Don’t sleep on Kansas City: How this Killa collab draws out KC’s ‘Little Villains’ at just the right season

Drafted from creativity in the Crossroads, a hand-sketched character inspired by Kansas City’s rising national profile (and the familiar personalities behind it) is now finding fans on and off the field … well, lawn.

“The Killa” — a football player repping No. 87 — has made the leap from team yard decorations to a starring role on a first edition tee within the “Little Villains” collaboration between iconic Kansas City-based brands SewKC and MADE MOBB.

The just-announced shirts hit the market this week, following spooky sales this fall for the popular series of SewKC Halloween lawn ornaments that inspired the Killa collab.

SewKC and MADE MOBB — competing apparel businesses in the Crossroads — are drawn together by a history of mutual respect, friendship and authenticity that uniquely represents both brands, said Jesse Phouanphet and Johnny and Michele Dawbarn.

“It’s an East meets West collab,” said Phouanphet, co-owner of MADE MOBB. “When it comes to the Crossroads, we’re neighbors. We see each other all the time. It’s always fun to come together, pull more ideas out of each other and bring something different to our city.” 

The Dawbarns are the co-founders of SewKC; they also own and operate Collective Ex and HITIDES Coffee under the same roof at 519 E 18th St. in the East Crossroads. 

“The Crossroads is all about connecting people and bringing creatives together,” said Johnny Dawbarn, who designed the characters by hand with creative support from Michele and the team at their businesses. “We’ve been [working with MADE MOBB] for many years, so when this opportunity landed right in front of us, we were like, ‘Let’s do it immediately!’”

Click here to check out the SewKC x MADE MOBB Little Villains 87 Tee. 

A post shared by sewKC Locally Crafted Goods (@sewkc)

Overnight plans

The ability to move quickly — like transitioning a just-launched 2D lawn ornament into a ready-to-roll T-shirt design — is a skill developed after a lot of mistakes, Dawbarn noted. Both MADE MOBB and SewKC have been operating for 10 plus years, allowing for plenty of learning opportunities — including who to invest into with trust and resources.

“We’re at the level with both of our businesses where we can pull this off fast because of the foundation we’ve laid for both of our brands,” he explained. “We might not take that risk with someone else, but we really trust the MADE MOBB team.”

The collaboration also expanded on previous successful projects from the two businesses. MADE MOBB previously launched its ambitious “Villains” capsule, which is a play on the flip side of the Kansas City Chiefs increasing popularity — with that success comes animosity from other football communities who might resent the KC team for its winning streak. 

“The league sees us as the new villains, so we’ve embraced that role,” Phouanphet said, laughing. “We call them the Kansas City heroes though.” 

During the 2023 holiday season, SewKC launched its first series of hand-drawn lawn ornaments, which featured “Coach Candy Wreath,” “Magnomes,” “Holi-Tay,” and “Kelfe” characters. The community was extremely receptive to the lawn ornaments, Michele Dawbarn said, so it was a no brainer to bring them back — but with a spooky twist. 

For Halloween, KC (and Taylor Swift) fans can purchase their “Koach Candy”, “Ma Bones”, “Bootay” and “The Killa” lawn ornaments.

Click here to check out SewKC’s lawn ornaments.

‘A Kansas City Renaissance’

The trio acknowledged Kansas City’s boost from repeated Super Bowl wins by the hometown team — but global news of the FIFA World Cup and Swift’s presence have brought about more eyes on KC now than ever before.  

“There’s a lot of passion for and within the city,” Johnny Dawbarn said. “The Royals did so good this year. The KC Current is doing so well. And then we’re just seeing this expansion of the city. Kansas City is the city to watch, and we’ve had no doubt in our minds about that. We’ve seen the potential for many, many years, but now it’s getting that recognition on a much broader scale.” 

“It’s like a Kansas City Renaissance,” Phouanphet added. “Don’t sleep on Kansas City.”

Owners of both businesses said they feel like they’ve watched their brands grow alongside the city.  

“We have really humble beginnings of starting small and building,” Dawbarn said. “It’s just cool to see where we’re at now.”

Johnny and Michele Dawbarn, SewKC, with Jesse Phouanphet, MADE MOBB, at MADE MOBB’s storefront in the Crossroads; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Customized with community 

No matter how many eyes are on KC, the business owners are loyal to their communities, they shared. 

“We’d love to hear from our community on who else they’d like to see involved with this partnership,” Phouanphet noted. “This partnership is very natural for us, and it won’t be the last time we come together and do something dope.”

“We’ve got some ideas that we are playing with between both parties,” Dawnbarn teased. “We’ve been talking about an interactive idea of letting people customize to some degree — but we can’t unveil too much about that.”

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