Niles
Date
Time
Place
Slugi
September 6, 2025
8:00am
Staten Island, NY
“Black”
We Keep on Sluggin’.
Motorcycles. Flowers. Slugs.
Hey, have you ever modeled before? No. Do you wanna? Sure. This was my first ever conversation with the star of this Slug Story, Niles. We met on Father’s Day of 2024. This Slug Story was not shot until September of 2025. Timing. Patience. The beauty of it and the unknown of it. Here comes Niles.
The day was Father’s Day, June 2024. It was a beautiful, sunny day and my sister Sarah and I decided to take the ferry into the city with my Dad. If you know my dad you know he loves riding his bike in the city. During this time of life, my head was spinning and fully focused on Slug, but thought this would be a good time to unwind and enjoy some family time to celebrate my dad. Just as we walked out onto the ferry front, I saw this tall, strong dude. He was sitting on one of the bolster like structures on the newer ferry. He had long, jet black hair and a really cool, simple outfit. The scene was all so natural so I decided to go up to him. Thus, the conversation ensued. I asked him if he wanted to model for our new company that coming out soon. He said sure. We exchanged Instagram’s and I went on with my day.
When I sat down for lunch later on, I checked his Instagram and it was so damn cool. It wasn’t anything like I’ve ever seen before. It was all photos of flower patterns, and NYC night scenes. I felt like I knew him so well from looking at his page and there was not one photo of him on it. It was his complete perspective. I saw in one of his photos that he had a motorcycle. Jet black hair, a flower filled Instagram, motorcycles… now that’s Slug. I reached out to him maybe a couple weeks or months later saying we wanted to do a shoot with the motorcycle and he was in.
”I’m Back.” - Michael Jordan & Niles
Just around this time, after we launched Slug, an account with the name @mcimaging, reached out and spoke very highly of what we were doing. His name was Mat, and after going on his page, saw he was an exceptional image maker, and videographer. We spoke about working together and when I put two and two together, I realized that this would be a great person to bring in for the Niles shoot. Also, most of Mat’s projects were cars.
Fast-forward a couple more months around March or April, it was time to do our shoot. I hit up the group chat and we planned to shoot only a couple days before Easter. Or so we thought…we received a text message from Niles with very tragic news. He had gotten into a bad accident and broken several bones and would need surgery. We felt so bad. We prayed for his recovery and cancelled the shoot. Or so we thought…
Several months later, Niles sent us a photo of his bike being restored! He was back! We thought he was out for good. Shit, I would have be out for good, but Niles said he was ready to get back on the bike and do the shoot. We set the date, backed out the brand new black Slugi sample, and got to work.
Mat and Crew.
I arrived at Clove Lakes Park at 8 AM with bagels ready for the crew. Mat had arrived first. I’d never met him before. He strolled up from the basketball courts, right up to my car. It’s crazy how you can go from not knowing someone to going right to a conversation about life in a split second. We talked about his background, business, family, cars. It was great to get acquainted with him before shooting. He was seriously smart and very funny.
A little bit later, Niles arrived in the sickest outfit I’ve seen in years. An alll black leather riding suit. It was like Daft Punk times Batman x Chief warlord. I grabbed the camera right away and started shooting photos. He sat on the bike against tall trees. It was a texture symphony. Green organic shapes supporting stark sleek, carbon, fiber. We decided to start underneath the Verrazano Bridge. Mat hopped in my car in the backseat with his camera and gimbal and began shooting out the window. I drove and Mat directed. I would look out my rearview mirror and see Niles swerving through cars and Mat hanging out the window capturing it all.
Instead of going to the bridge, we went to this big gym complex by the beach. I saw these great, giant concrete pillars and neon, orange and green walls. A beautiful and colorful architectural backdrop for our first spot. We got in there, did our thing, got kicked out, and left.
Allegedly Illegally, We Went to the Most Beautiful Spot on SI.
We drove to Fort Wadsworth, a place I had not been in many, many years. Gosh was it beautiful. Sprawling green hills, stone historical monuments and a New York City vista. This may be the best place on Staten Island. We met in the parking lot and saw a big hill. We drove up (allegedly, illegally) to the top of the hill and began to shoot. Mat and I had the idea that the video would be about Niles coming back from his injuries and returning to the bike. Quickly we devise a script of Niles describing the injuries he sustained. Genius.
All that can happen in One Year.
We were all pretty freaking tired, but boy was it a great day. I first met Niles almost a year and a half ago. In that time, Slug was launched, Mat got a new car, and Niles survived a near-death motorcycle accident. We were sluggin’.