The Dream Team’s American flag jackets. The Lithuanian men’s basketball team’s Grateful Dead-inspired tie-dye T-shirts. Kobe Bryant’s Jeff Hamilton leather jacket. These pieces of clothing are immortalized forever because of the celebratory moments they were introduced in. Following its victory over France in the gold medal game this past weekend, Team USA men’s basketball provided the latest addition to the pantheon of all-time championship sports apparel when they popped bottles in T-shirts featuring cartoonish illustrations of the squad that harken back to the incredible caricature tees of decades’ past.
But the T-shirt worn by the USA men’s basketball team wasn’t some official design from Nike or Fanatics as one might expect. It wasn’t even from a clothing designer at all. It was by a 30-year-old chef in New York City.
“It’s hard for me to even believe this is real,” says Fire Escape Cooking creator Joe Vadakkedam. “Like, damn, LeBron James is wearing my shirt. That’s crazy. It’s still unfathomable to me.”
Making a T-shirt that LeBron James and Anthony Edwards would be wearing to celebrate their gold medal wasn’t what Vadakkedam expected. A lifelong basketball fan, he just wanted to wear something he thought looked cool to the Olympics and rep the team. He couldn’t find what he was looking for online, so, he reached out to an illustrator to help whip up a design of his own.
Vadakkedam DMed a handful of players, not expecting any to answer, but his full court heave went in. While he won’t say who, one of the players eventually responded and asked if the shirts could be sent to the team. Vadakkedam found a print shop in Paris to make 30 T-shirts that were sent via Uber Package to the team’s hotel.
Tyrese Haliburton was the first player spotted in the shirt. He arrived at the quarterfinal matchup against Brazil wearing it. Vadakkedam expected that to be the last sighting, and was ecstatic that any NBA player wore something he made. Then, Team USA won the gold medal. As celebration videos flooded social media, Vadakkedam saw more and more players in his shirt. Players even took their official gold medal portraits wearing them. Now, his spur-of-the-moment creation is a part of basketball history.
Despite their virality and hundreds of DMs asking how to buy one, Vadakkedam will not be selling them. They are limited to the 30 that he sent to the team in Paris.
We caught up with the chef and social media content creator to discuss seeing his first-ever T-shirt design on his favorite players, if he ever plans to sell other clothing designs, and more.
You’re known for your cooking content. What inspired you to make this T-shirt in the first place?
I was actually going to the Olympics to watch a few games. I wanted a cool shirt to wear. I went on Nike and Team USA’s sites and all they had wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. So I created one. I thought maybe I could throw a shirt to a player or something to see if they want it. It’s funny, I didn’t even wear it to the Olympics.
You didn’t end up going?
I went to the Olympics, but the designs weren’t ready in time. No print shops were open. So, I printed the shirts when I came back to New York.
How did you create the graphic?
I actually hired a cartoon artist to draw it. We talked through everything. So I own the design. I gave him a lot of mockups, a lot of inspiration of what I’m looking for, and we went through six to seven revisions until we nailed down the correct one.
It reminds me a lot of vintage NBA championship T-shirts. Was that your inspiration?
I’m just a huge basketball fan. The main [inspiration] was the Dream Team one that I always loved. It was such an iconic team, such an iconic shirt, and this team really reminded me of that. They’re an amazing group of individuals playing together and one of the greatest teams ever. The inspiration came from that and the other championship T-shirts you see with the cartoon heads.
So you’ve always been a big basketball fan?
Oh yeah. The Knicks are my team. It’s hard not to be anything but a Knicks fan in New York City. But LeBron James is my favorite player. He’s always been.
I played a lot of basketball when I was young too, in high school. The love for the game was always there. Going to the Olympics and seeing all these players of my generation, my childhood heroes, it was a dream.
How did this connection to Team USA happen?
I don’t want to say his name, but it was one of the players. I DMed half the team. Then, the next morning I was brushing my teeth and I see a player responded. He was like, “Yo, send me a pic. I want to see the image of the design.” I sent it to him and he was like, “Oh, this is clean.”
At the time, I wasn’t still in Paris. I just got back to New York and he was like, “Could you get it to me?” So I found a print shop in Paris. Initially, I was just going to give it to him, but then I was like, ‘What if I give it to the whole team?’ I don’t know their sizes. I’m not going to ask the player to give me all the sizes of 12 different athletes. So I just guessed. I sent 30, a good amount of Larges, good amount of XLs, a few XXLs, and then a XXL for AD or Joel [Embiid] or something. So yeah, I get the print shop to print it, and then Uber the package to the player’s hotel.
