Salvation Club purposefully repurposes old uniforms, sportswear alongside local designer

Nicole Kresich, Staff Reporter

Nicole Kresich
Salvation Club’s crewneck sweatshirt design showcases a “No. 1” graphic, which is the logo for the club and a symbol for Mater Dei.

Upon entering the school’s Campus Store, customers’ eyes are drawn to a graphic that stands out among the racks of spirit wear: a black-and-white sketch of a hand holding up a No. 1 sign with a wrist covered in red and gray fabric.

This past month, Salvation Club has been advertising clothing with this recognizable icon, now the club’s logo, which emblazons a variety of school merchandise, from T-shirts to crewnecks to hooded sweatshirts painted with the proud color of the Monarchs.

Unlike other merchandise sold in the Campus Store, Salvation Club’s spirit wear is created from recycling old sports uniforms, incorporating generations of Mater Dei’s successful athletic history into new pieces.

“[We’re] using jerseys from CIF winning teams and you’re wearing a piece of Mater Dei history, [making] it so much more unique than any other shirt you can design online,” said junior Maisie McPherson, one of the club officers.

All of the gear shares the “No. 1” finger centered in white, “a dynamic symbol for Mater Dei and was inspired by our school’s accomplishments and beliefs,” according to senior and Salvation Club President Caroline Lavayen.

“The finger is pointing up towards God, which is reinforcing Mater Dei’s ethos of honor, glory and love,” Lavayen said. “The pointer finger also serves as a reminder that Mater Dei is No. 1.”

Created by Lavayen, McPherson and junior Oliver Teitsheid, Salvation Club has a mission that goes beyond the new No. 1 graphic.

“Our [club’s] ‘ethos’ is to help promote the designer Yoki’s GARDEN,” Lavayen said. “We teamed up with him and how we promote the garden is through collecting old sport uniforms, plastic water bottles and pretty much anything that gets tossed aside that we think we can repurpose.”

A screenshot of the Salvation Club’s Instagram feed (@mdsalvation club) featuring Jeff “Yoki” Yokoyama displaying the design for the club’s spirit merchandise.



Jeff “Yoki” Yokoyama is a Newport Beach-based designer who has been involved with brands like Stussy and Pidgin Orange. However, he’s more famously known for his “Mucho Aloha” T-shirt and USC’s “Fight On” fingers graphic on school merchandise. Yoki started the program GARDEN – an acronym for gather, abundance, repurpose, demonstrate, ethos, now – to limit the waste around local schools and repurpose old uniforms into sustainable, one-of-a-kind clothing items.

“I worked with Coach Bose, who works in the sport equipment warehouse, and collected old sport uniforms and gear then dropped them off at Yoki Shop,” Lavayen said. “Myself and the other officers have spent a few Saturday afternoons at the shop working the finishing touches.”

Salvation Club first introduced the spirit attire exclusively to the varsity boys water polo team to unveil the club’s brand to the Mater Dei community. All three club officers are active athletes on both the boys and girls varsity water polo teams.

The teams received custom attire featuring the No. 1 icon in addition to their cap numbers.

“It felt pretty special to have our individual numbers on each shirt,” said Teitsheid, a water polo player and Salvation Club officer.

Salvation Club is in the process of assembling pop up shops at various MD athletic and performing arts events where they will be selling new wrist bands, which are the same wrist bands sewn onto the “No. 1” finger.

“[Our] goal for this club is not only to help create a sustainable business of sorts, but to connect with other fellow Monarchs,” Lavayen said. “Our club has many sides to it and would love to work with artists and see if they had any design suggestions or any ideas for a new product.”

In support of Salvation Club, members of the varsity girls water polo team wear their custom Yoki T-shirts at a tournament.