Makers of Sport® Podcast

A Sports Design Podcast by T. Adam Martin

Conversations about design, branding, creative business, products, footwear, technology, entrepreneurship and more in the sports industry. Featured in Apple Podcasts New & Noteworthy. Missing episode numbers are paid & private community content. Join the community at makersofsport.com/community.

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Top 10 Makers of Sport® Podcast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Makers of Sport® Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Makers of Sport® Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Makers of Sport® Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Episode 67: Aaron Masik, Senior Graphic Designer, Upper Deck

Makers of Sport® Podcast

02/22/16 • 67 min

“When you get to work in pro sports, these players are their showcase...the message, putting people in the seats, getting people interested in the team and buying merchandise comes before cool graphics.”

On this week’s episode, Aaron Masik joined the podcast. Aaron is a senior graphic designer at The Upper Deck Company. Prior to Upper Deck, Aaron had stints in-house at the San Antonio Spurs and the San Diego Padres before making the move into consumer products.

We discuss Aaron’s big break into the sports industry, what it’s like working in a consistently winning organization such as the Spurs (including an interaction with Coach Pop himself), as well as the differences between working with the NBA versus the MLB.

We touch on some of the pain points working in sports as a creative person and have a very real & raw conversation on the frustrations that are prevalent when one makes the decision to work in team sports; including the way our personal and career values change over time and how sometimes it might be best to move on.

Lastly, Aaron gives us some insight into working at Upper Deck as we discuss design & printing processes, timelines, as well as the passion of the sports collectibles industry and how it has had a reawakening.

Mentions include:

My next guest is going to be Mekale Jackson. Mekale is the Associate Director of Athletic Communications for St. John's University in New York City. In addition to St. John's, Mekale freelances for numerous univerities including his alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

Episode 29: Matt Powell, Sneakerologist, NPD Group

Makers of Sport® Podcast

03/23/15 • 47 min

"People think I'm being critical but I (often) talk about what I call the 'echo chamber' of the sneakerhead world in that a shoe/brand/event is bounced back and forth inside this 'echo chamber' and it makes it seem like it's a really loud voice, but when you look around the big world outside, most people don't even know that it's going on. So very many of the hot sneakerhead shoes are just not commercial in units sold."

This week, Sneakerologist Matt Powell joins the show. Matt is a prominent voice in the sneaker industry and is a vice president and sports industry analyst for NPD Group where he covers the business of sports retail, wearables and especially sneakers. Matt has been covering the sneaker industry for more than 20 years and also is a contributor to the Forbes Sneakernomics blog.

On this episode, we take a deep dive into the business and culture of sneakers — how did the industry get so large over the past 30 years? Matt shares some numbers in market shares, compares trends vs. sales, discusses brand loyalty, as well as gives us some insight into some of the startup brands such as BrandBlack.

We also discuss the alleged impact of celebrity collaborations with brands (including the Kanye/Adidas Yeezy), sneaker customization, the reselling industry, as well as the sensitive topic of violence in the retail side of the sneaker business.

Matt also covers wearable technology at NPD Group so we end with a discussion on the future of wearables in sports, including 3d printing.

Mentions include:

@NPDMattPowell on Twitter

NPD Group

Forbes - Sneakernomics

Complex's 30 Must-Follow Sneaker Writers and Bloggers on Twitter

Kayne West Yeezy

Zoom Flight 95 Sneakers

Tinker Hatfield, Nike

Apple Watch

Our next guest is T.J. Harley, founder and creative director of Harley Creative in Atlanta, GA. Before founding his own design shop, T.J. was the creative director of the Collegiate Licensing Company for 10+ years where he provided branding and creative direction for over 200 CLC/IMG clients.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, Adam Martin and @makersofsport on twitter.

Episode 100: Jeremy Mitchell, Founder & Creative Director of Mitchell Bat Co.

