From vintage childhood toys and sports memorabilia to surfboards and sneakers, meet five south Florida collectors who are passionate about preserving the past.
Chicks With Kicks
Imagine a sneaker collection so vast you’d need an NBA-size basketball court to showcase them. Meet “The Chicks with Kicks”—Peters sisters Ariana, 29, Dresden, 27 and Dakota, 23—who oversee one of the world’s largest sneaker collections, valued at more than $2 million. (They also have a fourth sister, Alexandra.)
The Boca Raton trio inherited the collection a decade ago from their father, Douglas Peters, a retired real estate developer, who began amassing pairs of his favorite sneakers in the 1980s. Now, more than 6,000 in all, the collection includes a curated list of rare prototypes, players’ editions and vintage sneakers.
“He started collecting when we were very young, [out] of sheer love of the sneaker; he’s a forward thinker,” says Ariana, who, along with her sisters, also runs the family’s brokerage business, Peters Realty.
“He always bought one pair to wear and another to collect, because he saw them as art. So we grew up wearing Air Force 1s to elementary school instead of ballet slippers and sandals.”
In 2015 the collection became an international sensation when Dresden coined the ‘Chicks With Kicks’ Instagram moniker and posted a pair of classic Nike Air Force 1s, popularized by the movie “Entourage,” which was based on the hit HBO series (2004-11).
“The timing was parallel with the sneaker market boom and gained a lot of traction right away,” recalls Ariana. “When Sneaker News picked us up in January 2020, within 48 hours we had major collectors reaching out to us. That’s when my other sister and I were like, ‘Whoa, we’re really onto something!’ From there we began talking about what we would post on Instagram the next day.”
Sneakers aren’t just business. The Peters sisters, like their father, are passionate consumers: Ariana prefers New Balance; Dresden, Nike Daybreak and Cortez; and Dakota likes her Nike SBs, says Ariana: “Lately, she’s very into the new collectors’ editions.”
Heritage Hunter
What began as a curiosity and point of pride more than 30 years ago has grown into a passion for collecting memorabilia of Jewish athletes and celebrities—many of whom changed their names to conceal their Jewish heritage.
“It started with a Sandy Koufax (Sanford Braun) baseball card that I bought at a Georgetown flea market near my home outside of Washington, D.C.,” says Delray Beach CPA Neil Keller, the 62-year-old single father of two who moved to South Florida two years ago. “I placed it in a small shoebox for safekeeping.”
That one card grew to thousands as Keller’s collection expanded to more than 20,000 items from a Who’s Who of famous people, including autographs from Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman), Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson), Woody Allen (Alan Konigsberg), Jason Alexander (Jason Greenspan), David Copperfield (David Kotkin) and Jon Stewart (Jon Leibowitz), to name a few. “Even Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson) sent her autograph because she ‘feels’ Jewish,” Keller says.
But beyond the fun of collecting and the personal homage to his heritage, Keller appreciates the opportunity to shed light on the extraordinary accomplishments of generations of high-profile people forced to live a shadowed life.
“I’m proud of my religion and want to educate people in a fun way; to show that these are good role models, like Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine,” says Keller, who now writes for the Jewish Journal and exhibited some of his memorabilia, celebrating Jewish athletes during the Holocaust, in January at the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton.
“It’s a fun hobby with amazing perks,” he says. “I’ve been able to meet some of the most famous Jewish people on the planet.”
Toy Story
The discovery of a 1967 GI Joe lunchbox at a Sioux City, Iowa flea market more than 20 years ago set in motion an entire career reconnecting people with their vintage toys and memorabilia.
“I remember the moment I picked it up, like a video camera going off in my head, I was transported back to the lunchroom at Crescent Park Elementary school surrounded by my friends, eating the ham and cheese sandwich that my mother refused to add pickles to,” recounts Joel Magee, 61 (toyscout.com). “She said the pickles would make the sandwich too soggy by lunchtime!”
Not only did that event trigger Magee’s pursuit of other forgotten treasures, but it signaled the launch of a career that has become his life’s passion: buying, selling and collecting vintage toys and memorabilia valued at nearly $10 million.
