Meet the Beverly Hills jeweler who made Seahawks

The lord of the rings works behind a nondescript door in a Beverly Hills workplace building, not far from the UCLA campus where he once bought hair clips and trinkets from a folding desk. Jason Arasheben was $28,000 in debt back then, operating low on choices. Now, eight of the past 11 NBA champions have worn his jewellery on their fingers.

Super Bowl winners have his rings, too — the Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks, whose gamers opened their ornate jewellery containers at a non-public workforce social gathering Thursday evening to discover the prize every NFL participant covets.

The Seahawks ring, large as a youngster’s fist, is encrusted with 20 carats of white diamonds and blue sapphires. It’s a miniature Lumen Field, that includes the hawk-head emblem and two Lombardi Trophies. The top lifts off and converts into a pendant. Inside is a cowhide phase of a game-used soccer. Twelve flags on the sides nod to the “12th Man” fan base; one is a secret button — push it and the arches come out to reveal the phrases “World Champions.”

Even the box performs. Three tiny spotlights shine on the ring as it rotates on a mechanical platform. Each weighs about a third of a pound.

“It’s a memento to a certain period of time,” said Arasheben, whose company is Jason of Beverly Hills. He concedes the rings are nearer to trophies than wearable jewellery. He competes for ring contracts with Tiffany & Co. and Jostens, both a lot bigger operations. “It celebrates this time that these players and these fans will remember forever.”

His rings appraise for $50,000 to $250,000, though the market can push them increased. In 2024, Kobe Bryant’s 2000 Lakers ring bought at public sale for $927,000, the highest price ever paid for an NBA title ring, topping Bill Russell’s 1957 ring at $705,000.

Beverly Hills jewler Jason Arasheben is

(Ric Tapia / For The Times)

NFL franchises sometimes order two or thrice what NBA, NHL or MLB groups request — as many as 3,000 rings in 4 high quality tiers. Lower-level staff may get cubic zirconia instead of diamonds. A restricted quantity of fan variations can be found at smaller scale and decrease price. Arasheben always builds two additional into his contract so each of his sons can have one.

A profession in luxurious jewellery was never the plan. He grew up in Granada Hills and Calabasas; his Iranian father and Norwegian mom envisioned a doctor, lawyer or engineer. At UCLA, he discovered himself more in bars than books.

“I was $28,000 in debt because I enjoyed going out far too much, like every other college student,” he said.

One day he tagged along with a pal to the wholesale district downtown and had a flash of inspiration. She was shopping for plastic hair clips and silver trinkets by the dozen. He figured he may promote them to ladies on campus.

(Courtesy of Jason of Beverly Hills)

He pitched the concept of a folding desk to the college, which agreed when he supplied to break up the income. He purchased $400 value of tchotchkes. One desk turned two, then six places across Southern California campuses.

Then got here the motherlode. He constructed acrylic show circumstances holding 30 to 40 items and drove from Agoura Hills to San Diego, stopping at every nail salon he may discover, splitting the income with homeowners who let him put a case on the counter. By his senior yr, he had agreements with roughly 350 salons and was clearing $25,000 to $30,000 a month.

After school, as a common on the L.A. nightclub scene, Arasheben constructed relationships with skilled athletes and celebrities. He would go home and sketch chain designs for gamers he’d met, realizing nothing about the jewellery industry.

“Finally, an NBA player said, ‘Why don’t you come to my hotel room tomorrow before we play the Lakers and bring all the jewelry you have? I’m going to buy something from you,’” said Arasheben, describing an encounter with the late Anthony Mason.

Problem was, he had no jewellery. He spent the evening cutting photos from magazines and downloading photographs to create a makeshift catalog, then promised Mason a customized $40,000 necklace. Mason put down $20,000.

Arasheben went downtown, knocked on doorways and discovered any person to make it for $37,000. A new business was born, growing by phrase of mouth. Eventually he had 4 staff and a small workplace downtown, outsourcing most of his work.

Through his friendship with Jim Buss, son of proprietor Jerry Buss, Arasheben landed the contract to make the Lakers’ 2009 championship ring. It was a mad scramble. He and his staff slept in sleeping baggage on the manufacturing facility ground the last two weeks of manufacturing.

“We delivered the very last player ring 20 minutes before the ceremony began,” he said. “The ring ceremony was on national television, and can you imagine if they had to announce the rings weren’t ready? My career would have been over before it started.”

He made the Lakers ring in 2010, too, and 5 years later — through relationships with a number of Golden State gamers — produced 4 championship rings for the Warriors.

Tom Brady noticed LeBron James’ ring during the 2020 offseason and satisfied the Buccaneers to go with Arasheben.

Quite a bit of Arasheben’s rings have James Bond parts such as secret compartments or particular parts. The top comes off the miniature SoFi Stadium on the Rams ring, for occasion, and the area below is made of a melted-down patch of the precise synthetic turf. The World Series ring of the Texas Rangers options a tiny circle of leather-based from a game-used baseball.

He first integrated a particular function in the 2018 Warriors ring, when a star participant objected to a blue face and needed white, only weeks from supply. Arasheben devised a mechanism permitting the face to swap colours.

Jason Arasheben poses with some of the sports activities championship rings he has crafted over the years.

(Ric Tapia / For The Times)

“We started getting a lot of championship ring contracts after that,” he said. “Because we took it to a new level and showed some ingenuity. We wanted to be innovative.”

Push a button on the Eagles’ ring and wings come out on the sides. Arasheben got here up with that concept while purchasing for a Buzz Lightyear toy for his nephew.

Buzz, too, has wings that come out.

“I thought, ‘I can do that for the Eagles, but with amazing gold and diamonds,’” he said.

He will put a proposal together to make the medals for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Then there’s the one that received away.

“We lost out on the L.A. Dodgers,” Arasheben said. “They went with a company based in Canada instead of the hometown team, which broke my heart. But you know, that’s part of the business. You take your lumps.

“But I’ll still pitch. Every year, I pitch.”