As a Dempsey, you can imagine how thrilled I was to see my name on a shirt worn by Sly Stallone in the movie 'Rocky Balboa' (aka Rocky VI, 2006) under a maroon-colored sportcoat during one of Rocky's most-quoted speeches. 11 years later I finally got around to creating my own. This 'DEMPSEY' wordmark is the most accurate of any you will find online, meticulously hand lettered as vector art by going through the film frame-by-frame, back then in CorelDraw ;)
Mine turned out so well, I launched the design on Society6 (RIP) and then Red Bubble.
Today a simply search will serve up dozens of Rocky/Dempsey t-shirt designs on all of the print-on-demand marketplaces, ranging in letter accuracy from laughable to decent. In 2019 Stallone himself launched a version on his official store, but even his misses the mark (have a close looked at the 'S').
In 2020, after a random Google search, I stumbled upon an auction listing of the actual movie-worn costume on HeritageAuctions.com. While this would have saved me a couple days of graphic design years before, I was pleased and validated to see that my design was spot on.
From the costumer: "the Dempsey sweatshirt was significant for Rocky because he obviously respected what Jack Dempsey represented. Rocky wears this in the important final scene when he confronts his son and tells him, "It's not how hard you can hit, it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." I just thought it would be an interesting statement that Rocky, a great fighter, would be wearing the name of another great fighter across his chest during this memorable scene. It showed a kind of humility and selflessness of the character."
Available in multiple sizes
$24.99 USD
