About
I grew up in Berkeley, California, a big A's, Warriors and 49ers fan. Without a television until age 10, I first became attached to the Warriors listening to Greg Papa call the '91-'92 Warriors season on the radio, while shooting nerf baskets in my room emulating the play by play. During summers, Bill King was the voice of my youth. For a good 5 years, my fandom revolved around Mark McGwire, Steve Young, Jerry Rice and Chris Mullin. I even had my dad give me the signature Mullin flattop fade haircut in 4th grade, getting a good rise out of my friends.
I drew a lot as a young child, filling portfolios of 8.5x11” pages from the ages of 3 to 11, then sporadically throughout throughout middle and high school, with drawing subjects inspired by my environment- From palm trees, my dad surfing, TinTin comics, to the Berkeley public playground basketball courts my mom took to me to to hoist up shots as a 4 year old. My artistic subject matter evolved to sports around age 7 or 8, as I became hooked on the 49ers, Warriors, A’s, Cal Football, and my growing card collection. My sketches focused on players like Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Mark McGwire, Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux, then in high school, graphite drawings of the early 2000’s A’s teams. I always had the interest in making what I was putting on the paper look as real as possible, capturing the larger than life-like quality I experienced at games, TV and print media. Thus was the challenge, my eye always saw more than my hand could do. I became an art student at UC Santa Cruz, developing my graphite-centric work into oil paintings and pastels, my senior studio art show being a body of work of Oakland A's players, graduating with a BA in 2005.
After a serendipitous 3 month temp job in the mailroom at the young company that was salesforce.com, I spent my 20's there working in the Facilities and Real Estate departments. I left at the end of 2013 in search of my calling, returning to face fears of artistic inadequacy, perfectionism, and most importantly giving art a valid career attempt.
After traveling in 2014, with my savings gone, the intuitive, sudden, creative spark for the ‘wearable art tee’ came in early May, 2015 during the Warriors playoff run. While developing a pastel drawing of Steph Curry, I had a strong vision of the drawing as a shirt. After several months of diligently researching dye sublimation printing, and trial and error with different companies, in September 2015, the "Curry In Your Kitchen" tee prototype was made, and the apparel brand born. In 2017-18, a series of improbable things happened. I gave Klay Thompson an Uber ride, I was invited to Warriors practice by Raymond Ridder to meet Steph, Draymond and KD to show and give them samples of the prototypes, to their delight. A month later in May of 2017, I was featured on local ABC7 news. After improving the manufacturing quality to a cut and sew method in early 2018 for the 2nd Steph artwork, Sonya Curry wore the ‘wearable print’ on the 2018 championship parade float, a huge thrill.
Still without any professional breakthrough, only a potential roadmap from my research, in August of 2018, I received a big break, meeting Mark Killeen of Full Turn Direct. He helped me perfect the shirt with the premium fabric I was seeking, and introduced me to the Warriors retail team. This led to an agreement for a trial run with the Warriors and my grand debut in the Executive Suite kiosks at Oracle Arena for Warriors 2018-2019 home games. The shirts were joined by the debut of the limited edition Archival Giclee Fine Art prints, selling off the rotation of 6 original framed Warriors drawings, thrilling fans and proving a huge success. The full limited edition ‘wearable prints’ including a new historic 16 player/coach artwork were released after the reopening of the Chase Center Post-Covid as Warriors Chase Center Flagship Team store items.
YaniMade is my original fine art. It’s also an innovative, player themed apparel brand, drawing inspiration from the evolving sports landscape, merging fine art, design and fashion sensibilities, with top quality sublimation printing and premium fabric- a series of limited edition wearable prints of graphite, color pencil, pastel, and oil paintings. YaniMade brings the attention to detail, and aesthetics of the original medium to fabric, in an era of mass produced team and fan gear. It documents and celebrates iconic pro athletes that have moved the needle in their respective fan-bases, both in sport and popular culture.
-Yani Teichner
