Jordan Rogers

“Most people say, ‘Drugs are your problem, stop them.’ But for a dope fiend like myself, drugs are a solution. You take away those drugs, and now we got problems.”

That was Jordan Rogers’ life. At 15 he tried heroin for the first time; by his early 20s he had become a raging heroin addict, shooting dope in cheap motel rooms and flirting with death. In fact, his addiction was so bad other heroin addicts didn’t even want to be with him for fear that he would overdose and they’d be forced to bring him to the hospital and expose themselves.

“When you’ve got heroin addicts telling you that they’re afraid to hang out with you, you might have issues,” he says. “I thought about death often.”

Treatment centers were a joke to him. He thought he was smarter than all those offering hope. That’s when the police showed up at rehab, putting him in cuffs and carting him off to jail. What he saw in his holding cell brought him to rock bottom: Two men arguing over a roll of toilet paper, one wanted to use it as a pillow and the other wanted to use it to go to the bathroom.

“At that moment I thought, ‘This is not what I’m made for. I absolutely deserve to be here, but I don’t belong here.'”

He knew he would end up there again unless something changed drastically. And that’s when he finally called out for help. The journey he would start that day would lead him to some of the most beautiful places on earth and an incredible job with Nike.