The work always works.
At least that’s what Jordan Jimenez, a local photographer who hails from San Bruno, says about his globetrotting journey. He lives by that code. He even has the motto inscribed on the back of his own hoodie.
For the past few years, the Filipino American shooter has been making waves in the sports scene, particularly among NBA players and fans. After gaining national recognition in 2021 from an in-game photo he took of Steph Curry at Chase Center, Jimenez has become one of the region’s largest sports and lifestyle fixtures, having regularly collaborated with Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, SLAM, and other notable brands.
Jimenez, who is mostly known as JSquared by the online basketball community, has unequivocally established himself as one of the best visual storytellers in the game. To date, he boasts over 200,000 followers across social media platforms and is the official documentarian for NBA cult favorite, Jordan Poole.
Now, Jimenez, who is usually behind the camera, is putting his ideas front and center with his latest venture into streetwear: Maraud. The small, independent brand formally launched in 2023 after Jimenez was inspired by A Tribe Called Quest’s classic album, Midnight Marauders. In the album, a faceless narrator speaks about “marauding” listeners for their ears. Jimenez took that concept and put his photographic spin on it.
“With Maraud as a brand, the idea is to celebrate the marauders, the artists, the creators who make this world a beautiful experience by looting the audience of their senses,” says Jimenez.
Jimenez’s brand and success didn’t happen overnight. After dropping out of college, Jimenez has openly shared about his road to overcoming depression, when he felt he most lacked purpose. He eventually found joy and direction behind the lens, creating a community that now reflects the work he’s put in. Just like the NBA players he professionally documents, it required thousands upon thousands of shots.
That’s the spirit of Maraud. There’s still a long way to go, but the clothing line has already caught the attention of NBA players, who have been seen rocking it before games. Though Jimenez says his expressions in fashion are still works-in-progress, the brand’s ethos is a clear nod to aspirational dreaming and a love of “the game,” in every sense of the phrase. And it’s clearly rooted in the Bay Area’s incredible abundance of game, too.
“I’m grateful to be surrounded by such creative people in the Bay, all of [whom] I would consider to be Marauders. The Bay is just a place where there’s such a unique creativity and energy, so I’m thankful that this is the place that I’ve always called home,” he says.
One of those creative people is Sean Phan, Jimenez’s lifelong friend who now acts as the lead designer for Maraud. Phan is responsible for Jimenez’s now well-known logo “J2” (a symbol you’ll often see while scrolling NBA content on Instagram or X). With Phan, Jimenez has been thinking about the concept of Maraud as far back as 2017, though they weren’t able to realize their ideas until a few years ago. In 2025, they hope to continue building on their joint vision.
One example of the potential for Jimenez’s brand is his “Ice Cream” tee. With a deep chocolate base, it features a vanilla-toned Maraud logo (a simple capital “M” dipping into a halo) on the front chest with a back print that delivers a personal message from Jimenez. In a miniature font, two sentences read: “To reflect is to learn and grow from the past. Without reflection there is no growth of appreciation for being…”. And in large, pink letters, a necessary reminder for anyone who has ever experienced any kind of triumph: “Good things don’t last forever.”
There’s also the “Walking Bucket” tee (a white shirt that features a bucket of water twirling a basketball on one finger while carelessly whistling, a cartoonish reference to the splashy sound of nylon that happens after making a bucket) and “Best in the West” hoodie (a heather gray look that alludes to California’s frontier era with a horse-riding cowboy hoisting a Maraud flag). And for the true Bay Area sports fan, there’s the “Faithful” drop—a Terrell Owens shirt honoring the Hall of Fame wide receiver’s days at Candlestick, when he constantly made headlines for his controversial behaviors as an ascending star.
To date, Maraud has only dropped 11 releases—from sweatpants to hoodies to tees to snapback hats—giving it a limited-supply aura that any true hypebeast can respect. (And for NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, they’ve dropped even more.)
Naturally, Jimenez takes many of his own photos of local people wearing the gear in various Bay Area locations, but he has also expanded the brand to showcase the photography of his peers. For one of Maraud’s releases, Jimeenz brought together a flock of local photographers—Gibou Njie, Jet Buensalido, Neil Luzon, and Don Vinculado—to walk around Land’s End in San Francisco to photograph real-time moments while wearing Maraud gear. It’s the sort of community mindset that Jimenez hopes to push even further in the coming year.
It’s clear that Maraud is made with the larger panoply of Bay Area artists in mind. One of Maraud’s recently sold out drops arrived just in time for Everybody Eats—a Bay Area streetwear, food and music festival founded by Mike Liwang of Savs Brand. The back text of that shirt read “Everybody Eats” and “there’s enough bread for everyone” next to an image of bread stacked in a basket. If you grew up listening to E-40 and JT the Bigga Figga, then those sorts of references hit home and effortlessly reflect the old school Bay Area mentality of lifting one another up, despite all of our external differences.
“I definitely want to start hosting photo walks with more creatives in the Bay Area, with Maraud at the center to bring us all together,” Jimenez says. “Once Maraud becomes more solidified in its voice, I absolutely want to collaborate with more brands. All the homies and family. I’m a big believer in collaboration. That’s the only way we all continue to grow and push each other forward in a positive way.”
You can find Maraud streetwear here.
