An Extensive Look Inside Mark "Mayor" Farese's $1 Million USD Rare Sneaker Collection

Mark “Mayor” Farese is renowned for his extensive sneaker collection, as is witnessed by his Instagram account documenting his collection. Now he’s opened up his Jersey, New York home, where he details his Louis Vuitton obsession –- he even has LV-branded tea and boxing gloves that utilize the famous insignia –- and the jewel in the crown, the 800-square-foot basement space dedicated to storing all 3,600 pairs of his sneakers.

In the interview, he sheds some light on just how far he goes to get his hands on rare sneakers such as when he “flew a friend in from Japan to bring me back Linen Atmosphere Air Force 1s. He brought me back three pairs.” He also tells a short story about how he first started buying sneakers:

It’s hard to put a time on a collection, but I’m going to have to say it started when I started making a few dollars, so the ninth grade. I got a job in the Bronx at a sneaker store. They had me in the back of the damn place. They had a contract with the NYPD to make gun holsters, so they had a whole factory in the back. The leather was coming off the machine, I was slapping the thing together; I was on a rivet machine putting the rivets into the gun holster. I was doing that shit for seven hours a day. I was so fucking pissed. I wanted to sell shoes and work on the floor, but I was [in the back]. There was a discount, so I was able to buy sneakers every week—that’s probably where it all started.