“Seattle, 1984 – It all began with Prince. Naturally. One
morning in his grandparents' house that sat atop his home city, John Costacos –
just 23 years old – awoke to hearing “Purple Rain” on the radio.
A University of Washington graduate whose football team had
the best defense in the country at the time, Costacos came up with the idea of
making a "Purple Reign" T-shirt to honor the team, featuring a
lineman in a purple jersey falling from a cloud in the sky.”
The rest, as they say, is history…
You may recall We covered a retrospective of the Costacos
Bros work, "For the Kids"
back in 2011 that took place at Salon 94 NYC, it was easily one of my favorite
shows of the year and instantly transported me back to my youth and the posters
that covered my bed room wall. Amy K. Nelson of SB Nation apparently shared the love
because she put together a great documentary about the brothers featuring some
killer footage of the original shoots, discussions with friends, family, former
employees and of course many of the giants that where the models for these
captivating posters.
The sixteen-minute film features the likes of Jim Mcmahon,
Shawn Kemp, Jon Bois, Sir Charles Barkley and the very personable brothers
themselves to name but a few and is absolutely worth your time if you were a
child of the 80’s and celebrated sports with the Super Bowl Shuffle, The Reign
Man and all the other larger than life personalities you just couldn’t get
enough of.
