You have done this twice already.

@mikejonesnc · 9,613 Instagram · no TikTok

The most decorated sports-merch designer in the Carolinas, and he has already designed a professional soccer scarf. Grew up in Apex, five miles from the stadium, and has said publicly that working with hometown teams was the goal.

• Charlotte FC, 2023: designed the game-worn jersey numbers for the "Excellence Was Once A Dream" campaign and the club's June Scarf of the Month.
• Carolina Hurricanes, 2024: the team's first Black Excellence jersey. Jerseys sold out; the tees went in 32 minutes. Proceeds to Durham Success Summit.
• Charlotte Hornets, 2025: the NBA's first Black Excellence jersey. MidSouth Emmy nomination for the accompanying short film.
• Also: national campaigns with Champs Sports, Complex and Foot Locker. Mentored by Victor Lytvinenko of Raleigh Denim Workshop.
• The trade-off: under 10K followers, and he is in Charlotte now, about 2.5 hours away. His products sell out anyway.

@gabegets · 6,700 Instagram · gabegets.com

The only person on this list who can design the thing and manufacture it. His follower count badly understates him: he built DURM into Durham's defining streetwear brand over seven years and 54 collections.

• The connection that matters: he designed the Durham Bulls' actual on-field uniforms in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the first Bulls kit ever made by a company outside the sports industry. Capitol Broadcasting owns the Bulls and co-owns the Courage, published its own feature on him, and WRAL covered the collaboration. He is already a vetted quantity to one of your owners.
• Carolina Hurricanes mural, downtown Raleigh, 2022, via the City's public art programme. It won a Sir Walter Raleigh Award.
• Opening DURM Studio this summer at 704 Rigsbee Ave with in-house screen printing, sewing and embroidery, explicitly offering custom merchandise production. He shares 5% of profits with the Durham Public Schools Foundation.
• Precedent worth copying: all 37 game-worn DURM Night jerseys were auctioned for the Durham Bulls Youth Athletic League.

@___chelsea.rose___ 1,704 · @chelseamato 1,658 · chelseaamato.com

The strategically correct name, and the one whose reach is the problem. She designed the Carolina Hurricanes' first-ever Pride jersey in 2024. In her words to the NHL: "The opportunity to meld queerness and sports sounded right up my alley."

• Identity: queer, they/she, stated in her own words on her Queer Design Club profile: "To be queer is to be both resistant and resilient. I view design through that lens."
• Hits the bonus twice. Ongoing freelance client of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, where she designed for their Southern Queer Survivor Network, serving all 100 NC counties. And her Edge of Urge Pride shirt sent all proceeds to the LGBT Center of Raleigh, which is the org the club is already fundraising for.
• Also: Creative Director at Fullsteam Brewery (labels and tees), an Equality NC tee, and prior design work for the Met, MoMA and the New Museum.
• The honest weakness: roughly 1,700 followers across two overlapping accounts. She does not clear a reach bar on her own. Pair her with the club's channels, which is how the Hurricanes jersey worked.

@seanorock · 8,041 Instagram · seanorock.com

Nobody else combines this much Triangle sport with this much Town of Cary. Visit Raleigh calls him "perhaps the most prolific mural painter in the Raleigh area."

• Cary, and your stadium is a Town of Cary facility: the Koka Booth Amphitheatre 25th anniversary mural, the "All Aboard!" mural in downtown Cary with Cary Visual Art, plus Cary High School and Olive Chapel Middle.
• Triangle sport, repeatedly: a Carolina Hurricanes mural on N Harrington St, the DJ Burns Final Four NC State mural, the NC State football locker room, the ACC Network launch tunnel, the UNC women's basketball locker room, and a LeVelle Moton tribute.
• Commercial: AC Hotels, Hyatt House, Cisco, Gensler, Crabtree Valley Mall, and touring Exhibition Hub shows in Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix and LA.
• Gap: murals and walls, no apparel or product licensing found. A garment would be a new format for him.

@gemynii · 15K Instagram · gemynii.com

The highest verified-queer following in the Triangle. Bold abstract portraits centring Black femmes, plus a DJ and curatorial practice. Her own bio describes the work as seen "through the lense of a fat black queer femme."

• Identity: self-stated on her own site.
• Already sells apparel: "PAY BLACK FEMMES" shirts and prints through her own shop, so the licensing conversation is not new to her.
• Credentials: Durham Art Guild artist in residence 2018, first place in the 63rd DAG juried exhibition, and joined Apple for a "She Create" event in New York.

@irisgottlieb · 13K Instagram · irisgottlieb.com

The most brand-fluent queer artist in the market, by a distance. Author-illustrator of Seeing Gender and Seeing Science. If the club wants someone who already knows how a licensing deal works, this is the one.

• Identity: her own words, "my queerness" and "as a queer female in the science world." Her publisher's jacket copy calls her a queer author and artist.
• Client list: Dr. Martens, Ford, Sephora, Google, MTV, TikTok, the New York Times, National Geographic, the Smithsonian, Chronicle Books, Penguin Random House.
• Local public work: the "Queer Leaders of Chapel Hill" Chapel Hill Transit bus wrap, 2024. Applied graphics at vehicle scale is the closest thing to a kit wrap on this page.