Makers of Sport® Podcast

10/03/18 • 71 min

"It's 100% about relationships. Probably the most important part of Mitchell Bat is the people I've met along the way that I consider true friends or trusted advisors."

Jeremy Mitchell, agency creative director, web designer and most notably founder of Mitchell Bat Co., joined the podcast for episode 100 to discuss his passion project; a company that provides custom, hand-painted wooden bats to passionate & passive baseball fans, corporations and brands alike.

Jeremy discusses how his college degree in sports management, playing in a band in college and a crush on a graphic design major (who eventually became his wife) eventually led him to pursue a post-grad career in design.

A passionate baseball fan, Jeremy created a mockup of a hand-painted, striped bat one night and posted to his Instagram. The post got some likes and requests on where to purchase the bat, whom fans thought was a real physical product. Thus began the quest to start Mitchell Bat Co.

We discuss the social mission of MBCo, how a conscious effort should be put into building a brand, and how passion projects lead to incredible opportunities and collaborations that one would not always expect or receive from a full-time paying job.

Lastly, we discuss the value of relationships and how important they are to any career, let alone a side project.

Mentions Include:

USE CODE "MOS" AT CHECKOUT ON MITCHELLBATCO.COM AND GET 20% OF A BAT.

My next guest is going to be French designer & illustrator, Caroline Blanchet. Caroline is the founder of Ptitecao, French design studio that focuses on creating visual design and digital illustrations for the sports industry.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport.

Episode 91: Shane Mielke, Interactive Creative Director, H.S. Football Coach & Crossfit Athlete

Makers of Sport® Podcast

08/16/17 • 86 min

"At the end of the day, I consider myself a creative person. I've taken the time to grow these skills slowly over time and I want to have as much fun as I can on all aspects of a project—whether that's design, animation, etc., to me it's all fun. That is what is going to stop me from burning out."

Shane Seminole Mielke does many things—from coaching big-time high school football, to being a Crossfit athlete, to being a designer, developer & animator; he is a jack of all trades. Shane is not, however, a master of none as the cliché states; instead, he uses his time effectively to master his many different interests which includes building websites and animations for movies such as "Suicide Squad", "Dunkirk", "Kong" and more; as well as working with Lucasfilm (on the "Star Wars" franchise), Blizzard Ent. and Riot Games.

He has won numerous awards which include: 6 Adobe Sites of the Day, 2 Awwwards, 36 FWA Sites of the Day, 4 FWA Mobile Sites of the Day, 2 FWA Sites of the Month and 3 Adobe Cutting Edge Awards.

In this episode, Shane discusses the value of time and how he balances personal life with growing in his many creative skillsets, as well as how we should deeply focus on one thing in order to master that thing before pivoting to the next.

We discuss the early days of the web and some interactive shops that were pushing the limits of technology. We also touch on how today interactive design has become very stale with a lot of the same stuff being created over and over and how at one point in time, the work made you famous, not your writing, tweets or Dribbble/Behance networking skills.

Lastly, we discuss Shane's book, "Launch It: 300+ things I've learned as a Designer, Developer and Creative Director". The book includes so much wisdom from Shane's career and we go in depth on some of that wisdom including discussing college degrees and if they are worth the time and money.

Mentions Include:

My next guest is Tal Lemming, a type designer working under his own foundry, Type Supply. He is also the creator of the typeface, United, an LSU alumnus and creator of many custom typefaces in sports & entertainment.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

Episode 80: Amy Lukas, Cameron Smith, Molly Mazzolini; Co-Founders; Infinite Scale

Makers of Sport® Podcast

06/20/16 • 71 min

"In the environment, things need to be simplified, they need to have a quick read. You scale things very differently in environmental graphics than typical graphic design applications."

Amy Lukas, Cameron Smith and Molly Mazzolini—co-founders & creative partners of Infinite Scale—join the show to tell the story of their environmental design firm.

The three partners give us a view into their individual backgrounds and tell the story of how they met and what led to eventually founding their own design firm.

