Who needs a paint brush to make art when you can throw a football?
That’s what Detroit Lions Quarterback Matthew Stafford did as he tapped into his inner artist to create five, six-foot canvas paintings to benefit a Detroit youth center. Stafford teamed up with Unifi, Inc.’s REPREVE, a recycled fiber brand, to create and auction the five paintings with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Sports, Academics, Youth (S.A.Y.) Detroit Play Center.
S.A.Y. Detroit Play Center at Lipke Park, offers athletic and academic programs to Detroit’s youth. We’ve written about it before.
Here’s how the piece was made. Stafford dipped 12 footballs in paint and threw them at four-feet wide by six-feet tall REPREVE-based canvases made from 35 recycled plastic bottles to create five original paintings. Starting Tuesday, an auction of all five one-of-a-kind paintings are open for bidding on eBay for seven days, closing Tuesday, March 1. If you want to get in on the action, visit the website.
So what the heck is REPREVE? It’s a fiber made from recycled materials, such as plastic bottles, and is used in some of the world’s favorite brands.
As is the case with pro football teams, it seems there’s an official partner for just about everything, and this is no exception as REPREVE is the official recycling and sustainability partner of the Detroit Lions, and is working together with the franchise to educate fans about the importance of recycling and showcasing the quality consumer products created from transformed plastic bottles.
Fun fact? During the past two seasons, Lions fans have recycled 96,425 plastic bottles in-stadium.