Lil Peep Hot Topic Shirt

Lil Peep’s team gave his fans the opportunity to design merchandise for him, as it always was a dream of his. I was awarded the best design out of 2,500+ others and it was loved so much by the team that instead of their original plan of selecting multiple designs, they decided to run with my design alone and partner with Hot Topic to release my shirt as a Hot Topic Exclusive, available on their website and 650+ retail locations. To be able to design for one of my favorite artists, and at such a large scale, was an absolute dream of mine and is one of my proudest moments.

In just 6 months of its release, my shirt has become Hot Topic’s 76th best-selling shirt out of their entire 25,367 online shirt collection (as of June 2019). Additionally, the shirt has been acknowledged in The New York Times & New York Magazine’s “The Cut”.

Lil Peep, one of my favorite artists of all time, passed away November 15, 2017. Devastated, and having the dream of working with him one day, I decided to design a tribute in memory of Peep.

It was a 1×1 graphic where I incorporated a dark, rough background with contrasting, vibrantly blooming flowers to illuminate that there is beauty amidst the darkness; a common theme in Peep’s artistry.

Before passing, Peep told his team that he had wanted to release merchandise created by his fans. In August of 2018 his team followed through with Peep’s wishes, announcing that they would allow fans to submit designs on their website. To this day, my tribute artwork is still one of my pieces I’ve ever designed, and so I knew I had to incorporate it into my merchandise submission. In addition, I had already received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback on it, had it featured on HYPEBEAST, and even had people asking me to make it into merchandise long before this opportunity, and so I made it into a shirt and submitted it.

After reviewing the submissions, Peep’s team contacted me saying that my design was the best out of the 2,500+ they received. After some minor adjustments, my design was ready to be added to the collection… or so I thought. While this was originally intended to just be just once piece of the merchandise collection, Peep’s team shifted gears and focused solely on my design instead, partnering with Hot Topic to release my shirt as a Hot Topic Exclusive which has unfolded to be a hit.

This project was a dream come true, not just for me, but for Peep and his fans. This was about giving fans across the country accessibility to merchandise that they had been longing for. His mother and team believe Peep would have loved to see his merchandise next to his heroes like My Chemical Romance and Blink 182 in Hot Topic where he loved to shop.