Last year was tough if your closet was lacking in Warriors merch.
With 2024 set to be the same (it's our year), one talented Maori creative may be in high demand after making one of the best pieces of Wahs merch I've ever seen.
He goes by Creative Taro on Instagram and is a man of many talents, but he takes particular pride in upcycling vintage clothing. One of his best pieces of work is turning a Warriors 2014 Heritage jersey into a suave, clean and 360-degree sun-safe piece of headwear.
Unfortunately for all but one Wahs fan, the bucket hat was a one-off, commissioned piece. If anyone involved with the Warriors is reading this: Hire this man immediately and get those hats in the team store (and slide some season tickets my way please).
Having scrolled through this bloke's Instagram for the past hour or so, his talent and passion for what he does is immediately obvious. He scours through thrift stores finding the sickest pieces and is constantly creating insanely creative and cool custom items.
He does this all while keeping his heritage at the forefront.
"Being Maori and Pasifika I didn't have access to money on a tree in my backyard," he writes on his website (no longer online). "So, much like my ancestors, I dug deep into my kete and pulled out the most important assets I had - my creativity and imbedded te ao Maori values and beliefs."
"With these two things, I concocted a badass plan to start a reselling business built on the premise of Kaitiakitanga and fashion."
"I was already flipping shit on TradeMe and finding dope threads in the Ops and decided that this would be where I put my entrepreneurial energy and started my Instagram reselling page called Creative Taro."
Betting on himself seems to be going pretty well for the bloke so good on him. Just please start selling those bucket hats bro.
