Designer of viral Butler shirt blends Heat stars, Miami icons
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HEATsubCULTURE's shirt caught the attention of the late singer Jimmy Buffet. Photo: Courtesy of Andrew Barnett
Ahead of the 2022-23 NBA season, Miami native Andrew Barnett made a few shirts for his friends: yellow tees with then-Heat star Jimmy Butler's name in red letters, in the style of popular merch for famed singer Jimmy Buffett.
- But when local filmmaker Billy Corben wore the shirt on The Dan Le Batard Show, it springboarded Barnett's design to online fame.
Why it matters: The Heat's 2025-26 regular season begins today, and since his first viral t-shirt moment, Barnett has expanded his designs to feature other players, connecting them to classic Miami relics and places.
Flashback: After seeing the shirt online, Savannah Buffett, the singer's daughter, reached out to Barnett. Her dad wanted one for the next day's game.
- Jimmy and Savannah Buffett wore their shirts throughout the playoffs that year — "and we made it far," Barnett told Axios.
- The following season, after Jimmy Buffett's death, the team paid tribute to the lifelong fan. Savannah Buffett, who was sitting courtside for the tribute, was wearing Barnett's shirt.
Barnett's designs started as a "fun, creative thing," he said, "but it's really made an impact on the people that inspired it."
- His designs and brand — HEATsubCULTURE — have even garnered the support of some players, including Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Davion Mitchell.
Case in point: The second shirt Barnett designed was a play on the Mutiny Hotel's logo, a vintage-style design that pays homage to the Coconut Grove hotel's heyday in Miami.
- Barnett reworked the lines to make it look like Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s face, even before he'd played a game. To this day, he said, folks mistake the shirt for the hotel's logo.
- And when Barnett made a hot sauce called "Jaimito," he got the player's blessing. (The sauce is available for purchase at Shoe Gallery.)
The big picture: The designs riff on what Barnett calls "deep-cut references" to Miami, offering a fun way to connect the team to the fans that grew up in this city.
- The brand's logo is the original Miami Subs Grill logo (IYKYK), but flipped — easily recognizable by anyone who grew up in the 305.
- The "Burnies" shirt, named for the team's mascot, pulls from the historic Burdines department store logo.
Between the lines: Barnett opts against taking inspiration from a photograph or someone else's art. Instead, he takes relics or symbols relevant to Miami's history and puts his own creative spin on them.
- While some designs are more mainstream, others, he said, are "for the kids who grew up in Kendall. They're for a finite group of people."
What's next: Barnett plans to keep making designs with niche references for the Miami natives, but he also hopes he can one day partner with the Heat to offer something official and "speak to the deeper fandom" in the city.
- For this season, he has a design for Nikola Jović, which plays on the Ricola brand, and another for Norman WC Powell.