Jeff Hamilton, the creator of the iconic championship jackets of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, recently appeared on Joy Taylor’s podcast and spoke about Jordan in multiple ways. While discussing how the peak moment of Hamilton’s life occurred when he was at his most depressed, he compared his own life to Jordan’s.
Hamilton spoke about how he got detached from the world when he was depressed, and it gave him the inner strength and perspective to embrace imperfection. He compared his own imperfection to Jordan and Stephen Curry.
“Listen, would we see, probably yeah, but would we see Michael Jordan play every single game if every time he got the ball and he shot it from everywhere in the court, he would make it, or Steph Curry? We wouldn’t want to go see the game. It wouldn’t be interesting. What’s interesting is the fact that once in a while, he misses, and it gives you the perspective of that.”
Following this, he doubled down with another analogy about Michael Jordan that represents his life.
“When I talk about the passion, if Michael Jordan was not the biggest icon there is, you know, in sports right now, and after 40 plus years, he was not worth the money that he’s worth. I mean, at 63 years old, he’ll be in his backyard shooting hoops and then being happy because that’s his passion.”
“And that’s the way I’d like to think that if I were not designing, I would be doing some art stuff, which is what I did when I was out. I was creating art, and I wanted to be in a creative space in anything because it needed to get out of me.”
Hamilton was not taking a shot at either player but wanted to convey how imperfection is also a desirable virtue of its own. If each of these players shot 100% from the field, they would be no different than a machine. What makes them human is their potential to make an error despite working on their craft for multiple decades.
Jeff Hamilton’s Work In The NBA
Hamilton designed the championship jackets for Michael Jordan in all six championships that he won with the Chicago Bulls. He also famously worked with Kobe Bryant, for whom he designed the jacket in four of his five championships (missed 2009).
According to NSS Sports, the first thing that Jordan did after winning the 1998 NBA championship was to demand his jacket from Jeff Hamilton.
“Jeffrey, where’s my jacket?” he reportedly said.
Most recently, he also gave Stephen Curry a ‘one of a kind’ jacket during the 2024 Paris Olympics, making him a part of the exclusive list of NBA athletes that Hamilton works with.
What makes Hamilton’s work unique is his vibrant and hand-stitched championship designs that come with each jacket. He started making these iconic jackets in the mid-1980s with celebrities like Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali before he began working with Jordan and other NBA athletes.
