Geeky Jerseys’ Sean Damien on celebrating fandom through pop culture-inspired hockey jerseys

Sean, it’s great to connect. To kick us off, could you give us a brief introduction to Geeky Jerseys. How did the company get started?
Everyone at Geeky Jerseys is passionate about geeky things and pop culture. And growing up, we didn’t always fit in because of our fandom.

We created the apparel line, Geeky Jerseys, almost 10 years ago as a way for geeks to be as loudly enthusiastic about pop culture icons as people are about sports teams – we also love hockey jerseys and the design genius that goes into creating a stunning jersey!

Our customers are always sharing stories of how they get noticed and how their jerseys spark conversations with strangers; it connects them instantly to a community and fills them with pride.

You mentioned admiring the craft behind jerseys. What makes a Geeky Jersey different?
Our jerseys are statement piece that connect you to others, to something bigger. Customers say it’s like putting on a suit. We’ve had people get married in them, jump out of planes in them. We’ve had the directing team of Game of Thrones wear them on set. We’ve had a local hockey fan don a different Geeky Jersey to every hometown game for more than two seasons now!

“We created Geeky Jerseys as a way for geeks to be as loudly enthusiastic about pop culture icons as people are about sports teams.”

A Geeky Jersey announces your fandom in celebration. It’s a fresh take on the hockey jersey. When it comes to traditional sports apparel, there really isn’t anything else like it — and our quality and designs are better, we’d argue, than many professional sports jerseys.

You have developed a distinctive product and company. How have you used design and product development to help you stand out from the crowd?
We create premium hand-made items that are often limited edition. For example, with our collaboration with legendary filmmaker Kevin Smith, we created 420 pieces of the Moobies jersey and they were sold out in an instant.

We’re fanatics and we’ve channelled that obsessiveness into creating the best jerseys. One of our jerseys famously has more than one million stitches on each piece… Although it almost broke the embroidery machines, the art demanded every stitch.

We pay close attention to the small details and as true fans, we try to pay proper homage to the brands in the design process. We’ll add, for instance, an image of a White Russian – The Dude’s drink of choice – as an accent on our Big Lebowski jersey.

When you take on a new project how do you get started? Are there set steps you go through in product development?
Our slogan is ‘for geeks, by geeks’. We’ve built a solid community and we’ve created a strong line of communication between our fans and our team, so they often tell us what they want to see. We use their suggestions to inspire the projects we work on.

When it comes to licensing do you have a set strategy? How do you choose which brands to work with?
If our fans are chomping at the bit for a certain licence or property, then we’ll pursue that. Once we acquire a licence, it allows us to build a great relationship and introduces us to other projects.

You have recently worked with Rebellion and their iconic character Judge Dredd. What was the thought process behind this partnership?
Aside from the fact that we’re huge fans and Judge Dredd is one of the most badass characters on the planet, we had a lot of people in our fanbase request a Judge Dredd jersey.

How was working with Rebellion?
They’re an awesome group and incredibly supportive. You should have seen our child-like giddiness when their team sent over a collection of comic books to help in the creative process.

“We pay close attention to the small details and as true fans, we try to pay proper homage to the brands in the design process.”

The experience was a dream come true, especially for our creative director who designed the jersey. Being from the UK, he grew up idolising the character and was inspired by past Judge Dredd artists when it came to his own artistic journey.

On that, how did you use the comic art from a design perspective?
I asked our creative director, Andy Hall, to answer this question. He said:

“We adhere to the legacy of the characters and the many guises they have had over the years. So we try to look at a particular period of the character’s history and start with ideas. For example, with the Judge Dredd design, we looked at the Brian Bolland period of the character’s history. To me, it’s the most memorable period of Dredd history. When designing the jersey base, Dredd’s uniform was a prominent place to start. We use the navy blue, green, red, and yellow/gold from his uniform within the design to mimic his gloves, shoulder pads, belt, etc.”

Great answer. A huge thanks for taking time out for this Sean. Let’s tie in again soon.