Tech startup reconnects Las Vegas councilman with long-lost letterman’s jacket

By Ryan Tisminezky

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Back in the 1980s, Las Vegas City Councilman Cedric Crear was known by the nickname of “C-Bone” and dominated on the Bishop Gorman High School tennis court.

He was awarded with a letterman’s jacket to show off his undefeated record and four state championship titles for Gorman. Unfortunately for him, the jacket went missing over a decade ago.

As the years went on, his daughters would also attend Gorman, and they would ask to wear Crear’s jacket to school. He was frustrated with the fact that they would have to go wearing his brother’s jacket instead.

“It really is priceless, there’s a lot of history that goes into this jacket. You know, we won four state tennis championships. I played tennis with my brother... other friends that I grew up with,” said Crear.

This year, one state over in Westwood, California, a tech startup duo managed to have the jacket fall into their hands.

Felipe Valdovinos and Dominiq Martinez are two Southern Californians in their early 20s in charge of various blockchain-based tech brands in Westwood.

One of their brands focuses on combining vintage clothes with the blockchain. The brand, which can be found at @vintage.inspired on Instagram, has the goal of implementing the history of a piece of clothing directly into it.

After receiving a shipment of old letterman’s jackets to reconstruct for Vintage Inspired, Valdovinos and Martinez said Crear’s jacket stood out from the rest.

“Usually you might see some that are band, or choir, or like, runner-up state champ or something,” said Valdovinos. “But we noticed this jacket, which is Cedric’s, is very special in the way that it was literally a perfect record.”

“The sentimental value exceeded our materialistic value,” said Martinez.

Luckily for Crear, Vintage Inspired’s ability of finding the history of clothing made it easy for them to track him down.

Crear says that Valdovinos sent him a direct message on Instagram, in which Valdovinos was sure that he had Crear’s actual jacket. Lo and behold, a few weeks later, the jacket was in Crear’s hands.

Crear posted a video to social media unboxing the jacket, and thanking those who sent it to him.

Regarding how he feels about the actions of Valdovinos and Martinez, Crear said, “it really reiterates what I always knew, that we live in a great society. A lot of great people.”

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