John Costacos got his start as an entrepreneur in 1984 when he and his brother designed a T-shirt they called “Purple Reign”, a crossover play on the hit song from Prince and the Washington Huskies’ dominant defense. The shirts sold like gangbusters, and the Costacos brothers were in business.
After selling T-shirts for a few years, John was in his local sports memorabilia store looking for his next business opportunity. Not one to over complicate things, John asked the store owner what the number 1 requested item was, that the store didn’t have. Posters of Kenny Easley, the Seattle Seahawks All-Pro Safety, was the immediate answer.
Sparked with inspiration and a knack for combining sports and pop-culture, John went to work. He reached out to the Seahawks, pitched the idea to Kenny Easley’s manager, and before you know it, he had a photo shoot scheduled with one of his sports idols. He got his 1 “yes”, and they were on their way to success.
John and his brother struck gold. They would create and sell more than 30 million posters of some of the most iconic athletes of all time. Willie Mays, Michael Jordan, John Elway, Bo Jackson, Roger Clemens, Larry Bird, and dozens more. If you were a sports fan and a teenager in the 90’s you likely had a Costacos brothers poster.
Fast forward to 2021, John Costacos has found a new way to breathe life into an old business idea. He has started turning his posters into NFTs and selling the digital rights of his designs.
Let’s see what he is up to and how these iconic posters will be made into digital collectibles.
In this episode John talks about:
- Working with professional athletes
- Going for it if you are confident in your idea...even if you lack experience
- One “Yes” from one person can change your life
- Telling a story through pop-culture and sports
Check out the new designs by John Costacos:
https://costacoscollection.com/about
https://www.facebook.com/CostacosCollection
https://www.instagram.com/costacoscollection/
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