing what they call pre line and that’s like showing the product beforehand to the consumer, the whole nine. So, the whole time I’m in my mind, in my body I’m going like, turning up like, man but that was the time I really knew like, oh wait til they get a load of me cause I’ve done this and they ’bout to pay me this for my mind and I’m bout to have to be able to have my hand on a corporate stance and make moves that you can see and be able to push those buttons. That’s when I knew ,oh y’all better watch out.
Where is your block located? How did your block contribute to your development as a person and as a professional?
The culture of 53rd itself like being a mainstay of small businesses, seeing all the diversity come from other cities that come to the university of Chicago and looking at those things, seeing the different levels of life definitely has definitely stood with me subconsciously in my design and in my flow of things.
Why are you proud of being from Chicago?
I’m proud of being from Chicago cause we are just as fly as we want to be all the time, like for real, for real. It takes you to leave and go other places to realize that we have so much here in Chicago.
Describe your first memory of McDonald’s. If possible, describe a McDonald’s moment in your life that is significant to you?
I can’t really remember the first time I ever ate McDonald’s. I can tell you my best McDonald’s experiences when I was very young; it was always to go get the hot caramel sundae with the nuts. To this day, that’s my thing. If they had brownies on there I would be in heaven all the time with that but that was like definitely the experience. And then the whole little cheeseburger thing, the whole cheeseburger got a special onion thing on it that I love so but I couldn’t really just tell you the very first time , but I know I was always happy every time I visited McDonald’s.
Check out more photos in the gallery.
