The 'After Hours Til Dawn Experience' Vintage T-shirt

€45,00 EUR
€45,00 EUR
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The 'Tedros' T-shirt

€45,00 EUR
€45,00 EUR
Sale Sold out
Tax included.
Size
View full details

The Full Story, Unveiled.

An Unrealistic Idea

Before I went ahead with printing the T-shirt, I had to share my idea with a few friends. Well... let's say they weren't too optimistic about it.

In fact, they did not think I would succeed at all. Even though the idea does sound impossible, the story below is solid proof that you should always try to turn your ideas into reality. It's worth it.

Luckily, I did not care about their opinions and started with designing & producing the T-shirt anyway.

Design & Production

The concert was less than a week away, so I had ZERO time to play around and procrastinate. So on Monday, five days before the concert, I decided to drop everything on my To-Do list and fully focus on getting the T-shirt done in time.

Getting the design ready to print

The concept behind the design was clear: a vintage bootleg T-shirt for The Weeknd, based on his character 'Tedros' from HBO's 'The Idol'.

I started off by trying to go for HBO's color scheme, as seen in the image. I quickly realized that would not work out. However, the two front images were looking great. So, I decided to keep those in and play around with the background and main 'Tedros' text.

It took a while, but I managed to get the design done in a single day! However, there were two things I still had to get sorted: finding a blank T-shirt with a good fit & a printshop that could help me out. Since the concert was only a few days away, I was working with a very tight deadline.

So, I started contacting printshops...

And got decline, after decline, after decline, after decline....

Until this happened...

Out of a total of six printshops I contacted, only ONE was able to help me out before the concert took place. So, I came by the next day to get the T-shirts printed.

As soon as I got the T-shirts printed...

...I was in love. They came out even better than expected!

However, the mission was not complete yet. I still had to get the T-shirt to The Weeknd during his concert.


So, I came up with...

The Game Plan

1️⃣ Arrive early at the concert
2️⃣ Do whatever it takes to get to the front row
3️⃣ Wave the T-shirt whenever The Weeknd is close to me on the stage

Gifting the T-shirt to The Weeknd in a full stadium with over 50.000 people was of course not going to be easy, but I HAD to make it work. I had already put so much effort into getting the T-shirt done with such a tight deadline.


Obviously, there was no way I would give up at this point. So let's fast forward to...

The Day Of The Concert

I arrived late, around 7 PM. After struggling to get in front, I finally found a good spot to stay. So the mission began. As soon as he came on I started waving the T-shirt. I think he already saw it early on, because he pointed in my direction.
Yet, I was supposed to give the T-shirt. Not just have him look at it. So I was far from done yet.

After that happened, he went to the front of the stage, where the T-shirt would not be visible to him. At this point I decided to just enjoy the concert for the time being and vibe to his music.

About one hour in, he walked back to the main stage and took off his mask. Shortly after that happened, the music stopped and he started interacting with the crowd.

Then, when I expected it the least, this happened...

Gifting My T-shirt To The Weeknd

Mission complete.

As you can see in the video above, he pointed at me and the T-shirt I made for him. Then, I gave the T-shirt to his security.
At this point I did not know if the T-shirt would make it to him safely, but that concern turned out to be unjustified.

So, what happened after the concert?

I wanted to properly capture these memories, so I took some pictures near the stage. As soon as I got home, I made an Instagram post to explain everything that happened.

Then, I Got Reposted By The Man Himself!

Insane moment, and I'm honestly still in disbelief.

Even though I still was not sure if the T-shirt made it safely to Abel himself, he was at least aware that I made it for him!

But then...

Things Got Even Crazier...

I was tired from everything that happened on the day before, so I decided to sleep early. HUGE mistake...

The Weeknd Wearing My T-shirt

Jep, he posted this on his Instagram story and on Twitter that same night.

So, I woke up to 50+ missed calls from family and friends, telling me that he was wearing the T-shirt.

As soon as this picture got posted, the T-shirt went viral. Lots of people wanted to buy the T-shirt, which was great!
However, lot's of bad actors also decided to rip off my design and scam people with it on Etsy and other print on demand sites... So, that was messed up. I had to report a lot of those listings, which led to most of them getting taken down luckily.

End good all good. The Weeknd is wearing the T-shirt I made for him & all the XO fans get to wear it as well!

But, The Story Isn't Over Just Yet...

Shortly after, Mike Dean's team, who are on tour with The Weeknd, reached out to me. They asked if I could design a T-shirt for him as well.

So, I did...

Me & Mike Dean

Within a few days, I got the design ready & the T-shirts printed. Then, I headed out to the After Hours Til Dawn show in Düssseldorf to gift them to him and his team.

Meanwhile, I also had a new mission: Meet Abel Tesfaye AKA The Weeknd.

But in order to find out how that part of my story went, you will have to stay updated by subscribing below 👇