SPOKANE, Wash. – For Gordon Smith, a passion for Bloomsday quite literally runs in the family.
“My grandfather was a perennial Bloomsday runner for 33 years,” Gordon said. “My grandma used to take me to watch him finish.”
Gordon grew up to become a Bloomsday finisher himself, and this year, he’s the man behind the 2024 Bloomsday finisher T-shirt design.
“Something I’ve been keeping in for six months now,” Gordon said.
Today, that secret and his kept-secret design was revealed as the first Bloomsday race finishers crossed the finish line and picked up their T-shirts with Gordon’s winning artwork.
“I’m super excited to know this one’s gonna be all over the world, not just in Spokane,” Gordon said.
Like Bloomsday, designing is a family tradition, too.
“My mom did graphic design and web design, so I was kind of introduced to it,” Gordon said.
After getting a design degree from Eastern Washington University, Gordon set his sights on designing the Bloomsday Finisher T-shirt, the trophy Lilac Bloomsday Run participants earn after completing the 12k.
“I tried to create a design in 2020 and I got cold feet because you have to submit them in person,” Gordon said. “I was too nervous. I’m a typically pretty shy person.”
Gordon said he really liked the 2022 Bloomsday Finisher T-shirt design, and was overjoyed when Bloomsday contacted him that year to tell him his design was chosen for the medal.
“I think it motivated me to keep trying,” Gordon said.
He didn’t expect to get a call from Bloomsday just one year later.
“I answered the phone it was Bloomsday and they’re like ‘hey, guess what? Your design has been chosen for the finisher shirt,” Gordon said.
You can see that winning design in the video above. Gordon said it was inspired by the Bloomsday course itself, which he completed for the fifth time.
“The finish line is on Monroe Street Bridge, so that was one of the things that I wanted to incorporate into some of the designs was the bridge and the falls,” Gordon said.
Brayden Jessen at Zome Design says they printed Gordon’s design on more than 35,000 shirts this year for Bloomsday’s in-person and virtual participants.
“I would say that Bloomsday order is kind of like the ‘Super Bowl’ of T-shirts for Spokane in general with it being the largest T-Shirt order,” Brayden said.
Brayden said during Bloomsday week, Zome was printing as many as 2,000 shirts a day.
“I really like the shirts,” Brayden added. “It’s a cool new color, it’s fresh for spring and the design is really simple that all ages would enjoy.”
Come Monday morning, you’ll be seeing a lot of those shirts around town, and continue to see them, long after the balloon finish line comes down.
“It’ll be really fun the day after, the Monday after Bloomsday, because that’s when you see half the city wearing their (Bloomsday) shirts,” Gordon said. “That will be really cool.”
