New Mexico based Stigma Wellness community athlete and ultra runner, Timberlin "Timbo" Henderson, set to run up the California coast from Monterey, CA to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA to help raise awareness and fundraise for the non-profit organizations Every Mother Counts (financial help for mothers) and Fundamental Needs (Navajo resources). Timbo uses running to inspire communities and positive movements, and to also represent the Navajo Dine (translates to "the people") as human beings and no different from other groups.

Months before the charity run, I spoke on the phone with Timbo to get some ideas to design him a custom running outfit. At the time, the run was scheduled for later in the summer and originally planned for a long sleeve shirt and compression shorts, however, it was later postponed for the fall. Therefore, we settled for compression leggings instead.

We established that he needed a light and tight fit, especially to prevent snagging on bushes. I learned that the Navajo uses colors to represent the four directions: white shell for the East, turquoise for the South, yellow for the West and black for the North. Timbo directed me to use Navajo rug patterns as the core pattern design inspiration and - no pun intended - I ran with that.

To represent the collaboration between the Stigma brand and Timbo's Navajo pattern direction, I wanted to illustrate Stigma's iconic leaf logo segmented into smaller "woven" geometric shapes, reminiscent of a symmetrical Navajo rug pattern. Keeping the minimal and bold aesthetic look of Stigma activewear, I utilized the fours directional colors to decorate the geometry.