Sept. 4, 2025
Story by Mara Reinstein, BJ ’01
Photos by Abbie Lankitus
If you happen to be in The Mizzou Store at the University of Missouri this season, be on the lookout for Textile & Apparel Management assistant professor Kerri McBee-Black. She’ll be in a special section scooping up the Champion-brand sweatshirts, hoodies and T-shirts that feature retro-looking Mizzou graphic designs and patchwork.
“I have to buy it all,” she says. “And I have an inside line because my son works there, and he can tell me when they all arrive.”
She’s not just speaking as a proud longtime faculty member. Students in her fall 2024 Textile & Apparel Management (TAM) 3480 Technical Design class in the College of Arts and Science created all the Champion graphics for the apparel. The project was part of Mizzou’s partnership with the popular sportswear brand.
A literal hands-on learning experience, the program — unique to Mizzou — offers students the chance to work on everything from conceptualization to designs to distribution plans. At the semester’s end, they present their ideas to a panel of judges that picks the winning designs. The reigning champs just-graduated TAM alumni Sabra Brockhouse, BS ’25, and Chloe Horstman, BS ’25, and Emma Volk, BS ’25.
The student-designed limited-edition items, part of Champion’s College Vault Collection, are available in The Mizzou Store under student-made signage. They are available for purchase online as well. The designs feature an elevated chenille patch showcasing a satin twill “1839” and a chenille tiger, applied across a range of apparel. The first wave of the collection debuted this past spring; new clothes will be rolled out throughout the fall season.
From Champion’s perspective, the collaboration serves as an opportunity to teach students invaluable business skills. “We’re giving them a taste of a very niche part of the fashion market,” says Brooke Stafford, BS ’16, a Champion product analyst who served as a liaison between the students and her staff. “We can update our vintage looks with a student’s eye and see what they’re looking for because we’re giving them the reins.”
The vintage line also fosters some good old-fashioned school spirit. “I already have a closet full of stuff from previous years,” boasts McBee-Black, MS ’96, PhD ’20. “And then I’ll post everything on my social media channels, and my friends will ask me to help them get a T-shirt or sweatshirt. It all just makes me so happy.”
From pitch to production
The Champion partnership initially was conceived by Sonja Derboven, the director of licensing and brand management at Mizzou. “We have a really great Textile & Apparel Management program here,” she explains. “And I wanted to create an experience that would make the connection between the classroom and one of the biggest global fashion brands.”
In 2022, she pitched her idea to the powers-that-be at Champion, “the obvious idea because they’re one of our apparel partners and very recognizable.” Much to Derboven’s delight, the company was receptive and jumped aboard.
As Stafford explains it, she and her team were intrigued by the prospect of working with a specific demographic — and, as a bonus, activating the brand on campus. “We saw the value in it because we like to connect back to universities,” she says. “And the students could understand the business that we’re trying to sell into.”
Indeed, Champion, which launched in 1919, has drawn interest from Millennials and Gen Zers riding a wave of nostalgia for retro sports brands in recent years. Selena Gomez posed in a cozy Champion crewneck sweatshirt in 2023.
With a firm “yes” in hand, Derboven then approached McBee-Black. The two brainstormed how to incorporate the program and decided to offer it to the upper-level students in her Technical Design class starting in fall 2020. “This opportunity went way beyond theory and lecturing from a textbook,” McBee-Black says “You’re working with people in the industry and seeing what they deal with every day.”
The 2024 iteration began with a project launch day in which all 17 students in the class visited Champion headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas, to see where the magic happens. Not only did they tour the renowned company’s graphic design studio, decorations facility and showrooms, but they also learned the ins-and-outs of how to create a successful product. “We gave them a whole presentation,” Stafford says. “What is it we do? What is our process? What are we asking them to do with this project?”
The Champion team also officially tasked the students with their mission: Take blank garments and design a series of retro Mizzou-logo styles across men’s, women’s and youth clothes that would be on-brand. The goal, Stafford adds, was to give these styles a fresh new look.
Throughout the semester, Stafford — along with the brand, tech design and creative design teams — met with the students over Zoom every few weeks to see their works-in-progress, answer pressing questions and offer constructive feedback. “This is a real-world setting,” she says, “so our graphics designer would say something like, ‘I like it, but the design needs to be pushed up higher above the belly.’ Or, ‘That’s cool, but the art is too big for the garment.’ ”
The Champion staffers delivered honesty with good reason: “The process teaches the students how to receive a critique and not take it personally,” Stafford says. “It just helps better the product to meet what we’re looking for. It’s a mirror as to what it’s like to work in our industry.”
McBee-Black supported the students as their de facto project manager.
“I wanted to make sure they were learning the proper terminology so that they could communicate effectively and efficiently with the folks at Champion,” she says. During her own communications with the company, “I wanted to manage expectations because sometimes they wanted to do things that students didn’t have the ability to do in their time frame. So it was a constant negotiation and mediation to accommodate both parties.”
Judgment day
In December, the students presented their final logos and designs to a panel that included Derboven, Stafford, Champion lead designer of graphic design Brittany Lewis and Champion senior technical apparel designer Erin Reilly. Cristy Allmeyer, BS BA ’06, the senior associate director of merchandise management for stores in the University of Missouri System, sat in as well. (McBee-Black recused herself from judging and observed for grading purposes.)
“The presentations were awesome!” Derboven says. She describes the students as being “excited about the opportunity to have their product in The Mizzou Store, so they’re engaged and really creative. It’s so fun to see.” McBee-Black is still raving about her students’ work: “I was blown away. As a professor, I just get chills knowing they were so committed and serious to the project.”
Together, the group selected the winners based on current trends. “The winning designs have a vintage feel because throwback types of sports like tennis and pickleball are really in right now,” McBee-Black says.
Derboven explains that store buyers were so impressed by the options that they ended up choosing an assortment of selections from many of the class participants because they anticipated the products would be “embraced by the Mizzou crowd.”
There’s certainly a lot to cheer about. Stafford says ever since the special Mizzou-branded clothes first appeared in The Mizzou Store in 2023, multiple styles sold-through completely and required re-orders from Champion. Derboven notes that sales have progressively increased overall. “The bookstore has continued to buy in at bigger inventory levels than the year before,” she says. “So there’s been obvious success.”
And beyond the numbers? Derboven adds, “The project has taken on a life of its own. The students are excited, and we try to highlight them as much as we can on social media and show that Mizzou can collaborate with a global brand name.”
Designs on the future
The current Student Made Collection will carry fans through next year as Champion takes a planned pause during the 2025–2026 academic calendar to strategize and enhance the program. Derboven anticipates the partnership will relaunch in fall 2026 with an even more dynamic experience for students.
“No other university offers this specific program or this specific collaboration,” she says.
She adds that Mizzou’s licensing office has won industry awards for the program. “It’s become a major part of the students’ classroom experience. And it’s a great opportunity to tell prospective students about it and elevate us, because we’re leading the way in putting together this kind of cutting-edge project.”
For Stafford, the project’s triumph occurs every time young consumers proudly wear that black and gold. “The success comes from the students. I think it’s really cool to have students who have designed things for you,” she says. “They know what they want to see on campus and have the pulse on the university and the student body. There’s a deeper connection to real people wearing our products.”
After all, the right design will never go out of style.
“Our entire discipline is focused on an industry that is very real-world,” McBee-Black says. “Everybody has to wear clothes.”