Cameron & Amy discuss how they landed their first major project for a the NFL and shares a bit about their design and pitch process, including assessing a city and the opportunity for design.

Additionally, Molly shares how they approach branding from a strategic and relationship perspective; as well as explains what a brand activation is.

Amy gives us some insight into their work culture and why it is very important to growing and sustaining a reputable design firm.

Lastly, we discuss ReScale; the green initiative of recycling and repurposing one-off environmental assets into other products.

Mentions Include:

The next podcast will be a crossover episode. Sean Callanan, founder of SportsGeek, and I are collaborating on an episode that appear on both podcasts. A part 1 & 2 split between two brands.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

Episode 75 (Halftime): Donating Your Creativity

Makers of Sport® Podcast

05/17/16 • 14 min

COMMUNITY CONTENT PREVIEW

A rare public Halftime episode as they are for paid Community members only now. I just felt this initiative is something worth sharing to everyone that may be interested.

Many of us have worked hard in our creative discipline of choice to hone our skills and get better project-by-project. We often get frustrated when we see big-revenue companies or organizations soliciting spec work and running design contests for creative they can and should pay for. However, sometimes non-profits and causes we believe in fall into doing that very thing as well due to lack of resources.

This Halftime is about taking initative and volunteering services, giving them in-kind for charities, causes and non-profits we believe in. Each of our stories consist of some particular cause we deeply care about. Be it family member who had cancer and was helped for treatment from a local cancer foundation, or a youth sports organization that helped mold us into better people when we were younger.

The Makers of Sport Community is tackling something we care about deeply in the near future with The High School Project: a branding and visual identity campaign donated to 2 U.S. public high schools per year in rural or inner cities that are particularly underfunded by their state. Our breadth of services, talent and passion for sport and its inflluence on culture and society takes precedent as we begin to volunteer our services for the greater good.

Listen to this episode to find out more and learn how you can become involved.

Mentions Include:

My next guest is going to be Sloane Kelley, Senior Director of Content for the PGA Tour. Sloane has an extensive agency background and has been with the PGA for 3 years. She recently spoke at SXsports on VR and golf.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

Chris Do of TheFutur talks value based pricing on MoS #97

Makers of Sport® Podcast

02/28/18 • 5 min

Chris Do elaborates on why creative people should value their services more and charge accordingly without feeling guilty.

Episode 96: Xavier Jones, Footwear Designer, Reebok

Makers of Sport® Podcast

02/04/18 • 83 min

“The Internet is a great tool but you can only learn so much. Actually going to a place physically where you have someone that has [designed] at the highest level, you learn so much more...that experience is invaluable.”

FYI: Sneakers are a passion of mine. It's no secret. This episode is quite nerdy on the sneaker talk.

Xavier Jones, footwear designer at Reebok, joined the podcast to discuss the footwear design industry and his path to designing for athletes like Shaq and Allen Iverson.

Xavier's story begins in the Michigan basketball mecca of Flint. He let's us in on his story and how SLAM Magazine, And One and Ballislife inspired and led him to pursue a dream of designing sneakers for a living.

We chat about some of our favorite kicks, discuss the evolution of the Jordan Brand, reminisce about the prime of the And One Mixtape and discuss how sport influences mainstream culture and hence sneaker culture.

Xavier and I also discuss the unfortunate topic of violence which often happens at rare sneaker releases and how scarcity mindset and poverty effect the violent aspect of these events.

Xavier also chats about some of the design processes as a sneaker designer; including what software designers use, why attending Pensole is vital, the collaboration dynamics of teams working on footwear products & more.

