How an unlikely series of events made the “Born ready” baby Vladdy T-shirt to go viral
Artist Kit Weyman gives us the lowdown on his T-shirt design
If you’re a Jays fan, chances are you’ve seen that adorable T-shirt featuring a drawing of three-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at his father’s Expos game. The shirt, which shows the tyke replacing an Expos helmet with a Jays hat, has Guerrero Jr.‘s now-iconic line, “Born ready,” scrawled under the illustration.
A Toronto artist, director and actor is behind the design, and he has a chance airport run-in with someone one degree of separation from Jays royalty to thank for it.
Artist Kit Weyman dreamed up the design while he was watching game seven of the ALCS in New York, where he was visiting friends. Shortly afterward, Weyman’s cousin invited him to game one of the World Series back in Toronto, so Weyman cut his trip to New York short but ended up at the wrong airport, heading to Newark instead of LaGuardia.
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After he bought a new ticket home and landed in Toronto later than planned, Weyman spotted someone fully decked out in Jays gear at Billy Bishop. Weyman tossed out a customary “Go Jays!” as he was passing by, and the pair got to talking. Turns out, that man, Matt, was the brother of Jays coach John Schneider.
Weyman showed Schneider the drawing, and Schneider encouraged him to do something with it. So Weyman quickly got the design printed onto some T-shirts and met up with Matt at game one to pass the shirts out to the team. “When I found out that Vladdy and Bo had the shirts, I was just so grateful,” Weyman says. “It was incredible.”
The shirt has since been seen on everyone from Bo Bichette to Mayor Olivia Chow to Vladdy himself. Weyman is currently selling shirts and hoodies with the design on a website, and he’s even offering local Toronto pickup for those hoping to sport the shirt for the last games of the World Series.
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His design has since spawned imitations online despite having been made only a week ago. “The fact that it got this big is just a testament to the community and the energy that the Blue Jays are building,” he says. “So I say to the bootleggers: try to keep up.”
