Local artist captures players' faces on novelty shirts

Damien Velasco, 22, makes his #SPURSHEAD T-shirts at Ace Screen Graphics, where he has worked for three years. Damien Velasco, 22, makes his #SPURSHEAD T-shirts at Ace Screen Graphics, where he has worked for three years. Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Local artist captures players' faces on novelty shirts 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

For Spurs fans looking to get a little closer to their favorite player, a local artist might have just what they want.

Damien Velasco, 22, has created a line of novelty T-shirts called #SPURSHEAD that feature an image of one of three Spurs players' faces on the inside. Fans can lift the bottom of the shirt over their heads, and the player's image takes the place of their own faces.

He sold them Tuesday night at the Westlakes Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Loop 410 near Texas 151 while the Spurs took on the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Velasco is making more shirts and will be at the cinema again Thursday night to sell them during Game 4.

Each shirt costs $20 and has the face of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobili on the inside, Velasco said.

He sold “a couple dozen” Tuesday night, and at least 100 people had contacted him over social media about buying a shirt.

He said Tony Parker's mother even stopped by Ace Screen Graphics on Kenwick Street, where Velasco works as a graphic and print designer, to buy some shirts Wednesday.

“Seeing people enjoying my work and wearing the shirt is just a really good feeling,” he said.

For Spurs fans hoping to buy shirts with another player's face besides the Big Three, Velasco said he might expand the lineup.

Velasco, who has been a Spurs fan since he was a kid, said he was inspired to design the shirts based off of other novelty shirts that had ghost or zombie faces. He had noticed that sports teams didn't have anything like them and that the Spurs shirts on sale all looked pretty much the same.

“I wanted to make something that would get the fan as close as he could to almost being a player, literally having the player's face over your face,” he said.

Velasco hopes the T-shirt idea will spread to other teams, and he'd love to make the shirts officially for the Spurs.

“I just like seeing my work out there,” he said.

The #SPURSHEAD shirts aren't Velasco's only clothing design. Since 2011, he has his own men's and women's clothing line, Miau Clothing, which is his side project.

Miau, the French spelling of the word “meow,” is based on Japanese street styles blended with American pop culture, Velasco said.

jrubio@express-news.net