My Story

The Idea

Roughly one week before The Weeknd's "After Hours Til Dawn" Tour stop in Amsterdam, I had an unrealistic idea:
What if I would make a vintage T-shirt for my favorite artist & gift it to him?
I had no experience in T-shirt design, except for following a few video tutorials. However, that did not stop me from trying. So, I dropped everything and started designing. After hours and hours of trial and error, the final design was in sight.

This got me very excited, so I had to let some friends know about my plans...

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.
Even in this case; if I would've failed in giving it to Abel, I learned a lot from pouring my time into designing the T-shirt. That's a skillset for life.

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 waste. Procrastination wasn’t an option. On Monday—just five days before the show—I made a decision: drop everything on my To-Do list and focus entirely on getting the T-shirt done in time.

The concept was clear from the start: a vintage bootleg T-shirt for The Weeknd, inspired by his character Tedros from HBO’s The Idol. I initially tried using HBO’s signature color scheme, but it just wasn’t working. Still, the two front images looked great, so I decided to keep those and experiment with the background and the main Tedros text.

It took some trial and error, but after a full day grinding behind my laptop, the design was complete! That was a huge win, but I still had two major obstacles to clear: finding a blank T-shirt with the perfect fit and tracking down a print shop that could get it done in time. With the concert just days away, the clock was ticking.

The design was done, but...

One big issue. I had no printshop that could fulfill my order before the deadline. I contacted 5+ major printshops in Amsterdam and they all declined...

Fortunately, I did not place all my eggs in 1 basket and decided to contact nearly every printshop within my region.

One day later, I got a reply back from a printshop who told me that they could get it done before the day of the concert! I did not hesitated and took the one hour drive immediately.

Love At First Sight.

I was so, so happy with the result. I knew Abel would love this design too. With the momentum I was having, giving up was never an option. So, I came up with a 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

The Day of the concert

Trying to gift The Weeknd a T-shirt in a packed stadium with over 50,000 people sounds impossible. But after all the effort I’d put in—rushing the design, finding the perfect blank tee, and getting it printed just in time—there was no way I was giving up now. I had to make it work.

I arrived later than expected, around 7 PM, and finessed my way through the crowd, desperately trying to get as close to the front as possible. Eventually, I secured a decent spot.

The moment he stepped on stage, I started waving the T-shirt. Almost immediately, he pointed in my direction. Did he see it? I wasn't sure. But just getting his attention wasn’t enough—I needed to get the T-shirt to him.

Then, he moved to the front of the stage, away from my line of sight. At that point, I decided to pause my mission and just enjoy the concert, soaking in the music and the atmosphere. This wasn't easy though, because doubt started creeping in. Did I miss my window of making sure he would notice the T-shirt?

Luckily for me, About an hour in, he returned to the main stage and took off his mask. The energy in the stadium shifted. The music stopped. He started interacting with the crowd.

And then—just when I least expected it—it happened…

Mission Completed.

An indescribable moment.
In a crowd with thousands of people, he pointed at me and complimented the T-shirt I made.

I proceeded to give the T-shirt to his personal security, and enjoyed a worry-free 10/10 concert experience.

Post-Concert Madness

After the concert, I wasn’t sure whether the T-shirt had actually reached him.
Spoiler alert: it did. And some crazy stuff happened next..

A Few Hours After The Concert

Abel found my Instagram page and reposted me wearing the T-shirt! At this moment my socials started blowing up. But what happened next, is even crazier..

The Weeknd Wearing My T-shirt.. 🤯

If you know Abel, you should know this is very rare. Not only did he start wearing the T-shirt, he posted it on his Instagram & Twitter.
This all happened while I was asleep, so I woke up to 50+ missed calls from friends & family, all freaking out.

As soon as this picture hit social media, the T-shirt went giga viral. People were hyped—they wanted to buy it, which was insane to me. But with the hype came some downside. Scammers flooded Etsy and print-on-demand sites, ripping off my design and selling fakes. It was frustrating, but I reported as many as I could, and luckily, most of them got taken down.

In the end, it all worked out. The Weeknd was actually wearing the T-shirt I made for him, and now, XO fans everywhere get to wear it too.

But that's not the end.

Mothafuckin' Mike Dean

Not long after, Mike Dean’s team—who were on tour with The Weeknd—reached out to me. They wanted to know if I could design a T-shirt for him as well.

So, of course I did.

Within a few days, I had the design finalized and the T-shirts printed. Then, I made my way to the After Hours Til Dawn show in Düsseldorf to personally deliver them to Mike Dean and his team.

Loving the story behind the Tedros T-shirt?

You can check out availability by clicking on the Tedros T-shirt below.