Ian Clark didn't know Tyrese Haliburton was going to wear the hoodie.
The 32-year-old Los Angeles-based designer had been told that someone had sent the Pacers' All-Star point guard the sweatshirt he'd designed featuring the photo of Reggie Miller giving the choke pose to Spike Lee in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals. However, Clark had no idea if Haliburton would even receive the hoodie by Game 7 of this year's Eastern Conference semifinals much less wear it in public. Tee Shirt Design
But after the Pacers stunned the Knicks in Game 7 by shooting an NBA playoff record 67.1% from the field, Haliburton appeared wearing the hoodie that Clark had designed while Haliburton was still in high school with an orange slash across Miller's eyes. Next to the photo are words stacked like an address on an envelope: "House of Orange. Madison Square Garden. 4 Pennsylvania Plaza. New York, NY 10001. June 1, 1994."
House of Orange is the name of Clark's fashion house. More than six years after the first appearance of the hoodie on his Instagram page, it was going viral.
"A friend of mine hit me up and sent me the image of him wearing it," Clark said. "It kinda took off from there. Everybody started hitting me up and said, 'Man, your hoodie is all over the place. Ty is wearing it.' So I personally didn't know it was gonna be like that. I didn't know he was going to wear it. it's kinda like a divine timing. Obviously, them playing the Knicks, it being Game 7 and him holding it to wear after the game, it was kinda just the perfect moment."
For Clark, it was a moment years in the making that started with him deciding to chase a dream rather than following his initial path out of college.
Clark grew up in Lakeview Terrace, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb in the San Fernando Valley. He played basketball at Birmingham High School, and even though he was undersized at 5-8, 150 pounds, he managed to earn a walk-on spot at Cal-State Northridge in 2012-13.
Clark always had an eye and a passion for design and fashion, but he majored in economics and when he graduated in 2014 he started working in real estate.
"I always had a love for fashion, but I just wasn't at a point in my life where I could focus in on it," Clark said.
But while he was working full time, he created House of Orange as a side venture. His friend Tony Stevenson joined him to help with the business and together they released six collections of clothing.
"The whole idea around the name is orange symbolizes creativity and freedom of expression," Clark said. "I wanted to create this house that has different rooms where I freely express myself. One room would be fashion. You might go up the stairs and another room would be art or technology. I kinda wanted to have this, I guess this sandbox where I could build things."
He quickly realized that design and not real estate was what he wanted to do full time, so he put more time into the House of Orange and went back to school, obtaining a degree from Pittsburgh's prestigious Carnegie Mellon in Human-Computer Interaction design in 2023 to better understand the technical aspects of design thinking. From there, he invested full-time into House of Orange.
Clark's brand is by no means sports-oriented. The clothing wing of it is focused on luxury street wear and none of his other designs have even referenced sports.
But the Miller hoodie is an exception. It's one of the first pieces he created and one of the ones he's proudest of.
"One of the first players I knew and took a liking to was actually Reggie Miller because of his ability to score the ball," Clark said. "I was a scoring guard when I played. Knowing the history of the game and knowing how iconic that moment was, me being a designer I was able to use his image to invoke some kind of emotion. That was a very emotional game. You know you have something when it comes to design when you're able to pull some kind of emotion, whether it be hate or love. With this actual design I'm getting both. The Knicks hate it, the Pacers love it, that's how you know you have something there."
One of the principles of the House of Orange brand is simplicity, Clark said, so he didn't want to do too much to alter the image. But he put his signature on it with a swipe of orange going across Miller's eyes.
The sweatshirt has been out for years, though it was only available in limited quantity. It made its first appearance on his personal Instagram account in February of 2018, when Tyrese Haliburton was a senior at Oshkosh North High School in Wisconsin, but it's a design that has had staying power for Clark.
Clark pointed out that it's not the only time that his brand has been worn publicly by famous people. NBA players Donovan Mitchell and Justin Holiday have worn the brand. Grammy award-winning rapper Roddy Rich wore it during his promo run for the 2019 album Please Excuse Me for Being Anti-Social. Mal of the Rory & Mal Podcast, and formerly of the Joe Budden podcast, has been a supporter and so have actors Caleb Castille and Sinqua Walls
But the combination of the athlete, the hoodie and the moment adds to the story around the hoodie and Clark hopes it does open some opportunities to grow the brand.
"I would love to leverage this to partner with brands and do some collabs," Clark said. "I would love the opportunity to collaborate with the Pacers for next season. I have some amazing ideas that combine my expertise in technology and fashion design."
But he also has much bigger ideas beyond this moment and beyond this design. He was inspired to dream big by the work of the late Virgil Abloh, who founded a streetwear brand named Off-White and was the creative director for Louis Vuitton before Abloh died in 2021.
"Seeing someone of color leading a fashion house is not very common," Clark said. "For him to be himself and be true to himself and create iconic pieces resonated with me. That's why I got the courage to actually do it. I was sitting on this idea for a long time. Then when I saw someone who actually looked like me do it, I thought, 'You know, why can't I give it a try?’"
Clark said he expects to release another clothing collection soon, and he has high hopes from there.
Business Shirt Design "The long-term goal for this brand is to be considered in the range of the Ralph Laurens and Louis Vuittons and the Fear of Gods," Clark said. "That type of demographic is what I'm shooting for."