It's hard to read the participants on this board. It's hard to read humans in general. I expected this to generate quite a bit of response, but not this way.

Here are some of the themes I anticipated being discussed:
1) Taya's design.
• The "I" on top followed by widening words to expand the meaning.
• The simple white on black, reinforcing the message and meaning.
• The rawness of the font. I didn't know if she hand drew the letters or used a font. Subsequently, I've learned she used a font, Comic Sans. The design has been widely criticized because of its use. Designers hate Comic Sans. However, if you didn't know it was Comic Sans or the font was, instead, named, "Street", I think people would see the rawness and human-ness with it's use. I assume Taya knew Comic Sans' reputation and made a bold choice.
• There are reasons why this design is being copied. It's powerful.

2) The fact that this started at Notre Dame. No one knows this design was first used by Notre Dame Women's Basketball. The school has not taken advantage of the publicity. What other women's basketball program has spearheaded a social movement?

3) Legal rights. I don't know whether the university, Muffet, or Taya, or all three collectively have the rights to the shirt design. There's a lot of money being made at the school's expense.

[I guess I don't get the "funny" comment. Sorry. Regardless, you're right, I've failed.]

I'm sure even if they get a smaller portion they would make more money selling it through Lebron than on their own. I have no idea if this is true, I would hope Lebron would give credit and there might be a mention on the site selling it.

Or maybe some remember the backlash from back then and want to avoid that.

Interesting. Certainly has been brought to light in 2020. Thanks for info

If you're like me and follow NDWBB but spend zero time following the NBA, you might have read about the event that Baba references.

In the espn article about it, I quote, "Forward Taya Reimer said the team came up with the idea..." and also "...which the players had made and paid for themselves..." This happened on Dec 13, 2014.

So in my ignorance of the rest of the sports world, and confirming my bias that ND is awesome, at the time, I concluded that the shirt itself was an ND Team creation. But this thread went weird, so I dug some more.

Lebron and other NBA players wore the shirts on December 8, 2014. In light of this fact, I reinterpret the quotes to mean the idea was to wear the shirts that Lebron & co already had, not to create a shirt/slogan. So it wasn't Taya's design. TIL. Maybe Baba fell into the same trap as me.

and after checking it does appear you are correct, then, yes, I fell deeply into that trap. Like you, I truly was under the impression that it was Taya's design. My apology. Forget this whole thread. My bias also is showing. ND is not as creative as I thought.

Thank you lenny!

(actually probably much more than that) are probably the creators of this phrase.