Cam helping black business. Now Steph Curry is asking the brotha to make him a shirt as well. 
Black Excellence.
Meet the Man Behind Cam Newton’s Shirt Designs
Meet the Man Behind Cam Newton’s Shirt Designs
CONCORD, NC – Pretty much anything Cam Newton touches or wears turns to gold. For a Charlotte businessman, Cam's touch, dab and fashion is helping a dream is turning into a reality.
Before The Carolina Panthers game against the Seattle Seahawks, Cam warmed up in a shirt showcasing an image of Cam and his infant son, Chosen, doing, of course, Cam’s signature dab.
That image was courtesy of Tykes, a Charlotte-based graphic design company that creates customized cartoon character or avatars of celebrities and athletes. Once pictures circulated of Cam wearing the shirt- orders for the shirt and design soared.
“It wasn’t something that I had planned for,” said Jason Woullard, CEO and President of Tykes. “An overnight success is about ten years of work and that’s what happened to me.”
Woullard, a graduate of University of North Carolina Greensboro spent 15 years creating a sports database. Years later, he partnered with Cincinnati designer Glenn Riley and New York-based designer Pete Brigman to start creating the Tykes image and characters.
“A tyke is a child-like character of a person and we started created these images of athletes that I knew,” explained Woullard. “Once we started to create and share, the athletes started to enjoy them and started sharing them via Facebook.”
Each design is formulated to be as realistic as possible, emulating the real-life character. Tykes’ database includes heavy-weights like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Kevin Hart and Stephen Curry. But, it was a special design featuring Cam that snatched large-scale attention.
“We created those Cam Newton designs earlier on in the year and people took them and started using them and making money off of them.”
Woullard’s agency, William Morris Endeavor, quickly got involved, contacting Cam’s managers and negotiating a deal.
“We thought if anyone should make money off of this it should be us or Cam.”
Soon, the Cam Newton Foundation and Under Armour got on board. Under Armour made the shirt of Cam and Chosen specifically for the Panthers quarterback and it isn't for sale. However, Tykes sells other Cam shirts online, with profits benefiting Cam’s foundation.
Woullard said, “We thought we would get a couple of hundred people to like what we do but it turned into something much more than that.”
Tykes now received between 200 and 500 shirt requests a day. Charlotte-based companies redFont and Print Lizard help print and produce the shirts.
“Just the publicity after Cam put that shirt on a couple of week ago, it really did take off.”
The company only has one full-time employee, besides Woullard and his designers. Tykes utilizes social media, Instagram and athletes like Cam to spread the word about their avatars. It seems to be working. While Woullard was reluctant to release profit numbers until after the Super bowl, he did say the company is “doing alright” when it comes to sales.
More designs and colors will soon make their way to Tykes website. Woullard said he would like for the company to eventually provide other merchandise like socks, book bags, stickers and posters.
“The sky is really the limit for us.”
Meanwhile, University of Maryland will offer Tykes designs on February 3rd for recruits on signing day. Woullard and Cam haven't met yet, but Woullard is hopeful that day will come "after the Panthers win the Super Bowl."
Black Excellence.Meet the Man Behind Cam Newton’s Shirt Designs
Meet the Man Behind Cam Newton’s Shirt Designs
CONCORD, NC – Pretty much anything Cam Newton touches or wears turns to gold. For a Charlotte businessman, Cam's touch, dab and fashion is helping a dream is turning into a reality.
Before The Carolina Panthers game against the Seattle Seahawks, Cam warmed up in a shirt showcasing an image of Cam and his infant son, Chosen, doing, of course, Cam’s signature dab.
That image was courtesy of Tykes, a Charlotte-based graphic design company that creates customized cartoon character or avatars of celebrities and athletes. Once pictures circulated of Cam wearing the shirt- orders for the shirt and design soared.
“It wasn’t something that I had planned for,” said Jason Woullard, CEO and President of Tykes. “An overnight success is about ten years of work and that’s what happened to me.”
Woullard, a graduate of University of North Carolina Greensboro spent 15 years creating a sports database. Years later, he partnered with Cincinnati designer Glenn Riley and New York-based designer Pete Brigman to start creating the Tykes image and characters.
“A tyke is a child-like character of a person and we started created these images of athletes that I knew,” explained Woullard. “Once we started to create and share, the athletes started to enjoy them and started sharing them via Facebook.”
Each design is formulated to be as realistic as possible, emulating the real-life character. Tykes’ database includes heavy-weights like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Kevin Hart and Stephen Curry. But, it was a special design featuring Cam that snatched large-scale attention.
“We created those Cam Newton designs earlier on in the year and people took them and started using them and making money off of them.”
Woullard’s agency, William Morris Endeavor, quickly got involved, contacting Cam’s managers and negotiating a deal.
“We thought if anyone should make money off of this it should be us or Cam.”
Soon, the Cam Newton Foundation and Under Armour got on board. Under Armour made the shirt of Cam and Chosen specifically for the Panthers quarterback and it isn't for sale. However, Tykes sells other Cam shirts online, with profits benefiting Cam’s foundation.
Woullard said, “We thought we would get a couple of hundred people to like what we do but it turned into something much more than that.”
Tykes now received between 200 and 500 shirt requests a day. Charlotte-based companies redFont and Print Lizard help print and produce the shirts.
“Just the publicity after Cam put that shirt on a couple of week ago, it really did take off.”
The company only has one full-time employee, besides Woullard and his designers. Tykes utilizes social media, Instagram and athletes like Cam to spread the word about their avatars. It seems to be working. While Woullard was reluctant to release profit numbers until after the Super bowl, he did say the company is “doing alright” when it comes to sales.
More designs and colors will soon make their way to Tykes website. Woullard said he would like for the company to eventually provide other merchandise like socks, book bags, stickers and posters.
“The sky is really the limit for us.”
Meanwhile, University of Maryland will offer Tykes designs on February 3rd for recruits on signing day. Woullard and Cam haven't met yet, but Woullard is hopeful that day will come "after the Panthers win the Super Bowl."
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