By: Shara Taylor
A Bronx native entrepreneur has valued how people look in sportswear and created customized jerseys to meet their needs with his company “Rare Breed BX”.
Thirty-year-old Gabriel Stark, also known as Starky, hopes to make more jerseys for sports fans in fantasy football clubs and other groups this fall. He has taken the vision of a sports team jersey, gathered inspiration from the culture of the city of a team, customized size into consideration, to create fun, proportional-sized jerseys.
“The jerseys are kind of just like the canvas for the art, but everything that I’ve made is really city inspired,” said Starky.
An education from Mount Saint Michael Academy, a Catholic high school in the Bronx, influenced his decision to pursue a religion degree at Haverford College.
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“I think when you understand the boundaries that people are using and playing by and what they believe,” he said. “I think then it’s a little bit easier to sell them something.”
Following his graduation, he started his own marketing company and specialized in content creation and branding. He said this led to an opportunity to work on “Yeezy Season 3”, a fashion show in 2016 at Madison Square Garden that coincided with the “Life of Pablo” concert. He leveraged his opportunities to assist advertising agencies in building their “Influencer” marketing programs and led social media strategies. He later assisted companies like Nike, Red Bull, CVS, and Google with their social media strategies.
After a brief hiatus he started focusing on his company in 2020.
“I’ve always loved jerseys, I’ve always loved sports and for me it was just the opportunity to just reimagine how people think about jerseys and how people think about teams,” he said.
His first jersey was a New York basketball Jersey created in November 2020, which he said people loved. Today his “Broad Street Bullies”- a Phillies hockey inspired jersey — is the most popular jersey, worn by Her and Peety Crack.
Other clients include Puma, from the Black Ink on VH1, the Brooklyn female rap group: The Girll Codee; and comedian Sam Jay from the film “You people”. He said fraternities are also big customers. He hopes to continue work with them and also work with sororities, fantasy football leagues and other groups.
Classmate and Bronx native John Vincenty bought 11 jerseys from Rare Breed BX for the groomsmen in his wedding and his wife Christy.
“I loved them,” said Vincenty. “They were gorgeous and exactly what we wanted at the wedding.”
Vincenty said the jerseys had their nicknames, wedding color schemes, and favorite numbers. Christy said they were perfect for the occasion.
Starky said “Rare Breed BX” can serve bridal parties, sports fans, co-workers, or any large group of people.
A basic generic jersey runs between $100 and $300 and can be purchased online at https://rarebreedbx.com
