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Published: 2022-05-01 13:58:00 Updated: 2022-05-01 13:58:24

Posted May 1, 2022 1:58 p.m. EDT

By Rachel Crumpler, UNC Media Hub

Greensboro, N.C. — In September, N.C. A&T State University professor Roymieco Carter presented the 15 students in his 8 a.m. Visual Design 1 class with an opportunity to create custom hoodies for Chicago Bulls point guard Coby White to wear before home games.

Everyone in the class knew the name of the former Tar Heel.

White and his sister, Tia, realized he could share meaningful messages through his pre-game clothing. It’s an effort they started in 2021 to use his platform for activism.

Jaylen Brannon, a sophomore visual and media arts major, jumped at the opportunity. He was particularly eager to take on the work because he knew his mother, who is a huge fan of White, would appreciate it.

Quintin Evans Jr., a senior media design major, also committed to participating in the seven-month-long project, which concluded in April just before the NBA playoffs. Brannon and Evans were the only two students to submit designs for all 20-plus hoodie topics chosen by White and his sister.

The topics varied and included Human Rights Day, gun violence and the ratification of the 13th Amendment. In February, in recognition of Black History Month, his hoodies highlighted Black creatives who aren’t always in mainstream conversations such as artist Aaron Douglas and ballerina Misty Copeland. He shifted to focus on Women’s History Month in March, spotlighting figures like Puerto Rican civil rights pioneer Felicitas Mendez and Native American aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross.

“Going to a HBCU and hearing about some names that I didn't even know and doing research on them for the hoodies was a great experience and expanded my knowledge,” Brannon said.

White was intentional about partnering with A&T, the largest historically Black university in the country, said Tony McEachern, chairperson of the department of visual and performing arts.

And the timing clicked. At the beginning of the school year, McEachern solicited industry partnerships aimed at strengthening engagement for the visual arts program. At the same time, White wanted to connect with A&T, and his agent reached out to McEachern to share White’s vision of using hoodies to raise #aWEARness.

“If he were to have gone to an HBCU, he would have, from his own admission, picked N.C. A&T,” McEachern said. “So he connected with N.C. A&T for the mission of the HBCUs and he used our artists as an avenue to illustrate and articulate his vision for social justice, political order, family, love and representation.”

Brannon and Evans both submitted designs for each topic, and White and his team selected the one to place on each game’s hoodie.

The designs weren’t particularly elaborate but they were imbued with meaning. For the hoodies spotlighting a figure, many of the designs had an illustration of the person on the front and a powerful quote on the back.

Evans learned his first design in remembrance of White’s father was chosen from a morning phone call with his own father. He was initially confused about why his father was congratulating him. Then he checked Instagram and saw a DM from White and a post shared with White’s 450,000 followers featuring the hoodie with his design.

“I felt really honored because when we were doing that design I was dealing with the loss of my great grandfather, who was an inspiration to me, and I kind of just put everything I was thinking about into that,” Evans said.

And Brannon’s mother is often the one to inform him via text that his design has been chosen. He looked forward to finding out that way.

After wearing each hoodie, White posted the photos on his Instagram with captions to provide historical context and tagged the student designer.

“I know a bunch of celebrities wearing small creatives’ work that don't say a thing, but he went out of his way to tag both of us — even followed us — and he didn't have to do any of that,” Brannon said.

White’s Instagram comments are full of people asking where they can also get the hoodies. But, for now, the designers are keeping the designs one-to-one, meaning there’s just one copy reserved for White.

Brannon and Evans do each have one hoodie of their work. White invited the two student designers to a Chicago Bulls game in Charlotte. At the February meeting, White gave each of them a hoodie they created that he had worn and signed. That hoodie hangs in Evans’ room. Brannon gave his to his mother.

When Brannon and Evans first expressed interest in the project months ago, neither expected it to get as big as it did in terms of scale or level of exposure.

No matter how far they go in graphic design, they will never forget who some of their first commissioned work was for.

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