INDIANAPOLIS -- Jenna Reed was on her senior spring break, roadtripping to Missouri with friends, going to see the Lake of the Ozarks, St. Louis and Kansas City, when she got the call.
Reed had to make a run to Hobby Lobby.
She needed a few materials, including a haul of baby blue aran yarn, so she could start crocheting a sweater for a guy with a 6-foot, 10-inch wingspan.
Needless to say, Reed and that needle and those spools of yarn spent a lot of time together in Missouri. She crocheted in the car whenever she could. She crocheted when there was any downtime and she crocheted all the way back to Indiana University.
Reed is a fashion design major there. And that's where the story of the baby blue sweater for Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith, the guy with the nearly 7-foot wingspan, begins.
Earlier this year, Reed decided to try out for a design competition with IU's Fashion Within Sports Panel created by Dan Solomon, an IU Apparel Merchandising alum. As part of his own styling business Fly Solo, Solomon works with a lot of athletes.
The past two years, he brought Indiana Pacers stars Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner to IU for the competition which ends with a student designing an outfit for the player to wear before a game. For those fashion shots as they walk through the tunnel at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. This year, the player was Nesmith.
Reed went to work on a design proposal to present face-to-face to Nesmith. She started feverishly researching anything and everything she could learn about him. When she happened upon an IndyStar article, she found her inspiration.
Koi fish.
'I really couldn't let it go'
When Nesmith was 10, his father Bernard purchased 18 acres about 15 miles west of Charleston. It was a piece of wooded, raw land surrounded by a cedar swamp. But on that property, the family found an unexpected surprise -- a pond filled with koi fish.
Nesmith's mother soon started a business selling koi fish and her son was instrumental in handling the fish. On some summer days as a kid, Nesmith would be working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
To Reed, that story about Nesmith seemed to be a big part of who he is as a person, his work ethic, his upbringing.
"They always say the outfits or the designs you make should have a concept or a solid idea to back them up. You probably shouldn't just be making something to make it.," Reed said. "Have a reason why you're making it. So that koi fish idea really stuck with me and I really couldn't let it go."
Reed had the theme of Nesmith's outfit. Now she had to figure out how to merge it with a style he would want to wear.
