How a Designer Started Making Custom NBA Jerseys
There’s something very satisfying about turning your digital designs and artwork into something physical and tactile. Something you can actually touch — embroidered thread, stitched tags, heavy cotton. It feels more official. It feels finished. This stage of a project always excites me, whether it’s a digital piece becoming a mural or simply seeing your logo on a T-shirt. There’s a great finality to it. It translates the work to a medium that people outside of my little design bubble can instantly connect with.
Up until a few years ago, my work mostly lived in digital form — sometimes printed, sometimes turned into merch — but rarely did it cross over into fashion or sports apparel in any meaningful way.
Tim McAuliffe, Casey Bannerman & Karl-Anthony Towns: Custom jersey delivery
That started to shift after I met Casey Bannerman at a basketball art show in 2019. We were both part of a group exhibition for the Philadelphia 76ers called Crossover. Thousands of fans came out for it, including Philly legends like Dr. J and Ben Simmons (lol), and sales of the artwork raised over $50K for the Sixers Youth Foundation.
Casey and I clicked right away — we talked hoops, illustration, and the overlap of design and culture. He was already gaining attention for printing his artwork on custom basketball jerseys, and I was intrigued. We kept in touch and reconnected at future shows.
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