A little story about my Kevin Garnett design..

So I posted this over a year ago..When the Celtics won over the Lakers.

http://emptees.com/tees/4927-killer-instinct

I had a friend who worked in Adidas in my country and I emailed him the graphic, asking him to send it over to his US contacts. I was hoping they would pick it up and use it on t-shirts.

A year passed and nothing came of it. Until June of this year.

I got an email.

From Adidas.

They wanted to buy the graphic.

Fuck.

I didn’t wait long enough....I had sold the graphic to a clothing line who liked the zombie quality of the design. And they didn’t really care that it was actually KG. I never expected Adidas to come back to me after so long. So I sold the damn design to someone else!

So I told the Adidas contact it was not available anymore expecting I would probably miss the only chance I could work with a client like Adidas. But good thing they wanted me to do graphics for Dwight Howard (fuck you SWH haha) and Derrick Rose. So I did! They’re not in stores yet and probably won’t be available until 2010 (if at all they print it).

So I was stoked. Thinking I was lucky enough to have worked for them. Damn good pieces for the folio.

I thought it would end there.

Come November of this year. Nike US emails me and asks if I could do some t-shirt graphics for them. Telling me how much they like my work. They actually showed me a design of mine they really liked.

Guess what graphic it was..

..KEVIN FUCKING GARNETT!!

So I did two Nike Air Max graphics for them for their Europe accounts. They paid me a damn huge amount and they may or may not print the design.

So there. I officially love Kevin Garnett.

Moral of the story. Do things you love. One day someone will pay you for it.

1. 

   atomicchild said 9 months ago

   BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

   congrats...so damn cool

2. 

   ExaltedByMark. said 9 months ago

   That is awesome dude! What an honor!

   I used to love him on the T-Wolves now hate him as a Celtic
   (Not real hate, just Laker Hatred ;)

   Keep this amazing style of yours up A.J. :)

3. 

   Joey said 9 months ago

   i am the most jealous of you possible

4. 

   Gianni said 9 months ago

   that is nuts! congratulations!

5. 

   dsprad said 9 months ago

   Holy shit! So awesome!

6. 

   Matt Willmott said 9 months ago

   Poor Joey :(

   Congrats CT. Stories like that are always great to read. I hope you carry on being just as awesome.

7. 

   swissarmyshark said 9 months ago

   

8. 

   dylanmaker. said 9 months ago

   "Do things you love. One day someone will pay you for it."

   im going to quote you on that as often as possible.

9. 

   CallumGreen said 9 months ago

   Thats amazing man, I can’t wait to see more of your stuff in this style!

10. 

    skull with hair said 9 months ago

    that rules man, congrats!

11. 

    Joey said 9 months ago

    THE MOST JEALOUS

12. 

    rawkid said 9 months ago

    I’m not jealous. I’m just green.

13. 

    Sam Kaufman said 9 months ago

    Awesome man. That’s gotta be a great feeling.

14. 

    disembodied head said 9 months ago

    congratulations! you officially deserve an emptees reacharound

15. 

    justinryan said 9 months ago

    i am slightly less jealous than joey is

16. 

    MSTR_CTRL said 9 months ago

    skull with hair said: that rules man, congrats!

17. 

    110specialblack said 9 months ago

    game, set and match! ..ok close.

18. 

    SteveOramA said 9 months ago

    great story!
    it’s all true for me too.
    keep doing your thing!

19. 

    gaunty said 9 months ago

    Hell yeah man. Good on ya.

20. 

    Johnny Cupcakes said 9 months ago

    Damn. Awesome story though! It’s great to know that anything is possible. And the fact that those companies contacted you is a very commendable thing.

    Speaking of Kevin Garnett-- He walked into my LA shop and happen to think it was a bakery at first. He was so tall that he almost hit his head on some of my wall-mounted ovens. My employees said he was the nicest guy ever. Hung out for a half an hour and spent over $600 on himself and his lady. Luckily we had XXXL in every t-shirt design.

21. 

    nosuchthing said 9 months ago

    awesome! nice work man.

22. 

    David Merritt said 9 months ago

    Congrats! My heart is still with the KG in Minnesota. Beast.

23. 

    JoeBaronDesign said 9 months ago

    That’s an awesome story. You never know what’s going to happen.

    The Johnny Cupcakes story is pretty cool, too. Good to know he’s a nice guy.

24. 

    G-rant said 9 months ago

    This is cool, I still hate the Celtics for beating the Lakers though haha

25. 

    edword said 9 months ago

    Nice!