Mentions Include:

My next guest is Chris Do, founder and CEO of Blind Studio, a brand strategy and motion design firm and TheFutur, an online business education platform for designers.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

Episode 90: MLC Connect Panel 2017 with Chin Wang, Joe Bosack, Todd Radom & Jon Contino

Makers of Sport® Podcast

07/24/17 • 49 min

On this week's episode, I bring you a front seat at MLC Connect 2017 for "The Future of Sports Design" panel with Chin Wang (Creative Director, ESPN the Magazine), Todd Radom (Designer/Illustrator, Todd Radom Design), Joe Bosack (Creative Director, Joe Bosack & Co.) and Jon Contino (Creative Director, Jon Contino Studio)—all former guests of Makers of Sport.

The panel is short (about 30 min.), but a lot of knowledge and experience is shared as the panelists touch on how they build relationships, manage collaborating with creatives in multiple disciplines, mistakes they've made and more.

You'll hear Joe Bosack mention Tom O'Grady of Gameplan Creative and Bill Frederick of Fanbrandz who were in the audience.

Enjoy.

Mentions Include:

My next guest is Shane Mielke, an independent creative director and interactive designer in Southern California. Shane is a bit of legend in the interactive design space. Once a creative director for renown interactive firm of the early 2000s, 2Advanced Studios, Shane now freelances full-time, is a high school football coach at a prominent SoCal school and world-class Crossfit athlete. More on Shane can be found at his site.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

*Correction: I mentioned Todd's episode in this podcast as episode 3, it's actually episode 4.

Episode 69: Mekale Jackson, Creative Director, St. John's University Athletics

Makers of Sport® Podcast

03/17/16 • 66 min

“You can always learn from anyone — you can learn from people older than you, you can earn from people younger than you — always be open. Always be open to critique.”

On this week’s podcast, Mekale Jackson from St. John's University athletics joins us to discuss working for New York's college hoops program.

Mekale gives us some insight into his background prior to St. John's where he discovered graphic design & Photoshop in college as an English major at the University of Michigan by stumbling across a fraternity flyer.

Detroit, Mekale's hometown, is a place of inspiration for creativity and art despite the negative stereotypes the Internet & media says about the city and Mekale shares his love for the city with us including a few fav artists he follows.

We also discuss Under Armour's relationship with St. John's basketball, its value to the school for recruiting and brand recognition, as well as that one time Steph Curry practiced in their facilties.

Lastly, Mekale explains why he chooses to self-brand himself as a "sports creative director" rather than a graphic designer or sports designer.

Mentions include:

My next guest is going to be Brian Gundell. Brian is a freelance graphic designer in Portland, Oregon. Prior to joining the freelance ranks, Brian had stints at Old Hat Design, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the University of Washington football program.

You can also show your support for the podcast by joining the community and keeping it sponsor-free.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then please rate and/or write a review of the show on iTunes. Also, be sure to follow show host, @TAdamMartin and @MakersofSport on twitter and Dribbble.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Makers of Sport® Podcast have?

Makers of Sport® Podcast currently has 111 episodes available.

What topics does Makers of Sport® Podcast cover?

The podcast is about Graphic, Espn, Branding, Joe, Web, Marketing, Design, Podcasts, Jon, Sports, Arts and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Makers of Sport® Podcast?

The episode title 'Barton Damer, Founding Artist & Creative Director, AlreadyBeenChewed' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Makers of Sport® Podcast?

The average episode length on Makers of Sport® Podcast is 58 minutes.

How often are episodes of Makers of Sport® Podcast released?

Episodes of Makers of Sport® Podcast are typically released every 13 days, 22 hours.

When was the first episode of Makers of Sport® Podcast?

The first episode of Makers of Sport® Podcast was released on Mar 22, 2014.

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Makers of Sport® Podcast

A Sports Design Podcast by T. Adam Martin

Top 10 Makers of Sport® Podcast Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Makers of Sport® Podcast have?

What topics does Makers of Sport® Podcast cover?

What is the most popular episode on Makers of Sport® Podcast?

What is the average episode length on Makers of Sport® Podcast?

How often are episodes of Makers of Sport® Podcast released?

When was the first episode of Makers of Sport® Podcast?

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