It’s 2:20 AM in Kansas City. It just turned Thursday. In 17 hours, the NFL Draft begins and the 17 prospects in Kansas City, along with another 14 players discover their NFL career begins in the first round.
Houston jeweler Zo Frost is late, and he‘s upset. His flight from Houston has been delayed due to weather and he doesn’t roll up to the front desk of his hotel until just after 1 AM. Most of his six clients are either asleep or otherwise unavailable.
Once he gets to the hotel room, Zo opens up his briefcase - filled with thousands of dollars worth of diamond chains and watches, and starts laying out options on the hotel bed. His phone lights up with a Facetime from Texas Tech defensive end Tyree Wilson. Wilson is awake and ready to make a decision on his jewelry.
”Come through,” says Zo as he continues laying out diamond chains.
It’s what Drake calls “scary hours” and Tyree Wilson shows up with two childhood friends ready to make a decision.
Zo custom-made Wilson a custom pendant with his logo made out of his initials - T.W. Wilson wants to see which chain will match for his Red Carpet Draft Day outfit. First he tries on one is a chain made of black diamond crosses. He loves it, but there’s options. Just like General Managers deciding on their players, the players themselves need to decide what look will immortalize the most important night of their young lives. Next, Zo puts on a massive infinity link chain on Tyree. As Wilson runs to the mirror in the hotel room, his eyes light up. That’s the one. Or is it?
”I’m gonna get both.”
At 2:30 in the morning, we have our first draft day surprise.
Zo spends the next 5 minutes explaining to Wilson the fine details of his jewelry - how the pendant clasps onto the chain, how to properly stack the chain and more. After some negotiation and discussion a deal is reached and Tyree Wilson has his ice.
The next afternoon, the rest of Frost’s clients came through to his room. Jalen Carter, C.J. Stroud and Devin Witherspoon checked out the inventory before making their way to the red carpet. Frost made Witherspoon a custom pendant that says “Spoon Island,” of course as a cornerback. The palm trees on the island glow in the dark.
Dropping a Florida slang term, Witherspoon was excited about his draft day outfit.
“That’s wifi,” said Witherspoon. “No cap!”
Zo is a Houston native and University of Houston graduate, and over the past 4 years turned his mall jewelry kiosk experience into once of the biggest jewelry empires in sports. His clients include Zion Williamson, Derrick Henry, CeeDee Lamb and more. Where he really shines are draft nights - where he had roughly 1/3 of the first rounders wearing his custom made jewelry, including top two picks Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren.
“This is crunchtime,” said Frost. The last few weeks before the draft means finishing up nearly a dozen custom pieces concurrently. They can’t be late, and they have to be perfect.
”Anything you do, your reputation is one of the most important things, as far as your product is concerned and customer relationships,” said Frost. ”It’s more than just jewelry at that point.”
Because of Wednesday’s late start, the bulk of his work will have to come on Thursday, where players will shuttle in and out of his hotel room as they’re getting ready for the Red Carpet.
When they walk in front of the cameras with their outfits, it’s not only showtime for them.