In 2021, Gary Payton II sat at the Golden State Warriors bank, his eyes wandered to see the game until the stands. He turned to the baseline, scanning who was sitting on the court.
Immediately, an outfit caught his attention.
A woman sitting only two seats from the end of the bank carried a jacket of painted and comfortable warriors. I had never seen anything like that before.
He had to tell him how great he thought it was his outfit. Payton’s Warriors teammate, Jonathan Kumina, did so.
“It was the way this culture was incorporated in all pieces,” Payton told ESPN.
The woman was Danielle Snyder, a new resident of the Bay area that, for fun, would design her own clothes to wear Warriors games. About three weeks ago, four years after Payton noticed her for the first time, Snyder and her sister, Jodie, officially launched to Dannijopro, a NBA clothing label that was born from her old passion project.
Snyder has made personalized pieces for Payton, the Warriors guard, Moses Moody and coach Steve Kerr, as well as Ayesha Curry, Jada Paul and Nicole Lacob, the spouses of the stars Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and the owner of the Joe Lacob team, respectively.
He has also collaborated with Vanessa Bryant for Mamba and Mambacita clothes.
All this began in 2020, when Snyder moved from New York to San Francisco during the pandemic. Pregnant of her first daughter, Snyder stayed inside for 14 months, as a caution to avoid catching Covid-19. After giving birth in November 2020, he experienced severe postpartum depression.
Snyder remembers his assistance to Warriors games coinciding with a turning point in his recovery.
“It wasn’t until my husband got us Warriors seasonal tickets that I returned to life,” Snyder told ESPN. “It was the first time that I really saw that the Bay area had a buzzing and vitality … going to those games became a strange way, it became the creative exit that had been losing me.”
She began to make her own attire to use the games: cut old shirts and add crystals or paint. She began receiving compliments from other game attendees. Then, when the players began to congratulate her, she realized that there was a hole in the market.
Building relationships with everyone who now plays a role in the brand has been organic, said Snyder.
From the girl who does the work of point, to the duo that paints each article by hand, to the company that supplies the crystals that are embroidered, Snyder met them at different everyday moments.
His relationship with the Warriors also played a very important role, particularly in being able to have an official license with the NBA.
Now, he is designing clothes that attract beyond the Warriors fan base, with clothes with logos and signatures of different teams. But the goal is to go beyond being a clothing line only to use the games and support a team.
“It can be warriors or Knicks or Lakers, but the idea is that you use it wherever you are and you can be great. It is not meaning to be used in a game,” said Snyder. “We always knew that we wanted these articles to be easy to use and that they are iconic, have these great fashion moments.”