26. 

    CallumGreen said 9 months ago

    Johnny Cupcakes said: It’s great to know that anything is possible.

    

27. 

    Joey said 9 months ago

    like kevin garnett, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

28. 

    Jaypantastic! said 9 months ago

    Congrats man! I am excited to see the other designs you came up with when they print.

29. 

    DeadRight said 9 months ago

    Success story!

    That is pretty damn awesome.

30. 

    Truman325i said 9 months ago

    G-rant said: This is cool, I still hate the Celtics for beating the Lakers though haha

    Im only gonna let you like the lakers since St.louis didnt have a team

31. 

    oohdoyle said 9 months ago

    atomicchild said: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM congrats...so damn cool

32. 

    Tom Philibeck said 9 months ago

    Joey said: like kevin garnett, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

    haha EXCATLY what I was just thinking. Thank you, Lonely Island.

33. 

    Integral said 9 months ago

    wow dude this is more then epic, this is a designers dream! Awesome, and inspiring!

34. 

    collisiontheory said 9 months ago

    Thanks guys!! It’s an awesome feeling indeed!

    Joey said: like kevin garnett, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

    "Anything is Possible if you Just Do It.

35. 

    GALLERIA-T said 9 months ago

    Congratulations matey really pleased for you!

36. 

    i came from nothing said 9 months ago

    Great story...

    Yeah Nike love this style, ever since Dave White did sneaker paintings for them and is now huge...

37. 

    litoQ said 9 months ago

    Holy crap! Congrats AJ, that’s huge!
    Warning, may contain spoilers!t.w.s.s

38. 

    Randyotter said 9 months ago

    well played dude!

39. 

    labyrinth said 9 months ago

    congrats man! that’s awesome!

40. 

    chad manzo said 9 months ago

    you i envy so much right now.

41. 

    Oo Lori oO said 9 months ago

    Congrats!!

42. 

    SicSweet said 9 months ago

    That is awesome, inspiring, refreshing, neat-o-rific!

43. 

    heat. said 9 months ago

    Damn, so great man! Congrats!

44. 

    atomicchild said 9 months ago

    this story inspired me to do some sport related artwork yesterday...so awesome again

45. 

    jsheldon said 9 months ago

    Congrats AJ! Well-deserved. I’m sure you’ll pick up even more stuff from this. Love your work.

46. 

    fallen said 9 months ago

    congrats man! well deserved :)

47. 

    Cavalry said 9 months ago

    freaking sweet man! Great story.

48. 

    MichaelLoSauro said 9 months ago

    Unbelievable. Way to go!

49. 

    chad manzo said 9 months ago

    this is like the 3rd time im reading this post and the bit where adidas mailed you to do one more design and then booom! nike asks for one too, still makes me feel so damn hyped for you.:) congrats again duder!

50. 

    sockmonkee said 9 months ago

    woa! so awesome AJ! congrats

51. 

    xjoshuabelangerx said 9 months ago

    super cool man, congrats

52. 

    afiomarta said 9 months ago

    ya..awesome story!
    keep it up..emmm!

53. 

    againstbound said 9 months ago

    Holy fuck! Way to go, man.

54. 

    Colemadethis said 9 months ago

    shit yeah!

55. 

    sonar said 9 months ago

    fuck this is so awesome
    congrats dude

    secretly hoping you close the thread with a comment saying
    "nahh it was all a joke"

56. 

    AetoricDesign said 9 months ago

    I suspect a surge of sports-figure-related designs coming to emptees in the near future :P

    Congrats man!

57. 

    markusmanson said 9 months ago

    nothin left to say but congrats!

58. 

    asher2789 said 9 months ago

    you just made me so happy. i cant wait to see the designs :)

59. 

    johnnyminardi said 9 months ago

    Congrats! I hate Kevin Garnett (and all of the Celtics) but the graphic is sweet. Can I see the Derrick Rose design???

60. 

    Blake Fathom said 9 months ago

    Truly inspirational, congrats!

61. 

    ceccepp said 8 months ago

    good things come to those who wait sir, congrats!

62. 

    kineda said 8 months ago

    Congrats! Glad it all worked out. :)

63. 

    bandwagonmerch said 8 months ago

    Thats awesome! Congratulations.

64. 

    Survival said 8 months ago

    i’m late but congrats dude!

65. 

    sht! said 8 months ago

    Survival said: i’m late but congrats dude!

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