@the_tinyfire · 10K Instagram · thetinyfire.com

The best combination of real reach and verified queer identity available locally. Fine-line botanical and ritual illustration, Southern-gothic symbolism. The linework would carry beautifully on a scarf.

• Identity: their own Instagram bio reads "queer femme drawing on skin and making blasphemous art in bibles in NC."
• Genuine licensing history: contributed to the Slow Holler queer Southern tarot deck, Queer Appalachia, the book Bible Belt Queers, band merch for Loamlands and Nana Grizol, and work for The Pinhook in Durham.
• Explicitly available: their site states they are open to "commissions, tattoos, and collaborative projects."
• No tie to any organisation on the club's list.

@unbirthday.ink · 15K Instagram

Tied for the largest verified-LGBTQ+ following here. Kawaii and neo-traditional tattooing plus digital art, bright and bold, with a BFA in new media and design from UNCG behind it.

• Identity, stated precisely: their own site says "Hi, I'm Tori! (They/them)." They are publicly nonbinary by their own pronouns. They do not use the words queer or trans, so neither do we.
• The gap: no apparel or licensing history at all. Real reach and real design training, entirely unproven on product.
• No organisational alignment found.

@wutangmcdougal · 2,772 Instagram

Illustration and graphic design in flat, figure-forward 1980s colour. Their own bio reads "BLACK queer art activist."

• Identity, own words: "My first Pride was in 2018, and also the year I really explored my queerness. I also wanted to show representation of pride in Black queerness, Trans community and queer love."
• Designed a full Chapel Hill Transit bus wrap for the 2022 Pride bus. Large-format applied graphics is the nearest analogue to a kit or scarf wrap in this entire search.
• Also: illustration for Will Smith's book launch, and logo design for Pop Box Gallery.

@fartworks · 965 Instagram · freddiebellart.com

Bold, flat, pattern-driven abstraction built from grids, cones and repeated shape. Of everyone here, this is the work that would translate most directly onto fabric.

• Identity, own artist statement: "My identity as a queer and transgender person informs how I see and move through the world and is a fundamental influence in all my work."
• Murals in Durham, Chapel Hill, and at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Artspace regional emerging artist resident 2022; Durham Arts Council emerging artist grantee 2025-26.
• Under 1,000 followers. A design and story pick, not a reach pick.

@jeks_nc · 94K Instagram · jeksone.com

By far the largest audience of any artist in North Carolina. Hyper-realistic aerosol portrait murals, self-taught graffiti writer since the late nineties, work across the US, Canada, Colombia and Croatia.

• Brand fluent: contract artist for Monster Energy, plus Spotify, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Warner Media and Bleacher Report. He understands sponsor relationships.
• No team work, no product lines, and nothing connecting him to the club's partners.
• Worth knowing before a reach-led pitch: he has publicly criticised social-metric-driven creative culture, saying "likes do not equal success." Lead with the work, not the numbers.

@jasoncraighead · 42K Instagram

The largest following of any artist actually based in the Triangle, and it is not close. Large-scale gestural abstraction in acrylic, graphite, oil pastel and torn paper.

• The alignment is unusually direct: his work is in Capitol Broadcasting Company's permanent collection, and CBC co-owns the Courage. He is also in the City of Raleigh collection and sits on the Raleigh Arts Commission.
• Institutional standing: solo show at CAM Raleigh, solo at Artspace through February 2026, gallery representation in Denver and Finland.
• The catch: no apparel, no licensing, no product work of any kind. A Courage collab would be his first. High reach and high prestige, entirely unproven on merchandise.

@windyoconnorofficial 76K · @shopwindyoconnor 33K

The only artist in the state who has already solved manufacturing, licensing and direct-to-consumer. She sells large silk scarves today, alongside apparel, wallpaper, pillows and prints, from her own storefront at Camp North End.

• If the product is a scarf, her operation is the most turnkey in North Carolina. Interior design degree; featured in House Beautiful and Southern Accents; exhibits at High Point Market.
• Three gaps: 145 miles away, no sports history at all, and a decorative-feminine aesthetic rather than a sporting one.

@taylorwhitestudio · 13K Instagram · taylorwhite.art

The safest, best-evidenced pick in the Triangle. Second-largest local following, a working relationship with the club already, and an existing body of women's soccer work.

• She lists "The NC Courage" as a client on her own About page, alongside Google Fiber, Hyatt, Microsoft, Lululemon and Kane Realty. The 2023 commission was made live at the relaunched-jersey launch event with Merz Aesthetics.
• She also painted the 2019 Women's International Champions Cup mural in downtown Raleigh, featuring Courage players, for the tournament hosted at your stadium. It was shared by Jessica McDonald and Manchester City.
• Identity not verified. If this is framed as an LGBTQ+ artist programme, that is a question to ask her directly rather than assume. She belongs on the list either way.
• Format gap: her commercial history is murals and brand activations, not licensed product.