“So, wait, why’s Shalrie Joseph holding one of your cats?”
That’s easy: He was here to grab a bunch of shirts we’d had run up to sell on his website.
I’d had a couple of people ask me over the course of last season about putting my banners on shirts, and every time, I had to rebuff them, because I knew if I did, it’d be about ten minutes before a cease and desist appeared. Then in December, I got home from vacation to find an email on an account I don’t check so often: The man himself wants to make the shirts.
The guy whose shirt I wear every week is tracking me down to tell me he’s a fan and he wants to wear my shirt.
Well, hell. Played email tag over the rest of the offseason; this is the first time I’ve had a fan project that involved consulting a lawyer (photo and merch rights). Finally got everything lined up, then worked out some designs. Had to bug three different real live graphic designer buddies (including a Dynamo fan) to ask them the best way of converting the source material for print, since I didn’t have access to a high enough resolution version of the original. Contracted out with a local screen shop, they ran ’em up, I picked ’em up, and that’s why Shalrie was here today to play with my cats and get the shirts he wanted.
Pretty much every stage of the process involved me remarking to my husband that this had gotten way out of hand–I mean, this was just some goofy idea I came up with in spinning class one afternoon.
I love being an American soccer fan.