Magee also has the world’s largest private collection of Disneyland and Disney World vintage memorabilia and props spanning decades of Disney history. The collection includes items from Disneyland’s opening day in 1955 and two iconic park rides: Peter Pan’s Pirate Ship and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride vehicle.
Now living in West Palm Beach, Magee travels the country 100-plus days a year staging road shows for people to buy and sell their prized collectibles. He also manages the FXToys! eBay store (https://www.ebay.com/str/fxtoys) selling a range of collectibles, from board games and Barbie dolls to posters and model cars.
Magee’s personal favorites? “Mr. Magoo, Bat Masterson, a rare Samantha doll from ‘Bewitched,’ a ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ rifle set; there are many.”
In his spare time, from April through October, he races stock cars with the biggest amateur dirt track-sanctioning body in the country. “I guess you could say I’ve never really left my childhood,” he laughs. “I love toys and doing fun things.”
Surf Patrol
South Florida’s century-long surfing heritage is in good hands thanks to one man’s passion for preserving its legacy and memorabilia, which is on display at the Cornell Museum in Delray Beach through July 2023. A portion of the collection will also be on display at the newly renovated Lantana Public Library, which is expected in February 2023. The exhibits feature dozens of vintage surfboards and museum-grade storyboard panels displaying priceless memorabilia.
“Delray Beach and the neighboring coastal towns from Jupiter to Boca have some of the richest surfing histories,” says Tom Warnke, executive director of the Surfing Florida Museum who—along with its 14-member board of trustees—is committed to preserving the history and future of East Coast surfing.
“It was a revelation when I began surfing in 1956 when I was 8 and rode my first waves on an inflatable mat. Delray had a good surfing spot at the end of Atlantic Avenue,” says Warnke. As modern surfing exploded in popularity during the 1960s, both its evolution and place in pop culture were on the rise, especially in coastal towns like Delray Beach, which was a mecca for an entire generation.
The turnkey collection of priceless memorabilia and professional-grade exhibits depicts over a century of surfing history along Florida’s eastern seaboard, with everything from vintage surfboards, photographs and surfing club jackets to more than 80 museum-grade storyboards.
Highlights include a 1947 surfboard made by Bob Simmons, who is considered the father of modern surfboard design. Made of solid balsa wood, the double fin board stands 10 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs 70 pounds and is valued at $30,000. It also features one of the first Hobie surfboards ever made, valued at $7,000; a Holmesy Sidewinder surfboard valued at $5,000; and some of the very first Nomad and Fox surfboards that were manufactured in Lantana.
The exhibit is a huge milestone for a world-class collection that has lived a largely nomadic and, at times, closeted existence. Finding a permanent home has been more elusive than finding that perfect wave.
“We’ve moved from place to place for years and are thrilled to have a committed partner to host part of our exhibit,” says Warnke, who remains hopeful that a more permanent home for the entire collection can be found.
Home Run Hero
When it comes to being a baseball aficionado, 43-year-old Boca Raton orthodontist Rob Shelling has secured his place in history with a collection of the sport’s most significant artifacts: baseball bats, many of which never leave his private vault (Instagram @TheBatVault).
“I’m drawn to collecting bats because they are the actual instrument used to play the game; some even show actual lace marks from the baseballs,” explains Shelling, a married father of two who began collecting baseball bats more than 20 years ago.
“Collectibles like hats are just something players sweat on, right? It’s not as interesting to me.”
“I’ve always loved this stuff,” says Shelling, who remembers as a teenager standing next to a then-frail Joe DiMaggio but feeling too awkward to ask for his autograph. But, in the years that followed, Shelling was able to secure something far more valuable. “I have one of his three ‘streak’ bats used during his 56-game hit streak in 1941. It’s really incredible.”
Another of Shelling’s storied finds is the Louisville slugger that Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente (the first Latin American to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame) used in his 3,000th hit 50 years ago—one of the most elusive artifacts in baseball history. Shelling secured it five years ago at an auction where it eluded other collectors’ notice.
“I had seen a picture of him holding it. Most bats are pretty plain, but this one is very distinct. When it came up, I was like, ‘Ooh, I need to get that,’ praying that no one else saw it.”
This article is from the February 2023 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