Man, you were just there. You could have hand-delivered [Laughs]
[Laughs] I was thinking that. I could have met a few of the players. It would’ve been sick. That was the one thing that was hard. I’m here in New York dealing with a shop in Paris. We’re doing a lot of translations on Google Translate. Working with them was fine, but it would’ve been better if I could feel the texture of the shirt, see the print, all that stuff. But it worked out in the end. I’m not complaining.
What was your first reaction when you saw Halliburton wearing your shirt?
When I saw that on USA basketball, I was shocked. This NBA player thinks my design is so cool that he wore it for his pre-game fit. I was completely blown at that point. I had all my friends DMing me. I put it on my Story. Honestly, at first when I put it up on my Story, people were very confused. This is the cooking guy. What is going on here? Then when the next thing happened, that’s when it just erupted.
At what point did you finally see the whole team in the shirt?
From the Brazil game to the gold medal game, I think it was almost five days, I’m not seeing any of the players wear the shirt. So I’m like, ‘Damn. I guess they didn’t really like the design.’ But I’m still like, ‘Tyrese Haliburton wore the shirt. That’s pretty sick.’ So, I didn’t think much of it after that at that point.
I watched the gold medal game and I go for a bike ride after. I come back and the next thing I see on my feed is LeBron James popping bottles. AD’s wearing the shirt. KD’s wearing the shirt. That’s LeBron wearing my shirt. I was running around repeatedly yelling, “LeBron’s wearing my shirt, LeBron’s wearing my shirt,” probably a good 15 times. It was unreal. The fact that they were holding the shirts until they won the gold medal is sick. I lost it.
So you had no idea?
No idea. I thought it was done. I felt like after Tyrese wore it I was never going to see it again. And then to see that while they’re celebrating with the gold medal around their neck and then my shirt under it was mind blowing. I was running around screaming like a kid. It was one of the coolest days of my life.
They’re even wearing them in their official portraits. It’s part of basketball history now.
I talked about that with my two younger brothers. We all played basketball and are huge NBA fans. Fingers crossed, the documentaries and stuff, they’re all going to have the shirt in it. Seeing all these outlets post it, this is crazy. I can’t even believe it.
Nike made their own caricature shirt. The team still had yours on anyway, which is pretty funny to think about. Are you nervous you may hear from Nike?
No. I think they were two completely different designs. They just ended up having the same cartoon feel. And I’m not selling the shirt or anything. It was a gift to the players.
You’re keeping it to the 30 you made for them? You aren’t selling them?
I don’t think I’m going to sell. First off, there’s some copyright stuff. But at the same time, I think these players are profited off of so much from their likeness. It’s such a sick feeling to think that the shirts that I made just for fun, because I’m a fan of the game, were the ones that they decided to wear when they won the gold medal. That itself is enough for me. Seeing people commenting, “I want this shirt that the players are wearing,” is enough for me.
If a brand reached out to partner [with you] and sell them officially, would you be willing to?
I would definitely talk with them if they are interested in it. I wouldn’t close the door right away.
Shifting gears to your food content real quick, how did the whole Fire Escape Cooking come to be?
I’ve always loved cooking. I’ve been cooking since a very young age, especially with my mom and stuff like that. Eventually I started going onto my own path of learning my own recipes. I was working at this e-commerce company remotely here in New York and I was also cooking a lot at home. I put up a video or two of me cooking on TikTok. I ended up getting laid off from my job and then next thing you know I’m going full-time into content. In July of last year I had 500 to 1,000 followers on Instagram. I was making normal cooking content. Then one day I asked a stranger on the street from my fire escape, “If I cook her one meal, what would it be?” And she said, mussels. I posted the video, went on a flight, landed, and saw it had 300,000 views or something like that. That’s kind of where I found my niche. This year, we’re over 900,000 followers. On top of this USA basketball stuff, it’s been crazy.
Hypothetically, you get asked to cook a celebratory meal for Team USA. What are you making? An appetizer, entree, and dessert.
I’m going scallops for the app. We’re starting off with some fire. Entree, we could do this slow roasted lamb that I make and it just falls off the bone. So delicious. You can throw it over some flavorful rice. And then for dessert, we’re definitely going to go with this sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce. People have told me it is like heaven in your mouth.
You’ve gotten a ton of exposure from this shirt. Are you going to play around with more shirt designs in the future? Maybe release some?
I would love to release something with the NBA and whoever needs to make sure it’s okay to sell it. I love these types of designs and so that’d be really cool. Or even maybe my own merch would be something. It was a good test run to make something like this. It would be sick if I could help design the NBA Finals one or the next Olympics one with Nike or something.
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