A Story of Redemption & Thanks

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in November 2015. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

It's Black Friday. Hopefully you weren't crazy enough to face the deal-hungry mob battling MMA style for whatever this year's popular toy or tech product is. Me? I'm writing this newsletter in my recliner, laptop open, local IPA in hand, whilst watching the exciting Baylor vs. TCU football game.

It's my favorite time of year. I absolutely love the fall season. Both of my sons were born in the fall, there is great football (NFL & college) on TV, basketball season gets into full swing and more specifically, my favorite U.S. holiday is in the fall, Thanksgiving.

I realize Thanksgiving may be lost on some of you non-U.S. listeners so I'll spare you the history; but in short, it's a holiday where we get together with families & friends over meals and discuss the things we are thankful for in our lives.

In lieu of said holiday. I want to dedicate this newsletter to you, the listeners.

You see, 14 years ago when I was 18 years old, I was a kid living in small-town, rural America — an Appalachian foothills town of 6,000 people with no Internet (my parents thought it was evil at the time), no computer skills (other than knowing how to type from school typing classes), a subscription to SLAM Magazine, a love of drawing, and no real idea of what I'd be doing one day.

My dream at the time was to design sneakers for a brand like Nike, Adidas or And1 (Under Armour was only making under shirts at the time). My passion was basketball and I put all of my time into it. I had no idea where I'd be 10-15 years from then, but the general thought was I'd get my degree from the regional university I was attending and have a decent paying job at some local company. Probably not doing what I loved, but at least making a decent living not doing the hard physical labor of the farmers, coal miners and factory workers in my area.

I took a chance in college by majoring in art, much to my dad's chagrin. "You can't make any money with art" he would say. But my stubbornness lead me to art school anyway where I discovered graphic design, my true love. I just didn't know it yet.

I suffered through university with a 2.68 GPA. I was always a smart kid (with As and Bs in high school and earlier), but I did not like what I did not like. If it wasn't for my art classes (the ones that I actually got good grades in and saved me from the others), I probably would have never graduated. Luckily I did, and did so in 4 years somehow. Serendipitously, I found what I loved and what I wanted to do and I didn't want to fool around with anything else. (I also met my wife and a few of my groomsmen in college so there is always that. Hah.)

Not long after graduation, I landed at a sports marketing agency designing things I didn't know existed or that one could do as a career. How crazy is it that we can mix the two things we absolutely love? Sports & graphic design. I fell into it completely by accident.

After my short stint at said agency, I became extremely burnt out on sports. In fact, I was sick of it. I wanted nothing to do with them and didn't even watch them. I was able to to work with some of the biggest properties in college sports (Southeastern Conference, University of Michigan Football, University of Kentucky Basketball, University of Texas Football, the NCAA Final Four, and more), but I took it all for granted because of the chaotic atmosphere of the place. Even my connections from the agency presented many opportunities in the industry that I chose to turn down. I wanted to do corporate work. No more of the sports stuff.

I believe much of the reason for my burnout was because there was no community at the time. I had no one to vent to; no sports design or business podcasts to listen to, no one to get feedback from (other than the small group of creatives I worked in-house with, some of which had no interest in sports. Imagine that, a designer at a sports marketing company with no interest in the content), and no Instagrams to gather inspiration from. Basically all I had was old game programs designed by my company and watching ESPN's motion graphics.

Thankfully, after a break from sports design and with the invention of Twitter, I began connecting with a few great folks (@JBosack, @ToddRadom) who I'd always known about but was having the opportunity to talk with on a daily basis through 140 characters. Tweet-after-tweet, image-after-image I consumed by these talented guys began to slowly rekindle my lost love for the intersection of sports and creativity. It was a place I needed to be. I needed it, it needed me.

Little-by-little I began adjusting the ratio of my freelance client roster to less corporate work and more sports work. After a brief stint as creative director of a web design company working with a variety of industries, I had the opportunity to attend NACMA. Seeing all of the polo shirts with team logos, listening to Coach K give a keynote and seeing Urban Meyer just sitting on a bench in the hallway drew me back in to this wonderful world of sport. It all culminated there in Orlando, Florida. I felt it deep down inside, I needed back in the game.

So I quit my well-paying creative director job (shortly after a move to a house that was double the payment of my previous house and a decision for my wife to stay home with our kids), moved out to the countryside in that small-town I grew up in and started a podcast. Seriously? What was I thinking?

Don't get me wrong, I have great moral support in my wife, parents (although they still can't understand why I can't just "work for someone") and my in-laws (my father-in-law has the entrepreneurial spirit), but sometimes you take a risk and things just work out. As we approach 2016, I'm excited as my roster of clients has grown to 80% sports clientele. I'm also very honored to have gotten to know many of you through this little known side project, that in some weird roundabout way, was started in that little town at the beginning of this story.

Makers of Sport Podcast has given me opportunities that 18-year old kid couldn't have imagined. It has become a part of me. Heck, it *is me. But...it's you too. It's you that listen, you that share the show, you that subscribe to this newsletter, you that engage with me on Twitter, you that thank & follow the guests, you that rekindle a little of my fire every day. It's you that inspire the content, (some of) you that are the guests, you that help drive this industry forward and have really made sports design* a thing — a viable job we can tell people about when they ask what it is we do. Years ago, if I said I was a sports designer, it was confusing. It didn't really mean anything. But now...now we can say we are sports designers with pride. Even ESPN and FOX are covering uniform design. The mainstream media talks about sports rebrands more than ever; and, everyday folks care about the visual experiences of their favorite teams, brands and athletes.

So for you, I am going to step it up and get the community built. A place we can talk, share ideas, network, hold each other accountable and collaborate. The Makers of Sport Community has been a long time coming but has remained on the back burner due to other pressing projects (this newsletter, Halftime episodes, the interviews, travel). No more. I'm making it a priority for the end of this year and early 2016.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for supporting the podcast. Thank you for inspiring me. Most of all, thank you for bringing me back, for helping me discover where I belong. Even those of you that ask me questions or for advice inspire me. You inspire me to get better because you're working to get better.

As for that small-town kid with a SLAM subscription and a love for sports, he'll be bringing aboard the Editor-in-Chief for an interview on the podcast in early January 2016.

Have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving weekend U.S. listeners. For everyone else, have a good weekend.

Cheers,

Adam